first of all, congrats to the meet directors and all the volunteers on a job well done. so organized and efficient!! very impressive. the only thing i wish someone could explain to me is why the usms champ. committee changed the team scoring from large, medium and small team to clumping everyone in the same category. seems extremely unfair to have what i call "real teams" competing against state mega teams. there is no possibility for "real teams" to ever come close to competing against them. if you are going to give team awards at the end of the meet, is there any way you can do it fairly? our team is extremely proud to have gotten as many team members as we did to go to natls. (most of them for the first time), but unfortunately they were very disillusioned (as was i) with the idea that we would be competing against state teams. as one of the coaches i didn't have an explanation. even though we were very proud of our 7th place finish in men's division, and our 12th place in combined, we were only one of a few "real teams" in the top ten. would appreciate responses. maybe even someone from the champ.committee could explain how they felt this scoring system would be more fair to the majority of swimmers. then i can pass it along to my teammates.. i don't want them to be so disillusioned that they lose interest in attending any future natls. thanks
Rob stated that the Championship committee should determine awards. Why? Any issue that brought this much passion at convention should be decided by a rules proposal next year, discussed in committees, but decided by the whole House. It is ludicrous that 15 or 16 people, simply because they were placed on the Championship Committee, should decide such an issue. As for delegates paying more attention to this than the Strategic Plan, Finances, Club Development, etc., maybe the delegates felt those ideas were in good hands and trusted they were being taken care of, or maybe delegates felt they did not have enough input in those big idea issues. As a member of the Championship Committee over the past 14 years, I have seen many Championship meet issues appropriately put in the hands of the Championship Committee, but it is not appropriate to put all issues about those meets in that committee. Too many other people really care about those issues; because they care, they participate at Nationals and at convention. Everyone seems to agree we need a distinction between simple clubs and combined or regional clubs, but we need to agree on how to make the distinction. The issue of whether to delineate small, medium and large within the two types of clubs has able proponents on both sides.
Rob stated that the Championship committee should determine awards. Why? Any issue that brought this much passion at convention should be decided by a rules proposal next year, discussed in committees, but decided by the whole House. It is ludicrous that 15 or 16 people, simply because they were placed on the Championship Committee, should decide such an issue. As for delegates paying more attention to this than the Strategic Plan, Finances, Club Development, etc., maybe the delegates felt those ideas were in good hands and trusted they were being taken care of, or maybe delegates felt they did not have enough input in those big idea issues. As a member of the Championship Committee over the past 14 years, I have seen many Championship meet issues appropriately put in the hands of the Championship Committee, but it is not appropriate to put all issues about those meets in that committee. Too many other people really care about those issues; because they care, they participate at Nationals and at convention. Everyone seems to agree we need a distinction between simple clubs and combined or regional clubs, but we need to agree on how to make the distinction. The issue of whether to delineate small, medium and large within the two types of clubs has able proponents on both sides.
