How to become an Official
Most swim clubs rely heavily on their parent volunteers to host swim meets & many clubs enforce or mandate that the parents volunteer a set number of hours per year, since without the help of such volunteers, swim clubs will not be able to operate. Our club would send an email that the sign-up for volunteers will be posted at a certain time – but by the time I clicked on the sign-up link, I would find that most of the volunteer spots have already been signed-up, so I found it somewhat challenging to fulfil my volunteer hours. Then someone suggested that I should apply to become an official, since officials are always needed in any swim meets and I could also get my required volunteer hours by officiating at swim meets. Hence, I started my journey as a swim official in parallel to being a swim parent. There are three different types of swim officials: a. Stroke & Turn (ST or S&T) They are the most common “hands-on-deck” officials who are visible at swim meet