And of course adults who are your relatives and friends watch your races and cheer for you; at big meets--especially when there isn't any adult who has the job of watching over younger swimmers--adult relatives and friends help make sure that swimmers eat, drink, and rest properly, and get to their events on time.

But while cheering and watching over swimmers is definitely important, if that were all that non-coaching adults did, the swim meet couldn't take place. In order for a swim meet to run at all--and especially to run smoothly and comfortably for the swimmers--many adult relatives and friends are needed to do different and important jobs. Some of the many necessary roles that adults play in order for a swim meet to happen are:

Meet Manager	The work for this position begins well before the start of the meet. You will ensure that each position on the YMCA Meet Volunteer Schedule is assigned. You will also check the meet supplies such as paper, pencils and Ribbons are stocked and ready. Prior to the meet, schedule a meeting with the Head Coach to ensure communication with the other participating teams to advise them of the Volunteer assignments they will need to fill. One day prior to the meet, the starting system will need to be plugged in to be charged up for the meet. During the meet, you will assist the various volunteers learn and conduct the duties of their assignments. At the conclusion of the meet, create back up disks and load the meet results on the team computers, run Personal Best Ribbon Labels and provide them to the YMCA Meet Personal Best Ribbon Writer.
Scoreboard Operator	Get to the pool by Warm Ups. You will need to help set up the electronic equipment. During the meet, you will monitor the scoreboard computer electronically passing results to the Meet Manager group and informing the Meet Officials of readiness to proceed to the next event.
Computer Meet Manager Operator	Get to the pool by Warm Ups. You will need to help set up the computers and printers. Prior to the meet, you may need to help input entry changes and print updated heat sheets for the Timers, Officials and to be hung around the pool. During the meet, you will be receiving heat by heat results from the Scoreboard Operators and import them into the Meet Manager program. Results reports will then be run and provided to the Tabulator/Results Poster and Ribbon Writers.
Back Up Timer	Report to the Scorers Table or other designated area about 15 minutes prior to the start of the meet. At that time, a Timers Meeting will be held to describe how to use the stopwatches and any other timing system equipment. During the meet, you will be asked to stand off to one side of the pool with two extra stopwatches. At the start of each race, you will start both stopwatches and monitor the rest of the timers. If one of the lane timers needs a back up stopwatch, they will raise their hand. When this happens, you will walk to that lane and exchange stopwatches with that timer. This job is split up so that each back up timer needs to cover only half of the meet. The first Back up Timer will cover Events 1 - 17. The second Back up Timer will cover Events 18 - 35. Both Back Up Timers should be present at the Timers Meeting that takes place prior to the start of the meet.
Lane Timer	Report to the Scorers Table or other designated area about 15 minutes prior to the start of the meet. At that time, a Timers Meeting will be held to describe how to use the stopwatches and any other timing system equipment. During the meet, you will be assigned a Lane to time each race. Each Lane will typically have two timers. Both Timers will operate a stopwatch. One timer will also be responsible for operating the Back Up "Button" if there is an electronic timing system. The second timer will be responsible for recording both of the timer’s times on Timer Heat Sheets. If a stopwatch fails, you will raise your hand to alert the Back Up Timer that you need a replacement stopwatch. The Back Up Timer will come to your lane and exchange stopwatches with you so that you can resume your timing. This job is split up so that each Lane Timer needs to cover only half of the meet. The first Lane Timer will cover Events 1 - 17. The second Lane Timer will cover Events 18 - 35. Both Timers should be present at the Timers Meeting that takes place prior to the start of the meet.
Ribbon Writer	Report to the Scorers Table at the start of the meet. During the meet, you will be receiving sheets of Ribbon Labels for each event. The labels are sorted and stuck to the appropriate "Place" ribbon (1 - 8 at most of our YMCA meets). These ribbons are then sorted by Team and placed in piles or a bag for collection by the Team Coach at the end of the meet.
Personal Best Ribbon Writer	After Meet results are finalized and loaded into the team database, you will receive labels for swimmers that achieved Personal Best times during the meet. These labels then stuck to "Personal Best" ribbons and placed into the swimmers family mail folder. This activity normally takes place a day or two after each meet.
Time Sheet Runner	Report to the Scorers Table at the start of the meet. During the meet, you will collect the Timer Heat Sheets from each of the Lane Timers and provide them to the Meet Manager Computer Operators. This is done every couple of events to ensure any timing system errors and Officials Comments are reviewed prior to compiling the final event results.
Tabulator/Results Postings	Report to the Scorers Table prior to the end of the first event. During the meet, you will assist with any scoring corrections that need to take place. Once the Event Results are finalized, you will post the results in a pre-designated area.
Set Up	Report to the pool at least one hour prior to Warm Ups. This group will help set up the Concession Stand area, Chairs on the Pool Deck, Pick up and store misc. pool equipment from around the pool deck and help install the Starting Blocks and Timing System.
Clean Up	Report to the Scorers Table at the conclusion of the meet. This group will help Restack chairs, Clean up the Concession Stand area as well as misc. trash in the pool area (usually wrappers and water bottles) and help remove and store the Starting Blocks and Timing System.
Concession Stand Assistants	This group will assist with selling food and other vending items during the meet. Two people are assigned to each shift. The shifts are split as follows: The first shift should report to the Concession Stand area, in the Lobby, at the beginning of Warm ups and work through Event 5. The Second Shift should report to the Concession Stand area during Event 5 and work through Event 20. The Third Shift should report to the Concession Stand area during Event 20 and work through the end of the meet.
Officials	Report to the Scorers Table or Officials Room at least one half hour before the start of the meet. At that time, the Meet Referee will conduct a Rules Briefing and assign Official Jurisdictions. During the meet, this group will monitor the swimming activities to ensure fairness for each participant.

Except for the Meet Managers and Officials, none of the above jobs requires any special skills or training. Sometimes, all of the people listed above are called Meet Officials. However, most of the time, the term "Official" is used for jobs for which training and sometimes special certification are needed. The basic job of all of these officials is simple: to make sure that every swimmer gets a fair chance to compete safely. The different kinds of officials are:

PLACE or FINISH JUDGE	This kind of judge can be used to record the order in which swimmers finish the race.
STROKE JUDGES	Stroke Judges have the job of making sure that swimmers perform the different swimming strokes according to the rules governing a particular meet. USA Swimming and the YMCA are two organizations that have created stroke rules; these two sets of rules are similar to each other, but not exactly the same. Stroke rules are basically set up to prevent certain swimming actions from giving one swimmer an unfair advantage over others.
TURN JUDGES	The job of the Turn Judges is the same as that of the Stroke Judges, except that the Turn Judges focus on the turns (or sometimes finishes in 25 yard/meter races) and on stroke finishes in 100 yard/meter I.M.s. The Turn Judges also have to make sure that the pullout stroke done after a turn follows the rules.
STARTER	The Starter uses a signal to tell the swimmers to get on the blocks or in the water (depending on the event), to get into position, and to start swimming. Whistle starts are commonly replacing the standard "Swimmers, take your mark" signal; the signal to start swimming depends on the kind of equipment being used at the meet--such as an electronic system or a starting gun.
REFEREE	Basically, the Referee is the person who assigns the officials, makes sure that all officials use the same standards to judge, and makes sure that everything and everyone in the meet follows all of the rules. The Referee and the Starter are usually the officials who have to determine whether someone has false-started.
CHIEF JUDGE	Often, the Chief Judge is the person swimmers aren't too happy to see at the end of a race, because the Chief Judge is the official who has to tell swimmers that they were disqualified--and why. Other officials can help the Chief Judge with this job if there are a lot of disqualifications in a heat. It's good to remember that the Chief Judge is usually not the official who has made the disqualification; he or she is just the official who has to explain it to the swimmer. Telling swimmers that they've been disqualified is not an easy and pleasant task for some officials: they know that swimmers have tried their best and can sometimes feel very badly when they're disqualified. But they also know that explaining the disqualification is extremely important, because it can help the swimmers be aware of the problem and fix it.

Being disqualified (or "DQed" or "deeked") in a race is certainly something swimmers don't aim for. However, it's also not a tragedy. Being DQed doesn't mean that someone is a bad swimmer: it just means that he or she did something--even once--that the rules say can't be done. It enables both the swimmer and coach to know what to work on to make sure that the swimmer doesn't make the same mistake, and to improve their competitive swimming in general.

Officials have to call disqualifications when they see an action that the rules of the meet don't allow--rules that were set up to ensure fairness and safety. The officials are required to call the DQ, even if they personally don't think that the action wasn't so bad or that it didn't give the swimmer an unfair advantage. (Notice that the official's opinion could be wrong.)

However, officials are also required to be very careful to call only those actions that clearly go against the rules. They have to be sure that they saw a problematic action; they can't make a call when they "think" they see something wrong. If there is any question in their mind, they have to give the benefit of the doubt to the swimmer. Why? Because their job is to ensure fairness, not to DQ as many swimmers as possible (officials don't win prizes for DQing the most swimmers!). They're not looking for things that are done wrong as much as they're looking to make sure things are done right. So, although it may not seem this way, officials are really on the side of the swimmers.

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