Good morning Piranhas families! I want to take a moment to address a question that has come up several times in the last couple of days with regard to our volunteering requirements.

Our volunteer policy was forged over many years of needing maximum participation from all of the parents on the team to make our meets run. Our team size has rarely eclipsed 100 swimmers, and as such we never had any wiggle room to be able to relax the required number of shifts that we needed families to work. This year, however, is very different. First, with about three weeks left of registration, we are approaching 150 swimmers, which is quite possibly the largest this team has ever been, and second, we only have 3 home meets instead of the 4 we had last year when we upped the required shift count from 6 to 8.

(Yes, there are technically 4 meets at our pool this season, but that is because Miamisburg's home pool is closed for reconstruction, so all of their "home" meets are being held at the other teams' pools. Miamisburg has to provide all of the normal home meet volunteers for that meet.)

This is an excellent problem to have. In previous years, our volunteer coordinator, Jackie, has had to spend much of each meet scrambling to find people to fill shifts at the last second, which can be pretty stressful, so finally having more willing volunteers than shifts to work is like manna from heaven! But this begs the question, of course, about what families who want to fulfill their volunteering requirements, but can't, are supposed to do, and what the board is going to do with all of those volunteer deposits for those families.

At this point, there's still a lot of discussion going on amongst the board members, with numerous ideas being thrown around. We don't have a firm answer yet, but I want to reassure everyone that we understand the impact that this has on you, and that we are committed to ensuring a fair resolution for everybody. If you're willing to help, but there aren't any openings to help, you will NOT be penalized--that much is guaranteed. Please be patient with us while we sort this out, with more to come on this topic soon!