The Importance of Volunteering at the Long Island Aquatic Club 
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 The Long Island Aquatic Club has a proud history of hosting in-season and championship meets including Senior and Junior Nationals in 2017 as well as the short course and long course Metropolitan Junior Olympics. Our success in hosting these competitions is largely in part to YOU the volunteers!

Every meet has a number and variety of positions that aid in helping the meet run as smoothly as possible! The positions and responsibilities of each include but are not limited to:

Timers: If you’re looking to get really close to the action then timing is the job for you! Timers are grouped two or three to a lane are responsible for keeping track of their assigned lane’s swims over the course of the session. Each lane has two stopwatches (one for each timer) and a plunger which is pressed at the end of the race when the swimmer hits the wall. This is a great way for parents to get their feet wet (sometimes literally) with working at a swim meet!

Awards: After each event the results are given to the volunteers at our awards table. This station places the stickers with the swimmer’s name, team and time on the corresponding award. The awards are then place into a bag with the matching team name. If there are awards from a previous meet which had been unclaimed they will be distributed to the appropriate team before the start of the session.

Hospitality: Our volunteers, coaches and officials all need a break at some point to grab a drink or eat a quick meal and or snack, and that’s where our hospitality staff comes in. In hospitality you will be in charge of keeping the station stocked and ready as well as bringing the occasional snack and beverage around to the coaches on the deck!

Runners: Getting backup times is an important job! Sometimes our swimmers miss the pad or don’t hit it hard enough for the time to register and this is where our runner comes in. Runners are stationed at the scorer’s table and when a time is missed on the board the runner will go to that lane and get the two stopwatch times from the timers and bring them to the scorer’s table.

Posters: Swimmers knowing their heats and lanes as well as parents knowing how their swimmers finished is very important. Our posters tape heat sheets up in various locations around the pool before the meet begins. Once the meet is under way posters will post the results of each event upstairs in the spectator section.

Marshals: Swimmer safety is of the utmost importance to us. As a marshal you will be responsible for maintaining safety on the pool deck and competition pool for our swimmers, coaches, officials and volunteers. In addition you will be responsible for monitoring warmup assignments and clearing sprint lanes. As an added bonus you get to wear a nice neon vest!
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Door: If you are interested in ticket sales and admission the door is the place for you! During warm up a number of our parents work in the spectator seating area selling new tickets and checking in prepaid tickets. In order to work at the door you need to have the TicketLeap app downloaded on your phone prior to your volunteer session. 

*Timing System*: This year, we have a new volunteer position which involves working with the timing system at meets. Anyone with interest in the position please email meetvolunteers@longislandswimming.com. 

Any questions about volunteering at LIAC meets should be directed to meetvolunteers@longislandswimming.com.