Volunteering

Parents, caregivers and extended family are one of the secrets to success in the world of swimming. Being a poolside volunteer is a great way to meet and spend time with others involved in the sport from both Aquahawks and other clubs.

While your swimmer is training or competing, here are a few simple ways we invite you to volunteer:

• Become a member of a sub-committee that helps coordinate an activity the Club is involved in, e.g. Club Night
• Become a helper or official at swim meets 
• Fundraise money towards trips, events, or equipment, e.g. selling raffles, running a BBQ
• Become a member of the Club’s social group who organises social functions for swimmers and/or parents and caregivers

As Aquahawks Swim Club membership numbers continue to grow, please consider and provide to the committee your preferred volunteering role/s so all of us do our part in helping our swimmers.

Swim Meet Volunteering

Swimming meets are run by volunteers and require many officials than any other sport. It has become mandatory to provide a helper each time you register your swimmer into any Swimming New Zealand, Swimming HBPB or Aquahawks meet. This helps the meet organiser share the workload based on the number of swimmers each club has enrolled into the meet.

It’s important to remember that by offering help, you help your swimmer as well as all other swimmers entered into the meet so your contribution is appreciated.

Below are some of the roles you see in action at a meet as a spectator. 

The first few roles are suitable for newcomers as they require little training. 

Other roles (which form the majority of help needed at a meet) are official. These roles require a bigger commitment from helpers as they often require training overseen by other trained officials. If training in an official role interests you, please make sure you register your interest at clubcomms@aquahawks.co.nz so we can answer any questions you may have, and let you know the process involved, and also when our next official training dates are scheduled.

Newcomer Roles:

• Door sales
• Refreshment helpers
• Runners and medals assistants

Official Roles:

• Timekeepers (no official training required) including Chief Time Keeper
• Inspector of Turns (IOT)
• Recorder
• Stroke Judge
• Marshall
• Starter
• Referee
• Team Manager

For more information about these roles and meets, please email clubcomms@aquahawks.co.nz