Convention Summary

Thanks Mark......any decisions on entry fees? Also, should I assume the 60 day timeframe for changing teams is staying in effect?

Elections were held. We are now implementing the new governance structure. Pres - Rob Copeland, VP of Member Services - Mark Gill, VP of Community Services - Michael Heather, VP of National Operations - Leo Letendre, VP of Local Operations - Julie Heather, Secretary - Meg Smath, Treasurer - Tom Boak. These 7 plus immediate past president Jim Miller make up the Executive Committee. The new Board of Directors (all elected, none appointed) are the 8 from the Ex Com plus 8 at-large directors: Jeanne Ensign, Michael Moore, Laura Winslow, Anna Lea Roof, Nadine Day, Carolyn Boak, Jerry Clark, and Betsy Durrant. The HOD authorized the hiring of an Executive Director. Money was budgeted for a search and salary for part of the year. The BOD is already working on the process, but it will late in the year before hiring is actually done. It would be wonderful to have someone in place by the next convention, but there is no guarantee that it can be accomplished by then. That's all I can think of right now. Betsy Durrant

Mark........I'm 100% in support of this structure, well done. Also want to extend congrats to all the new electee's!! And.......a bit of a challenge!! This forum continues to grow and is a great beenfit as well as resource for USMS. I'd like to see a bit more participation from the folks who attend the conventions and make the rules. This is a good place to "poll" a decent amount of the memebership, maybe not in total numbers but in spirit! I'd love to see/read what each of the elected board (and committee chairs) members "position" is on the various topics that come up in this forum; growth, marketing, rules, etc. etc. Not to mention our own LMSC's!

Apparently the registration folks might have online registrations this year. Something that USA Triathlon figured out 6 years ago which has subsequently led to the highest registration numbers ever for that organization. It seems like we are trying to reinvent the wheel by designing software, getting our own merchant account, and other things when there are already several companies who do this as their business. Right off the top of my head. timberline timing active.com lin-mark.com set up incorporated compuscore lmsports sommer sports Any of these companies could handle registration very easily. Our triathlon club uses lin-mark and it couldn't be simpler. The usatriathlon federation uses timberline timing. I hope that our registration committee will both to call usatriathlon and ask how they make it work. Or the US cycling federation for that matter. We've got a great opportunity to get more members of USMS, it seems to be going to waste. We also seem to be ready spend a fair bit of money building a transaction backend that is unnecessary.

From Championship Committee the following took place: 1) 2007 SC Nationals will be at Federal Way, WA 2) 2007 LC Nationals will be held at The Woodlands, TX We are also evaluating a better way to calculate the national qualifying times. The committee felt they were too fast for LC Nationals this year.

Connie........this as being discussed two years ago when I actually attended a convetion. USMS needs to be far quiker and more nimble, think in dog years!! Make this happen ASAP, its a good thing.

Originally posted by Paul Smith Thanks Mark......any decisions on entry fees? The rule was changed to give the championship comittee discretion to set the fees, rather then changing the surcharge from 30 to 40. It requirted a 90% vote by the house of Delegates... I think it got close to 100%, After a Yes vote, I took a quick loot at he room, and didn't see any NO's sticking up, and No Abstainees raising their hand. IRRC IMO, This opens the doors for more common sense fees, and probably a tiered system too. Considering that big majority on the championship copmmittee is in favor of increase, I think this is a good thing. And it gives them more time to figure out what makes sense on case by case basis, you know, consider local economy and issues. I was pretty encouraged by such an overwhelming support to raise the fees. It was long overdue.

Paul, Previously in the rulebook, the fees for nationals were stated. That rule was changed so that it is left up to the championship committee to decide the rates and the House of Delegates to approve them. Starting in 2006, the surcharge for nationals is $40, the individual event fees are $4 and relays are $12. In the future we want to move to a tiered payment system where registering early for nationals gets you a lower surcharge. The longer you wait, the higher the surcharge. This is similiar to what is often done in triathlon and open water races. Going along with this would be the ability to register early and change your events up until the end of the registration deadline. This functionality is being added to our online registration software for Worlds and we hope to incorporate it into national championships next year.

I can see two sides of the coin when it comes to online registration... Being that there is a lot of back end infrastructure in place, it appears to be more practical and feasible to utilize our own system, especially considering the complexities of registrations being handled on LMSC level. On the flipside, associating with some of the cross-sport companies may give us some exposure in a non-swimmer and potential swimmer world, which is to our benefit in getting wider name recognition. Personally, on my team we have used active.com, and we've designed an in-house online entry system for one of our zone meets. They both have their pro's and con's. I like the flexibility our own system may offer, and I like the time effectiveness of a third party service.

Originally posted by Paul Smith Connie........this as being discussed two years ago when I actually attended a convetion. USMS needs to be far quiker and more nimble, think in dog years!! Make this happen ASAP, its a good thing. They aren't going to be as long as we have house of delegates questioning the necessity of certain things, and nickle and dime things. Like the Executive Director, I think it's badly needed, but if they they can find a quality person for only 70-80K a year, I'll be very surprized. I got the impression that was one of the frustrations of the imeddiate past administration, they would want something accomplished, and would run into red tape at the convention, getting things approved... Sitting in the house of delegates getting things approved is much like sitting in a congress session... And this is *after* they've been approved by various committees. Well, you've been there. It can be very frustrating. I'm confident as the new administration takes hold, and as they're re-evaluationg a lot of things, there will be improvement. Still, gotta keep in mind as long as there's a governmental component to it, it's never going to be as nimble as a business.