Hello Gators!

This is a big week - our first two meets! Here's everything you need to know.

Tuesday is our first meet! It is at home against Miamisburg. Gator warm ups begin at 5:00pm and the meet starts at 6:00. Thursday's meet is at home vs. Idle Hour. Gator warm ups begin at 5:00pm and the meet starts at 6:00.

IMPORTANT VOLUNTEER UPDATES

• Please take a look at your scheduled volunteer shifts by clicking "my account" on our webpage and make sure you know where you're supposed to be when! You can modify your shifts online. If you have any questions about volunteer positions, shifts, etc., please respond to this email.
• Thanks to so many parents willing to help out this year, we are able to reduce the number of regular season required shifts from six to five. If you're currently registered for six shifts, please remove yourself from one shift asap. 
• Also, the league has determined that we only need two timers per lane instead of three, which means we only need 7 timers per shift for home meets (it does not change the number necessary for away meets). We are currently over-booked on timers for home meets, so if you are scheduled to time but would be willing to do something else, please check to see where there are open spots. 
• A couple additional positions have been created - Relay Assistants and Stand-By Volunteers. If you've been looking for more shifts to cover, now is a great time to sign up for one of these. 

Please make sure to sign your swimmer up for this week's meets ASAP. To sign up online, go tohttp://germantowngators.swimtopia.com/swim_meets and click on "Meet Entry" for each meet and choose "attending" or "not attending." If you'd like, you may choose your swimmer's individual events at that time. You can edit your entries online until 8am the morning of each meet. After that point, please contact Coach Lemke directly if your availability changes. It is very important to let Coach Lemke know as soon as possible if your child won't be able to attend a meet he/she is scheduled to attend, as it impacts relay teams. By the same token, if your child gets sick or injured and needs to leave a meet early, let Coach Lemke know immediately so he can rearrange the relays.

We need donations for the concession stand on Tuesday and Thursday. Items like fruit or veggies and baked good (individually wrapped) sell very well. If you are able to donate something, please bring it to the concession stand (which will be held in the pool's concession area this year) before the meets. Also, we will need people to make Gator Taters. If you're willing to bake a bag of potatoes, please pick them (and a set of instructions) up at Tuesday's and Thursday's practices.

The weather this week is looking a little questionable. Keep in mind that practice and meets take place rain or shine, but we will postpone for thunder/lightning. Any weather-related announcements will be made via OneCallNow. To opt in for text message alerts, text "Alert" to 22300. If you did not receive the call(s) last week, please reply to this email or contact Emily Berry at 937-657-9164.

Heat Sheets (which include the swimmers' heat number and lane assignments) will be available online before the meet, once we receive the opposing team's line up. We will email them and put them on the website. Hard copy heat sheets and the event board will be available as usual as well.

We have Gators swim caps again this year, provided by the team. If you didn't receive one at Time Trials, please see Talia Thompson at one of the meets.

Gators Gear is for sale! Please visit GermantownGators.secure-decoration.comto place your order. The order deadline is Monday, June 11, and orders will be delivered next week. Thanks!

Download the SwimTopia app to help keep track of meets, your volunteer shifts, and more. It's available on iTunes and Google Play.

Team pictures will be held on Friday, June 15 at 8am at the pool.

Please check out the Resources portion of the website. The FAQs and Team Handbook contain everything you need to know about swim meets! If you have any questions or concerns, reply to this email or contact Emily Berry at 937-657-9164.

Again this year, during meets, the observation area for parents will be along the north side of the pool, nearest to the concession stand. There will be no seating along the side of the pool to allow room for all parents to have an area to watch their swimmers swim. Once your swimmer's heat is complete, please leave the poolside area. This will also make the meets run more efficiently, as the timers will be able to switch ends of the pool more quickly and spectators will not interfere with the timers.

Thank you for all you do! We are looking forward to a fun season!

The Gator Board