A Vent - Stand duty for sports

[JustineMarie]

My husband coaches my oldest daughters softball team. In years past at registration they have charged a concession fee basically guarenteeing you will work the stand. You have to work it once for an hour and a half to get your money back. This year they have made the stand duty mandatory.

We were given a schedule with which days were our responsibility. Instead of letting the parents sign up for days, I assigned them. This is what I do for my younger daughter's soccer team and it has always worked out well. If they can't work the day I assigned then it's their responsibility to either switch with another team parent or have a family member or friend work it for them.

Today I get an email from one of the girls mom stating that she will not be working the stand this year bc she doesn't want to have to drive the 30 minutes to the field to work it. I understand it's an inconvience. I don't want to work it either, but I have.

I wrote her back explaining that I understand that she does not want to drive the 1/2 hour to work the stand but that unfortunately it is mandatory for each child to have an adult cover the stand on their day and that maybe she could have a friend or a relative do it for her.

She responded that she doesn't care that it's mandatory, that she thinks that I am being rude saying that she should get someone else to work it for her. She said she works full time and doesn't feel like doing it when she gets home.

I haven't responded yet because I'm not sure what to say. I work full-time too. I also am on the PTA board at my girl's school and I volunteer to help out with both my daughter's softball team and soccer team. I work stand duty for both sports. Do I want to do it, no I don't, but I do. I understand that it is my choice to volunteer for what I do, but for her to say that she just doesn't feel like driving the 30 minutes bc she works full-time just makes me mad!

So do I write her back or just let it be?

 

[klj27]

This sounds like someone you can not reason with. If you do write back (which I would) I would say how you understand about her situation because you work, volunteer, have multiple kids, etc. and how would she like to go about having her shift filled so another parent with the same responsibilites doesn't have to do double time. Put it on her to come up with the solution.

 

[Mkrop]

Who in the league made the mandatory rule? I would forward the emails to them and ask what you should do. Does the child get penalized if she does not show? Will she then be charged the orginal fee?

Get it in writing from the PTB and then send those back to her and say the league says A or B will happen.

I hate snack bar duty and I am totally dreading but it is a necessary evil of my son playing Little League.

I would be so annoyed with this woman as well, it is not fair but she wont be the first or last one to try and get out of it so I would find out what policy the league has in place and follow that.

GL

 

[dawson5]

Our parents are told that if we don't have enough people to work the shift, we will forfeit the next game. We have to have a minimum of six per shift. We also have a buy-out option. Do you know a teenager that can work it for her? If it's allowed, tell her that the teen will work it for her for $15 (or whatever is fair). People like this bug me.

 

[SaraJayne]

I am so thankful parents don't have to work the concession stand for any of the sports. That's what our Athletic Association is for.

 

[golfgal]

Why in the world wouldn't they allow the buy out option? That is can be a huge money maker for the teams. Personally I would offer the opportunity to parents to work most or all of the shifts through the season in exchange for reduced participation fees and charge the rest of the parents for not working


I agree with the PP that said to forward the emails to whomever made the decision to change and let the deal with it.

 

[MnMomtoboys]

Have to say I would be irritated if someone told me what time or day I was working. Here they assign the teams 4 different days to fill and if we can't do those day we just need to pick another. We still get parents who don't want to work and rather forgo the check. Doesn't seem to be a big deal here. Someone is always willing to jump in and help out.

 

[Tracy Savage]

First of all the term MANDATORY annoys people. You are not their employer. I think you can attract more willing people if you explain the situation- I really need everyones help this season, I know it' s hard, but its to make money for your children. blah blah. Talk about how fun it is. Sometimes just the peer pressure from the other parents will make the hold outs bend. Being told you have to, makes some dig in their heels. Some just won't do it. Period. Bottom line is this IS about the kids and no child should be penalized because their parents won't help.

 

[golfgal]

Have to say I would be irritated if someone told me what time or day I was working. Here they assign the teams 4 different days to fill and if we can't do those day we just need to pick another. We still get parents who don't want to work and rather forgo the check. Doesn't seem to be a big deal here. Someone is always willing to jump in and help out.

I can understand assigning times. You are responsible to either fill out that shift or find someone to change with instead of the concession coordinator having to track people down to fill shifts all summer long.

 

[JustineMarie]

Our parents are told that if we don't have enough people to work the shift, we will forfeit the next game. We have to have a minimum of six per shift. We also have a buy-out option. Do you know a teenager that can work it for her? If it's allowed, tell her that the teen will work it for her for $15 (or whatever is fair). People like this bug me.

I do not know a teen but they are allowed to work the stands as long as they are 16+. I am just aggravated bc my husband coaches their daughter 3 nights a week, has driven her home occasionally bc the mom has never came to pick her up, and we have worked the stand even though we didn't have to bc he is the coach. I worked it so that everyone only had to work it once instead of having a couple people work it twice.

She is just being a pita about it. She does have an older daughter that she could ask to work the stand for her but honestly it's not her older daughter's responsibilty, it's hers.

As for the consequences of her not working the stand, when she registers next year or for fall ball she is going to be made to pay $50 on top of her registration. She will only receive $25 back if she works the stand next year. The other $25 will be kept by the association. She knows this tho as it was in the registration papers that she had to sign to sign her daughter up. I guess she doesn't care? Who knows.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

First of all the term MANDATORY annoys people. You are not their employer. I think you can attract more willing people if you explain the situation- I really need everyones help this season, I know it' s hard, but its to make money for your children. blah blah. Talk about how fun it is. Sometimes just the peer pressure from the other parents will make the hold outs bend. Being told you have to, makes some dig in their heels. Some just won't do it. Period. Bottom line is this IS about the kids and no child should be penalized because their parents won't help.

This bothers me--

If you sign a child up with a contigency that something is mandatory....

Then yes, their child should be penalized if that is the case.

I'm sure mom knew the deal at the beginning of the season and if her kid gets a consequence, then it is mom's fault not the league.


(This is why, I don't sign my kids up for things with "mandatory" stuff if we know that we cannot fulfill that "mandatory" whatever it is.)

 

[lillygator]

I hate the concession stand duty...I wish they would charge more for participating and then pay some kids to do it.

 

[padams]

You need to let the league board know about the woman and let them handle the situation. The league should have a policy of what happens if one doesn't do concession duty.

DS played in a sports league that had a buy out option. The league seemed to love the parents (like me) who paid to not do concession stand duty.

DSs have also played sports in a couple of leagues that paid their concession stand workers (popular jobs for teens). While one might think paying the concession stand workers would cut into the amount of money made off the stand, the stands actually made more money because they had a consistent workforce who showed up (unlike the mom in OP's situation).

DSs have also played in a couple of leagues that filled their concession stands with teens getting community service hours.

 

[jen0610]

Our league does something similar, whoever ours are a lot longer hours - 4-5 hours per family. This is a huge league - 7 diamonds with 2 games on each diamond every night of the week and several saturday games.

At registration you are charged a $25.00 concession fee. Over the course of the season, each team is assigned 4 nights that the parents have to cover for working the stand. We let the teams determine how to assign coverage.

At the same time, we know that a majority of the parents, have multipule kids playing or they are also in other activites or they just don't want to work the stand. Because of this, we have a list of teens, that are willing and able to work the stand.

On the nights that you are assigned to work, you can either show up, work and get your $25.00 back. Or you can prearrange to have one of the teens cover your shift. The teens make $20.00 and the league keeps the other $5.00 as a "fundraiser". The league has been handling the staffing of the stand this way for 30+ years.

They also need managers to help the stand director. If you agree to manage, it entails putting in 50 hours of being in charge of all the workers on various nights, you will get your entire registration fee refunded. If you have 2 kids, you can do your 2nd registration fee as well, but you only have to but in 30 hours for that one. And you can bet your bottom dollar, I was all over that. 17 weeks of ball to cover 80 hours, I easily knocked out 10 hours a week, by taking 2 nights a week, early in the season and only had to take 1 night a week in the later, tourny time of the season.

 

[lovesmurfs]

My husband coaches my oldest daughters softball team. In years past at registration they have charged a concession fee basically guarenteeing you will work the stand. You have to work it once for an hour and a half to get your money back. This year they have made the stand duty mandatory.

We were given a schedule with which days were our responsibility. Instead of letting the parents sign up for days, I assigned them. This is what I do for my younger daughter's soccer team and it has always worked out well. If they can't work the day I assigned then it's their responsibility to either switch with another team parent or have a family member or friend work it for them.

Today I get an email from one of the girls mom stating that she will not be working the stand this year bc she doesn't want to have to drive the 30 minutes to the field to work it. I understand it's an inconvience. I don't want to work it either, but I have.

I wrote her back explaining that I understand that she does not want to drive the 1/2 hour to work the stand but that unfortunately it is mandatory for each child to have an adult cover the stand on their day and that maybe she could have a friend or a relative do it for her.

She responded that she doesn't care that it's mandatory, that she thinks that I am being rude saying that she should get someone else to work it for her. She said she works full time and doesn't feel like doing it when she gets home.

I haven't responded yet because I'm not sure what to say. I work full-time too. I also am on the PTA board at my girl's school and I volunteer to help out with both my daughter's softball team and soccer team. I work stand duty for both sports. Do I want to do it, no I don't, but I do. I understand that it is my choice to volunteer for what I do, but for her to say that she just doesn't feel like driving the 30 minutes bc she works full-time just makes me mad!

So do I write her back or just let it be?

Our Little League duty is also mandatory -- we have two shifts we need to do. The scheduling for sign-ups, though, is the 2 hours before or after one of our scheduled ball games -- the parents should already be at the field. Yes, it's a pain. Yes, it's mandatory. I like the PP's league who requires game forfeiture if staffing's not done.

Mandatory is.....mandatory. She can take it up with the league if she has troubles.

 

[JustineMarie]

Have to say I would be irritated if someone told me what time or day I was working. Here they assign the teams 4 different days to fill and if we can't do those day we just need to pick another. We still get parents who don't want to work and rather forgo the check. Doesn't seem to be a big deal here. Someone is always willing to jump in and help out.

I only assigned them bc that is what worked out well with my other daughters team. It has worked out great with this team too - except for this one mom. So out of 14 girls only 1 girl's parent had a problem with it. I also let them switch days with someone if the day I gave them didn't work out for them. It was easier to do it this way than to try to have people sign up and be missing dates that needed to be covered. But I do understand that some may have been put off by this. The thing is they made it mandatory this year bc they haven't gotten people in the past to volunteer to do it.

 

[FireDancer]

The first thing that stands out is that the mom won't drive 30 minutes to work the stand. Does that mean she doesn't go watch her daughter play at all? That is kind of sad.

I played sports for our city from t-ball and still play now, at no time have parents had to work the stand. The city handles all concessions with volunteers. The schools provide students and the parks and rec provide incentives, like discounted fees for your or your child if they volunteer.

 

[karibritt01]

I am just aggravated bc my husband coaches their daughter 3 nights a week, has driven her home occasionally bc the mom has never came to pick her up.

Well, I would have officially resigned as her chauffer by the time the next practice comes along. No way I would go out of my way for her when she has "Entitlement Syndrome." I would also let her know that she needs to pay the fee if she isn't planning to cover a shift, and let it fall on her shoulders to dig out her paperwork and prove you wrong. And while she has her paperwork out, point out the section where it says she agreed to serve a shift when she signed the forms.

 

[Tracy Savage]

It's all about money anyway, so charge more to play and forget about the stands. No one needs the junk food anyway. Parents can bring their own snacks. Done deal.

 

[Mkrop]

First of all the term MANDATORY annoys people. You are not their employer. I think you can attract more willing people if you explain the situation- I really need everyones help this season, I know it' s hard, but its to make money for your children. blah blah. Talk about how fun it is. Sometimes just the peer pressure from the other parents will make the hold outs bend. Being told you have to, makes some dig in their heels. Some just won't do it. Period. Bottom line is this IS about the kids and no child should be penalized because their parents won't help.

No offense but there are way more people who will drop the ball and not care about it if you use volunteer than if you use the word mandatory. I asked for volunteers last year for my son's baseball team for umpires. By League rules, we had to provide a home base umpire or a field umpire for each game. My first email was nice asking for volunteers, saying you can pick your date, since we all have other obligations, we even said it did not have to be you specifically that you could have Uncle Joe do it if no one else was available they just ahd to be over 18.

I got 3 responses out of 12 back. Send out another email, telling them what dates were taken, still nothing. My final email told them that this was mandotory per League rules (which it was) and then I assigned dates accordingly. We had one person flake the whole season.

I also dont agree with penalizing the child for their parent's behavior but unfortunately it happens around here. Parent gets the child their late the player is penalized.




OP so this lady does not show and then loses her money but she proabbly wont care about that, but it stinks bc you are still short a person to fill a shift.