Youth sports concession stands

[already]

At the swim meet we are hosting this weekend my wife is signed up to work at the concession stand from 7 AM to 5 PM on Friday and Saturday.

I am on the board of our swim team and we worship parents like your wife!

Swim teams are definitely not sports for kids whose parents do not like to volunteer!

For our home meet this past Saturday, I spent a few hours on Friday heating and seeding the meet. Then Saturday, I scored the meet. Hubsters worked the grill all day.

What it takes to run a swim meet in our league:

32 timers (8 lanes, 2 timers per lane, 2 shifts)
6 heating
12 in concessions (3 grill, 2 pancake/waffles, 6 selling)
5 scorers (includes running the timing console)
6 ribbon writers
4 stroke judges (have to be certified before the season)
1 starter
8 set up
8 clean up
4 runners (run DQ's from the stroke judges to the scoring table)
And a few other misc.

And this is just a little summer swim league, not USA swim.

We have 198 kids on our team between 100 families. That means everybody(one volunteer per family) works a 4 hour shift during a home meet.

 

[EMAW_KSU]

I am on the board of our swim team and we worship parents like your wife!

Swim teams are definitely not sports for kids whose parents do not like to volunteer!

For our home meet this past Saturday, I spent a few hours on Friday heating and seeding the meet. Then Saturday, I scored the meet. Hubsters worked the grill all day.

What it takes to run a swim meet in our league:

32 timers (8 lanes, 2 timers per lane, 2 shifts)
6 heating
12 in concessions (3 grill, 2 pancake/waffles, 6 selling)
5 scorers (includes running the timing console)
6 ribbon writers
4 stroke judges (have to be certified before the season)
1 starter
8 set up
8 clean up
4 runners (run DQ's from the stroke judges to the scoring table)
And a few other misc.

And this is just a little summer swim league, not USA swim.

We have 198 kids on our team between 100 families. That means everybody(one volunteer per family) works a 4 hour shift during a home meet.

This meet requires a qualifying time to swim and parents whose child is not swimming are not signing up to work.

 

[Sgt Mickey]

We do it for football/cheering. It is usually one to times per child. Sometimes due to the fact that our two youngest are twins they are counted once. Just depends on the team mom and how many games we have to cover.

 

[JanaDee]

Quick question. If you are required to man your youth sports concession stand as part of your child's attendance in said program, how many shifts do you have to take and how long is each shift? Thanks in advance...

Ours are one shift per season and for the entire game.

 

[Katy Belle]

My kids are in the HS marching band. Band and Orchestra Boosters have all of the football concession stands. They tell us that each parent needs to work two shifts, which is usually about 3 hours per shift. Not everyone does, and if they did, none of us would have to work 2! Our Band Boosters make about $17,000 profit from concessions each year, so I am happy to work.

 

[2Kds2K9]

I'm with Sasywtch. This whole thing gets my dander up. When your child participates in a sports league, there is no reason that a parent can't volunteer a few hours of their time to support the league. The coaches and other administrative staff are donating much more than a few hours for your child.

DH was the head of my DD's softball league for four years. The big fundraiser for them was hosting the concession stand for the end of year All Star Game. For three years, my family spent a good 24+ hours for that stand. DH and I would shop for food two days prior, spend a few hours loading up our trailer, haul it to the site, unload and set up in the hopes of volunteers showing up. My DH and DS would then spend 8 hours each day manning the stand, again, hoping volunteers that said they would be there, would actually show up. Oh, this event is always Fathers Day Weekend. Why didn't we do it the fourth year? We decided to spend Fathers Day with my Dad and family and NO ONE else stepped up to run the stand. Oddly enough, our league has not sponsored it since. What a shame as it always brought in about 2k for the league.

Being on both sides of the table, we always make sure we volunteer for our children's activities in one way or another. But with all things, I've noticed it's always the same crew volunteering no matter what sport or activity.

Really, one can't give one or two hours of your time to help sell candy in the snack bar?

Off my soap box.

 

[castleview]

Our baseball league is pretty aggressive regarding the concession stand. The concession stand in our town has pretty much gone from being a snack stand to nearly a full service restaurant (slight exaggeration, but you get my drift). Parents are required to do one four hour shift per kid during the season or have to pay $50 if they don't...and rarely are the slots during their own kids games. I sit on the P&R board and told the baseball league many times that I think it's ridiculous. If the registration fee was kept at a minimum (and it keeps rising), I could understand it. But it's the kids who do travel and All-Stars that benefit most from the work all the rec parents do. I could go on...

 

[java]

4 hours. But it is one of several choices of "forced" volunteering.

 

[Skippy918]

The only sport where we are required to volunteer is our children's summer swim league. Swim meets are very, very labor intensive - we need 75-100 parents for each meet for one to run successfully. You are required to do 6 shifts (each approximately 2.5 hours) per season. There are a ton of different jobs to choose from, with timing and concessions being the the most popular. You can also select being part of a committee, such as banquet planning in lieu of one of your shifts. You don't show up for your shifts, you get put on the wait list for registration for the next year.

Our swim team was the same. At least one parent had to volunteer for each meet. If you are there, you might as well volunteer. It made the meets go by quicker. I did morning shifts and got done by 11. I liked being tent parent since I got to hang out with my son.

 

[Callie]

Growing up, for swimming, parents were required to work a shift at the meets for each home meet. My mom never had to do it, because instead, she was the league president. That was a ton more work! She also organized our team sign-ups as well. Needless to say I think she deserved a pardon. I always enjoyed counting ribbons and supplies to give to teams before the season.

 

[monorailsilver]

We just have it for Little League right now (I am sure there are High School rules but we aren't there yet).

So for Little League, we check the box when we register that says we will volunteer in the snack shack.

For us it is typically 1 game, either 1-2 parents. Weekends are 2 parents since 1 does the grill. During the week it's just 1 parent since its hot dogs & pizza.

 

[Jedana]

When the kids did little kids soccer, we had to volunteer 1 shift per weekend for the clubs. Either cleaning up or setting up; they had the older kids working in the snack booth when they weren't having their games (gave a discount on their fees, and they earned it themselves). During the older kids games, the snack booth closed (as they always played the last games of the day). [and no, most of the parents didn't volunteer. the 3rd year of having the same 10 parents do the set up and clean up, the club started charging an extra $50 per child if you didn't volunteer. those funds went to pay some teens to come do the set up/clean up...and yes, they made more money than they spent, lol)


With DD2 (DD1 didn't live with me when she was in high school, she was with her "other parent" and his mom), for the band/color guard---the parent booster club had one concession stand, and the football had the other. I was vp for 3 years, and it was nothing but headaches trying to get people to volunteer the first year. I did the uniforms for both the band/color guard (cleaning the guard uniforms, send the band uniforms to be cleaned, sorting, storing, handing out, getting returned after games), made sure the guard girls were going out "appropriately" dressed (makeup/nail polish, hair, etc-- their guard instructor was always late), pulled the wagon with coolers, chaperoned on the buses/stands, etc. The President of the booster club and her husband always ran the stand and they only had 2 parents that would help that first year. What a mess!

So, the 2nd year, I would just go up to the other parents and hand them things to do. "Mrs Smith, please take these coolers to the field when you go" or "Mr Black, please go to the concessions stand and run the boiled peanut/grill area for half an hour" We did have one parent who refused to do anything, but wanted to get into the game for free (boosters who were working were able to just come in the gate). A quick word to the ladies at the gate ended that for her--and after the 2nd time of her getting locked out without paying, she started helping. Not every time but at least twice a season. Everyone else stepped up without a problem, and by the 3rd year, we had enough people stepping up so that the P, her dh and myself could step back and watch the show!

 

[Mickeyluver37]

I'm with Sasywtch. This whole thing gets my dander up. When your child participates in a sports league, there is no reason that a parent can't volunteer a few hours of their time to support the league. The coaches and other administrative staff are donating much more than a few hours for your child.

DH was the head of my DD's softball league for four years. The big fundraiser for them was hosting the concession stand for the end of year All Star Game. For three years, my family spent a good 24+ hours for that stand. DH and I would shop for food two days prior, spend a few hours loading up our trailer, haul it to the site, unload and set up in the hopes of volunteers showing up. My DH and DS would then spend 8 hours each day manning the stand, again, hoping volunteers that said they would be there, would actually show up. Oh, this event is always Fathers Day Weekend. Why didn't we do it the fourth year? We decided to spend Fathers Day with my Dad and family and NO ONE else stepped up to run the stand. Oddly enough, our league has not sponsored it since. What a shame as it always brought in about 2k for the league.

Being on both sides of the table, we always make sure we volunteer for our children's activities in one way or another. But with all things, I've noticed it's always the same crew volunteering no matter what sport or activity.

Really, one can't give one or two hours of your time to help sell candy in the snack bar?

Off my soap box.

I have never understood this. Our band boosters work the concessions at our local minor league baseball stadium for a few games every summer. You only have to be 14 to work so many of the kids can work themselves, but we do need adults for some of the cooking positions. So many of these parents just flat out refuse to do it. The boosters makes thousands and the fees would be much higher if we didn't have these fundraisers- our school district provides literally NOTHING for the marching band- not even bus transportation to the competitions. I have other children so I do understand trying to juggle it all, but we've been involved enough years to know who just flat out refuses and doesn't care, and who is actually busy. Some parents (who don't even have younger children) find it a hardship to even show up and watch their kids perform once or twice during the season.

To the poster that has SIX ribbon writers at every swim meet- why aren't you all using printed labels like everyone else? We have one ribbon person from each team at each meet. They just stick the stickers on!

 

[tvguy]

So many of these parents just flat out refuse to do it.

I saw a lot of this in Little League, Soccer, and school extra curricular evens, parents who treat it as free or cheap baby sitting, they don't attend their children's events, and don't volunteer.

 

[POPCITY]

I'm one of those that flat out refused to do it. I did it once, never again. Kind of a shame, because I actually like that kind of thing, but the "clique" that organizes it around here makes my blood boil.