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Every swim club in Ontario has the position “Club Officials Administrator (COA) formerly known as Officials Chair” as part of its executive team.
The purpose of this position is to promote and facilitate the training of club parents to under-take volunteer activities at the various swim meets throughout the year. Officiating is a fun, rewarding way of contributing to your child’s swimming experience. It is essential that all swim clubs develop a roster of interested and qualified members to ensure that every swim meet is a success.
While in the past there has been no cost to becoming a volunteer official, with recent changes mandated through Swim Canada, Swim Ontario has taken over jurisdiction of swim officials and a small fee is now charged to the club per official. While there is no commitment for volunteers to participate in any specific swim meet, but we guarantee that once you have done it, you’ll look forward to doing it again at your earliest opportunity!
Every swim meet that we attend is run by a group of volunteers who take on a multitude of tasks to ensure that the meet is run smoothly and that swimmers and parents enjoy themselves to the fullest. Most of the volunteers at a meet will be from the host club, performing such tasks as program sales, food preparation, set-up and on-deck duties.
The largest group of volunteers is the on-deck officials, who can be seen in their (mostly) white outfits, ensuring that the competition is run smoothly and fairly. At least 30 on-deck officials are required for each of the meets that we attend.
Each club that participates in a swim meet is expected to provide volunteer support at the meet. The more senior positions (for example, Referee, Starter) require years of training and experience, however, Timers, the most common position (usually 18—20 people), is easy to learn and fun to perform.
In order to be able to host a swim meet (which can bring in a lot of revenue), swim clubs are required by Swim Ontario to have members trained and certified in various officiating positions, including that of Referee, the most senior position. While our Club at the present time is not ready to meet this requirement. It is important that we continue to encourage, train and build our roster of certified officials. So that we can work towards the day when we will be able to host our own swim meets.
Several times throughout the year there are opportunities to take the required clinics to become a trained official. These opportunities will be offered by our club or through other clubs in the local area. We will do our best to co-ordinate and communicate these clinics to the parents.
Here are the links to the Swim Ontario website for the Officials Certification requirements
Link for the Swim Ontario Education and Development Pathway
http://www.swimontario.com/page.php?id=2986
Link for the Mentorship\Evaluation
http://www.swimontario.com/page.php?id=2988
