What should USMS do about the suits?

So, USMS, ya got screwed by FINA. You made a recommendation on the assumption that it would be acted on at the FINA meeting scheduled a couple weeks hence, but FINA -- in its infinite wisdom -- punted it off until January at the earliest. And it is reasonably foreseeable, if not downright likely, that FINA will -- in its infinite wisdom -- announce in January (or whenever, in its infinite wisdom, it damn well feels like it) that FINA, being focused exclusively on "elites" and "real swimming," doesn't give a fig about masters and what we wear in our silly, cute little "competitions", thereby leaving USMS in the lurch yet again. In the meantime, some of us who do care about our silly, cute little competitions would like to know what exactly we may wear in our silly, cute little competitions. Oh yeah, and it would be really cool if the official pronouncement as to what we could wear wasn't in a complete state of flux on a daily basis. I'm guessing a couple/few of our sponsors would like that, too. Even a rule good for a limited, discrete block of time -- say 6 months -- would be a vast improvement over the current state of affairs. I don't know what it would take at this point for USMS to adopt its own rule. Special session of our legislative body? Executive fiat? Bloody coup? Whatever is required, I urge USMS to get it done. Waiting for FINA has proven to be more existentially pointless than waiting for Godot (or, if you prefer, Guffman). Oh, and about that silly compromise position, with us boys wearing cute little zippered shoulder to knee shorties? If we're cutting the FINA cord, how about revisiting that to allow the use of suits that are actually manufactured and that we actually own? By my count, the percentage of men wearing shortys at any meet is somewhere in the vicinity of .00003. If you want to limit tech suits while equalizing coverage between boys and girls, give us our waist to ankle legskins. At least a few of us actually own those. Thanks, I feel better now. Did USMS really expect FINA to act immediately? Didn't USMS know that the FINA recommendation would have to be approved by the Bureau? (More cynically, maybe USMS made the compromise recommendation to attempt to placate its divided constituency, but knowing it would be rejected?) I think it's clear at the moment -- we can wear our B70s/LZRs unless and until the FINA Bureau rules in January or thereafter. Since USMS seems committed to following FINA, I doubt a bloody coup is contemplated at this juncture. It is rather interesting that FINA appears poised, possibly, to blow off the recommendations from both Europe (anything goes) and USMS (stupid shorty johns for everyone) and impose a more onerous rule, when it showed no interest in regulating our cute little competitions before. I think most chicks want their ankle legskins too ... I wonder if the manufacturers have actually started designing and producing cute little shorty johns with no zippers for men?

So, USMS, ya got screwed by FINA. You made a recommendation on the assumption that it would be acted on at the FINA meeting scheduled a couple weeks hence, but FINA -- in its infinite wisdom -- punted it off until January at the earliest. And it is reasonably foreseeable, if not downright likely, that FINA will -- in its infinite wisdom -- announce in January (or whenever, in its infinite wisdom, it damn well feels like it) that FINA, being focused exclusively on "elites" and "real swimming," doesn't give a fig about masters and what we wear in our silly, cute little "competitions", thereby leaving USMS in the lurch yet again. In the meantime, some of us who do care about our silly, cute little competitions would like to know what exactly we may wear in our silly, cute little competitions. Oh yeah, and it would be really cool if the official pronouncement as to what we could wear wasn't in a complete state of flux on a daily basis. I'm guessing a couple/few of our sponsors would like that, too. Even a rule good for a limited, discrete block of time -- say 6 months -- would be a vast improvement over the current state of affairs. I don't know what it would take at this point for USMS to adopt its own rule. Special session of our legislative body? Executive fiat? Bloody coup? Whatever is required, I urge USMS to get it done. Waiting for FINA has proven to be more existentially pointless than waiting for Godot (or, if you prefer, Guffman). Oh, and about that silly compromise position, with us boys wearing cute little zippered shoulder to knee shorties? If we're cutting the FINA cord, how about revisiting that to allow the use of suits that are actually manufactured and that we actually own? By my count, the percentage of men wearing shortys at any meet is somewhere in the vicinity of .00003. If you want to limit tech suits while equalizing coverage between boys and girls, give us our waist to ankle legskins. At least a few of us actually own those. Thanks, I feel better now. Did USMS really expect FINA to act immediately? Didn't USMS know that the FINA recommendation would have to be approved by the Bureau? (More cynically, maybe USMS made the compromise recommendation to attempt to placate its divided constituency, but knowing it would be rejected?) I think it's clear at the moment -- we can wear our B70s/LZRs unless and until the FINA Bureau rules in January or thereafter. Since USMS seems committed to following FINA, I doubt a bloody coup is contemplated at this juncture. It is rather interesting that FINA appears poised, possibly, to blow off the recommendations from both Europe (anything goes) and USMS (stupid shorty johns for everyone) and impose a more onerous rule, when it showed no interest in regulating our cute little competitions before. I think most chicks want their ankle legskins too ... I wonder if the manufacturers have actually started designing and producing cute little shorty johns with no zippers for men?