Marlins!

Just a reminder that we will be having a parent orientation meeting tonight in the Clubhouse from 6-7 PM, which is for parents, not swimmers. We also hope you will join us for some delicious food at the El Grullense Food Truck from 5-8 PM, which is open to all GMCA members. 

The Practice Meet is now Open! It will close on Weds. May 15th at 5 PM so sign up now and see all the info below.  I'm happy to walk through meet sign ups for the practice meet with anyone who needs it after the orientation meeting.

MAY 18 PRACTICE MEET & ICE CREAM SOCIAL @ 8:30 - 12:00 (Sign up by May 15th @ 5 PM swimmers here and volunteers here)

It’s time to sign up for our Practice Meet, which will be on May 18th, with swimmers and parent volunteers arriving at 8:30 AM for a 9 AM start. It will likely end around 11:00 - 11:30 AM and will be immediately followed by an ice cream social. This is a great opportunity for kids and parents to get a preview of meets and meet jobs before our dual meets begin.

HOW TO SIGN UP: Meet sign ups usually open about a week before the actual meet. When meets open, you can sign up on the upper right side of our website (and please go there if the link in the email accidently goes to the wrong meet). For this meet you can sign up swimmers here and there are more detailed instructions below. Please do not forget to hit “save” on your entries. Meets automatically close the Weds. prior to the meet at 5:00 PM, so it will be May 15th for the Practice Meet.

WHO SWIMS: The practice meet, and all of our meets (including Champs), are open to Marlins and Jr. Marlins who signed up for the Meets option during registration. If you signed up for No Meets, please stop by to cheer on and get some ice cream. If you signed up for “No Meets” and have changed your mind, just let me know and we can flip on the meet switch anytime.

WHAT TO SWIM: At the practice meet swimmers can sign up to swim all 4 strokes and there will also be relays. You and your swimmers (not the coaches) decide what to swim for the individual events at meets. There is no requirement that swimmers sign up for all strokes, but we encourage as many as possible since this will give them baseline times for the season. The coaches will determine who is on the relays. Please indicate during sign ups if your child is not available for the relay for any reason. At normal dual meets, swimmers are limited to 3 individual events plus a possible relay.

VOLUNTEERS (Sign Up here): If you have swimmers in the meet, you are expected to volunteer, which is a great way to meet parents and swimmers. If you have 1 swimmer you sign up for 1 job and 2 + swimmers please sign up for 2 jobs. If you only have Jr. Marlins, you are exempt, but if you have a mix of Jr. Marlins and Marlins, you are expected to volunteer. Most of the jobs do not require any training and we will provide whatever instructions you need at the meet. This meet is just as much for the parents to practice as it is for the swimmers. There are some jobs that are good for first time families with younger marlins like donating baked goods, meet set up, and meet or concession tear down since these allow you to focus on your swimmers during the meet. You can find descriptions of the jobs here and you can email LeAnn Baum ([email protected]) with any questions about the jobs or what will work best for your family.

For the practice meet only, timers will sign up to time for the whole meet since it will run pretty quickly and we will only have 2 timers per lane.

SWIMTOPIA APP: We recommend that you download the SwimTopia App, which will have your swimmer’s events/heats/lanes, results, and your volunteer jobs for meets. The paid version will have results for the whole team and the free version will have your swimmer’s results.

ICE CREAM SOCIAL: Don't leave before a chance to make an ice cream sundae to celebrate the start of our summer season. The ice cream social will start immediately after the last relay of the practice meet regardless of timing.

MORE INFO ON WEBSITE: Our website is full of other meet related information under the meet tab, where you can always find: sign up instructions, Meet FAQs, Meet job descriptions, What to Bring to Meets, and much more!

DETAILED SIGN UP INSTRUCTIONS

There are additional instructions regarding how to sign up for jobs and meets here. Our meets are listed on the upper right hand side of our website when they are open. Once in the event, you can scroll down to see the edit button under your children(s) name(s) 

After hitting "Edit," you need to go to the drop down menu for each swimmer and select “Attending this meet. ” Then you’ll see all of the available events for the swimmer’s age. You need to check the box next to each event to enter. Please double check that you mark the correct events. If your swimmer is not available for relays, please indicate that using the drop down menu. Please don't forget to hit the “Save” button at the bottom to finalize the entries.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Donna