Running a combination Masters/Age Group meet

Anna Lea This question has come up in the past and in a number of instances; concurrent sanctions have been issued by USA-Swimming and USMS, and we have been assured that insurance coverage is in place for all USA-S and USMS members. However, you will need to work with both sanction chairs and I would suggest you contact our insurance chair or insurance broker for what they require. Also, have your LMSC sanctions chair contact the USMS Legislation Chair, if they have questions about the legality of running concurrently sanctioned/contested events.

What if a lot of people show up. I could see where it would take forever to get through a 100 yd free or maybe a 50 yd ***. Some events I've been to might have more than 4 of each.

I think you'd need to make sure you had separate insurance covering everything in the meet. And from a USA Swimming perspective, I don't think it could be 'sanctioned'. I think that sanctioned USA Swimming events must be exclusively USA Swimming-registered people. The policies that go along with a sanction apply to lots of things, like the warmup pool, etc. You'd probably need to run the meet under USA Swimming rules (and not USMS rules). There are a couple places where USMS rules differ just a little bit. As far as I know, anything legal in USA Swimming is legal in USMS, so any times achieved translate. But not the other way around. (When we host USMS championship meets, we need to specifically request observation for swims that want to be considered for USA Swimming cuts, etc.) -Rick

Originally posted by osterber I think you'd need to make sure you had separate insurance covering everything in the meet. And from a USA Swimming perspective, I don't think it could be 'sanctioned'. I think that sanctioned USA Swimming events must be exclusively USA Swimming-registered people. The policies that go along with a sanction apply to lots of things, like the warmup pool, etc. If everyone simply registers with USA Swimming, then the insurance consideration disappears.

The State Games of Oregon is a combination meet, the kids swim in the morning and the masters start at 1 pm. I think there is a rule that the younger USA swimmers have to be finished with their swimming by a certain time, I think 2:30. It would probably be easier for you to run your meet that way. We have an afternoon meet planned in Hood River in April 05 that will be after an age group meet.

Was the meet recognized. It wouldn't have been sanctioned. A USMS Swimmer could swim in a USA meet if the USMS swimmer was both a USA and a USMS swimmer. A USA swimmer cannot swim in a USMS meet due to the age restrictions. OPEN Water is different they allow dual sanctions. Here is the link to the 2004 Insurance: www.usms.org/.../lmsc_hb_ins.pdf Page 8 has a meet grid that is very helpful I know that all the USMS members can join USA and swim in the meet. USMS swimmers times will count for USMS top times, however not FINA since it was not a sanctioned Masters meet. I don't know if you can have a meet and sanction events USA and USMS, as long as the respective swimmers swim in their respective events. Warm-up has to be separated by lanes too. But if you don't care about liability or get a separate liability for the meet then go for it EVERYONE gets to swim and have it both recognized USA and USMS. Then everyone's times count. But you still should have legal and insurance check into first. I think it's a great idea to have a dual meet with USA and USMS. It might encourage USA parents to become USMS swimmers. It might encourage USA swimmers when they get older to swim USMS. It might make the USA swimmer swim faster so an "older" swimmer doesn't beat them. Keep on swimming....... Nadine KM Day, CMSA Sanction Chair

Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 16:52:24 EDT Thanks for all of your comments. Here is the "official word" from Colleen Driscoll, chairman of the USMS Insurance Committee. --Anna Lea Roof ----------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Combined USMS/USA-S meet To: AnnaLea CC: usms Hi Anna Lea, You can hold a "combined" meet provided that you get two separate sanctions, therefore meeting the meet requirements for both organizations. You could actually hold a heat with both USA and USMS swimmers provided that they are divided by lanes and swim with their own rules being enforced. Perhaps you have lanes 1-3 for the USMS swimmers, with an official, and lanes 4-6 for the USA swimmers, with an official. Thereby keeping the groups separate with their own set of rules being enforced. You can also alternate heats as you suggested. Just remember that both set of rules must be followed and there should be a separation of the groups. Perhaps the groups can warm up separately in the lanes which they are going to be using. If you have any further questions, please let me know. It sounds like a great idea and a lot of fun! Regards, Colleen Ann Driscoll ---------------------------