By Alex Labonge, Swimming World Intern
Imagine standing behind the starting blocks, waiting to begin a race. Who is the last person that you see, only a few feet away, whether you realize it or not? The officials, tirelessly watching over the swimmers, standing at the side of the pool for hours at a time, constantly being splashed and leaving a session exhausted and reeking of chlorine.
These hard-working individuals do all of this for free. Without officials, swim meets would have no validity, no accountability, no backbone. My question is this: Shouldn’t these officials be paid for this?
The average official for a youth sporting match, such as basketball or baseball, makes between $9 and $17 an hour. Why can this not be applied to our swimming officials?
Jim Holcomb is the current Chair of Officials for USA Swimming and is charged with leading the efforts of the National Officials Committee and enhancing officiating throughout USA Swimming. “Our tradition is volunteerism,” said Holcomb. “Still, it is expensive to volunteer at national events. Some local swim communities provide funding for officials to attend larger regional and national meets.”
With that being said, many do not, and nearly no officials receive reimbursement for any meet on the local scale. On the national level, most Local Swim Committees (LSC) offer a modest compensation to officials to help offset the costs associated for the meets. For example, North Carolina officials receive roughly $500 for national meets, but this is nowhere near the amount required to pay for the trip, which can easily soar to exceed $1,000.
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
How often at a swim meet are there one or two officials watching over an entire eight- or 10-lane pool? Too often. The USA Swimming website has a presentation for the recruitment and retention of officials. This slideshow focuses on the personal benefits of officiating, including an improved knowledge of the sport and creating friendships that last a lifetime. While this may be true, a little money for these people who volunteer so much time and effort would really show our gratitude and aid with both recruiting and retaining officials. They deserve so much more gratitude than a hospitality tent or a drink cart passing by their lane.
The process to becoming an official is not easy and requires a great deal of time and energy. Officials must pay out of pocket to take classes to get their certifications, and this process continues at every stage of officiating. If someone knew they were going to get paid, there would be a higher participation because it wouldn’t be coming out of pocket. If nothing else, officials should not have to pay for their training, especially with all the energy they will give to their sport.
It would be no small task to make a nationwide change in officiating culture, but it is absolutely possible. Increasing swimmer fees by as little as a few dollars could greatly enhance the experience for our officials, the pillars of the swimming community. It is truly amazing how well the system works now, with little to no compensation to the officials, but with it, so much more could be achieved.
The single largest problem faced by LSCs is recruiting and retaining officials. Let’s make a change in this and compensate our hard-working officials so their unofficial motto no longer has to be “We work for food.”
Of course they should always be paid! I didn’t realize they weren’t!!
Shouldn’t people who write editorials regarding a wholesale change to USA Swimming know the difference between hours and ours? ” The officials, tirelessly watching over the swimmers, standing at the side of the pool for ours at a time…”
Or you are overblowing a typo that should have been caught before publishing, missing the entire point behind the post?
Sure I’m being snarky but who is Alex Labonge and what are his credentials to editorialize about USA Swimming officials? I am a volunteer official.
Apparently he’s a Swimming World Intern who swam for UNCW. OTS seems to say his dad is an official too. Do his “credentials” disqualify him from discussing the issue?
Shouldn’t people who comment on editorials address the substantive issues raised by the writer?
The byline tells me the author is a SW intern, and Google tells me he’s a swimmer at UNC-Wilmington. So presumably he’s been attending swim meets his whole life. I think that makes him qualified to write about how they’re conducted.
Especially when his parent has been an official for 10+ years
Especially when his parent has been an official for 10+ years
Courtney Lynne In that case it seems sad to me that his parents haven’t done a better job teaching him the value of volunteerism.
I really should not bother to even response to your personal insult. However, are you really that naïve as to not understand what the intent of this article was all about? It was intended to generate conversation and discussion and by all accounts it has been very successful. If you know at all what goes on within clubs, LSC’s and US Swimming, you would understand that finding and retaining swimming officials is universal challenge. Alex full well understands the value of “volunteerism”. I could say a lot more but I don’t want to fall to your snarky level.
Could just be a typo. None of the major swimming websites seem to have great proofreading, including the U.S. Swimming site. But I’m interested more in your opinion on the issue posed.
We don’t need to be paid… We’re out there because we want to be out there and because we enjoy it!!!
Don’t say “We”, you don’t speak for all of us. Maybe you make enough money that volunteering is easy, but there are lots of folks who aren’t in that position. This isn’t a question of needing to be paid or of enjoyment. What we need is enough officials to properly cover all our meets on a consistent basis.
And for people like you to stop making assumptions based on privilege.
They work hard for OUR(swimmers) good time. We need each other.
I think they should be paid. I’m amazed that they are willing to stand in the hot sun (or pouring rain) for hours. I’ve been an announcer at meets outdoors in March. Sometimes I’ve sat there in the cold working at least an eight hour day with no break. I volunteered to do this because I knew that a successful meet would bring much needed funds to my team.
The officiating team had no motive like mine; they just did it out of love for the sport.
We gave them all lunch and a good bottle of wine at the end of the meet.
We are professional volunteers. We take great pride in being the best and most fair officials we can be. We do it for the love of the sport, the amazing athletes and because we enjoy it! We take vacation from our paying jobs to volunteer. If we were paid then it just becomes another job. If we were in it for the money then we would continue to work more at our paying jobs. Officials as a bunch are professional and educated. We are teachers, principles, marketing executives, CPA’s, nurses, surgeons, physicians, engineers, pilots, lawyers, business owners, medical researchers, and so much more. Yes it does get expensive and yes we all have a certain amount of discretionary income but we enjoy volunteering! I would entertain partial expenditure reimbursement but not paying us for our time.
Now you dangle the carrot, just as my last swimmer only has a year of High school swimming left, before college swimming. Where was this idea ten years ago. Ha-Ha
Some clubs near me have been paying $75/session for each official for decades. It’s worked for them, and they always have enough officials. But the elitists in the LSC board want to take away a clubs freedom to choose how they operate by prohibiting paying officials.
We are professional volunteers. We take great pride in being the best and most fair officials we can be. We do it for the love of the sport, the amazing athletes and because we enjoy it! We take vacation from our paying jobs to volunteer. If we were paid then it just becomes another job. If we were in it for the money then we would continue to work more at our paying jobs. Officials as a bunch are professional and educated. We are teachers, principles, marketing executives, CPA’s, nurses, surgeons, physicians, engineers, pilots, lawyers, business owners, medical researchers, and so much more. Yes it does get expensive and yes we all have a certain amount of discretionary income but we enjoy volunteering! I would entertain PARTIAL expenditure reimbursement but not paying us for our time. But I would never want to take away our ability to be a blessing to others and to be blessed!
This reeks of entitlement! Who are you to “entertain” anything?
“Officials as a bunch are professional and educated.” This is because swimming has been an elite sport, the type historically limited to all-white country clubs and the like. Keeping officials purely volunteer means keeping out people of lower income. A janitor or a housekeeper can be as professional as an official as anyone else.
“If we were paid then it just becomes another job.” It already is a job, right now a volunteer job, but a job none the less. If you cared about the swimmers as much as you say you do, then you would do everything to make sure they have enough officials instead of discouraging people who don’t have as much money as you.
Consider the “teachers, principles, marketing executives, CPA’s, nurses, surgeons, physicians, engineers, pilots, lawyers, business owners, medical researchers”. These are paid jobs, but of course allow for volunteers. Teachers get paid, but often volunteer for after-school programs. Lawyers get paid but still do pro bono work. Doctors without Borders does great work, and their volunteers are a blessing. But no one tells them they should only be volunteer.
“I would never want to take away our ability to be a blessing to others and to be blessed!” No one is taking away your ability to do anything. Paying officials mean making it easier for more people to become officials. You can still donate your time and your money. You can still volunteer all you want.
By no means did I intend to sound entitled. I am sorry I offended you Anna – truly – that was so not my intention. Collectively officials have a lot to offer by bringing in their outside professional knowledge and experiences whatever that includes from many facets of life. Housekeepers and janitors are more than welcomed as everyone can add to our collective knowledge. No one is excluded. Swimming is an expensive sport, absolutely! But paying the officials will only make swimming significantly more expensive for the swimmers. Officials aren’t the only ones who volunteer at swim meets : hospitality, marshals, timers, computer operators, meet directors . . . the list is endless. If all the volunteers that make a swim meet run were paid then I can’t imagine that we would have swim meets. It definitely takes a village. Again I am sorry I offended you.
We are professional volunteers. We take great pride in being the best and most fair officials we can be. We do it for the love of the sport, the amazing athletes and because we enjoy it! We take vacation from our paying jobs to volunteer. If we were paid then it just becomes another job. If we were in it for the money then we would continue to work more at our paying jobs. Officials as a bunch are professional and educated. We are teachers, principles, marketing executives, CPA’s, nurses, surgeons, physicians, engineers, pilots, lawyers, business owners, medical researchers, and so much more. Yes it does get expensive and yes we all have a certain amount of discretionary income but we enjoy volunteering! I would entertain PARTIAL expenditure reimbursement but not paying us for our time. But I would never want to take away our ability to be a blessing to others and to be blessed!
Your attitude is great, and if they were all professionals who could afford to donate their time and services like you that would be great too. But I’m suspecting that not all are as they’re saying that “The single largest problem faced by LSCs is recruiting and retaining officials. ” Do you have any other ideas of how to recruit/retain and continue the same level of quality?
Well said!
It would be a big help if they didn’t have to pay to volunteer! Would be nice if USA Swimming didn’t charge for a non-athlete membership and subsidized the background screens.
Wow I am shocked they don’t get paid. We have always paid for soccer officials at every level of play including indoor and outdoor. There are expenses to be covered. Should be paid. Oh and soccer games are 90 mins max not an all day or two day meet.
We have paid 75.00 for the meet Ref, and 50.00 for the rest of the officials for a 1 session meet. It wasn’t because they expected it, but because we appreciate what they do. In fact they actually chose not to take it, but we insisted.
There are so many levels of officiating, parents start because they want to learn the sport their kids are in, they develop skills and a love of volunteering ( which is quickly disappearing in our society due to people like this author.) then officials can work up to becoming national level certified. Ultimately it is love of the sport and pride that keep volunteers coming back. Don’t ruin a good thing. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Unfortunately it ain’t not broke. USA Swimming and LSCs require a minimum number of officials, and too often there are too many meets and not enough officials. There are LSCs that have gotten in trouble for falsifying meet reports, saying there were enough officials when there were not. This is obviously an issue of dishonesty, but more importantly reflects a desperate lack of officials.
The sport is growing and with more meets needing more officials there needs to be a way to ensure that there will be enough. Paying officials is a way to incentivize participation and performance. Some officials say they are there because they love the sport and want to support the kids or the club. That’s great. And they might do a better job than most because of their personal beliefs. That’s great too. The officials that want to volunteer can still do that, or donate their checks back to the club, and their performance will be unaffected by changing to paid officials.
Paying officials adds to the cost of running meets, which is often a source of revenue for clubs. But having some certainty of being able to run meets is worth the cost. There are too many occasions when hosts/referees are calling or emailing every official they know in the last days before a meet. Recruiting volunteers is challenging and could be helped by paying officials. Parents already have significant expenses to have their kids swim, and likely volunteer or are required to work at meets their club hosts. We’re currently asking them to additionally volunteer as officials, having to pay for membership and background checks, spend extra hours getting training as apprentices, studying for and taking tests to be certified, spending money to buy uniforms and white shoes. While some parents are able to easily cover costs, and some can easily give their time, there aren’t enough presently to cover all the meets. Even with strong recruiting efforts, it’s not been enough and it won’t be enough.
This author hasn’t said anything to suggest that we eliminate volunteerism. And parents who value volunteerism should teach that to their kids, instead of blaming others who may have differing opinions. Take some responsibility.
And the national certification is a joke. It’s an old boys club picking the same officials over and over to work the national meets. Look at the deck at any national meet. It’s almost entirely rich old white men, with a token here and there. They act like they do a better job, but really they just give people they don’t like worse evaluations. Ever wonder why evaluations are mandatory at national meets? or why there are no standard criteria for evaluations? or why members of the officials committee can’t seem to agree on the documents they publish?
Officials in Michigan are paid but expected to work all weekend. If their home club is hosting, many donate their time since everyone else from the team is working towards a common goal.
I love being an official. I always appreciate the coaches, swimmers, and parents that thank me after a session or a meet. That is payment enough for me. Now, if you want to pay me for the 6 heats of 1500s at the end of the last session, make the check out to… 😉
I love being an official. I always appreciate the coaches, swimmers, and parents that thank me after a session or a meet. That is payment enough for me. Now, if you want to pay me for the 6 heats of 1500s at the end of the last session, make the check out to… 😉
A thank you can go a long way, for sure and makes a difference to me.
They’ll get paid if people stop volunteering. Supply and demand is not a theory, it is a law 🙂
Love to work for food but could appreciate the pay. Most times we give entire Saturday and Sunday. This isn’t a 2 hour baseball game.
In England the host club usually put on a lovely lunch to thank officials. That along with a microphone shout out does the job nicely ☺️
If volunteering in sport all became paid, events would simply stop happening. And that applies to a lot of the rest of the stuff that happens in the world too …
I agree with that too – it just couldn’t happen. Think about park run!!
My heroes used to be the Lance Armstrongs etc of the sporting world, but after so many disappointments, I decided to go with the humble volunteer as the true hero.
Not payment but gratuities. With or without, officials will always be volunteers.
Yes
I volunteer and my child has been out of the local swimming for four years. I enjoy doing it.It keeps me in touch with people that I would not see on a regular basies. If it wasn’t for the people volunteering to time, keep score, run the timing eqt., and so on what would happen to the sport?
There is a decent sized pool of potential officials for local meets: parents, especially the ones who used to swim. If you want more officials for the local USS swim meets, then USS Swimming should make it easier for people to get certified.
In my case, my sons’ team competes in USS and YMCA meets. I am a YMCA certified official because our team’s annual meet is a YMCA meet, we need officials and I was asked to get certified because I was a swimmer. To get the level 1 certification, all I needed to do was take a 4 hour class and then pass an online test.
I looked into getting certified by USS swimming and found out it’s much more time consuming to do so. Although the actual class is shorter, you also have to “shadow” certified officials for a few meets before you can become certified. If you are a novice, it’s probably a good idea. But, if you’re not, it means that you need to spend four or five times as much time getting certified than you need to spend to become a YMCA official.
For me, that was just too high an entry barrier so I officiate USS meets. I am sure that there are plenty of other former swimmers, who are parents and who would be willing to contribute a couple afternoons or mornings a year to being an official at a local meet. Let’s try to make it easier for them to help out, not run up the costs for local clubs that are trying to raise a little money for their team.
Thankfully our volunteers are willing to officiate and keep entry fees down. All they ask for is water and snacks #worththeirweightingold
YES
Yes!
No
Omg! do you really have to ask that? c’mmonn have some common sense! they’re working their ass off to watch over swimmers and get their time and laps..without them swimming competition is USELESS!!!
Rocio De La Fuente
Kristine Frohman
Frank Stevens. Linda Stoops.
Ruth McQuillan
Tracy Boland
So that’s your cunning plan Stoopsy ??
At least cover travel expenses.
…beng a retired official, I say no. We do it for the love of swimming and our athletes. It’s a privilege to be part of the the athletic swimming world. Goooo
Yes