USMS Officer Reports

PRESIDENT – Nancy Ridout

Greetings! Hope you all survived the winter and are basking in the renewal Springs always brings! The Executive Committee has been busy carrying on the business of the organization and the following are some of the highlights.

Our mid-year meeting was held in San Francisco January 13th-15th. We paper screened candidates for the two positions USMS is establishing (Controller and National Sponsor Liaison/Public Relations) and selected three candidates to interview for Controller and two for National Sponsor Liaison. Along those lines, we also developed a performance review process for all our employees. We also finalized the criteria and procedures for submission of bids to be our official publication, fine-tuned the Strategic Plan, went over contracts and licensing agreements and policies, discussed sponsorship projects, professional management issues, and the convention.

The theme for this year's convention is "Swimming - a life's passion". Our breakout groups will center on an extension of this theme - "Why do we do this?" Seven groups, all led by members of the Executive Committee, will discuss the same topic. "Has anyone started Masters swimming due to you?" "What Masters swimming means to me." These are possible departure points for discussion. Our insights and statements will help us to raise the level of exposure of our program locally, regionally, and nationally. By the way, since we have the good fortune of meeting this year at Disney World, USMS is trying to arrange an evening out at a theme park. Keep tuned! Many other organizational issues were discussed and evaluated. Your elected leaders communicate as a group at least once a month to keep on top of things.

We anticipate receiving at least two bids for the official publication contract commencing in 2001. Upon their receipt, the Executive Committee will review the bids, engage in conference calls with the bidders for clarification and negotiation, evaluate the proposals and recommend acceptance of one by the end of July. This recommendation, along with the rationale behind it, will be included in your delegate packets.

The Strategic Plan has been gone over and amended by the Planning Committee Chair, Nancy Miller, fine-tuned by the Executive Committee, and will be mailed out to you under separate cover. We have approximately eighteen months to achieve our goals.

An exciting development is the request of the National Stroke Association to partner with them in a fundraising event to educate the public about the role of a healthy lifestyle in the prevention, symptoms, and recovery from stroke. Elsewhere in this newsletter, David Grilli and I have explained more about this opportunity. I hope you will get as excited about it as I am and show what Masters can do to help this worth endeavor.

Short Course Nationals is a week away and I look forward to greeting many of you there. One of my biggest pleasures as president of USMS is the opportunity to see all of you and let you know personally how much I appreciate all you do for Masters swimming.

VICE PRESIDENT – Jack Geoghegan

As Vice President I have been active with my fellow Executive Committee members at our mid-year meeting and monthly conference calls. We have planned out for our convention schedule and conducted our interviews to fill the business of Masters as set forth at the last convention; to fill our Controller and Sponsor Laison positions. As liaison to Insurance, Rules and Recognition and Awards I keep in E mail contact with the Committee Chairs. The on-going battle at ISHOF with those who do not believe that Masters should be recognized with the other Honorees also has engaged my time. Writing the Making Masters Fun column with Mel has been most enjoyable and the feedback has been fantastic. Our organization and our members enthusiasm makes this a great job!

From the end of the convention until the end of December is an extremely busy time for the Secretary. The minutes of the Convention must be written and distributed, the Working Calendar updated and distributed, and the Committee Chairman's Handbook updated and distributed. I appreciate the help I received from Committee Chairmen. Sometimes I have to verify the committee minutes and I also depend on Committee Chairmen to get me dates for the Working Calendar. During this period, we also had several Executive Committee conference calls and I write up minutes for them also.

The workload for the Secretary slows down in January. However, the Executive Committee had a midyear meeting in San Francisco in January. We met all day Thursday and also Thursday evening, all day Friday, and all day Saturday. Trying to keep up with minutes is a challenge! In February, the Executive Committee interviewed candidates and selected a Controller.

Now it is time to begin the preparation for the Convention this fall. I will send out information in April to LMSC Chairmen about delegate selection and then keep following up until I get responses from all LMSCs.

TREASURER – Jeanne Ensign

Once again, I am happy to report that the financial affairs of USMS are in good order.

I continue to write checks on a weekly basis at the behest of the Controller - my greetings-by-mail to many of you this year has been "Pay to the Order of . . ." Moneys received continue to be initially deposited into a cash management account at Smith Barney by the National Office and myself. Our goal of routing most payments and receipts through the National Office to streamline the deposit process and to better track the activities has been accomplished.

I am working with Cathy Pennington, our new Controller, to help her in assuming her new duties. I have joined with the rest of the Exeuctive Committee for a number of conference calls, and in January we met in San Francisco for a mid-year meeting. During the year I have fielded a number of questions from LMSC treasurers regarding tax filing requirements and procedure - I think they're reading the LMSC handbook!

USMS has renewed agreements with Kast A Way Swimwear, The Victor, NIKE, Ultra Swim, and has added a new sponsor in Hasty Awards. Within the next few months USMS will have several logo licensee's throughout the country. These licensee's will promote the USMS logo on swim merchandise. This will be great exposure for USMS, especially to those who don't make it to the National Championship meets. Look in your next streamlines for more information on this exciting new program, and other marketing programs promoting USMS.

LEGAL COUNSEL – Jeanne Crouse

We have several projects on our plate, the most important of which is the drafting of a proposed privacy policy for USMS. When the draft policy is finished (likely early summer), we will make it available on the web and through the National Office.

ZONE CHAIRMAN – Hugh Moore

An important role of the Zone Committee is to act as the nominating committee for USMS elections. At this year's convention the USMS House of Delegates will elect a new Zone Committee Chair. We have adopted a process similar to the one established in 1997 by the Zone Committee, with Stephanie Walsh as Chair, and used for the 1997 Executive Committee elections. A request for nominations was printed in the January/February SWIM magazine. Nominees were then sent a questionnaire and asked to submit a resume. We are in the process of sending evaluation forms to the appropriate LMSC chairs, chairs of committees that the nominees have been active on, and supporters. Once these evaluation forms have been returned, the committee will determine a slate of candidates. Candidate information will be printed in the convention packet. Nominations from the floor will be allowed during a House of Delegates meeting on Thursday of the 2000 convention.

The committee has also been active in developing lists of upcoming events that appear in each issue of SWIM magazine. Each Zone Rep has also been active within their zone. Their reports follow.

The Kansas City Blazers held a Toys for Tots swim in December 1999 that collected about 50 toys for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots campaign in the Kansas City Area. I might also add that I am going to push for more Masters participation in this program again at Convention this year.

Colonies Zone has had a busy half-year since convention. Below is a brief summary. The full text and details of zone activities can be found in the March Newsletter at http://colonieszone.org/pubs/newsmarch00.pdf.

Finances - At the convention in September, we voted to change the basis of zone funding from $50 per LMSC to 15¢ per registered swimmer. With 1999 registrations at 7426 swimmers, we will have $1,113.90 in income with about $348 left after projected expenses. At our convention meeting next October, we will revisit the issue of the amount of the fee and determine if it should stay the same or be changed.

Web Site - In case you haven't visited the Colonies Web Site recently, the site has been given a facelift. It is now a frames site which allows us to be more creative and flexible with our navigation and updating. You get to the web site in the usual way by going to colonieszone.org. URLs which point to PDF files or any files which should be viewed alone (such as meet results or records) are opened in their own windows. Use the "Back" arrow on your browser to get back to the regular frames view.

Any page on the site can also be viewed without the frames format. If you don't have a frames-capable browser or just don't like frames, go directly to the home page at colonieszone.org/home.htm or the sitemap at colonieszone.org/sitemap.htm for navigation. If you arrived at our web site through a link from another site, you can get to the frames version by clicking on the "Frames Version" link in the footer.

For those of you who are members of "Stats Anonymous," from the startup on September 28 through March 30, we have had 2,314 visitors with an average of 9 visits per day. The biggest bump occurred last fall when the heat sheets and results for our SCM championships were posted. If you want to look at other stats, click on the world with the wire around it at the bottom right of the home page.

LMSC Health

At the end of 1999, we had mixed results on LMSC membership. Overall, the zone increased registration by 314 swimmers. However, only 5 of our LMSCs grew, while 5 lost membership. Numbers don't always indicate the health of an organization, but it is something we have to be aware of. I don't know if these losses or gains are a continuation of a trend or just an aberration.

Zone Championships - We had a successful SCM championship at Rutgers University last November 6–7 where national and world records were set and many zone meet records were set. We will return to Rutgers for our SCY championships March 31–April 2. We are also on track for our three open water championships this summer.

Name & Address List

The Zone Name and Address list has been updated to include all the new LMSC Officers and published in the March newsletter. Changes in national committee assignments have also been done. The list contains USMS National Officers, National Committee members, LMSC Officers, and any other member of the zone who wishes to be kept in the information loop.

Zone Members Named to Fill National Posts - Since convention, three more Colonies members have gained national rank. Debbie Morrin, Potomac Valley LMSC Chair, was named Chair of the Marketing Committee. Dorothy Donnelly, Connecticut LMSC Chair, was appointed Chair of the Ad-Hoc History & Archives Committee.

USMS President, Nancy Ridout, recently announced the selection for USMS Controller. She said: "I am happy to introduce you to our new Controller, Cathy Pennington. Cathy is a CPA, Audit Manager, former Controller, former Audit Supervisor, and a Masters swimmer for 11 years. Her emphasis has been on services to the nonprofit community including churches, health and welfare organizations, and other membership organizations. She lives in Falls Church, VA, served as Treasurer of the Fairfax Masters for five years, is married and has two small boys. She applied because her experience and the flexibility this job offered seemed to be an excellent fit." Cathy is also from Potomac Valley LMSC.

5 Colonies Web Sites Make MACA Top Ten - Masters Aquatics Coaches Association (MACA) announced its top ten web sites for 1999 in 2 categories—Top Ten Team Web Sites and Top Ten LMSC Web Sites I am pleased to note that 5 Colonies Sites made the list either in the top ten or honorable mention. If you haven't already done so, you can read about the winners in the December/January issue of MACA newsletter at http://www.usms.org/coach/macanews9912.pdf.

The Colonies team web site winners were: 1) 2nd Place — Team New York Aquatics, Metropolitan LMSC, www.tnya.org/index1.html, 2) 9th Place — Garden State Masters, New Jersey LMSC, www.gsmswim.org, and 3) Honorable Mention — DC Aquatics Club, Potomac Valley LMSC www.swimdcac.org. The LMSC web site winners were: 1) 5th Place — Delaware Valley, www.dvmasters.org and 2) 8th Place — New England Masters, www.swimnem.org. Congratulations to all the winners.

Zone Meeting - There will be a zone meeting at the SCY Zone Championships on Saturday, April 1 after the last event of the day. During the meeting, bids will be open for the 2000 and 2001 SCM Championships and all the 2001 Open Water Championships should anyone care to bid.

The main focus of this meeting will be a discussion of possible zone awards. These can be service awards, competition awards, fitness awards, or anything we come up with. Since the entire zone may not be represented at this meeting, we can only vote on the concepts and create some grounds for discussion at our convention meeting.

Zone Chair Election - The big news is that I will be running for Zone Chair at this year's convention. Betsy Durrant nominated me, really had to twist my arm! If I should win the election, the zone will elect my replacement at our convention meeting. Hugh Moore, Zone Chair, will be naming someone from the zone to replace me on the nominating committee, which will run the election.

Since the Convention I have mailed three quarterly newsletters - October-December; January-March; and April-June. The first newsletter contained a report of the Convention held in September and the entry blank for the SCM Dixie Zone Championships. The second issue contained a chart with the Officers and Committee Chairmen from each of the seven LMSCs. The third issue contains news and the entry blank for the Dixie Zone LCM Championships.

There have been two Zone Championships since September. The SCM Dixie Zone Championships were held on Dec. 3-5, 1999 at the Coral Springs Aquatic Complex in Coral Spring, FL. Jonathan Coyle ran a good meet with 120 swimmers. The Dixie Zone SCY Championships were held on March 18-19, 2000 in Atlanta and there were 274 swimmers! Lisa Watson ran a great meet as usual!

All seven LMSCs have newsletters. That makes it easy to compose a Dixie Zone Newsletter and I thank all of the editors for sending me a copy. Some clubs also send me their newsletters. Greatly appreciated. There are no problems that I am aware of.

Dick Brewer does a great job with our Dixie Zone Web Site. I finally learned how to print pdf files and hopefully this web site has helped with communications. Many thanks to Dick. We finally got our SCY Dixie Zone on our web site thanks to Karen Crossen. We are looking forward to SCM soon.

On the 22^nd of March I received an e-mail from New Zealand informing me that Christchurch had been awarded the 2002 FINA World Masters Swimming championships for sometime in March or April! Start planning.

With the 2000 USMS Short Course National Championship meet just around the corner, many swimmers within the zone are training for the big event. As a member of the organizing committee, I'm very excited to host the event

Since the USMS Convention the Northwest Zone has hosted two successful Championships. In December the MAC Club in Portland, Oregon hosted the SCM Zone Meet. This meet saw 96 new Zone Records set. The last weekend of March the Washington State University Masters hosted the SCY Zone Meet in Pullman, Washington. Swimmers from Montana, PNA, Oregon and British Columbia joined the host Inland Northwest LMSC swimmers. Montana swimmers Barbara Jackson and Tyler Jourdonnais both set new Zone Records and Tyler flirted with a new National Record in the 50 Fly when he broke 23 seconds for the event. The Zone is looking forward to this summer when the Rogue Valley Masters in Southern Oregon host the first National Open Championship in the Northwest. The 10K Championship will be held on July 15th at the beautiful Applegate Lake near Medford, Oregon. The Zone will also be in charge of two Postal events. PNA is running the 5,000 / 10,000 event and Rogue Valley has the 3,000 / 6,000 event. It has been an active time for the Northwest as they stay deeply committed to the philosophy of USMS of "Swimming for Life" and we couldn’t pick a more beautiful area in which to swim.

Oceana is doing well and progressing on all fronts. Pacific, under the able leadership of Chair Julie Paque continues to grow in numbers. Growth since 1995 has been a steady climb and this LMSC is now 138+% of the 1995 figure. Pacific's Short Course Yards Championships to be held April 7-9 in beautiful Santa Cruz, CA. on the U.C. Santa Cruz campus under the direction of George Cunningham and Joel Wilson looks to be one of the premier USMS meets of the year. Pacific Masters Swimming's activities may be reviewed by visiting <www.pacificmasters.org>, that is well maintained and kept updated by Web Master Michael Moore. So, give it a hit and see what Pacific has been doing.

Pacific's sister LMSC, Hawaii, with Janet Renner at the helm has made great strides this past two years since Pacific sponsored her to the 1998 convention. Janet has moved Hawaii from a "one-person" operation to a point where they now have V.P. Reps. on three islands, a newsletter editor, a registrar, a top-ten person, a legal counsel, a web-master and Janet filling in for the other duties until more volunteers are recruited. Hawaii not only will have its web site but for the first time will produce two newsletters in one year that will be distributed to members by e-mail or by regular mail. Also, Hawaii will be hosting its very first annual general membership meeting at the at the Waikiki Roughwater Swim. Janet says Hawaii will once again have at least two delegates at the USMS Convention in Kissimmee, FL and she will be looking
forward to saying "Aloha" to all in person.

The South Central Zone SCY meet is being held in Oklahoma City the first weekend of April, with approximately 150 entrants. South Texas has chartered a bus for our members in order to show our support for Zone meets in neighboring states. Our Long Course Zone meet director (Don Mehl - Border) will be at the meet with a copy of his meet information to be held in late July.

At last year's convention, the zone rep election ended in a tie. As a result, Judy Gillies and I are sharing many of the responsibilities. This year I am listed as the official zone rep and next year Judy will be listed.

USMS Committee Reports

National Championship Meets: Entries are closed for Indianapolis and the meet is soon to be run with approximately 1400 swimmers (exact count not finalized when this report was due). All meet information for Baltimore LC is completed and sent to SWIM, and on line information and entry should be available by this mailing.

Top Ten Survey: A subcommittee is working on this survey to solicit input regarding desired changes to our national championship meets. The goal is to have the survey completed and analyzed prior to convention.

Rules Proposals: The committee is currently very active in discussing possible rules proposals for convention including ideas such as time trials, national qualifying times criteria, rotation of Nationals, and deck seeding.

2002 National Bids: Within the next month letters will be mailed to facilities and LMSC chairmen within bid Area 1 (West) for 2002 SC and bid Area 2 (Central) for 2002 LC. If your LMSC, club, or facility would have an interest in obtaining more information about bidding, please contact Sandi Rousseau at 503-642-3679 or tsrousse@ix.netcom.com.

National Champion Patch: We will be soliciting ideas for a new patch design to be utilized for 2001 and beyond. Information will be in the July-August SWIM and in a future edition of Streamlines.

Updates: We are in the process of doing our usual updates on procedure manuals and guidelines for national championship meets.

COACHES – Scott Rabalais

The Coaches Committee has had an active six months, moving towards accomplishing the goals it set at the annual convention in San Diego.

One of the primary tasks of the Coaches Committee is to systematically identify the Masters coaches across the country. Through a check-off process on USMS registration forms, nearly 700 coaches have been identified in early 2000.

The LMSC Coaches Representative position has been established and 33 LMSCs have named a coach or representative to that position. These reps have been contacted and given ideas as to how they can improve coaching in their area. The goal is to have a Coaches Representative in every LMSC by the Orlando convention.

Another successful High Altitude Camp, sponsored by The Victor, was held in February at the Olympic Training Center. Staff coaches selected by the committee were Kerry O’Brien, Bill Volckening and Janet Renner, joining Mark Stoker, Nancy Ridout and Scott Rabalais on staff. Leslie Cooper continued to organize the camps prior to the campers’ arrival. The feedback on the camp continues to be extremely positive, and the next camp is scheduled for February 2001. At the USMS Short Course Nationals at Indianapolis, the OTC staff and athletes will host a booth on the camps.

Three types of clinics are being scheduled through the Coaches Committee. Up to four USMS Open Water clinics will be held this summer, while four Mentor Clinics are on the slate. Applications are being taken for Nike Champions Clinics as well.

To help educate our coaches and swimmers, the Coaches Committee Quarterly continues to be published every three months, and Ask the Coach is a regular feature in SWIM Magazine. The Video Library remains very active, while the Book Library offers publications on a wide variety of swimming–related topics. ASCA and MACA continue to offer certification courses, education materials and schools for Masters coaches.

Two new color Snooper cameras have been purchased and are used continually by interested swimmers and coaches around the country. One of the Snoopers was used at the February High Altitude Training Camp.

The On-deck Coaching Program will be in high gear at both national championship meets this year as well as the Orlando convention. A regional On-deck Program is in the making and has been used at several large meets.

The Coaches Manual, sold for roughly seven years, has been discontinued. Committee workers are planning to provide Masters coaching resources and links through the USMS web site. The Coaches Forum in the USMS Discussion Forum remains active.

The Munich Coaching Program will feature three coaches, Head Coach Michael Collins and Assistants Lucy Johnson and Eric Shanks. Each coach will receive a stipend for assisting those USMS swimmers who so desire. Steps are also being taken to unify the American delegation in Munich this summer and to help bring about a more enjoyable experience for those USMS swimmers and coaches attending the meet.

The USMS Coach of the Year Award will again be awarded at the USAS banquet. Nominations are due to the committee by July 1, 2000. All LMSCs are encouraged to submit a nomination.

• Convention Committee: All committee reports from convention were made available on the web the week following the convention.
• Long Distance Committee: Results of all 1999 championships are available on the web, as well as 1999 Long Distance All Americans and All Stars. All 2000 and 2001 Championships information is available, as well as entry forms where available to date. The 2002 bid form is available as well.
• Records and Tabulations Committee: The top ten lists for 1999 long course meters and short course meters are available on the web. The records for all courses on the web have been updated to match the records on file as of November 1 (the official list as published in the rule book).
• Coaches Committee: The coaches area of the web has been updated to include the 2000 committee information and forms and program information for all 2000 committee projects.
• National Office Newsletter: The fall and winter editions are available on the web, with a picture of the Executive Committee added to the winter edition.
• Championship Committee: The short course nationals information and psyche sheets are available on the web. 350 on-line entries were received out of 1484 total entries (23.5%). The long course nationals meet information and on line entries, including real-time credit card processing, are ready to go.
• Computer On-Line Committee: The committee listing, task list, and policy/procedures have been updated for the year 2000 committee.
• History and Archives Committee: More than 500 new photos have been added to the archives web site, and a number of new stories about our swimmers.

Tasks in Process

• Rule Book Committee: Meg Smath has made PDF files of the 2000 rule book available. These are being converted to HTML and both an updated HTML version and PDF version will be available on the web in April. This activity is running 3 months behind schedule due to time constraints.
• Long Distance Committee: An area for open water training tips and workouts is being developed for future inclusion into the web site.
• Registration Committee: Craig Campesi has gathered 2000 registration forms from LMSC’s for posting/linking from the USMS web site. Jim Matysek has been unable to fit the integration of this information into the site into his schedule yet, or the posting of the updated registration program from Leo Letendre. Hopefully these tasks can be completed in April.

Issues

• Performance of our Mindspring-hosted account has been an issue this year. We have had a number of outages of the web site and slower response time due to overloading of the server that we are assigned to. We are evaluating a potential move to a new hosting provider in the future.
• Available time for keeping up with the demands of maintaining the site is a problem. Jim’s e-mail is constantly backlogged and there is a trade-off to be made between the day-to-day maintenance and e-mail responses and ongoing development projects. Several projects in process are lagging due to not enough time to keep up (10-15 hours/week is already spent in maintaining the site).

• Response to requests for links to clubs and LMSC’s and changes to these links are lagging a bit. Some changes may take several weeks before they are made.
• The web-based LMSC officer listing and aliases have not been reconciled with the new 2000 LMSC handbook, and several LMSC’s info is outdated as a result. This update still needs to be done manually until we come up with a process to synchronize all data that meets the needs of the national office and the computer on-line committee.

Everyone knows that I don't do anything until the convention, so you could put that in the report. Or maybe, "it's a secret".

Ok, the committee has sent the meeting requirements to USAS, and has assembled a traveling office supply store, where you may be able to get the little item that you absolutely must have right now. We also have acquired 3 walkie talkies, for faster response time to BOD and Executive Com. demands and requests.

FINANCE – Doug Church

The Finance Committee has responded to several requests regarding overbudget issues and FOG interpretation or application. It appears that the budget is on track for the fiscal year and there are no surprises anticipated. This year and effort will be made to accumulate the budget request online so that all members of the Finance Committee as well as Executive Committee members will have and advance look at the "budget work in process" well before convention. It will also help expedite resolution of questions from cost center heads in budget preparation.

FITNESS – David Grilli

After the reorganization of all committees by USMS president Nancy Ridout, a new database for the fitness committee has been created.

The committee was contacted in regards to a proposed fitness event from the Ketchikan Masters Swim Club of Ketchikan Alaska. "The Swim Around Revilla," involves swimming the equivalent distance around the island of Revillagigedo in the Alexander Archipelago in southeast Alaska. The distance is 135 miles and can be accomplished by swimming aggregate swims at workouts, meets or any measurable swims. Once the swimmer has completed a total of 135 miles they can submit their entry for consideration in a raffle to win a trip to the Island of Revillagigedo. We plan to unveil the event at convention.

Nancy Ridout has asked the committee to become involved with the promotion of the "Strokes For Stroke 1 Mile Swim Event" The SFS will be a fund-raiser for the National Stroke Foundation. Entrants will pay a $20 entrance fee, swim a mile and be eligible for prizes. 25% of the proceeds will be donated back to USMS and go into the USMS Endowment Fund. The job of the fitness committee will be to promote the event and administer incentives to boost participation. A major announcement for the SFS Event will be in Swim Magazine and it will also be highlighted at Short Course Nationals in Indy.

The Check Off Challenge is once again underway. Tee Shirts have been mailed to the 113 participants. We hope all will have fun checking off their tee shirts this year.

Rick Harris has been busy organizing the Y2K Swim Event. More information will be available on this by convention.

INSURANCE – Colleen Driscoll

So far this year I have made contact with the Committee members and asked for their involvement. We are trying to get an understanding of how widespread of an issue, it may or may not be, of USA kids swimming at a USMS workout and

participants thinking that "everyone is covered". If it is a problem, then we have to come up with a solution as to how to deal effectively with it.

Loss runs and accident reports provided by Peak Insurance have been reviewed.

I have been answering quite a few questions on coverage. It indicates to me that we must continue to educate our members on how and when insurance coverage applies to our members. We will continue to make this one of our objectives this year.

I have spoken with Sandi about this issue of clubs signing "hold harmlesses" and other types of releases when they sign contracts to use or rent a pool. Sandi advised that there is a standard format used by USA Swimming and if

members are being required to sign something else they refer it to Sandi. Sandi and I both believe that it would be a practical idea for us to implement this as well. We will be pursuing this proposal this year.

INTERNAL AUDIT – June Mather

We don't do our "audit" until later this year so I do not have a "report" at this time.

INTERNATIONAL – June Krauser

Nancy Ridout and I attended the 7^th Pan-Pacific Masters Swimming Championships in Perth, Australia on the 16-24 October. Also attending from the USA were Ernie Leskovitz (60-64) from Hawaii, Frank Warner (50-54) PNM, Matthew Shirley (35-39) RMS, Doug Woodring (30-34) TOC and Janet Kavadas (65-69) PNM. Nancy and I stayed at the Rendezvous Observation City Hotel right on the Indian Ocean. Many surfers every day trying to find just the right wave. All the rooms had an ocean view.

These championships were held at Challenge Stadium in Perth, Western Australia. There were 720 swimmers representing 210 teams from 14 countries. The largest contingent was from Australia with 353 swimmers, Japan had 264 and New Zealand brought 30 swimmers. The hospitality in Perth was fabulous and the meet was very well run. President’s of National Maters Committees present and participating were Mary Sweeney, AUSSI Masters Swimming, our own Nancy Ridout, USMS, and Rob Hanou, Netherlands Masters Swimming. Seven world records were set in the first six days of competition by Terry Downes, 60, of South Africa, Yoshiko Osaki, 61, of Japan and Barry Young, 61, from New Zealand. An official daily newsletter was put out each day called PAC CHAT. Glenys McDonald, the outgoing president of AUSSI Masters held an informal dinner meeting which Nancy and I attended. The future of the Pan Pacific Championships were discussed. We need reports from the previous championships in order to encourage others into volunteering to hold the meet. A financial statement, number of competitors, number of countries, hours running the events, etc. Larry Peck and the Orlando YMCA have indicated an interest in holding a SCM Pan Pacific Championship. Wherever the next meet is held, the Masters Chairman of that country will be the Pan Pac Chairman until the next meet.

Ginger Pierson and Bill Tingley completed the International Contact list and it is somewhere on the web. Bill did it in several different formats.

Again, the USA had only one official placed on the FINA Masters Officials List No. 4 and that official is John Deininger for diving. We need to see that the forms are filled out correctly and submitted to FINA in a timely manner. I pass on the information as soon as I receive it. Also, it is sent to our governing body - USAS.

World Championships 2000 - Munich - a report by Christa Reinhart, the editor of the German Masters newsletter. The German Masters have just completed their National Championships at the Munich Olympic Pool to test run the facilities and the organization for the World Masters Championships in July. The trial run was successful but left many details to amend. We had the swimming competitions running (only short distances 100m/50m, 200 m free and IM with 1800 swimmers, 4600 individual and 400 relay starts. The electronic timing system proved very efficient, even the lightest touch recording flawlessly. Computer evaluation and results are not perfect yet but there is time to work on this now. There was enough room in the pool hall for the German swimmers but at the World Championships they will only allow the competitors of the day in the pool area. As far as we can tell this World Championships will be gigantic, there have never been so many participants in spits of limiting times (or because of…?). The Olympic Pool is an indoor pool but in the morning the sun shines through the huge glass walls. Backstrokers, bring your dark goggles! Please send your entries soon! The deadline of June 27^th is rather late and if every club sends their entries at the last mi8nute the organization will be pressed and prone to make mistakes.

LEGISLATION – Elin Zander

This is an "off" year for Legislation, so we will be considering only emergency amendment proposals to the code at this year's convention. In the meantime, the committee will be taking the opportunity to review the code in depth, with special emphasis on the sanctions/recognitions section. We will also be working on a draft of proposed policies and procedures for accepting, reviewing and acting on amendment proposals to the code in order to standardize, and provide consistency to, the work of the Legislation Committee from year to year.

LONG DISTANCE – Sally Dillon

The first of 10 Long Distance National Championship events for 2000 has concluded with a record 1865 participating in the annual One Hour Postal Swim. The results can be found on the long distance web site at <usms.org/longdist/>. Entry information for the other postal championships and the 5 open water championships has been distributed to nearly 200 LMSC representatives and the entry forms are available on the web site in PDF format. The annual calendar of long distance events, which is maintained by committee member Lynn Hazlewood, has been distributed to the LMSC’s and to the 145 event hosts.

The 1999 Long Distance All Americans and Long Distance All Stars will be announced in the May/June issue of SWIM magazine and they are currently available on the web site. Peter Crumbine and Marcia Benjamin contributed countless hours tabulating the two lists. An article written by Sally Dillon about the 2000 open water championships will appear in the same SWIM Magazine issue.

The long distance committee has participated in lively discussion via e-mail about sportsmanship and wet suits in open water competitions. More discussion is needed before rule proposals will be considered. This being a "rules year" for long distance, all members of the committee are expected to pay special attention to Part 3 of the USMS Rules.

Finally, the bid applications for the 2002 championship events were mailed to event hosts and LMSC’s in January. The deadline for a "timely" bid to be submitted to the committee chair is September 11.

MARKETING/PUBLICATIONS – Deb Morrin

Current projects underway with 2000 committee focusing on marketing/publicity, rather than on sponsorship:

• Development of media contact list and strategies for national and local publicity (Linda McCowan and CJ Hall working with Betsy Durrant on media contacts and press releases)

• Increase web links to USMS site from appropriate sites not requiring links from USMS (CJ Hall)

• Booth at NPRA meeting in San Antonio (Mary Lee Watson and Marcia Marcantonio represented USMS)

• Development of USMS traveling exhibit (design, budget, plan for meetings/events to be attended annually)

• Working on producing new USMS poster, will reopen poster competition (and publicize more)

The Executive Director of the College Swimming Officials Association (CSOA) was contacted and gave his approval to use that organization’s certifying process as a USMS approved certifying body for USMS meets. The rule differences for CSOA/YMCA were added to the 2000 USMS Rule Book.

The rule changes for USMS that took effect as of January 1, 2000, were sent to all LMSC Chairs, Officials Chairs and Newsletter Chairs.

The guidelines for the USMS Officials Committee liaison to the national championship meet was finalized and sent to the appropriate individuals (Eric Nordlund for short course and David Diehl for long course).

A proposal was written and sent to the USA Swimming National Officials Chair that would allow people to be certified through USA Swimming by working a combination of USA and USMS meets. Prior to sending to the USA National Officials Committee, draft copies were sent to the USMS National Officials Committee members and other appropriate Masters administrators and officials for comment. The USA National Officials Committee was going to review the proposal at their February meeting.

Work has begun to set up an Officials Page on the USMS web site with pointers to the USA Swimming Officials web page. Coordination with the USMS Computer On-line Committee Chair (Jim Matysek) is on-going. Draft information will be provided to the USMS Web Master for review and use in creating the officials page.

PLANNING – Nancy Miller

This year our committee membership was expanded by the President to give us a broader range of insight and perspective.

The Executive committee referred the Strategic Action Plan back to the Planning committee for a major re-write. The Plan includes many of the ideas and concepts gleaned from the various committee meetings and from the meetings of the House of Delegates. I tried to wave them into a somewhat coherent cloth that would hopefully have some value to our admittedly widely divergent populations. The Executive committee discussed this revamped Plan at the mid-year meeting. I sent a copy to the members of the Planning committee in hopes of receiving further input. I see this as our number one project for this year i.e., to set a workable strategic action plan in motion by the 2000 convention and have it actually be followed as a cohesive blueprint by all parts of our organization.

Secondly, the USMS Endowment fund originally came out of the Planning Committee, as most of you are probably aware. The fund’s growth is gaining speed, particularly in light of the increased matching provided by USMS. At any rate, Doug Church notified us in February that the Fund increased from $4,422.70 to $20,829.44 over the course of 1999 alone. We on the Fund’s Board had previously decided on an underlying policy of not distributing grant monies until the Fund balance reaches $100,000.00. However, the Planning Committee made a strong statement at last year’s convention encouraging the Board of Directors to be proactive in devising ways to utilize the funds. The Sports Medicine Committee, for example, is currently working on developing potential grant applications for programs dealing with various types of testing of USMS athletes to eventually create a database of information about our members. Other committees should also be preparing their own projects, which they might like to see funded in the future. We as a body need to be ready and waiting and well prepared to apply for these monies and make them work for the greater good of our members.

The Planning committee recommended in San Diego that the Executive Committee create a USMS liaison position with regard to Senior Games. This has been accomplished in the person of Scott Rabalais. I am confident that Scott will work to build a strong and positive relationship between the two organizations, which will benefit both (his report follows later in this newsletter).

The Planning Committee also instructed the Marketing Committee to have a booth at the Senior Games in Orlando last fall. For whatever reason, this did not happen, though Larry Peck and Dot Donnelly did their best to market our organization at that event. Debbie Morrin, the new Chair of Marketing, agrees with the Planning Committee that a priority is to develop a quality mobile pre-packaged booth and materials display so that USMS can be well represented at a wide range of aquatic and non-aquatic events across the country.

Another project, which we would like to develop, that would positively impact our members at a local level, is having members from the USMS Board of Directors and/or our Committee act as a liaison between USMS and the LMSCs. The purpose is to promote awareness, facilitate communication and ensure that information does indeed get distributed to the proper people at the local level. In this way, we could serve to mentor less active LMSCs and promote their overall involvement.

I think this gives you an idea of what we’ve been doing since convention.

RECORDS & TABULATION – Pieter Cath

Top-Ten Tabulations for Long-Course Meters and Short-Course Meters were sent to the printer and published on schedule.

The 1999 All-American tabulation was prepared and sent to the National Office for verification and publishing.

The 1999 Relay All-American tabulation was prepared and sent to all Committee Members, Top-Ten Recorders and to all the Clubs that were listed on the tabulation.

The information pages for Top-Ten Recorders in the LMSC handbook were expanded to include additional hints for preparing Top-Ten submissions.

Walt Reid continues to process all record applications and supplies the record information that is included in the Top-Ten Publications. Betsy Durrant maintains the Top-Ten subscription list and supplies mailing labels.

REGISTRATION – Sarah Hromada

The Registration Committee has spent the first half of the year working on issues that directly effect the Registrars and the Registration process. The transition to the National Office has gone very smoothly, many thanks to Tracy and Esther. There has been much discussion on how other LMSCs handle issues such as renewal invoices, bounced checks, and swimmer’s privacy. The Registrars now have their own discussion forum on the USMS website.

The balance of the year will be spent updating the registration portion of the LMSC Handbook. We need to clairfy what is required by USMS rules.

RULE BOOK – Meg Smath

After the usual flurry of activity in October and November, the Rule Book Committee has been laying low. We got busy after convention compiling the various parts of the 2000 rule book, and proofreading what others had compiled. This year the chairs of Rules, Legislation, Long Distance, and Championship also proofread their sections of the rule book, so we have hopes that this year's rule book is closer to being error-free than usual.

When late spring rolls around, we'll begin compiling housekeeping amendments for the 2001 rule book, mainly concentrating on parts 1 and 3. And we'll run an announcement in the May/June or July/August issue of SWIM asking for bids to print the 2001 rule book, and for submissions for the cover design contest. We usually ask for 2-year bids to print the rule book, but I asked Doug Church if it might be possible to save USMS some money by having a printer under contract. Doug is looking into it, but didn't think we'd be able to make a change in just one year. So to avoid being locked in for 2 years, we'll only ask for a 1-year bid this year.

In addition to the normal inquiries with respect to interpretation of the rules, the committee has been looking at the differences in both wording and substance between the USMS and USA Swimming rules in an effort to insure appropriate consistency and develop a history of our divergence. Information for submissions of proposed changes has also been prepared for the upcoming convention.

Attached are forms for submitting changes and information for those who wish to do so.

Members of the Safety Education Committee have completed the first draft of the Club Safety Handbook. It is currently being reviewed by the committee. An article on water quality issues in open water swimming has been written for SWIM Magazine although it is unknown at this time if the publication will be allowed.

SPORTS MEDICINE – Jim Miller

I have been actively working with Bill Volckening for publications submitted to SWIM Magazine. Having had a back log of articles, we are using the articles we currently have to supply the needs of swim.

The second and third Colorado Altitude Training Camps have completed their Sports medicine evaluation forms and they are in the process of being processed at this time by the Committee. The number of respondents is too small for conclusive results, but this should give us direction. Specifically, we are asking the questions that should be asked, and what testing should be recommended.

Active articles under production at this time are "The Effect of the Aerobic Sport of Swimming on the Immune System" and "Swimming and Diabetes".

The second half of the year should be very active before the convention in preparing a format for submission to the foundation for funding those studies pertinent to the world of swimming sports medicine as directed by their results from altitude training camp.

This new committee hit the ground running. Its formation by President Nancy Ridout gave official stature to the project initiated several years ago by Carl House. From that "sandbox gang" of 6 or 8 dedicated volunteers, we now have an awesome web site of over 6,000 pages (visit www.swimgold.org/tt), a committee of 14 members and more than a dozen resource persons. All are willing, nay, eager to assist in constructing a permanent record, both electronic and hard copy, of the history of our beloved sport and the people who have been instrumental in its growth.

Since November, monumental efforts resulted in an alpha listing of everyone ever named All American since inception in 1972, top ten swimmers since 1993, almost 100% identified by birthdate and swimmer I.D. A task force is engaged making a permanent record of National Champions and Championship records; another is identifying Olympians who have participated in Masters Swimming. A small group is identifying over 400 photos secured from SWIM Magazine

A new category, "Oral History" has been initiated – in which stories about Masters Swimmers are accumulating. This is not limited to our national or world champions, but rather those Masters Swimmers who have made an impact. This is one way to capture the essence of our program – identifying especially some of the pioneers of our sport.

Input from individuals and LMSCs is encouraged.

We are urgently seeking an "home" for our hard copy archives – which are presently spread around the country, with our Historians, Officers, Committee people, and some Master Swimmers who have formidable collections of our history. Priority is being given have these items identified in list form, so that we can eventually apply approved archival procedures to ensure their longevity.

In addition, we are fortunate to have technical experts who will devise and develop ways to ensure our electronic material is in the most appropriate format.

With so many talented folks assisting in this exciting committee, it’s dangerous to list names, lest we omit a special one. Let’s just say that it couldn’t have happened without Carl House and the early valuable assistance of Megan Wilson, Esther Lyman, and Tracy Grilli. A Chairman is blessed to have such outstanding support.

From the September Convention until the middle of December, the USMS ISHOF Committee had the task of selecting five males and five female nominees from a list of 100 swimmers. Documentation of swimming performances, contributions to swimming, and any other pertinent information was gathered, scrutinized, and refined. A male and female nominee were selected for 2000 and 2001. Paul Hutinger and Barbara Dunbar were our Candidates for 2000 and Drury Gallagher and Laura Val for 2001. Barbara Dunbar was selected for induction for 2000. By the next convention, the committee will have selected the nominees for 2002 and, hopefully, know if our 2001 Candidates are selected for induction.

Another task, that is about half finished, is a project that will make gathering numbers of national and world records accessible by pushing a few buttons. National and World Records have been obtained from several sources containing the verified times, hand entered on to a chart and then proofed. The second phase of this project consists of entering the data into an ACCESS program. The ability to obtain pertinent information, as required by ISHOF, should be in place by late summer.

The criteria required by ISHOF is exact. USMS now has, in place, the criteria required for our consideration. By having created a process for selecting nominees and access to substantiate the performances, our candidates will have the best possible resume that should enable them to compete with any in the world.

An article listing all USMS annual awards presented at the 1999 convention, the recipients and information about them and the award, was prepared for Bill Volckening and SWIM Magazine.

The call for nominations for the 2000 Ransom Arthur nominations went out in February. The nominations are in and have been sent to the Recognition & Awards Committee members for their selection. The recipient will be announced at short course Nationals in Indianapolis. The trophy will be presented to the honored recipient at the "infamous" ceremony during the convention banquet in Kissimmee. WHO will it be???

One of the charges given to our committee is that of gathering data on all awards given by USMS – the source, the intent, the selection process, voting privileges and history of awardees. A letter is being sent to all committee chairs asking their assistance in this project.

The call for USMS Service Award Nominations is in this issue of Streamlines and is due to the committee chair (me- Mary Lee Watson) before July 30, 2000. This award recognizes a USMS member whose volunteer service has been outstanding. The honorees will be recognized and presented with a pin and certificate at the annual convention. Send in a nomination for that special, hard working person in your Zone, LMSC or Club.

Additions from gifts and appreciation of the Fund have resulted in its value rapidly reaching the $30,000 level. Continued efforts to encourage contributions through the check-off system and in other ways are being pursued. It is easy to overlook when making out your dues check, but for only $1 you can help the Endowment Fund reach its initial goal of $100,000 so that the grant procedure can be commenced. If every member of USMS contributed $1, we would reach that goal in no time and keep right on growing the endowment.

USMS Special Appointments and Liaisons Reports

In my first month as Controller I've been impressed with the dedication and amount of effort everyone expends and I want to say thanks to all the people who have been answering my multitude of questions.

I've been working on setting up the budget and new chart of accounts in our accounting system, reconciling the bank statements, learning the various departments and committees and trying to keep the checks flowing. There have also been mundane tasks such as purchasing file cabinets (there is a LOT of paper with this job!)

I hope to actually meet some of you; it always seems to make a job easier when you put a face with a name.

I wish I had something to send you, but I have no reporting stuff in my job.

As the newly-appointed USMS Liaison to the National Games, I met on January 18^th with Phil Godfrey (Vice President of the National Games) and Bill Bankhead (CEO of Local Organizing Committee, 2001 Games) at the NSG office in Baton Rouge, LA

The SNG was elated that USMS had created a liaison position to help build the relationship between the two organizations. The NSG is certainly willing to learn from USMS in running meets and wishes to do all it can to make their meets the very best-run competitions possible.

Over the next several years, the NSG is going to have a slightly different emphasis. While continuing it’s Senior Games, they wish to focus as well on the education of Seniors on the benefits of sport, exercise and a generally healthy lifestyle. Actually, their mission is to "promote healthy lifestyles for seniors through education, fitness and sports." And, they wish to work more closely with local and state Senior Games organizations to help them achieve this goal. They also realize the importance of the social aspect of Senior Games.

As far as the National Senior Games swim meet is concerned, it is experiencing some of the same challenges that USMS faces or has faced. Of course, with over a thousand swimmers in a long-course pool, the length of the meet is always a concern. Ideas that are being discussed include the possibilities of swimming in a 25-yard course, staging an annual swim meet, hiring a USMS crew to run the meets and on-line registration for the Games.

USMS can help the NSG in three main areas: offering clinic opportunities, providing an officials resource and expertise in running national competitions. The instructional clinics would be conducted by USMS coaches to assist Senior Games participants on a local and national level.

The NSG can assist USMS by ensuring that the Senior competitions are run to a high standard and that results are reported promptly and accurately. Also, there will continue to be many opportunities for USM to sell it benefits to the Seniors and invite them into our membership.

There was also discussions on the items of awards, age determination, adding other events, improving the timeline and entering bonus events.

If you have any suggestions or comments on the National Senior games, please contact me by e-mail at coaches@usms.org

First, I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has helped me during the initial stages of getting acquainted with the responsibilities of USMS Editor. Learning about the editorial procedures has been a challenging, yet very enjoyable experience for me. During the first six months, I have contributed to the successful production of three editions of the magazine. In this report, I would like to present our strengths, areas for improvement and suggestions.

USMS has an excellent group of leaders. I have enjoyed getting to know everyone better during the brief period we have been working together on SWIM. Since there are so many positive things to communicate about our organization, we always have plenty of material for the magazine. There have been several positive changes during the last six months, including:

1) adding the "Making Masters Fun" column

2) changing "Minding Masters" to "USMS News"

3) advance notification about hotels for Long Course Nationals

4) revising to the USMS Calendar slightly, which has allowed us to have a little more information about the events and more prominent display of the information leading readers to the web site information

5) improved communication and service between the Editor and the Sports Medicine Committee (and other committees)

6) more comprehensive approach to feature stories in the USMS pages

7) manuscript guidelines have allowed us to communicate the needs of the Editorial staff and attracted potential writers

8) converting Long Course USMS Nationals entry from PC to MAC will prevent future errors

9) adding proofreaders (Julie Paque, Kathy Casey and Meg Smath) has helped us correct grammatical and other errors before going to press

10) direct contact between the USMS Editor and the USMS Championship Chair has made the process of producing the USMS Nationals Entry Form much easier.

In light of these very positive changes, there are still some areas we need to improve, including:

1) communication about what the USMS Editor does and how the USMS contents are determined

2) enforcement of deadlines

3) the need to rewrite articles that do not meet editorial criteria

4) the availability of more good photos and illustrations

5) errors in previously approved materials

Suggestions for improving these areas include:

1) continuing to inform people about the USMS pages vs. the other pages of SWIM. Having the Manuscript Guidelines has actually helped to present a distinction between the USMS pages and the others, but I still find myself guiding people to the Circulation Department for extra copies of the magazine, or the Registrars to find out why their magazines have not arrived. This process will be ongoing, and will take time.

2) I realize the deadline problem is also an ongoing one. Having the deadlines a little earlier has allowed more time to make adjustments and sort things out for each edition. It is not always enough to have the deadlines printed in the Working Calendar and Streamlines. I realize I need to personally remind people about the deadlines until everyone is in the habit of sending materials to me on the 15th. I have submitted the USMS pages to SWIM late for two out of the three editions, and I'd like to change this statistic.

3) I think item #3 is getting better already. Having the Manuscript Guidelines not only helps us make the information available to writers in advance, but it gives us recourse when something arrives that is clearly not suitable for publication. The responsibility should belong to the writers, and it is gradually shifting in that direction.

4) SWIM is always looking for more good pictures. When someone is writing an article, I have learned to ask them for pictures to accompany the article. Developing an understanding that the contributors need to present a complete package, including pictures, is another item that will take some time.

Ultimately, I would prefer not having to provide pictures of my own to illustrate articles.

5) The biggest problem we had with SWIM during the last six months is something that carried over from previous years. I was unpleasantly surprised by the omission of the men's 400 IM Qualifying Times for the USMS Short Course Nationals. The entry form we sent to SWIM had been drafted and revised at least 15 times. It was correct when we sent it to SWIM. In reviewing the possible cause of this error, we discovered that SWIM was retyping all of the information we had carefully formatted in the Quark desktop publishing program, because they work with Macintosh computers and we work with PC. With the latest USMS Long Course Nationals entry, we provided a converted file for SWIM. I expect this problem has been resolved, but we will see when the May/June edition arrives.

Please let me know if there are any additional areas for improvement, or any general suggestions about how to improve the USMS pages of SWIM Magazine.

1. USMS High-Altitude Swim Camps:

a. October 31 - November 3, 1999: Through my division at the USOC we supplied all participants with special U.S. Olympic Training Center (OTC) T-shirts commemorating the camp. Coaches and administrators were provided with custom OTC polos with their individual names embroidered on each. Also included in gift bags for everyone were Olympic-related water bottles, lapel pins, and writing pens. All these items were donated by the USOC Olympic Committee at no cost to USMS.

b. February 6 - 9, 2000: We made sure the shirts (both T's and polos) were different from these given out in the fall camp and the USOC again contributed all Ts, polos, water bottles, pins, pens, etc. to the camp coaches, administrators, and officials.

Feedback from participants on the camp was outstanding and many were highly complimentary of the "Olympicizing" we did with the shirts and gift bag items.

As part of this great effort, I want to specifically acknowledge the wonderful efforts of my assistant Lori Hamacher who took the lead in arranging for and delivering all Olympic items enjoyed by the USMS High-Altitude Camp participants.

2. USOC Membership

In or about July 1998 I provided to the USMS President a USOC membership application with the suggestion that USMS consider applying to the USOC to become a member in the NGB category. During the Fall of '99 I was informed that the President's office had accidentally lost or misplaced this form.

As a result, USMS will need to begin a new anew on the membership process and may have the opportunity to reinitiate the effort in May (probably with a simple letter of interest) prior to the meeting of the USOC Membership Committee in June of this year.

The Chicago, Oct. 28 Membership Summit was sponsored by USA Swimming. In addition to USMS, 7 other swimming related organizations - AAU, YMCA, NISCA, Nat'l Parks & Rec., Swim America, NCAA and Nat'l Fed. Of High Schools -

attended. The purpose was to look at mutual problems and to open the lines of communications between all these aquatic groups. All reported a retention rate of about 66% and A.A.U. with some 32 different sports further reported that the 66% retention rate was about the same for all 32 sports indicating swimming was not unique in this area.

Going to one another's convention or annual meeting was stressed as a way to raise each groups visibility nationally.

Establish a National master calendar to reduce conflicts between the various aquatic organizations and their big meets and meetings.

USA Swimming as the NGB must "sell the sport", as the various affiliates can not afford to do this. Where do DSOs fit in? Are they an option or a responsibility of the NGB and these other aquatic groups?

The goal for all these organizations is to put more bodies in the water and for USMS, to keep them there for the remainder of their lives.

The January USA Swimming Board of Directors meeting devoted much time to the subject of Disabled Sports organizations (DSOs) and Paralympic sport programs. In an updating of the Amateur Sports Act, Congress delegated to

the USOC, the franchise for the paralympic sports programs. The USOC, without much thought, accepted and assumed the NGBs would be happy to have new members, new programs and events. Consideration was not given as to how all this was to be funded as this came from Congress as an unfunded "opportunity" to expand the influence of the USOC and the NGBs.

Swimming and some other NGBs promptly took the position that they did not wish to exercise the option of including the DSOs within their franchises, which the USOC assumed they would be "delighted" to do. These NGBs have argued that their charter is to select and train the best athletes in this country for Olympic level competitions and that they do not have the funding to train the "best" of the paralympic athletes as worthy as they may be. How all of the above filters down to USMS, its programs and funding, remains to be seen but awareness of the problems that exist in this area need to be kept in mind by USMS.

The 2000 National YMCA Masters Swim Meet is set for May 18-21 at the Augusta Aquatic Center in Augusta, Georgia. Entry packets were mailed several months ago and I have answered several emails requesting information. The YMCA of the USA has asked me to attend this meet and offer assistance so I will be heading to Georgia next month. There have been several discussions between USMS members and myself that centered around concerns about the preparation and conduct of the YMCA meet. I have taken these concerns to the YMCA Competitive Swimming & Diving Committee and we have joined forces to assist the host committee. The entry deadline is April 17^th. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.