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 away against Miamisburg. Gator warm ups begin at 5:30pm and the meet starts at 6:00. Thursday's meet is at home vs. West Carrollton. 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.
• Want a free tent? We still need a volunteer coordinator for the meets. This person will sign in volunteers at the beginning of each meet and make sure volunteers are where they need to be for both shifts. This year the volunteer coordinator get his or her own green tent to use during the meets (so the rest of us can easily find him/her!) and it can be YOURS for the season if you're willing to serve in this important function. 

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 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 Thursday's practice.

The weather this week is looking pretty good, but please 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. 

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

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