Dixie Zone Top Ten & Records | 2001 Dixie Zone SCY Championships
31st Annual St. Pete Masters Spring Championships | Streamlines ... from the National Office
LMSC Convention Costs | St. Pete Masters History | Why Hosting Swim Meets is a Good Idea
Sunbelt Championships | IX FINA World Masters Championships 2002
DIXIE ZONE TOP TEN & RECORDS
Editor's note: I think there is a little confusion about our Dixie Zone Top Ten and Records. I reprint from our Dixie Zone Convention Minutes. "The committee recognized and congratulated Dick Brewer and Ed Saltzman for their efforts in compiling and updating the Dixie Zone Records, which had not been done since 1997. Ed produced these updated records in poster size for the members to view. Ed stressed the importance for each LMSC recorder to keep updated records and to make sure that documentation is provided for all records. It was also stressed that swimmers should realize that is their responsibility to get these documented results to their LMSC recorder. Chris Gilligan suggested that it would be helpful to have this stated in the LMSC newsletters as a reminder for swimmers. Dick Brewer suggested that when LMSC Top Ten recorders submit results for National Top Ten, carbon copies should be made and distributed to all LMSC Top Ten recorders within the Dixie Zone. The committee strongly supported this. Dick and Ed will each be responsible for Top Ten Results of certain LMSC's: Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina should submit results to Ed and Southern, Southeastern, Florida, and Florida Gold Coast should submit results to Dick." Dixie Zone voted to make the following requirement for Dixie Zone Meets: meet directors will be responsible for insuring that copies of meet results will be on a hard disk or sent electronically.
My comments: I do not think it feasible to update records with every meet! In fact, I think it a huge waste of time. FINA updates records every six months. USMS updates records once a year. One person could break a record several times a year. My understanding of how this was to work for the Dixie Zone to make it easier for those doing the records was: Each LMSC Top Ten Recorder has to send a disk of all times done in his LMSC to the USMS National Top Ten Recorder. Then our seven Dixie Zone Top Ten Recorders would eliminate all times done from swimmers out of the Dixie Zone and 3 LMSC's would send that disk to Ed and 4 LMSC's would send that disk to Dick. Then the Dixie Zone records would be updated for the course at that time and between Ed and Dick we would also get our Dixie Zone Top Ten Times. If someone wants to publicize how many Dixie Zone records were broken in a meet -- fine. Ed and Dick shouldn't have to check every meet result for Dixie Zone Records. However, every LMSC Top Ten recorder must check meet results for USMS and/or World Records. They must be submitted on special forms with certain documentation. I think we should have a clear understanding about this as Ed states, "This job can quickly become a full-time job without help from all the records chairs." ALL COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!
2001 DIXIE ZONE SCY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Conner Bailey, Meet Director, writes, "Thank you for the honor of hosting the 2001 Dixie Zone SCY Championships. Eight national records were set during this meet." 37 teams competed in the Championships with 205 swimmers. Dynamo Swim Club Masters from GA won the team rankings with 1,435.50 points. In second place were the Pirate Swimmers from SE with 1,114 points. Georgia Masters were third with 972.50 points. Crimson Tide Aquatics from SE was fourth with 627 points. And rounding out the top five was Auburn Masters with 489 points. SO, FL, NC, SC were other Dixie Zone LMSC's competing. FGC didn't have any swimmers entered. Out of the Dixie Zone were NJ, PN and VA. PN stands for Pacific Northwest and that swimmer was far away from home!
31st ANNUAL ST. PETE MASTERS SPRING CHAMPIONSHIPS
The meet was dedicated to the memory of Jayne Lambke. I'm not sure any of us realized just how many lives Jayne touched. Last year I enjoyed Jayne's hospitality staying at her home for the meet. And I dearly loved her Easter M&M's! I was lucky to have stayed with Jayne for many St. Pete meets along with Anne McGuire. I sorely miss those two lovely ladies. Each competitor received a luggage tag in memory of Jayne with the following: "What the caterpillar thinks is the end of life, the butterfly knows is the beginning."
Each swimmer and volunteer was given a commemorative T-shirt in George Bole's honor with his picture on the front. George has coached St. Pete Masters for 14 years and will be retiring in May to go back to his homeland -- England. There were 35 teams competing in the meet with 111 women and 195 men for a total of 306 competitors. The meet was run very efficiently with Jerry Karp as head referee. Friday night the water was a little warm and they ran 16 lanes for the 1000 and 1650. On Saturday the sky was overcast and the meet finished just before the downpour of much-needed rain. Sunday was a picture perfect day with little breeze and a clear blue sky. There were four people at this meet that were present at the second meet in 1972 -- 30 years ago -- Bob Beach, June Krauser, John Ziegler, and Joe Biondi!
STREAMLINES ... FROM THE NATIONAL OFFICE
This newsletter is now being sent out by e-mail with an increased circulation including all who attended the convention.
Address changes: For the registration year 2000, the National Office inputted over 3,000 address changes, the majority of which (approximately 95%) are received from SWIM Magazine (meaning these were not reported to the national office). SWIM is sent out "second class mail" and this means... if you or one of your members have moved and not told us, your magazine WILL NOT BE FORWARDED. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL REGISTRAR AND/OR THE NATIONAL OFFICE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE -- ASAP!
LMSC CONVENTION COSTS
by Hugh Moore
As you are probably aware, nearly 200 delegates represent USMS members at the annual convention. Most of the delegates take vacation time and pay some out-of-pocket money to attend. At the 2000 convention, delegates were asked to fill out a survey to determine how much it costs the typical delegate to attend. 97 surveys were returned. Most delegates receive reimbursement from USMS or their LMSC. A few receive reimbursement from other sources, such as their zone, their club, or their university. Four delegates who returned surveys did not receive any financial support and they were from small LMSC's or were at-large delegates. Average costs were $100 for registration, $301 for travel, $297 for lodging, and $111 for food. Most LMSC's reimburse well for registration, travel, and lodging costs. The average total cost for these three items was $698. The average reimbursement was $631. A few LMSC's also reimburse for food. Average cost including food was $810 minus the average reimbursement of $631 left the average out of pocket expense to be $169.
ST. PETE MASTERS HISTORY
The original St. Pete Masters team was organized in 1971 by Judge Bob Beach and was less than 10 swimmers. Today, the team has 240 members. Coach George Bole has led the team to many competitive triumphs. In 1997, the St. Pete Masters won the LC National Championships and the women's team repeated the win again in 1998. George Bole's tutelage and coaching style continues to draw world-class swimmers from far and wide. From the ranks of the notorious to the not so notorious and all with a competitive desire to excel past the accepted. Words of Wisdom from George Bole...
WHY HOSTING SWIM MEET IS A GOOD IDEA
Excerpts from SOUTHEASTERN 'SPLASHES' by Conner Bailey, SE Sanctions Chair
My teammates and I initially were reluctant to host a swim meet in the new Auburn Aquatics Center. We certainly had a nice facility, which we wanted to share, but we had no experience putting on a meet. Moreover, we were afraid we would lose what little money we had if only a few swimmers registered. There were postage costs, pool rental costs, lifeguard costs, costs of buying ribbons and trophies, and doubtlessly other costs we had not anticipated. We had the grand total of $11.38 in our bank account as 1997 drew to a close, and the only reason we had that much was that several of us paid our winter quarter dues early. Fortunately for our bank account, and more importantly for the swimmers who have participated in our February invitational swim meets the past three years, we learned something earlier in 1997 which encouraged us to take the plunge: our LMSC provides $500 to each registered team which sponsors a sanctioned swim competition. We realized that $500 was not going to cover expenses, but it gave us confidence that we would at least break even. So we plunged ahead and have held a series of successful meets. Organizing a meet is a lot of work. The meet director and other volunteers put a lot of time into preparation and running the meet. But the rewards make it worthwhile in giving fellow swimmers an opportunity to gather together and celebrate the grace of aging while wet, testing our limits, and cheering on friends.
SUNBELT CHAMPIONSHIPS
Jerry Clark, Chairman of NC, writes that 175 swimmers entered this meet on January 27-28 and 68 were from Charlotte. He thanks the other 107 swimmers who came that weekend -- they were the brightest highlight. Other highlights include Alis Woodard who traveled from Saudi Arabia (where her husband is working for a couple of years) for the meet. She e-mailed that she noted the positive feeling of seeing happy and strong people swimming, and that it gives her a good feeling for the future. Women in Saudi Arabia can't exercise or wear swimsuits, but that as an expatriate, she can swim with the kids in the International School Pool. Another highlight was watching Boyd Campbell Jr. assisting his dad Boyd Campbell Sr. to the starting block for the five events he completed in the 90-94 age group. And Florence Carr journeyed from Sun City Center, Florida, and picked up 10 first place ribbons. Yet another high point was seeing our Charlotte buddy Eric Yamauchi racing again after working his way back from a serious stroke a few years ago. He is a real inspiration to those who train with him.
IX FINA WORLD MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2002
The FINA Bureau approved the Christchurch Entry Book at the FINA Bureau meeting in Barcelona the last weekend in March. The dates, qualifying times, and entry fees have been confirmed. The Entry book will be printed and dispatched in April. They intend sending it to National Swimming organizations and to their ever-expanding mail list. For many of the people who received the e-mail, they do not have a physical address so they invite you to email your address so they can post it direct. You may use the following email address to request a copy of the entry book by sending your physical address: renata@greatevents.co.nz