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Colonies Zone Mid-Year Report
March 2000

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by Lynn Hazlewood, Zone Rep

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.

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 6­7 where national and world records were set and many zone meet records were set. We will return to Rutgers for our SCY championships March 31­April 2. We are also on track for our three open water championships this summer. A full report on the zone championships can be found in the March Newsletter.

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 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.

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Page Last revised April 12, 2000. This site is best viewed using the Frames Version which can be recognized by the presence of a blue left navigation bar.