One of the measures of a successful and healthy swim team is the level of parent volunteerism and ability to fund-raise. A healthy team will have high levels of both volunteerism and fund-raising while an unhealthy team will have little to no volunteerism and fund-raising! Both are essential in keep registration fees low, which will allow more people access to the sport of competitive swimming.Our goal is to provide high-quality, affordable and accessible training for everyone, regardless of household income. Therefore, the team has volunteer and fund-raising requirements for all families on the team.

FUND-RAISING
Our main fund-raiser is the Swim-a-thon. Usually held in October/November of the short course season, the swim-a-thon is designed as a 1 hour swim for Cyclones Swim Academy (CSA) and Pre-Team and a 2 hour swim for Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Senior, where the swimmer will swim as many laps as possible, not to exceed 100 laps for CSA and Pre-Team and 200 laps for Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Senior. Swimmers get pledges based on the amount of laps they swim or a flat donation. Once the event is over, swimmers then have 2 weeks to turn in their pledges. 

The event is usually held at the Centre of Elgin. Although participation in the actual event is not mandatory, the fund-raising is mandatory. Each CSA and Pre-Team family is responsible for raising a minimum of $50 while Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Senior families are required to raise at least $100. As an incentive to maximize donations, the swim team has prizes for fund-raisers who raise the most money!

Our other fund-raiser is concessions at our home meets. Any time there is a home meet, we will charge each family $15 to help pay for items we sell in the concession stand. Although in the past we have asked people to donate items to sell in the concession stand, the convenience for families to donate $15 and the continuity of items sold at the concession stand has been improved by the change in this policy.

VOLUNTEERING
Swim teams are much more volunteer dependent than most main-stream sports. It requires a lot of help to run a successful team. Therefore, volunteering is required. It is important to remember that swim meets are another form of a fund-raiser, again to help keep costs low for everyone and to help pay for the use of additional pool space.

In order to better define the requirements of a meet, you must first understand how a meet is configured. Most Illinois Swimming meets, including ours, are broken into sessions, usually 5 or 7 sessions. Each session is comprised of events i.e. boys 50 yard freestyle. Most sessions are 3 - 4 hours depending on the amount of swimmers and events in each session; Illinois Swimming has a rule where sessions cannot exceed 4 hours. With this in mind, the ECST has volunteer requirements for meets with 5 sessions and requirements for meets with 7 sessions.

Five Session Home Meet
​If a meet has 5 sessions, each swimmer in CSA and Pre-Team will be required to work at least 2 slots and each swimmer in Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Senior will be required to work at least 2 slots. If a family has more than one swimmer, add up the requirements based on the level they are in to determine the amount of sessions you are required to volunteer for, not to exceed 5 sessions. For  example, if a family has 1 swimmer in Gold (2 jobs), 1 swimmer in Silver (2 jobs), and one swimmer in CSA (2 jobs), the family will be required to work 5 sessions.

Seven Session Home Meet
If a meet has 7 sessions, each swimmer in CSA and Pre-Team will be required to work at least 2 slots and each swimmer in Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Senior will be required to work at least 3 sessions. If a family has more than one swimmer, add up the requirements based on the level they are in to determine the amount of sessions you are required to volunteer for, not to exceed 7 sessions. For  example, if a family has 1 swimmer in Gold (3 jobs), 1 swimmer in Silver (3 jobs), and one swimmer in CSA (2 jobs), the family will be required to work 7 sessions.

***Please note, all families must volunteer for all home meets, even if their child is not swimming in the meet. This includes Regionals or any other time qualifying meets.***

There is a $100.00 fine for each job that you do not fulfill.  For example, if you are required to work 5 jobs and you only work 3, you will be fined $200.00 for the 2 jobs not worked.  All jobs must be filled before the meet; you will not be able to sign up for a job at the Volunteer Check-in table during the meet. I know this may seem severe but this is meant to be punitive. We do not want your money. We want your time and talents to create the best experience for the swimmers.

Away Meets
For some away meets, we will be required to provide timers. In these instances, you will be able to sign-up for the job on the specific meet page on our website. For away meets, the sessions are broken into hour-long jobs to help the flow of the meet.  Although we do not quantify the amount of away sessions you are required to work, we do take past jobs worked into consideration when assigning open jobs. If all the jobs are not taken, we will assign families to work those jobs. We will not assign jobs to families who do not attend the meet.

If you have any questions on the above information, please email us at [email protected].