USMS Convention Reports 2

by the OMS Delegates

Oregon Masters Swimming delegates at the United States Aquatic Sports Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, were Christina Fox, Susie Young, Tim Waud, Sandi Rousseau, Ginger Pierson and Bob Bruce

The United States Aquatic Sports Convention was held September 21-25, in Atlanta, Georgia.  OMS sent 6 delegates to the convention.  Each of them wrote a report of their experience and below are some of the highlights of the meetings they attended.  The delegates were Christina Fox, Susie Young, Tim Waud, Sandi Rousseau, Ginger Pierson and Bob Bruce.  Bob Bruce’s report was in the November/December, 2016, “Aqua Master” in the Long Distance section.  Minutes for these meeting can be found on the USMS web site at: http://www.usms.org/admin/conv/2016/

House of Delegates Meetings

Thursday, the first meeting was the House of Delegates meeting, and it primarily introduced folks to the current president, Pattie Miller and our new CEO Dawson Hughes, and presented the schedule for the convention.

The Dot Donnelly awards were presented and Jacki Allender and Gary Whitman were awarded this service honor.

Saturday we were in the HOD first thing and the committees gave their reports.  Motions were made and seconded to approve the various committee reports.  We then went over the budget in greater detail and the one item that drew the most attention was an increase in the fee for recognized events, which was increased from $35 to $100 in the proposed budget.  After much discussion, the fee which is charged to the LMSC was to be decided in the budget process.

Notably, the House voted to accept the recommendation of the rules committee regarding bulkhead measurements, so folks who set world records in FINA events will not have those swims count in USMS unless they personally do the bulkhead measurements.  The sentiment of the house is that we should hold a higher standard than FINA and try to get them to change (fat chance reports Walt Reid).  Donn Livoni then presented the long distance rules.  We voted to approve the proposals not pulled and then discussed the pulled items.  Biggest issue was the age determination – do we go real age at the time of the event or age at the end of the year?  The committee’s recommendation to have the age of swimmer be based on your age on December 31^st of the event year passed.  Meg Smath presented the legislation proposals and all recommendations were followed.  Jeanne Ensign presented the budget.  After approving the majority of the budget, spirited debate was held on the charge for one-time event registrations.  The amount was changed from the proposed $25 to $15.  The recognized event fee was debated and ultimately, an increase to $100 as recommended in the budget was approved.  We then held a feedback session and adjourned the HOD for the final time.

North West Zone Meeting Summary

• The NW Zone is the biggest zone, there were 35 delegates from the NW Zone — a great turnout
• A small committee was established to develop a high‐level financial policy and create/adjust any existing policies that may be impacted
• SCM Zone champs coming up in Coeur D’Alene in a beautiful pool
• Steve Darnell has been doing a great job keeping track of the Zone records
• Sara Welch endorsed as our USMS NW Director.
• Brief reports were given from each LMSC.
• We supported Sarah Welch for the NW Zone Director to the USMS BOD
• Discussed possible future sites for our Zone meets. Hood River is possibly interested in SCM Zones in Fall 2017.
• A subcommittee is to reevaluate fees paid by the LMSC to the Zone, i.e. too much, too little, etc.. Tasks for the upcoming year include getting the Zone jet from Breadbasket Zone and budgeting for a pilot, flight attendant, and fuel.
• Discussed the reasoning behind the increase in the Workout Group and Club fees from $25 to $41. The board of directors made this increase. The Finance committee was discussing their position on the increase.

Long Distance

It was announced during the Long Distance Committee Meeting that OMS will play host to three USMS Open Water National Championships in 2018.

Legislation

Spent nearly the entire meeting discussing the meaning of 508.2, which says (in its entirety) “508.2 Fees  Fees shall be established by the House of Delegates.”

Registration

For consideration:

• pro-rate month by month
• date-to-date registration (rolling registration)
• Future changes: online transfer forms
• open water system integration so swimmers can know when they last competed in open water and meets

Championship Committee:

• 2017 Spring Nationals in Riverside, CA, April 27-30, 2017
• 2017 Summer Nationals in Minneapolis, MN, August 2-6, 2017
• 2018 Spring Nationals was awarded to Indianapolis May 10-13, 2018
• 2018 Summer Nationals will not be held in order to fully support the UANA Masters Pan American Championships in Orlando from July 28-August 3, 2018.
• Relay fees will go up to $16 per relay for nationals.

Adult Learn to Swim Workshop:

Both Corvallis and Hood River found out we have received a grant for this program in 2017.

Key happenings in 2016

• Increase in National Office efficiencies with office move in January (employees had been separated for 18 months)
• Hiring of the CEO, Dawson
• Creation of two new reserves
• 6 months of operating costs opportunity – to fund projects
• The Finance Committee chair and USMS Controller presented an overview of how the financial decisions are made
• Finance overview is available in the Finance Committee HOD Budget

Fitness

Meeting started with participation in an interactive fitness education activity (“Swimmer Jeopardy”) which had interesting facts/statistics about USMS and fitness swimmers

Other topics discussed included

• Implementation of the proposed “Half Hour Swim Postal Event
• A specific path for disseminating fitness plans and ideas
• Challenges (decreased registration) with the “Check Off Challenge”

Workshop #1 – Turning Resources into satisfied Swimmers

Primary focus of this workshop was using LMSC financial reserves for swimmers (“$pend on $wimmers”)

Suggestions included identifying and implementing programs (high impact; appropriate to resources – volunteer effort and budget), using money to fix volunteer deficits (e.g. website services) and spending money verses time.

Ended with brainstorming session with ideas for programming.

Sports Medicine

We must continue to train and stay active.  The decline in performance over age is much less than researchers expected.  Swimmers are harder for researchers to study than runners are.