The Corvallis Aquatic Team is a parent-run, volunteer organization. Because of this, there are many instances where our families are asked to donate their time to the organization. Some of these jobs are required service hours to the team, while others are optional. All of them are essential to having a well-run organization and are highly appreciated by the CAT board and coaches. This document seeks to explain the different types of jobs/duties which are needed and to clearly classify them into the two categories (required service hours and optional volunteering.)
1. Required Service Hours – Fundraising Meets. CAT hosts six fundraising meets each year. The dates and names of the meets for 2024-25 are listed below. It is important to emphasize that these events are fundraisers and important to CAT's overall annual budget, and that the profit from these meets benefits all CAT swimmers by keeping dues reasonable and providing funding for equipment, coach travel and professional development, team events, and other expenses. Some CAT swimmers will actually compete in each of these meets, but not all are eligible due to age or qualifying time. This is a completely separate issue – these meets are required service hour obligations for ALL Osborn CAT families due to their fundraising nature, regardless of whether or not the family has a swimmer competing in the meet. In the event your family does not fulfill your hours, a penalty of $25/hour for each unfulfilled hour may be assessed. Hours worked at other home meets, at away meets, or at CAT events, while appreciated and needed, do not fulfill this obligation. Please also note that unless specifically stated prior to a fundraising meet, working as a lane timer at our own fundraising meets does not fulfill the obligation, as it is a job normally done by parents of visiting teams.
There are many types of jobs available at the fundraising meets, ranging from those which require training and/or experience (clerk of course and announcer) to those which do not (awards, bull pen, deck marshal, deck setup, deck takedown, concessions, head timer, deck/lobby/seating monitors, and hospitality.) In addition, the jobs occur throughout the meets and shifts are available in a variety of lengths, so that families can pick jobs that suit their schedules. Anyone over the age of 13 can fulfill the service hours for the family, although some jobs require the worker to be 18 or over.
The hours can be worked at any or all of the fundraising meets, in any combination that you wish. For example, you may choose to work all of your hours at one meet; a few hours at three of the meets; or a few hours at all five meets. The requirement is per family, not per swimmer. The total number of hours required is based on the squad of the highest level swimmer in the family, as well as your length of time on the team. Hours are prorated if you join or leave the team between December and May. Below are the hours required for the 2024-25 year but are subject to change:
Families new to the team since the start of the previous summer:
Any squad: 10 hours
Families who joined prior to the previous summer:
Senior 1 (Spring): 10 hours
Novice, J1A, J1B: 15 hours
Senior 1 (Winter & Spring), Junior 2, college swimmers: 20 hours
Senior Prep: 25 hours
Senior 2: 30 hours
Families with parents working as certified USA Swimming officials and meet director are exempt from the above requirement, as it is assumed that they will automatically be working far more than the above number of hours due to the nature of their positions.
Job sign-ups for the fundraising meets are done on the CAT website by clicking the green box that says "Job Signup" next to the meet name. The job signups will be available approximately 2-3 weeks before each fundraising meet, and each meet's signups will go up individually. An email will be sent when the signups are "live". For some of our meets and some positions, the jobs may go fast – so it is worthwhile to sign up as early as you can.
More information about fundraising meet service hours, including job descriptions for the various meet positions, can be found here or on the website under Team Info – Fundraising Meets & Job Descriptions.
The fundraising meets for 2024-25 are set as follows:
- December 6-8, 2024: Comfort Suites Corvallis Oregon Senior Open
Meet runs all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
Service hour jobs available from 5:00 pm Thursday through Sunday evening
- January 3-5, 2025: Comfort Suites Corvallis CAT Winter Long Course Open
Meet runs Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday
Service hour jobs available from 1:00 pm Friday through Sunday evening
- February 27- March 2, 2025: 11-14 Champs
Meet runs Thursday evening, all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday
Service hour jobs available from 1:00 pm Thursday through Sunday evening
- March 15-16, 2025: CAT Spring Invitational
Meet runs early Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning
Service hour jobs available from Saturday morning through early Sunday afternoon
- May 16-18, 2025: Comfort Suites Corvallis CAT Spring Long Course Open
Meet runs Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday
Service hour jobs available from 1:00 pm Friday through Sunday evening
- June 7-8, 2025: CAT Long Course Tri Meet
Meet runs Satudray evening and Sunday morning
Service hour jobs available from Saturday late afternoon through Sunday midday
The CAT service hour and team support policy can be found here or on our website under Board/Admin - Bylaws & Club Policies - Service Hours and Team Support. (You must be logged into your account to view the menu option for bylaws and club policies.)
2. Not Required – Other home meets, away meets, team events. There are several other volunteer needs for the team that are separate from the fundraising meet obligation. Volunteers for these jobs are necessary for us to host well run meets, to be good visitors when at other pools; and to have enjoyable events for our swimmers and families. Our board of directors is also made up of volunteers who donate their time to the team.
We greatly appreciate any time you have to donate to these positions, but the time spent working these jobs does not count towards your fundraising meet obligation mentioned above.
Signups for these meets and events are usually handled by email, a handwritten sign up sheet, or online at SignUp.com.
These volunteer needs/requests include:
- Smaller home meets not designated as fundraising meets: intersquad meets, fun meets, Trophy League meets, dual/tri meets, etc.
- Away meets: As visitors to meets at pools other than Osborn, it is our obligation to help fill the lane timing spots. Unless someone from your family is working as an USA Swimming official, please plan to take a shift as a timer when your swimmer attends meets at other pools.
- Assistance for team events such as the annual banquet, CAT-a-thon, CAT Prowl, team picnic, etc.
- We also may occasionally ask for assistance with community projects planned by CAT or organized by outside organizations (i.e. Special Olympics, Oregon Senior Games, Masters meets), as well as volunteer time from the older swimmers (car washes, Dog Days, swim clinics, timing for championship finals, etc.)
