Hello Dolphin families,

So many of us have Spring Break on our minds this week, but Swim Team registration and our spiritwear store will close in less than two weeks: Sunday, April 13. So, if you can take a few minutes and read through all the info in this email and possible action items…once Spring Break ends it’s a roller coaster of activities until summer break and summer swim!

Registration Deadline: Two weeks!
Our registration will close on April 13 at the end of Spring Break, so if you have friends or neighbors interested in summer swim, tell them to register this week! Many of our girls' age groups are near capacity, but our boys groups still have spots. For families of our male swimmers, please feel free to recruit friends – we’d love to have at least 12 swimmers in each group so that we can have at least 2 or 3 relays. Currently, our 7&8, 11&12 and 13&14 boys are all below this number.

Fun Friday Sponsors
Thank you to the Dewald family, Nelson-Valera family and Mayhew family for sponsoring a Fun Friday this season! We’d love to have one more sponsor for our fourth Fun Friday. These $150 sponsorships cover the costs of treats for kids (and coffee for adults!) and supplies for our fun games and free swims. Team Manager Christina van Maanen spends MANY hours on the team budget, making sure we cover our costs each season and at the same time keep costs to our families low. Sponsorships go a long way toward helping us do that.

Volunteer Requirements & Coordinators
Your Team Managers are continually thinking through ways to make volunteering more seamless for those who carry the largest volunteer load (yes, that’s us) and for all our families (who are required to volunteer). One of the things that makes summer swim so special – is it’s truly a family sport, with all family members participating in some way. It builds a wonderful community.

But managing 140+ swimmers and 70+ families is a huge volunteer task, so we ask that everyone take responsibility for knowing the volunteer requirements, signing up for them and fulfilling them. For our new families, New Families Coordinator Katie Huffaker will be reaching out to you in the early weeks of the season to help answer volunteering questions you might have.

VOLUNTEER REMINDERS:

• 1 Pre-season Work Day is required per family (you are welcomed to bring your whole family to volunteer)
• 4 Meet Shifts are required per family
• Families sign up for all shifts on their own through SwimTopia. Meet shift signups will open the first week of practice. Specific date TBD.
• If a family has not signed up for 4 shifts before the first meet, their swimmer(s) will not be entered to swim.
• If a family doesn’t complete all 4 shifts and the 1 work day, they will be charged $200.

VOLUNTEER COORDINATORS:

We are still looking for two people to step into the role of Volunteer Coordinators this season. As you can see from the information above, much of the volunteering responsibility rests with each family. A big thanks to Katie Huffaker for taking on the brand new role of New Families Coordinator and helping new families understand the requirements, how to sign up for shifts and the different volunteer roles. We have also continued to add leadership positions in each of the volunteer areas (see list below) so the work of coordinating volunteers is spread out. We will keep asking (and maybe start drafting) until we have people in this role this season.

Volunteer Coordinator Responsibilities:

• Work with Team Managers to make sure all shifts are covered and that all families have signed up for required number of shifts
• Troubleshoot issues or last-minute cancellations
• Arrive at meets at 4:30 p.m. to check in volunteers, bring sign-in board, nametags and volunteer supplies, etc.
• Answer questions and help provide training to volunteers, introducing them to leadership team member in designated areas
• Prior to second half of meet, check in second half volunteers
• At conclusion of the meet, work with leadership team to collect team supplies and equipment from volunteers (ex: stopwatches, pens, booklights, clipboards, etc)
• Home meets have twice as many volunteers as away meets, so it's recommended both Volunteer Coordinators work home meets and away meet shifts are split between the two.

2025 Leadership Team
A huge thank you to our 2025 Leadership Team for stepping up and into roles that make the role of Team Manager actually manageable and make a positive impact on all our swimmers and families. We’ll send out more information about these leaders so that you can get to know them ahead of the season. If you volunteer regularly in one of these areas, please be sure you know their name and face (even befriend them!) – they are all working to make everyone else’s volunteer roles more effective, efficient and maybe even more fun!

Concessions Coordinators: Trisha Atkins
Concessions Assistant (Drinks): Christy Beebe
Fun Friday Coordinator: Adrianne Leonard
Fun Friday Assistant: Anne Bara
Computer Coordinator: Melissa Lawrence
Ribbon Coordinator: Angel Dimas
Spiritwear Coordinator: Angie Thomas
Spiritwear Assistant: Gwen Hughes
Bullpen & Staging Coordinator: Mary Borneman
County Coordinator: Lindsey Thiers
New Families Coordinator: Katie Huffaker
Timers Coordinator: Kendra Channavong
Head Official: Kym Chapman

See you at the pool!
Patricia Heys & Christina van Maanen
Hanarry West Team Managers