I left convention again (which was great this year by the way!) with a nagging question...why do we have "Zones" within the structure of USMS?
- They wield little if any "power" within the organization
- LMSC's are already often challenged with getting volunteers
- The only people that can participate pretty much have to be at convention
- One additional "layer" of "management?
- The lines that have been drawn are crazy...have you seen the Breadbasket?
I'd prefer to see a consolidation into 4 Regions...then realign the meet calendar so that "Regional" Championships actually mean something and are a viable alternative to folks that can't make Nationals for whatever reason.
Along with this I would prefer to see the competitive seasons "balanced" a bit as follows:
- Short Course = Mid-December until the end of April. State meets held around the first of March, Regional's two weeks later, Nationals two weeks after Regional's.
- Long Course = May 1 thru the end of August. State championships held around the first of July, Regional's two weeks later, Nationals two weeks after Regional's
- Short Course Meters = September 1 thru mid December. State meets in late October, Regional's in November, Nationals the first or second week of December.
I will not attend any more meets when wookiee begins experimenting with deodorant usage and EKakiac doesn't use the forum to whine about all things swimming. So, suffice it to say, see you on deck!
Geekity, do you mean "until wookiee begins..." You can forget about EKakiac not complaining about something at shady acres. Wonder how many complaints the shady acres hod got before she arrived?
¡ʇı oʇ ʇǝb ¿ʎpɐǝɹןɐ ʇno sıɥʇ pǝbbnɥ ʇ,uǝʌɐɥ sʎnb noʎ ןןɐ ʇɐɥʇ ǝןqıssod ʇı sı ʍoɥ
I tried to make amends with geek. He got jealous after he found out that despite all my hair, I could swim open water distance freestyle better than him. Instead of hugging me, he immediately went to the krispy kreme to gorge on pink iced doughnuts. Once he was done, he cried himself to sleep over a giant slushy from 7-11.
By the time he was finished with his sobbing, people were mistaking him for Paul Smith. He immediately started ramblings about sprinting, duke's superiority over unc, how his homestate of tennessee has diowned him(can't really blame us) and how losing to fortress has cost him is manhood.
Now, now, Geek; I only whine about noodlers and 86 degree pool temperatures :bitching:. (Hmmm, I did whine about having to miss three weeks of swimming while I was away...) Oh yeah; I also whine about you being such a pain in the :mooning:! Otherwise, I think I'm very positive and upbeat about all things swimming; USMS :cheerleader:, at least! (My times? No.)
Geek is not a PITA(No, not People Eating Tasty Animals) He is a very kind, considerate, thoughtful, warm, generous,humble, representative of USMS.
I don't think any of us appreciate someone questioning the character of super swimmer and great friend.
If only we all could strive to be more like him.
:bolt:
I left convention again (which was great this year by the way!) with a nagging question...why do we have "Zones" within the structure of USMS?
So it seems like your question or problem with zones has several facets
-- the administrative function zones serve (if any)
-- regional championships
-- geographic boundaries: should "zones" -- or "regions" if you prefer -- be larger?
Administrative benefits probably vary by zone. It seems like one of the main functions of ours is to try to get zone championships for pool and OW events and to facilitate communication to swimmers in the zone (eg thru the website -- and the CZ website is very nice, IMO -- and emails to LMSC officers). I think we get pretty good bang for the buck for these things, in our zone at least.
There are also zone reps on the USMS Board of Directors, which (theoretically at least) ensures some regional representation. That's probably a good thing.
I don't have a problem with your ideal championship format, but there are probably local factors (eg, facility availability) that come into play.
As far as making zones bigger, I don't know. Personally I think the area of a zone should be small enough that someone in the center could drive to any place in the zone in a day. If (say) Dixie and Colonies were combined, you'd conceivably have people from Maine travelling to Miami for a zone meet; that's a bit much.
Paul, honestly, I wanted to vote for option 1.
But the spelling error was just too much for me to overlook.
Be honest: you just want to continue to be called a "zonesman." Perfectly understandable.
I would rephrase the question as, "Why do we have LMSCs?"
Many of the officer roles at the LMSC level do not exist at the Zone level (at least in Colonies this is the case). In no particular order:
Coaches
Registrar
Officials
Sanctions
Treasurer
Top Ten Recorder
Secretary
some other optional roles
Even if they did create these positions, many would not be manageable for a single person at the Zone level...that person would be responsible for thousands of members at a minimum. Since most LMSC board members are volunteers, that would be asking a lot.
USA-S is structured in a similar manner (59 LSCs). There are Zone Directors (coach and non-coach), but beyond that, it is up to the individual LSC boards to manage everything on a local level.
