Rutgers University, New Brunswick,
NJ
April 1, 2000
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The meeting was called to order by Zone Rep Lynn Hazlewood at 3:30 PM. Present were Alex Antoniou (NJ), Nancy Brown (MD), Marcia Cleveland (CT), Cathy Copeland (NJ), Paul Fortoul (MR), Bill Geoghegan (CT), Jack Geoghegan (CT), Lynn Hazlewood (PV), Bob Kolonkowski (MR), Ed Tsuzuki (NJ), Stephanie Walsh Beilman (DV). LMSCs not represented were Adirondack, New England, Niagara, and Virginia.
Zone Rep Report
The Zone Rep handed out the bills for zone funding and requested that they be paid by June 1, 2000. LMSCs not present will receive their bills by email. The Name & Address listing was passed around for corrections. Swim Magazine listings for the July/August issue are due by April 8. Events should be sanctioned and occur from late July through September. The Executive Committee Challenge Relay at SC Nationals was discussed. The event will be on Saturday. Relay members should be LMSC officers or someone who is active in the LMSC. Zone members will get together at nationals to determine the make-up of the relay.
The Zone Rep reminded those present that she is running for Zone Chair at the next convention. Should she be elected, the zone meeting will have to elect a new zone rep so members should be scouting for a replacement. In any case, we will have to elect a new zone rep in 2001, so it doesn't hurt to think about it now.
Web Site Report
Ed Tsuzuki, Zone Webmaster, discussed the new web site format and asked for suggestions for improving the site. Ideas brought up were: 1) Put digital pictures from the zone championships, 2) Post a text file to the site which contains championship results so LMSCs can use the data to search for their members' results, 3) Archive the official results of all past championships. Ed said he would contact as many of the prior meet directors as possible to see if he can get electronic copies of the results. If computerized results are not available, the Zone Rep has a full set of hard copy results. We could scan them in to capture the information.
Open Water Champs Report
The Zone Rep reminded everyone of the upcoming open water championships. The information for the first event on May 28 is available on the colonies web site. Entry forms for the other two races will be posted as soon as available. The Victor is sponsoring our series and donating printed caps for swimmers to wear.
The meeting discussed the participation award which will go to every swimmer who does all three events. Two ideas were discussed: 1) A pewter beer stein and 2) A plaque containing a collage of pictures from all three events. There was also the suggestion that we find a sponsor for the award. Decisions on the exact award will be determined later.
SCY Champs Report
Bob Kolonkowski talked about next year's SCY championships to be held at Nassau County Colosseum, Long Island, NY. The issue of entry limits for distance events came up for the N.Y. State Champs being held there this year. Bob initially thought they might have to set limits for the zone championships. Based on entries this year, he feels limits will probably not be necessary. Some participants expressed opposition to setting special rules for certain events.
Another issue discussed was the use of 2 pools for all events. At this year's meet, 2 pools were only used for events of 200 and longer. This made for 6 hours on Saturday and 5 hours on Sunday. Last year at Maryland, they used both pools continuously and finished sooner. There is a trade-off between finishing earlier and giving people more rest between events.
These issues will be discussed at the fall convention meeting. Whichever way a meet is run, it should be announced on the entry form so swimmers know how to schedule their events.
Paul Fortoul brought up an officiating problem that occurred in the current meet. The USA Swimming officials were using the old false start rule. This is because it is in force for USA Swimming on May 1, while USMS began using the rule on January 1. Most of the participants agreed that if we have a rule, we ought to enforce it because of the ramifications beyond the one meet. For example, it may be difficult for swimmers at USMS nationals who have to observe the new rule after they swam under the old rule at this meet. However, the zone members present felt that it would not be advisable and might create more confusion to enforce the new rule for the Sunday session after doing it the old way for 1 1/2 days.
Zone Awards
The meeting next discussed the possibility of instituting zone awards. There was general agreement that they should not be competition awards, but service awards. Nominations for these awards will come from the LMSCs in several categories such as newsletter, web site, coaching, and creativity. The Zone Awards work group will be given the primary focus at the convention meeting next year.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:30 PM.
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