Parents Volunteering at the meet

[Midwestmommy]

We were once at a meet where they had youngish teenagers/tweens doing the music. At one point they kept messing it up and they were laughing and giggling. They messed up the music for 5 gymnasts in a row, until a coach intervened. It was really offensive to parents who paid to watch and paid for their kids to compete. 12 year olds might be able to do the music if it all goes right, but they probably don't have the maturity to fix it when a problem crops up. I assumed they were gymnasts and was a bit surprised that they didn't understand the seriousness of the problem for a competing gymnast. It wasn't funny at all to the competitors. They and their coaches worked hard getting ready for the meet and their parents paid for them to participate and to watch. I know it's a fundraiser, but if you are going to host any kind of meet, please staff competition floor jobs with people who are mature enough represent the gym in a professional way. I've also seen kids presenting awards tho were giggling when they got the awards mixed up and were handing out the wrong thing. I like a good laugh as much as the next person, but again this didn't seem very appropriate. It gave the impression that the gym didn't care about putting on a quality event.

 

[GymBee97]

Meet Director I could say the same about viewing the meet. Yes you hope your other children will be excited to support their sibling in the meet but the truth is most are bored and are up and down and all around. Better to leave them home with grandma, auntie, or family friend. Same especially for the babies. Ok sorry off topic but

 

[IreneKa]

Sooo, it's official! For our in-house meet I will be timing the bars, and the older DD will be seating with me, and taking the score cards to the score table. I decided to leave my 9 yo home with DH this time, and they will come in when it's time for her session.
How exciting! Can't wait!

 

[seoulmama]

Timing, concessions, athlete/coach check-in. I HATE doing admissions-someone ALWAYS complains about the cost of the meet! I've been to meets that are $20 so I don't think what we charge ($12) is that bad, and it's pretty normal for meets in our region (they run from $10-$15).

I haven't done awards or announcing yet, but I've tried just about every other job at a meet, including setting up and breaking down equipment-it's pretty amazing to see how the spring floor sets up and how it all fits into the truck, but I'll be honest, I prefer my DH to tackle those heavy-lifting jobs.

All in all, I enjoy helping out at the meets our gym hosts-it's noticed by the coaches (2 of whom own the gym) and is very appreciated. Of course, it tends to be the same group of parents who run/volunteer at meets but isn't that always the case with volunteer opportunities, be it the school or booster club?

 

[Deleted member 14190]

if you have to participate in set up or take down, do set up, (unless you like working sunday nights)....

 

[IreneKa]

Question. Do you usually help out during the session your child is in, or the opposite sessions? They asked which I prefer, and I said the opposite, because I want to see my daughter compete. But was wandering what others usually do. If I'm doing timing, I will have to pay attention to my event, and won't see my DD doing all other events, right?

 

[Quadqueen]

if you have to participate in set up or take down, do set up, (unless you like working sunday nights)....

We've always preferred break down....well, DH does! He has done both...with set up, there's often a delay with the truck, etc., and it takes forever. Break down goes very quickly.

IrenaKa, in terms of whether you should work your DD's session or another session, I've done both. If you have a job that faces the rest of the events and you don't need to do ten things at once, you can still see your DD compete. I sometimes do this if I don't want to spend an entire day at the meet.

 

[MeetDirector]

IreneKa -

Regarding your question of which session to work, I require my parents to work a session that is not thier daughter's session. There is no way that they can pay attention to thier job and try and watch thier daughter. Further, I tell them that if they have significant gymnast "prep" responsibilities (hair, etc) then it is not a good idea to work the session immediately prior to thier daughter's.

Timing bars is one of the easiest timing jobs there is next to vault. Good luck and have fun.

 

[gymmomtoo]

We let our parents choose whether to do their daughter's session or another, but I recommend not working during your daughter's meet. Even if you're timing, it's hard to watch another event and there's a good chance you'll miss your daughter's competition.

I do like awards--have done that before and it's kind of fun--people are usually pretty happy there! My favorite job is the computer scorer though--I love printing out the reports and making sure all the scores are entered correctly.

 

[kayjaybe]

We are not allowed to work during our child's session. We are also required (1 person per family) to participate in setup or breakdown. There is no option not to do that.

In addition, the gymnasts cannot work before their meet on the day of their meet. (i.e. if they compete on Sunday, they can work any Saturday session; if they compete Saturday 2nd session, they can work Saturday 3rd session or anytime Sunday, but not Saturday 1st session). Works out pretty well. We generally don't need all gymnasts to work every meet. If we host 3 meets, the girls usually work 2 of them. Parents must work every meet for a certain number of sessions, depending on the size of the meet.

 

[shelovestoflip]

I run the concession stand. We set up and it's busy btwn sessions but then it's quiet and you can talk with the other volunteer parents or catch up on reading!

As for younger gymnasts, our gym has jobs for 12 and older and 11 and younger. We do not allow under 12 to volunteer at food.

I did timing once and hated it. Too much stress for me!!

 

[IreneKa]

Hi all! Thanks again for all the advises!
Yesterday was our first meet. I was timing the bars. They said, it's easy, just time warm-ups and falls. Well, turned out it could be confusing at times, although the judge was nice, and tried to help me. This was a small in-house meet, the bigger meet is in December. They consider this small meet kind of a training for the big meet. So, since I did the timing this time, they would probably expect me to do the same at the big meet. And it's fine with me, but I want to know what to do in some of these confusing situations.
For example, a group finished warm-up, and started their actual run. There is another gym that has only one girl competing in this session. She is in the next rotation, but already finished her previous event. The coach comes up and asks if they can start warming up on the second set of bars. I have no idea, so I ask the judge, she says sure, do whatever you want. They start warming up, then the judge says, oh, you should probably time them. But how am I supposed to time them, if I need to watch the competing girls in case of a fall?? Luckily, the girls finished quickly, so they weren't warming up for too long. But what do you do, if another group wants to warms up while the previous rotation is still going??
Second situation. There is a group of 6 level 7s. I give them 6 minutes. Suddenly, after about a minute they decide to use the second set of bars. The judge tells me, oh, they use two, so you shouldn't give them 6 minutes. But I can't give them just 3 minutes, because they didn't start on 2 sets from the beginning! Finally, we decided to give them 4 minutes. Does this sound right? What would you do?

Other than that, everything went great. It was fun to watch higher levels compete. Other than warm-ups, there was only one big fall to time. It was scary! The girl fell and hit her head. Took her 15 second to get up. But she did, and finished her routine. I felt so bad for her!
The judges were nice and chatty. It was interesting to hear them discuss the scores, and to see them write all those confusing symbols on the piece of paper. LOL

 

[htimcj]

Sorry I can't help with the technical details but I am glad that you enjoyed watching the meet. I think it would be really interesting to watch and listen.

 

[dynamicduo]

I usually work the door and let the parents in before the meet starts and during warm-up, then I'm free to watch the meet when I'm done! And, my 9 year old usually helps pass out awards which makes her feel important! It's a win-win! What ever you wind up doing will be fun!