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
Hi,
To Carolyn's point #2, yes, Rules Committee did agree that a regional division was an appropriate proposal. In addition, the regional team definition that had the most support ("do you always swim for the same club listed on your USMS registration card, or do you swim for another entity when the meet is inside your LMSC?") was proposed by members of Rules and Legislation.
As I recall, Rules Committee members suggested adding language about a regional team being one where it competed within its LMSC as separate "entities" because they indicated that the word "team" as used in the USMS rulebook often has the meaning of a relay team.
However, I also was told that while a "club" is how everyone is registered within USMS, a "team" is the actual group of swimmers that represents a club at any competition.....
How's that for more semantics?
Any way, that is why the L2 proposal discussed divisions for regional "teams" and club "teams".
The "club team" label has caused a lot of misunderstanding I think, and so maybe it needs to be very clear that the proposal covers regional teams (made up of members from a club that competes as separate entities within its LMSC but as one team for Nationals), and local teams (made up of teams representing all the other types of clubs within USMS). As noted, if a team thinks it has been put in the wrong division, then there needs to be a process to appeal that classification.
Like Karen, I would like to understand better how the LMSCs that have what we are calling "regional teams" actually operate so that whatever rule is proposed it will be workable.
Leianne
^^^
Hi,
To Carolyn's point #2, yes, Rules Committee did agree that a regional division was an appropriate proposal. In addition, the regional team definition that had the most support ("do you always swim for the same club listed on your USMS registration card, or do you swim for another entity when the meet is inside your LMSC?") was proposed by members of Rules and Legislation.
As I recall, Rules Committee members suggested adding language about a regional team being one where it competed within its LMSC as separate "entities" because they indicated that the word "team" as used in the USMS rulebook often has the meaning of a relay team.
However, I also was told that while a "club" is how everyone is registered within USMS, a "team" is the actual group of swimmers that represents a club at any competition.....
How's that for more semantics?
Any way, that is why the L2 proposal discussed divisions for regional "teams" and club "teams".
The "club team" label has caused a lot of misunderstanding I think, and so maybe it needs to be very clear that the proposal covers regional teams (made up of members from a club that competes as separate entities within its LMSC but as one team for Nationals), and local teams (made up of teams representing all the other types of clubs within USMS). As noted, if a team thinks it has been put in the wrong division, then there needs to be a process to appeal that classification.
Like Karen, I would like to understand better how the LMSCs that have what we are calling "regional teams" actually operate so that whatever rule is proposed it will be workable.
Leianne
^^^
