USMS Officers Reports
PRESIDENT - Nancy Ridout
This has been a year of learning and growing, new responsibilities and opportunities, a little stress and a lot of fun! Is this what I had anticipated? In a way yes! In other ways, I had no idea of the many facets of this position and all that this job entails. After the thrill of being elected your President, I arrived home (one hour by car) to find that there was already a USMS message on my phone that had to be attended to - immediately! It hasn't stopped and neither have I.
Assembling committees, writing articles and letters, keeping in touch with committee chairs and officers, signing contracts, reaching out to other organizations, and fulfilling the conditions of our international participation are obvious components of being President of USMS. What might not be so obvious are all the other tasks that come up daily including questions and problems that have to be dealt with immediately. Some of the most pleasant tasks I have been privileged to perform are writing letters to and signing certificates for our All-Americans and All-Star swimmers, notifying and congratulating our International Swimming Hall of Fame nominees, presenting the Ransom Arthur Award, and representing USMS at the FINA Congress in Casablanca.
In January, Hill Carrow invited me to visit the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. I was given a VIP tour of the facilities, the opportunity to be tested in the flume, and the pleasure of meeting with the new Executive Director of USS, Chuck Weilgus. Chuck, Hill, and I had a productive and lively discussion centering on ways USS and USMS could cooperate for the betterment of swimming.
The Executive Committee has "met" via conference call five times, communicated often via e-mail, phone, and fax, and has achieved the feeling of support and esprit that comes with being a team. It is important to me to nurture and promote this attitude and I hope to extend it throughout our organization over the next year. I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank the Executive Committee, the Chairmen of our Committees and Ad Hoc Committees, our Executive Secretary, our National Registrars, our Liaisons, and all the members of these committees, and others given special assignments, for the tremendous volunteer effort they continue to give to Masters swimming. We are unique among groups such as ours. We pride ourselves on being able to run our own organization. This will never change. Though we may alter our structure to better meet our needs, we will always be in charge of USMS and continue to make the policies and rules that we abide by. We are strong and successful because we care about this program. It couldn't happen without the dedication, leadership, and talent of all of you. I thank you for your contribution to Masters swimming and for your support and good wishes during my first year at the helm.
VICE PRESIDENT - Jack Geoghegan
As your Vice President, I have been involved in a number of activities on the local, national and international levels.
Locally, I have met/spoken with a number of LMSC Officers to discuss national issues and bring back their input to the Executive Committee.
Nationally my focus has been to re-organize the convention schedule so that the delegates have more time to interact on major issues as well as get to the committee meetings they want to attend.
Internationally, As a member of the ISHOF Selection Committee I was proud to vote for our outstanding nominees Jayne Bruner and Graham Johnston and was honored to be present at their induction in May.
SECRETARY - Betsy Durrant
This first year as Secretary has been fun, busy, and very interesting. I am looking forward to the convention, although there is much to do before then to be sure that everyone's delegate status is correct.
Over the year I have worked on several projects. First, I started a project for producing press releases in local papers for USMS members who have done something of note. I mailed questionnaires to award winners, new committee chairmen, etc. I prepared and sent out some press releases and received word that 50 percent were published. I learned from this experience that: newspapers will publish something, especially if no previous articles have been done, that the more local the newspaper, the greater the chance of publication, and that to continue this project it will require a group effort. Next year, I would like to improve on this idea.
At the request of our president and with input from committee chairmen, I have created a standard format for committee minutes that we will use at this convention. The purpose of this standardization is to make the minutes easier to read and understand.
I am continuing Suzanne Rague's project of printing a Working Calendar. It will be expanded to include information for committee chairmen and other members of the Board of Directors. Some of the topics are: budget, reimbursement, committee members, reports, Executive Committee Liaisons, and committee work throughout the year.
I have recorded minutes for four very productive Executive Committee conference calls. After the convention I will produce the official minutes for the House of Delegates.
I have enjoyed my first year as your Secretary and look forward to the coming year.
TREASURER - Jeanne Ensign
The year in retrospect? Paying the bills and depositing the money, managing the reserves, and serving as a member of the executive committee in carrying out the business of USMS between conventions.
Writing checks and overseeing the deposit of funds - it's like a basic household account only the numbers are a little larger. Our 1998 budget for USMS is about $650,000. all moneys are directly deposited into a Smith Barney cash management account, by the Executive Secretary, our National Registrar, and myself. From the sale of publications to sponsor payments, we've successfully routed most funds through the national office to eliminate confusion about who a check should be sent to.
Checks issued to you for reimbursements, for SWIM Magazine subscriptions, for insurance and for a myriad of other purposes are first approved by the Controller prior to my writing them. We process a batch every two to four weeks.
Designated reserves (general and insurance) and the other funds we have accumulated total about $725,000. As of this writing, we have $325,000 in certificates of deposit, and about $400,000 in four money market accounts. We are using the cash management account for our checking in order to maximize our earnings. When you hold you check for a week or two before cashing it, we continue to earn interest on that money until you do so.
I also serve as liaison to Finance Committee, Internal Audit Committee, the Controller, and Long Distance Committee.
This first year presented me with a steep learning curve the first few months and a host of problems to solve, and the challenges continue. I confess that I have enjoyed every minute of it.
PAST PRESIDENT - Mel Goldstein
During my 4 year term as President of USMS I was very active in the marketing of USMS to various entities which support USMS and our mission. As Past President I have devoted much of my time and energy in building relationships with these National Sponsors, and seeking new sponsors. Over the past few years USMS National Sponsors have contributed in excess of $52,000 each year in support of USMS programs.
With this in mind, I felt there was a certain responsibility that USMS had to these National Sponsors. So this year I worked with the USMS Championship Committee to expand the Championship Meet Agreement to be more definitive to the responsibilities of the meet host to these National Sponsors attending our National Championships, and to see the interests of the USMS National Sponsors were taken care of.
USMS got three new sponsors this year, TYR Sports Inc, NIKE Swim, and Barracuda Sports Products. These new sponsors compliment the existing USMS National Sponsors, and provide various services and money to USMS. In addition to working with the existing sponsors much time was spent trying to secure additional sponsors who are interested in supporting USMS. I hope by convention I will be able to announce additional new sponsors.
Present USMS National Sponsors:
Kast A Way Swimwear ~ MBNA ~ Speedo ~ Finals
Barracuda ~ Alamo ~ NIKE ~ TYR ~ Pre-Pay Phone Card
Destinations Unlimited ~ Mindspring
LEGAL COUNSEL - Jeanne M. Crouse
Throughout 1998, your legal counsel has reviewed and revised several letter agreements between our organization and other entities; held consultations with our insurance agents; and fielded a wide range of legal questions from members of the Executive Committee, Standing Committees and individual members of USMS. The letter agreements generally have involved business arrangements between USMS and corporate sponsors. The insurance consultations primarily focused on liability and registration issues. Other questions have ranged from swimmers' eligibility to personnel matters to questions of contract interpretation.
We expect several new issues to require the participation of your legal counsel during the coming year. these include but are not limited to the possible creation and selection of an Executive Director if our organization ultimately decides to go that route; USMS's approach to publicizing the benefits of membership; and evolving tax issues that affect non-profit organizations such as ours. Also, the increasing presence of the Internet raises several possible challenges to our organization in areas such as copyright law, meet registration and notification procedures, liability, and communications standards.
In 1998, we have continued the honorable tradition of keeping all our fine Officers out of jail. Also, no litigation has prevailed against our organization; in fact, none has been reported currently as pending. I intend to continue these fine traditions throughout the next calendar year.
ZONE CHAIRMAN - Hugh Moore
The Zone Committee is comprised of the eight zone reps as well as the Zone Committee chairman. During the past year the Zone Committee has helped develop a new procedure to improve the maintenance of the address database for LMSC officers and committee chairs and compiled results of a survey of the election processes used by the individual LMSCs. At convention we will discuss possible changes to the description of the committee used in the USMS Rule Book as well as finalize plans for the nomination and election process to be used next year for USMS officers. Additionally, each zone representative is responsible for activities within their zone.
Breadbasket - Anna Lea Roof, zone representative
Geographically speaking, the Breadbasket Zone is the largest in USMS (and we're still waiting for the Finance Committee to approve our request for a Zone jet). It is composed of nine LMSCs. In 1997, a total of 1,982 swimmers were registered in the Breadbasket Zone.
The Internet is having a positive effect on the LMSCs in our zone. As e-mail has become more and more common, communication among the LMSCs has improved. The same is true within the LMSCs, many of which encompass large geographic areas. The Missouri Valley LMSC, for example, has a listserv mailing list maintained by one of its members that allows a swimmer to send e-mail to all registered Missouri Valley swimmers. This system has proved to be quite useful for meet announcements.
The 16th Breadbasket Zone Championships was held at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center April 18 & 19, 1998. Approximately 200 athletes competed. A number of State and Zone records were set. A number of individuals commented on the nice participation awards.
Colonies - Lynn Hazelwood, zone representative
This past year Colonies Zone which stretches from Maine to Virginia, has contributed leadership for USMS from the Executive Committee to the Ad Hoc Committee as well as providing opportunities for swimmers to participate in numerous events. Ten members of the USMS Board of Directors come from Colonies Zone. This group includes two National Officers, Vice President Jack Geoghegan and Secretary Betsy Durrant; USMS Legal Counsel Jeanne Crouse; four National Committee Chairs, Colleen Driscoll - Insurance, Jim Matysek - Computer On-Line & USMS Webmaster, Jim Miller - Sports Medicine, and Nancy Miller - Planning; Zone Rep & USMS Calendar Editor Lynn Hazlewood; USS Liaison & Past President Ted Haartz; and Past President Mike Laux. In addition, the USMS National Office is ably run by USMS Executive Secretary Tracy Grilli.
For swimmers in the Zone, five championships have been run by zone LMSC's or teams. On November 1-2 last year, 280 swimmers gathered at Rutgers University pool for the Zone SCM Championships. In that meet, seven national individual and relay records were broken. Rutgers also hosted the spring SCY Championships on March 27-29 with almost 500 swimmers in attendance. In addition, three of the eight Long Distance National Championships were awarded to Colonies hosts for this year. In January, DC Masters had the opportunity to run the 1-Hour Postal Championship, an event they founded many years ago. The 1-Mile Open Water Championship was held on July 5 in Greenwich, CT. Adirondack Masters will be running the 3000/6000 Yard Postal Championship from September 1 through October 31. Throughout the year, many local events are held which include SCY, SCM, LCM, Open Water Swims, and Clinics. To date, 165 events from the zone have been listed on the USMS Calendar of Events.
At the Zone meeting this year we will be discussing adding more zone activities. Possible areas of expansion are more zone championship events (LCM Postal Championship and open water championships), a zone web site, and zone awards.
Dixie - June Krauser, zone representative
The minutes of the Convention Dixie Zone meeting will be found in the October-December Dixie Zone Newsletter. The Newsletter is sent out every three months to the Dixie Zone Clubs, Convention Delegates, Dixie Zone LMSC Chairmen and newsletter editors, the USMS National Office, USMS President, Zone Chairman and Zone Reps. The Dixie Zone Top Ten Times for SCY, LCM and SCM is also sent out according to the Dixie Zone Policies. This year's Top Ten SCY is being prepared by Steven Fair. We thank Rocky Motter for her many years of devoted service to the Dixie Zone as Top Ten Recorder. There were three Dixie Zone Championship meets held this year. SCM was held in Anderson, SC with 147 swimmers. SCY was held at the ISHOF pool in Ft. Lauderdale, FL with 365 swimmers. LCM was held in Greenville, SC with 100 swimmers. Dixie Zone swimmers were few in Casablanca at the VII FINA World Masters Swimming Championships. June Krauser, Gold Coast Masters, won her five events - 400-800 free, 200 fly and 200-400 IM. Joe Kurtzman, Florida Mavericks won the 50-200 fly, was 2nd in the 100 fly and also swam the 100 breaststroke. Sandy Steer, St. Pete Masters, swam the 200 free and 100-200 breaststroke. Janice Krauser, Gold Coast Masters, swam the 50 free.
Great Lakes - Skip Thompson, zone representative
In the last year in the Great Lakes Zone 3 Zone Championship meets have been held: Indianapolis -1997 Short Course Meters Championship which had 196 swimmers attend. This same group also hosted an excellent USMS SC Championship in May of 1997. Chicago - Northwestern University held the Short Course Yards Zone Championship on April 18 - 19, 1998 which had 421 swimmers attend and was hosted by the Central LMSC. Cleveland State University held the Long Course Meters Zone Championship on July 18 - 19, 1998 which had 97 swimmers attend and was hosted by the Lake Erie LMSC. The 1998 Short Course Meters Zone Championship will be held in Indianapolis on October 31 - November 1, 1998. One Zone Newsletter has been published and another will be published in August 1998. A Web Page has been established for the Great Lakes Zone on the Michigan LMSC server. Six of 8 LMSC's have Web Pages up and running. My objective is to get the remaining 2 LMSC web pages up and running by year end. The two remaining are Wisconsin and Allegheny Mountain. One of the topics for discussion is the Web Page and what types of things LMSC's want on it. Also what type of server do we want and who is going to have access.
Northwest - Dave Radcliff, zone representative
Three very successful Zone Swim meets and clinics highlighted the year. We began with the SCM meet in Oak Harbor, Washington. This meet was special because Sally Dillon, a new resident of Oak Harbor, was welcomed to the Northwest. She did a fine job as the starter. The SCY meet in Bend, Oregon featured a clinic, some great swimming and a brew pub social. The LCM meet in Federal Way, Washington produced eight World Records. Zone meetings were held in connection with each Zone Meet. The three Clinics hosted in the Northwest started in Boise, Idaho with a MACA Clinic featuring Kerry O'Brien. The Northwest Zone is making a real effort to help support swimming and clinics in some of the smaller LMSCs. The Zone also provided additional funding to help coaches from out of the area travel to the clinic. The second Clinic was hosted by Central Oregon Masters as part of the SCY Zone Meet. This clinic was presented by Bob Bruce, the coach of Central Oregon. It was another outstanding clinic. The third clinic was an Open Water Clinic held as part of the Oregon Open Water Swimming Championships at Squaw Lake in Southern Oregon. Mike Collins "wowed" the swimmers at this clinic. Being the largest geographical Zone has made communication vital. Five newsletters, plus a beginning email network has helped to keep the whole Zone in touch and up to date. "To Do" lists and reminders from Tracy Grilli and Hugh Moore have been greatly appreciated.
The Zone is looking forward to the Convention and will be well represented. The Zone is committed to the philosophy of USMS and helps to fund the attendance of one delegate from a smaller LMSC, so that all can share and benefit.
Oceana - Richard Smith, zone representative
Oceana continues to grow. Pacific looks like it will grow to 8,400 and Hawaii should be approximately 600 so the zone should be around 9,000 strong. Our Zone growth during the past years has been great and it would not be surprising to see 10,000 within the next few years. Hawaii has moved from a one man show this past year since Janet Renner has taken the reins and she is doing her very best to encourage the required support to expand the LSMC Committee so as to have a better functioning LMSC. With the support of Pacific, Hawaii will have a representative delegate at convention and once this happens we all know Hawaii will catch the convention "BUG" and will be a regular at our annual conventions. We should all give Hawaii a special welcome at this years convention and with the proper encouragement we may all be going to the Islands for a National---wouldn't that be GREAT. Pacific has been having a very successful year. Excellent pool meets, many top swims, great open water events so far and looking forward to the balance of the year. Those swimmers that represented Pacific at Casablanca did exceptionally well and we are all very proud of them. Pacific will be bringing some twenty-six delegates to convention in Cincy this year and we will be very happy to see you all there
South Central - Kris Wingenroth, zone representative
The South Central Zone is comprised of nearly 2000 swimmers in six LMSC' (Border, Gulf, South Texas, North Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas). During the past year, the zone has maintained an active meet schedule with each LMSC hosting their usual competitions. The short course zone championship meet was held in April in Austin at the University of Texas. The meet attracted a record number of swimmers. The long course championship meet in San Antonio was also well attended. Most LMSCs have increased both registrations and attendance at meets this year. We exchange newsletters among the LMSCs to encourage communication. North Texas also maintains a website which lists all of the events held within the zone.
Southwest - Bonnie Adair, zone representative
The Southwest Zone is comprised of just four LMSCs (Southern Pacific, San Diego-Imperial, Arizona, and New Mexico), but has a total of over 4500 swimmers. All four of our LMSCs are very active. Southern Pacific and San Diego-Imperial both maintain websites to help bring in new members and keep current members informed of upcoming events.
ELECTION YEAR - 1998 ZONE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN - Richard Smith
At the 1997 USMS Convention, Articles 504.1 and 504.2 were amended to include the Zone Committee Chairman as an officer of the corporation, to be elected by the members of the House of Delegates on the even numbered years as opposed to the other officers being elected on the odd numbered years. Therefore, this is the first year in our history that the House of Delegates will elect the Zone Committee Chairman.
As our present Zone Committee Chairman, Hugh Moore, has indicated his intention of running for re-election for this office he as asked me, Richard Smith to handle the election so as to avoid any conflict of interest.
As of July 1, 1998, no nominations have been received.
