trying to look studious in the USMS House of Delegates

Things have been a little quiet around here recently… I spent Wednesday through Sunday at the United States Aquatic Sports Convention in Dallas, TX and never even turned on my computer. I was wrapped up in all kinds of meetings, workshops, conversations with swimmer folk, and the occasional excursion into the unbelievably hot and humid streets of Dallas. This was my second trip to Convention as a delegate for my local LMSC and I was stoked to see what I could learn/contribute/accomplish this time around now that I knew how everything worked.

I flew out super early Wednesday morning and very randomly ended up sitting right next to my mom on the plane to Phoenix (my first connection). We knew we were both flying that week but didn’t realize we were going the same day… on the same airline… in the same row… on the same side of the plane. What are the odds right? From Phoenix I was off to Dallas and mom made her way to Milwaukee. In Phoenix I saw a fair number of TYR, B70 and Speedo backpacks floating around which could only mean one thing… I found the swimmers. Once in Dallas I caught a ride with a friend and one of her friends to 1. acquire BBQ and 2. get to the convention hotel. A pound and half of brisket later we were at the Hyatt ready to go!

The first evening was largely being social and getting registered/credentialed. I hung out for part of the Wednesday night party hosted by our insurance provided and then retired to the USMS suite for most of the rest of the evening… and possibly part of the very early hours of the next day :) On the way back to my room to go to bed I ran into a friend and somehow ended up having a drink and chatting with David Marsh. A little unexpected but very cool.

The next few days were a total blur of meetings, workshops and voting with social activities squeezed in in between. The committee meetings can be a little hard to endure sometimes when you’re not a member, but the workshops that I went to were really good. I think I walked away with some actionable ideas from the 2 I attended.

Saturday night at Convention always consists of a banquet that includes all the sports represented there. Water Polo, Diving, Synchronized Swimming, USA Swimming, and Masters Swimming. Everyone hands out awards, USMS included, but we also do a skit for some light entertainment in the midst of all these serious awards presentations. This year I was pulled into the skit. I ended up being a planned distraction in the middle of the skit. Since I’m a large bald guy with a fairly ridiculous beard they figured I would be an excellent beer delivery man. My job was to burst into the room in a tank top and jeans (this is a very dressy affair) carrying a couple of kegs with me. While getting ready to do this I had an awkward moment with Olympic Diving legend Greg Louganis. Who can say that every day? Anyways I was busy essentially undressing in a short hallway next to a rollerbag suitcase with 2 mini kegs in it while hidden just past the door to the banquet hall… Greg looked at me kind of funny, smiled and said hi and then went on with his business. I guess that part of it made embarrassing myself in front of like 1200 people a little more worth it :)

During the banquet I made one other appearance, but this time it was in a video for USMS. I’m sort of in the middle and my disembodied voice is with you for a while…

While I was out in Dallas I saw lots of friends from all over the country. Some I was meeting in person for the first time after connecting online, some I was seeing again after swimming with them in various lakes and oceans this summers, some I was meeting for the first time ever, and some I was seeing for the first time in about 15 years! I recently reconnected with a friend I swam high school and age group with (and lived across the street from when we were really young and I didn’t swim yet) on Facebook and as luck would have it we’re both still involved in swimming. He’s coaching in Iowa and came as to Dallas for the USA Swimming festivities. It was super cool to catch up in person after such a long stretch of time! Hopefully I start seeing him in Masters events too… I tried to sell him on Masters Nationals in Mesa, AZ next year, no commitment yet but I’ve still got like 8 months to work on it :)

If you want the highlights on the convention check out the press release from USMS over here. Eventually all the meeting minutes should pop up on the USMS sites as well if you want to dig deeper into what went on and what got accomplished at convention. If you have an interest in getting involved and going to the USAS Convention ask around at your LMSC level. The convention is a good time and there’s a lot to be learned by going.

The committee meetings were very interesting for me to sit in on. Even though the USMS national office is starting to take over large chunks of the day to day of Masters business, especially in marketing and communications, there is still an epic amount of work done by volunteers to keep this organization moving. I sat in on the Fitness Committee, the Coaches Committee, the Sports Medicine and Science Committee, part of the Championship Committee, and the first session of the Open Water and Long Distance Committee. I also sat in on some good coaches presentation/workshop type events, a LMSC communications workshop, and of course the House of Delegates. You might have noticed that I hit a lot of coach’s events even though I’m not a coach. A big reason for that is even though I don’t coach I have a big interest in the growth of USMS and I think a lot of it starts with the teams and the coaches. I wanted to know what they’re trying to do to grow their programs and support Masters.

Outside of all the official stuff I got to do a lot of great networking with other swimmers from all over the country. I also got to meet a lot of people for the first time in person that I know through the blog, facebook or the USMS forums which was really cool.

I’ll probably keep bringing up convention stuff on the blog for a while, but here are some of the big highlights for our crew from Southern California:

My coach Nancy Kirkpatrick Reno from Conejo Simi Aquatics won the USMS Coach of the Year award!!! I am very excited for Nancy, I’m a big fan :)

Julie Heather from SPMA won the Ransom A. Aurthur award which is the biggest award USMS gives out and it was very well deserved for all the work she does for us.

Michael Heather from SPMA was elected VP of National Operations.

Jeff Moxie from SPMA and a member of my team (Conejo Simi) was elected president of USMS!

The Mission Viejo Nadadores were one of 2 teams presented with the USMS Club of the Year (Go Mark and Ahelee!).

In non-SPMA related news, the 2011 SCY Championships were awarded to Mesa Aquatics in Arizona. The 2011 LCM Championships were awarded to Auburn in Alabama.

There is a lot of work to do in the coming year, but I think we are going to see big things from USMS in 2010!

Below are the choices we were given to vote on for implementation for Short Course Yards season. The numbers written on the side are my notes of how many votes each option recieved.

I want to point out that I made a mistake in my original Saturday night post. I meant to write shoulder to knee, not shoulder to ankle. I fixed it in the post but I’m sure somebody saw it. Sorry if I caused any confusion. Hopefully the above straightens things out for everyone!

And just to remind you guys one more time, this isn’t a rule yet. It’s highly dependent on what goes down at the FINA Masters Technical Committee this week.

Ok so I just got out of the final meeting of this year’s house of delegates. The last action item was, dun dun dun…. swimsuits. It finally happened. Up until this point hardly anyone mentioned it, it was like bringing up religion or politics in casual conversation… not a good idea. Once the floor opened up the comments got pretty hot for a little while.

2 major things went down here but I will forewarn you that all this may be completely meaningless depending on how things go down next week with the FINA Masters Technical Committee.

1st off, the USMS rules committee proposed suit restrictions. THIS IS A RECOMMENDATION NOT A RULE!!! The short version is men and women get the same suits, shoulder to knee in textile (the definition of which is tbd). Zippers and drawstrings are allowed. Modesty suits are still ok and taping is only allowed for medical reasons.

2nd we voted on how long to keep suits in regards to short course yards season. In case you forgot we’re the only country that bothers with SCY. The 2 choices that people were voting for were: 1. dropping the tech suits as soon as the FINA Masters swim wear rule is adopted 2. Keep tech suits for SCY until June 1st (when SCY season ends) or later if FINA adopts no standard.

The vote was much closer than I would have expected. 101 to 93 in favor of dropping the suits earlier rather than later. Boo. I still think FINA has plenty of flip flop left in it and this was probably a whole lot of fighting for nothing. We’ll see how it goes down. From what I understand we still get to ride out the rest of SCM season in techsuits.

More info will be coming out on this in the next couple of weeks, but I want to remind you all again that this still doesn’t mean anything per se. There are a lot of variables floating around, but I wanted to share what’s gone down so far.

Argue amongst yourselves, I have a banquet to get to!

During the day yesterday I sat in on the Fitness, Coaches, Championship, Sports Medicine, and Open Water/Long Distance Committees. By the way if you were curious…. 2011 SCY Nationals will be in Mesa, AZ and 2011 LCM will be in Auburn, AL.

I’m sure a lot of you are waiting with baited breath to hear what’s up with suits. So far nothing really. The coaches committee voted to recommend going along with whatever FINA says, but that’s just a committee recommendation not a decision from the house of delegates so don’t get all worked up just yet. FINA masters is meeting next week, that has potential to be a big deal for us.

I have to get back to the convention floor but I wanted to shoot a quick update out into the internetz. If you’re out here and you see me say hi!

So here’s my big question to the internet swimming public at large: How can we make USMS better? I want to know what you guys think. Leave me comments or send me an email at rob@robaquatics.com with your ideas or opinions. The convention doesn’t start until Thursday so you’ve got a little bit of time to think about it. Thanks in advance for your input!