Wednesday, July 30, 2008

BE PREPARED!!

"Be Prepared" is the motto of the Boy Scouts of America but is should also be the motto of any diving meet director.

During the 2008 AAU National Diving Championships at The Coral Springs Aquatic Center in Florida, there were a number of things that occurred that COULD have severely interrupted the diving meet but because the meet directors were prepared, the meet continued to run on schedule (weather delays the exception). Here are a few examples:

1) Knowing that it usually storms nearly every afternoon in Florida, the event schedule was set-up so events took place in the morning and late afternoon. This was good planning because almost every day during the mid-afternoon, there was inclement weather that closed the pool for 1-2 hours but it rarely affected the meet because only warm-ups were scheduled for that time period.

2) Each score table had a supply of plastic tarps and plastic bags that could quickly be used to cover the score tables, computers, printers and speakers.

3) They had handheld diving score cards available in the event that one or more of the computers went down during an event (which did occur). They simply continued the meet using handheld scorecards and paper sheets while the computer personnel addressed the computer issues.

4) There were plenty of areas under cover if divers or parents wanted to get out of the sun or rain.

So the next time you host a diving meet, make sure that you spend a little time beforehand planning for things that could go wrong and BE PREPARED!

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