USMS CONVENTION – DALLAS, TEXAS - 2002
Committee Name: Colonies Zone Session #: Sept. 14, 2002 Agenda item #:
ACTION ITEMS
Committee Chair: Barbara Protzman Vice Chair(s):
Number of committee members present: ______ Absent: ______ Total delegates attending this meeting: 43
Committee Members present: Barbara Protzman, Katherine Branch, Tom Hindle, Marcia Cleveland, Mike Laux, Julie Stewart, Scott Petrequin, Dan Kornblatt, David Grilli, Peter Crumbine, Kenn Lowy, Jeff Roddin, Charlie Cockrell, Eric Nordlund, Deb Morrin-Nordlund, Nancy Miller, Ted Hartz, Jim Matysek, Patty Powis, Judy Martin, Betsy Durrant, Conrad Johnson, Colleen Driscoll, Margot Pettijohn, Myriam Pero, Dick Jackson, John Pilger, Mark Murphy, Homer Lane, Tom Lyndon, Paul Fortoul, Stewart Ball, Art Figur, Tracy Grilli, Cheryl Kinney, Barney Hungerford, Pat Timmons, Cathy Pennington, Jim Miller, Rob Berry, Ed Tsuzuki, Ed Nessel, Jack Geoghegan
MINUTES
Time Meeting Called to Order: 12:13 p.m.
Introductions and Announcements. One delegate from each LMSC introduced the other delegates from their LMSC. Barbara Protzman distributed the directory of LMSC officers to each LMSC for corrections and updating. All LMSC officers should let Barbara know if their email address changes. Several LMSCs had announcements: Two more open-water swims are scheduled in September in the Mid-Atlantic area. Rutgers University is hosting the Colonies Zone Short Course Meters Championships on December 7-8 and Long Course Nationals in August 2003. Jim Miller asked that all committee volunteer forms be returned by the end of the convention and that all convention attendees fill out the convention evaluation form, focusing on how the block committee formatting worked. The Executive Committee remains committed to fostering communication between committees.
Zone report. Barbara reported on Zone activities in the past year. Rutgers hosted the 2001 SCM Championships and University of Maryland College Park the SCY Champs. SCY Champs conflicted with Y Nationals and we will try to avoid that in the future; however, it is difficult when the dates are locked in early and cannot be changed. The Zone is encouraging more facilities to bid for the Zone Championships so that they can be located in various areas of the Zone. The Colonies Zone web site has a new web master, Mark Hurley from Maryland. Jim Matysek will set up a Colonies Zone forum under the USMS Discussion Forums that will be used to facilitate Zone communications and the exchange of ideas. Barbara displayed an attractive mockup of Maryland automobile license plates with the USMS logo [also designed by Mr. Hurley]. (Click here to see the sample.) She encouraged other LMSC's to investigate the procedure in their own states.
Work Groups. The meeting split into three work groups: Awards, Zone activities, and Championships and met for about 25 minutes separately.
Awards. The Dorothy Donnelly service award was presented to Jeff Roddin from Potomac Valley for his outstanding work as PV registrar, PV secretary and for improving masters swimming in the Potomac Valley LMSC. The plaque will be sent to him from David Grilli. The Awards work group also encouraged all LMSCs to submit nominees for the award and made some minor revisions to the nomination form. August 1st is the deadline and the LMSC chairpersons should take responsibility for encouraging nominations. Forms for the Donnelly award will be posted on the Zone web site. Marcia Cleveland will write a summary of the current and prior award winners (Nancy Miller). Charlie Cockrell has the nomination form for Nancy Miller.
Championships. Discussed how to get more bids. The work group suggests that the Zone be considered three geographic areas: North, South, and Central. A rotation between the areas for the championship meets would be encouraged. For example, for 2003 SCM the Northern area would be encouraged to bid, especially since MIT has a brand new pool complex. If there are no other bidders for SCM, Rutgers is willing to bid. There was one bid for SCY Championships from George Mason University, April 11-13. George Mason is a fast pool and has hosted several masters meet each year, plus large age group meets such as the Speedo Sectional Championships. The meet will not conflict with either Y Nationals (projected for April 24-27) or USMS Nationals in mid-May. Other championships events in the Zone include the 2004 one-mile open water at Wildwood, NJ, sponsored by Delaware Valley and Johns Hopkins Hospital/Maryland Masters and the 10K sponsored by Metropolitan. This work group also discussed having a Dixie-Colonies joint championship as was done several years ago. If there is no LCM Nationals in 2006 (because of possibility of World Champs in Indianapolis), 2006 might be a good year for a repeat. Another possibility would be the next time SCY Champs are scheduled on the West Coast.
Zone Activities. "Success Stories" covering membership retention, team development, successful clinic ideas, tips, and team activities that foster team camaraderie (such as club awards, dual meets, fun meets) will be posted on the Zone web site. Tom Lyndon from New England will solicit stories. There was agreement that the teams and workout groups are where the growth is and we should concentrate on incentives for teams & workout groups. Coaches can be used as the contact point. An area on the Zone web site will be designated for announcing clinics in the various LMSCs. The zone activities work group would like to support Zone swimmers at Nationals and bounced around some ideas about how to do that. One idea might be to keep Zone scores at Nationals (or LMSC scores at Zones). Having "home-stays" where swimmers would host other swimmers during championship meets is another idea. Jeff Roddin will start up a thread on the Zone web site about how to promote involvement/enthusiasm at Zone Championships (and Nationals). Another idea was to have sharing forums at convention.
Zone funds. Zone funds that were previously held in individual bank accounts will be transferred to the overall USMS budget lines; therefore the bank account number for the Colonies Zone funds needs to be given to Sally Dillon. Zone bills will be sent through the Zone rep to the USMS treasurer who will set up a budget line for Colonies Zone to be spent down.
Time Meeting Was Adjourned: 1:36 p.m.
TASKS FOR THE UPCOMING YEAR
