Dear Barracuda Families,

Thank you for your energy and patience at our first meet — especially with the late start. We faced several technical issues, and we’re grateful for your flexibility as we worked through them.

We especially want to thank those of you who followed the guidelines we provided. We truly appreciate your support, effort, and attentiveness. It made a real difference. That said, we recognize that it’s our responsibility as a team to not only give clear instructions, but also to implement systems that ensure those instructions lead to a safe, efficient meet experience for all. We're reviewing what worked and what didn’t, and we’re committed to improving our strategy going forward.

Tent Supervision: New Plan

At the last meet, we tried using tent parents to help supervise swimmers, but it didn’t work as we hoped. We did not have enough parents available to monitor each group consistently. Swimmers need to be able to leave their tent for snacks or to use the restroom — but we don’t have a safe or practical way to assign volunteers to accompany kids and still keep tabs on all the others.

So here’s the new plan:

• We are removing the “tent parent” role.
• All swimmers must have an adult (parent or trusted family friend) who is responsible for them during the meet.
• This adult must be present in the new, roped-off swimmer area for the duration of the meet. This will help us locate swimmers quickly and keep everyone safe and accounted for.

This change allows swimmers to still sit with their age group in tents, but with the added support of a known adult nearby.

Additional Volunteer Roles

To improve event flow, we are adding back several volunteer positions:

• Ready Bench volunteers will help gather swimmers ahead of their events.
• Behind the Blocks volunteers will ensure swimmers are in place and ready to race.

These roles are critical — but they can’t work if swimmers aren’t nearby or are hard to locate. That’s why we need each swimmer’s responsible adult present and alert in the roped-off area.

Meet Day Reminders

• Swimmers must remain near their age level tent unless they are getting ready for an event, using the restroom, or grabbing a snack. We need swimmers to be able to be able to easily hear when they are called for an event.
  • If a swimmer refuses to stay in the roped off area, they will be removed from the meet.
• A parent or parent substitute must be in the roped off area near their swimmer.

• Swimmers and Volunteers must check in with a designated volunteer upon arrival (we are adding this as a volunteer position).
• Swimmers must have their names clearly marked on their backs before the meet begins. There will be some permanent markers available.

We’re hopeful these changes will bring more order and peace to our meets, but it’s a work in progress! Thank you for your grace, partnership, and commitment to making this season fun and successful for all our swimmers.

With all that said, Signups for our meet against Splash @ TMI are now open! Please signup for a spot in the app or on the website. And reply to this email if you have any questions.

Warmly,

Anne Marie Van Ess

Swim Team Rep