Hello hello! I didn’t really intend to stop blogging for ~5 days, but I guess I did.
Main reasons include:
-Ivan is still in Mexico (gets home late tonight), so things have just been a little busier for me.
-My parents came for the weekend (since I couldn’t be in multiple places at once with 2 different kids)
-Asher had a swim meet both Saturday and Sunday (early), so no morning time available…
The swim meet ended up not just being your average swim meet, for me, anyway.
Background story:
A couple weeks ago, the team put out (several) pleas for people to step up to help with the team’s various volunteer committees. It’s a community run team, with a paid head coach, but otherwise a volunteer Board of Directors, etc.
The previous 2 years before covid, I was the “Volunteer Coordinator” for the swim team. This means it was my job to organize dozens, sometimes hundreds, of volunteer shifts for our “home” meets. (The team hosts usually at least 4-5 meets per year- it’s a major source of revenue for the team, so they are pretty crucial to having a team.)
It also takes a lot of people to run a swim meet, if you aren’t familiar with the sport. We aren’t just talking 3 refs like in soccer. For swimming, you need at least 18 timers, officials, computer people to run the scoreboard, concessions, “hospitality” people to set up meals for the officials and coaches (long shifts), meet marshals to monitor the locker rooms/ safety requirements, admissions table, etc. etc. It’s a long list. And the meets usually run for several different age group sessions (all day!).
Anyway, it was a LOT of work. SO MUCH WORK. And a really annoying type of work, because it involved chasing down families that were skirting their required volunteer responsibilities (or trying to)…trying to fill empty shifts when no one wanted to work extra….so many emails….so many headaches….putting out fires on the day of the meet (e.g. if someone doesn’t show up to work 5 minutes before the meet…now what?!).
So, when the pandemic hit, and all meets ceased, I decided I did NOT miss that job, and I basically said I was done. Time for someone else to have their turn!
Fast Forward…..
Well. Fast forward almost 2 years, and we are finally starting to host meets again. And, shockingly, they couldn’t find a Volunteer Coordinator!!
It seems many people post-pandemic are not jumping at the chance to add a bunch of busy stuff to their lives again. (Yet oddly, people are happy to sign their kids up to SWIM in the meet…they just don’t actually want to contribute to making the meet happen….).
So, in a moment of weakness (under some rather extreme pressure), I caved and agreed to do it again.
The truth is, there is a part of me that enjoys being involved with the team. I kind of like to be “in the know”/ behind the scenes. Asher is really into swimming, so it’s fun to share some piece of it with him. And, I know how to do the job, and I’m pretty decent at it by this point.
I just don’t exactly have oodles of extra time. So this becomes one more thing piled on the ‘ol plate.
I often feel that if I didn’t WORK fulltime, this would certainly be an easier thing to take on. (Although, I recently noticed- EVERY SINGLE PERSON serving on the swim team board/ meet committee also works full time!!! Most are moms (except one dad who’s on the board.))
I’m not sure what that says about us- either we are all crazy, or (more likely)- we just know how to get stuff done. 🙂
Anyway, the meet went well overall. It sucked up a lot of my time at the end of the week getting ready for it (another reason for no blog posts!). Fortunately it was a pretty quick and easy one, relatively speaking. (Ask me again about all of this when we host a 3 day meet the weekend before Christmas in December….. 😩)
After the swim meet Sunday, it was off to Ethan’s soccer game. No volunteering required!! Just sat on my butt and enjoyed this beautiful evening:
Do you do any “volunteer committees”? I have no real interest in volunteering big time at school, for some reason. I don’t really know why. But I find their sports to be a (sort of) fun place to get involved.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for VACATION DAYS! I decided last night that I would take today off. Ivan is still gone, my parents went home and I just really needed a day to myself. And because I’m such an exciting person, I am now going to the grocery store. 😂
GRATEFUL KAE 
I haven’t volunteered ever. I know… I’m usually the “free rider” as others parents are usually more engaged with school things. I think it’s mainly due to laziness and that I don’t like so much coordinating things. Good for you though, you are doing a big favor to people like me.
I bet Asher is happy that you are so involved.
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Oh man, that job sounds like so much work and kind of annoying work… If people did what they said they would do, it wouldn’t be so bad but you know from experience that doesn’t happen. It’s too bad you can’t just be a volunteer instead of the coordinator. Very interesting that it’s all full time parents volunteering! If the participants were younger, I could understand those who aren’t working outside not wanting to volunteer because I think that FT SAHM is actually HARDER than working when kids are really little (I would be miserable if I was a SAHM – my work days are so much easier than weekends!). But when your kids are that old, chances are you maybe don’t have littles at home? So I would expect volunteers to not just be working parents? I’m making a lot of assumptions there, though! I’m glad there are some perks, though!
I do not do any volunteering right now… I used to be in a running club and I was on the board for a couple of years and was the president for a term. But since having kids, I have really cut back on outside obligations. Our daycare has a parent advisory board and my friend suggested I consider being on it but I say no freaking way. It’s just not something I feel strongly about right now and I know there will be a lot of complaining/ranting, especially in the covid era! When I am out of this more demanding stage of parenting (is there such a thing? ha!) I think I would like to try to get on the board for our library. I feel so passionate about reading and literacy so it seems like a good outlet for that passion. But that is probably something I wouldn’t pursue for 5+ years!
In case you haven’t heard this enough, though, it was very kind and generous of you to take on this task again. Your swim program is lucky to have you!
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