Prior to any meet, preparation is key. Being an effective AO is all about being prepared - with paperwork, supplies, and volunteers. There are pre-meet steps to complete, as appropriate, such as seeding, generating a timeline, and printing paperwork. You will work closely with the Meet Director to ensure all is ready for the day of the meet.

Another way to prepare for your AO certification is to prepare for your on-deck training. 

It may be helpful for you, as you move through this course, to keep a list of any questions you may have. While there will be full explanations of your responsibilities and the rules you will follow, you still may have questions to discuss as you move into your on-deck training.

This list can be your place to start. Use your own digital options (Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or even a note on your phone) to get started on your list. It's possible by the end of this course you won't need more information. But make sure you are prepared to ask questions as you start the on-deck training part of your certification.

Your own preparation for the session or meet may start in the days leading up to it. You will partner closely with the Meet Director to ensure there are plenty of volunteers and supplies to complete the tasks. The “dry” side of a meet requires a lot of oversight.

This pre-meet discussion is vital to the success of the meet. Understand in advance how the Administrative Team will operate. Clarify who will be there and which role each will fulfill. Depending on the size of the meet, you may need multiple volunteers to run it efficiently. Work with the Meet Director to ensure they recruit enough timers, system operators, and other necessary volunteers.

Since the AO is responsible for many tasks, they will manage others to ensure it’s all getting done. Not all of these roles are officials, or need to be. If you are the AO of record for the meet, you will oversee and supervise the correct completion of all tasks.

Being an effective AO is all about being prepared with paperwork and having a system in place to organize it. Before the meet, there are heat sheets, a timeline, and other necessary documents to produce. While you may not generate all of it, you are responsible for it. Work with the Meet Director to determine who will take on this task.

Once the meet starts, the paperwork for each event should be organized in a way to quickly answer any questions from other officials or coaches. Heat sheets from officials, timing sheets from the Timers, printouts from the timing system - all need to stay together. There's nothing in the rulebook that says that you have to collect paperwork in a certain way. Each AO may have their own system. What’s important is to have a system. If your club hosts meets regularly, there may already be good systems in place to learn during your on-deck training sessions.

There are many supplies you’ll need based on the system for paperwork. Your club may have supplies available and ready for the AO. These may include general office supplies like stamps, pens, highlighters, 3 ring binders, or a stapler. Or other specific supplies like clipboards, pencils, and stopwatches for Timers. And meet-specific items like DQ slips, No-show slips, Relay Cards, Check-in sheets, and a Scratch Box and cards.

Work with the Meet Director to ensure all is ready for the day of the meet.

Be sure to review the published Meet Announcement for all administrative guidelines. The information included (what type of meet it is, how events will be seeded, and entry and scratch deadlines) answers a lot of questions about how to proceed. The Meet Announcement will detail the timing system used, whether to expect positive check ins and deck seeding, scratch procedures, and if there are any penalties for no shows. 

You may need to reference the Meet Announcement through meet day. Make sure a copy is available to you.

• Conforming Time

• Heats

• Heat Interval

• Meet Announcement

• Meet Program or Heat Sheet

• Non-confirming Time

• Positive Check-in

• Psych Sheet

• Sanction

• Scratching

• Seeding

• Session

• Timed Finals

• Session Report (or Timeline)

Once the entry deadline has passed, AOs work with the Meet Director to ensure eligibility for all athletes. Swimmers must be a USA Swimming Member in good standing for sanctioned meets. If any USA Swimming member athletes are 18 or over, their Athlete Protection Training (APT) should be up to date. Reports done by the LSC Registrar or Sanction Chair will show if any athletes are out of compliance with regard to APT training. Swimmer entries must comply with the entry limits and rules stated in the Meet Announcement. Use an Exception Report generated by the meet software to make note of any exceptions.

Examples:

• Swimmers entered into too many events

• Swimmers without required qualifying times

• Swimmers with too many bonus entries

• NT (no time) entries when the Meet Announcement doesn’t permit them

Address them in advance, if possible, or at the meet, if appropriate. 

Once entries are finalized, the psych sheet can be produced. The psych sheet is usually posted and shared with coaches before the meet to give swimmers an idea of their competition and ranking in an event. This printed psych sheet for deck seeded events can be used to record check ins. Now, depending on the processes outlined in the Meet Announcement, the entire meet or certain sessions are ready to be seeded. 

The meet announcement will state the process for accepting late entries or deck entries. If it states “there will be no deck entries,” then it's finite. Often though, meet announcements state that deck entries and late entries will be permitted at the discretion of the meet director or meet host. This allows the AO to use their discretion to add somebody or make changes.

The AO is responsible to know what guidelines were established for that meet. 

If deck entries and late entries are allowed, the AO and Meet Director still need to ensure the athletes are eligible. Their membership must be in good standing and their APT must be up to date if they are over 18. This takes more coordination to get reports done and finalize these entries. 

As an official, you will see lots of different athletes working hard to be their best. This includes swimmers with disabilities. As an Administrative Official, you don’t need to worry about if a swimmer needs accommodations or modifications. The Referee is responsible to work with the coach and swimmer to identify appropriate individualized accommodations.

Your responsibility is to check in with the Referee prior to the meet to find out when they want you to consult with them for timing adjustments and any other issues. If there are swimmers with disabilities, the Referee may inform you of special orders you need to execute. For example, the Referee might:

• authorize special seeding for a particular athlete (like moving a swimmer who is deaf or hard of hearing closer to the Starter), or

• request a review of any DQs called on a particular athlete before they are entered in the results.

Also, the meet announcement might dictate special entry qualifications or finals heats qualification for swimmers with disabilities. As the AO, you should follow through with all of these adjustments.

Note: the Meet Referee does not have to share the disability or specific modifications or accommodations with the Administrative Official.

Article 105 in the rulebook contains guidelines for officiating swimmers with disabilities. Feel free to review this section. When on deck at a meet, always confer with the Referee if you need clarification of what is required of the Administrative Official role.