Family Points

As a not-for-profit volunteer administered club, CREST relies on family involvement to keep the club running smoothly and to raise funds to keep fees reasonable and accessible to swimmers. Like the majority of swim teams, CREST families must earn volunteering and officiating points. 

​Volunteer commitments range from one-off activities (e.g. cooking for a pancake breakfast) to year-long board roles (e.g. Treasurer), officiating at meets or taking an officiating course. Each volunteer commitment is assigned a point value which reflects the amount of work involved in the activity.  For the 2022-2023 season, the commitment points allocated per family are based on their number of swimmers (e.g. 1 swimmer = 20 points, 2 swimmers = 35 points), and an assigned portion of points must come from officiating. Please note that parent volunteering is separate from the family's bingo obligation.

 

Incentives to Volunteer:

  • Volunteering is a great way to interact with other members, and your efforts are appreciated.
  • Unearned volunteer points will be charged to your account at $200/point at the end of the season.

The 2023-2024 season volunteer point chart may be reviewed here.

If you have any questions on volunteering, please contact the Volunteer Coordinator ([email protected]).

Guiding Principles:

Be it recognized that all people on the Board, and working on behalf of the Board, are volunteers and that the coaches, to a great degree, are also volunteers. As volunteers, we have lives outside of swimming, with non-swimming children and careers. Volunteerism is the cornerstone to the success and smooth operation of CREST Swimming. The use of volunteer points is a great way to keep families involved in the club's activities. Parents will bring different skills and resources and must be encouraged to seek out roles that highlight their abilities. Time commitment should be the major consideration in assigning the point value to volunteer activities.

Recommended Commitment Streams:

Many new families are not sure how best to get involved in competitive swimming and volunteerism in particular. CREST Swimming recommends new families begin by volunteering at social/fundraising events while pursuing the Officiating Stream, then move onto Event Leader roles and eventually the Board Stream. Again, families are encouraged to select volunteer assignments that highlight their interests and abilities. 

  • Officiating Stream: take officiating courses and volunteer at swim meets, work your way up the Officiating Ladder to reach progressively higher levels of certification
  • Bingo Stream: In some years, with a lower number of Bingo families participating in the Bingo program, opportunities exist to sign up for extra Bingo Sessions to satisfy a family's point commitment
  • Board Stream: initially take on an Event Leader role, attend a few Board meetings and then move on to be an active Board Member and assume a Board Role (Event Leader and Board Roles are described in the program document)

When and How to Get Involved:

Board Roles are nominated/voted at the AGM (June annually), supporting roles may also be chosen/selected at AGM or at Orientation. Positions marked Vacant are highlighted to show opportunities for volunteerism. Volunteer positions noted Sign-Up indicate those positions to be filled at Orientation in September/October or event related positions that will be posted on the website/ Parent Portal during the swim season (these volunteers will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis).

Officiating Stream:

Effective for the 2022-2023 season, all members must earn a minimum of 10 points per swimmer through the officiating steam.  In Year 1, members must take Introduction to Swimming Officiating (Timekeeping) and obtain their Level 1 certification. 

After Year 1, families are strongly encouraged to continue to work their way up the Officials Ladder, but at a minimum to take the Judge of Strokes and Turns course and work toward ascertaining their Level 2 certification.  In the short term, meet experience will be acquired by signing up to officiate at external meets.

Please log all your officiating experience and courses (including emodules) at the following link, so that your volunteer points may be tracked by both the Volunteer Coordinator and the Club Officials Adminstrator: CREST Officiating Reporting Form

Please contact the Club Officials Chair at [email protected] for more information.

Officiating & Swim Meets

A direct method to raising funds for the club is to host swim meets. Swim meets at the club will allow our swimmers to compete at the club without additional costs incurred to members, such as entry fees and travel costs. Additional important factors for hosting swim meets is to provide racing opportunities to CREST swimmers at times that work best with the club's training program, and to keep the club's operating costs down. For a swim meet to be successful and efficient, the club requires many volunteers to prepare and organize meets, and to be on deck to officiate at swim meets.

Crest also requires parents to become certified officials in order to develop a strong core of certified and higher level officials within the club, as per the accordance with Swim Ontario's Official's Development Plan. This plan is a requirement of Swim Ontario for swim meet sanctioning.

The Official's Development Plan can be found here at Swim Ontario's website.