Hi GMST Family-

2 days down! Hopefully your kids are finding their groups and getting acquainted to the team. The first couple of days are always chaotic and take a lot of adjustments from everyone until we find our groove. Your kids will start getting the hang of it and our coaches will keep making adjustments as well as we move through the season! Thank you for your patience, especially with the youngest swimmers, as we continue to refine what we are doing and move those swimmers around. 

A couple of items we wanted to send out this week for housekeeping:

**PRACTICE TIME CHANGE**: The coaches felt after today's practices that we need to make a change to the practice schedule for Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings in order to give a little additional time to the learn to swim groups, and as we felt that the 8 and under group needed a little less time (Those poor kids swam a lot today!) New practice schedule to start next week:

8:30-9:45 – 11 and older (swim until 10:00 on Wed/Fri)

9:45-10:30- Learn to Swim & 6 and under (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Only)

10:30-11:30- 9-12 year olds (10:15-11:15 on Wed/Fri)

11:30-12:00- 8 and under (11:15-12:00 on Wed/Fri)

Coaches Meals: Our coaches will be staying after practice every Friday to debrief about the week and plan for the next week. They will also be working on meet entries on some Fridays and some other days during the season. We'd love to provide them with lunch so they can get right to work after practice without having to scatter to find food. If you are willing and able to sign up to supply a lunch for our coaches, they would very much appreciate it. Feel free to team up with other parents as well. These are low-key lunches, so anything works! We generally have around 10 coaches at lunch. Coaches Lunch Sign-Ups

Green & White Meet: Our first meet is next Thursday! The Green & White meet is an intersquad meet to get us warmed up and ready for a real meet. Anyone is welcome to sign up to attend it. It's a great way to see what a meet looks like and for all of our swimmers to race and get some times recorded. Please RSVP for the meet no later than Tuesday, 2nd at noon. It takes our coaches a significant amount of time to put a lineup together for a meet. Please try to get your RSVPs as accurate as possible- we know that things pop up such as illnesses, but would like to limit last minute changes as they impact many other swimmers. Please also sign up to volunteer at this meet- it's a great learning opportunity for volunteers AND we need a lot of volunteers to make the meet happen! 

Changing/Bathroom Reminder: Hopefully this goes without saying, but please ensure your child is using the correct bathroom to change or use before and after practice. If needed, we do have a family restroom in the hallway as well for families to change or use. 

Fun Friday Donuts: On Fridays, we try to incorporate a little bit more fun to end our week. One of the fun things we do is have donuts available for the kids. Donuts are $1 per donut. The coaches will have a little table set up after each practice with donuts!

Merchandise: We have our 2nd round of Pokeys orders open now. If you'd like to order a shirt, please go to the link below. Link will close June 2nd at 10am. This is the last chance to order shirts! 

Link to Pokey's Store: Pokey's Store

Parent Information and Volunteer Information Meetings: Mark your calendars for Monday, June 1st where we will host multiple rounds of information meetings to answer any questions and provide information on the team and volunteering. We will hold 7 sessions in total, 1 at each practice session (8:30, 9:45, 10:15, 11:15, 5:00pm, 5:30pm, 6:00pm). Meetings will begin approximately 5 minutes after practice starts, so that you can get your kids in the water and then come join us. If you have questions you'd like answered, please submit them here--> Parent Questions If you are unable to attend a meeting on June 1, please reach out and we can get you the information electronically or can find additional times. 

Thanks!

GMST