Certain people expressed that, paraphrasing here 'east coasters gamed the convention vote in Chicago, because west coast clubs can't spend the money to send people for a fast weekend at a swanky convention' .... and we should bring Rob Butcher in on this, because SPMA is lying to us, and how the same four people are running the place and we can't be trusted... and OMG, the list goes on and on and on. There are dozens of nasty emails coming in daily, for some weeks now. Whomever started the tech suit effort within our LMSC, heavily impregnated it with anti establishment sentiment, (we know, we've seen all of the circulating emails, even the ones we werent supposed to see) so short of us somehow magically making the USMS overturn the tech suit ruling, we'll be wrong and the bad guys.
Wow, I guess I'm glad for my nice peaceful LMSC.
To be clear, my *personal* sentiments are the same as Swimshark's: time to move on. No one in my LMSC has asked us to push this at the national level and my *personal* hope is that it is not on the agenda b/c (a) it will be a headache and (b) I don't want to have to poll our members to try to figure out their wishes.
And I also have little truck with the anti-establishment furor. I know the Rules Committee folks were very diligent and responsible, and I'm sure your LMSC officers are also acting in good faith. The decision was made back in January, everyone knew this was coming, why the rush now?
Still...I have sympathy for the idea of "not having a voice." As much as possible you want members to be happy with how their organization is run, and to feel that their opinions matter. It is just that the timing of this whole thing was bad at many levels, and USMS didn't control any of it. We couldn't really do much at the last convention because FINA hadn't decided anything for masters, while USA-S was already acting (and accelerating their timetable, adopting the new suits before strictly necessary).
Most people forget that at Convention the Rules Committee did put together a compromise solution -- allow zippers, same coverage for men and women -- that was pooh-poohed by many tech-lovers at the time but would probably look pretty good to them right about now. I recall that the suggestion itself had to be sent very quickly (FINA dictated the timing, it was at the beginning of the Convention) which means the delegates couldn't vote on it, again looking a little suspicious.
This suggestion was forwarded to FINA, who ignored it and banned the suits in January. We followed suit (no pun intended) with an "Emergency Ruling" which probably looks suspicious to those outside the system, but is the normal way of doing things when action must be taken between Conventions.
And if NO action had been taken, then according to our own rules the FINA decision would have been adopted immediately for ALL courses, including SCY.
ANYWAY...the crux of all this is that there was never an up or down vote by the HOD at Convention. (And it wasn't a Rules year anyway.) I'm sure this is hard to understand for many, and a source of frustration.
So if it does end up on the agenda this year, at least there will be debate and a vote of some kind. I may be wrong, but my prediction is that the vote would not turn out well for the tech-lovers.
Unfortunately, it sounds like passions are now running so high out there that anything less than a reversal will probably get some people very upset. And if a reversal DID occur, then many OTHER people would be upset.
No wonder people just want this to go away.
I notice that USMS uses Constant Contact for their "Streamlines" emails. Constant Contact also does surveys. Now, despite your implication that LMSCs are poor and USMS is rich, I don't think either statement is really true, and surveying 50,000 members is not a trivial task. I have no idea if something is in the works or not.
A poll at the LMSC or national level would be nice and would be a factor in my own vote, but there are other considerations too (eg, having a different suit rule than USA-S; possible marginalization of SCM and LCM meets) that would have to be addressed in any reversal.
I really have no idea how this was turned into a East vs West thing, though. That's just weird; plenty of lovers and haters on this side of the Mississippi too.
Oh, I know the answer that will satisfy you Californians! Let's allow Local Teams to wear tech suits while Regional Teams cannot! :bolt:
Certain people expressed that, paraphrasing here 'east coasters gamed the convention vote in Chicago, because west coast clubs can't spend the money to send people for a fast weekend at a swanky convention' .... and we should bring Rob Butcher in on this, because SPMA is lying to us, and how the same four people are running the place and we can't be trusted... and OMG, the list goes on and on and on. There are dozens of nasty emails coming in daily, for some weeks now. Whomever started the tech suit effort within our LMSC, heavily impregnated it with anti establishment sentiment, (we know, we've seen all of the circulating emails, even the ones we werent supposed to see) so short of us somehow magically making the USMS overturn the tech suit ruling, we'll be wrong and the bad guys.
Wow, I guess I'm glad for my nice peaceful LMSC.
To be clear, my *personal* sentiments are the same as Swimshark's: time to move on. No one in my LMSC has asked us to push this at the national level and my *personal* hope is that it is not on the agenda b/c (a) it will be a headache and (b) I don't want to have to poll our members to try to figure out their wishes.
And I also have little truck with the anti-establishment furor. I know the Rules Committee folks were very diligent and responsible, and I'm sure your LMSC officers are also acting in good faith. The decision was made back in January, everyone knew this was coming, why the rush now?
Still...I have sympathy for the idea of "not having a voice." As much as possible you want members to be happy with how their organization is run, and to feel that their opinions matter. It is just that the timing of this whole thing was bad at many levels, and USMS didn't control any of it. We couldn't really do much at the last convention because FINA hadn't decided anything for masters, while USA-S was already acting (and accelerating their timetable, adopting the new suits before strictly necessary).
Most people forget that at Convention the Rules Committee did put together a compromise solution -- allow zippers, same coverage for men and women -- that was pooh-poohed by many tech-lovers at the time but would probably look pretty good to them right about now. I recall that the suggestion itself had to be sent very quickly (FINA dictated the timing, it was at the beginning of the Convention) which means the delegates couldn't vote on it, again looking a little suspicious.
This suggestion was forwarded to FINA, who ignored it and banned the suits in January. We followed suit (no pun intended) with an "Emergency Ruling" which probably looks suspicious to those outside the system, but is the normal way of doing things when action must be taken between Conventions.
And if NO action had been taken, then according to our own rules the FINA decision would have been adopted immediately for ALL courses, including SCY.
ANYWAY...the crux of all this is that there was never an up or down vote by the HOD at Convention. (And it wasn't a Rules year anyway.) I'm sure this is hard to understand for many, and a source of frustration.
So if it does end up on the agenda this year, at least there will be debate and a vote of some kind. I may be wrong, but my prediction is that the vote would not turn out well for the tech-lovers.
Unfortunately, it sounds like passions are now running so high out there that anything less than a reversal will probably get some people very upset. And if a reversal DID occur, then many OTHER people would be upset.
No wonder people just want this to go away.
I notice that USMS uses Constant Contact for their "Streamlines" emails. Constant Contact also does surveys. Now, despite your implication that LMSCs are poor and USMS is rich, I don't think either statement is really true, and surveying 50,000 members is not a trivial task. I have no idea if something is in the works or not.
A poll at the LMSC or national level would be nice and would be a factor in my own vote, but there are other considerations too (eg, having a different suit rule than USA-S; possible marginalization of SCM and LCM meets) that would have to be addressed in any reversal.
I really have no idea how this was turned into a East vs West thing, though. That's just weird; plenty of lovers and haters on this side of the Mississippi too.
Oh, I know the answer that will satisfy you Californians! Let's allow Local Teams to wear tech suits while Regional Teams cannot! :bolt:
