DAY THREE
I seemed to like each day better than the one before—or maybe I was just getting more comfortable. Day three was mostly networking and speaking with other delegates.
I slept through swim practice on day two, so I was intent on getting up for workout on day three. I had the honor of swimming Kerry O’Brien’s workout for Saturday’s practice (Coach Kerry is an amazing coach, who actually has a USMS coaching award named after him). It was a mid-distance/pace focus. It was quite different from my normal pattern of pace work, but I loved the variety.
The fourth session of the House of Delegates continued with Committee reports and there were a few hot button issues (related to various fee increases), but these items were tabled for the budget items on the agenda at the final House of Delegates session.
Committee Speed dating was next. During this segment we had 10 minutes to visit with the chairs of the various committees to learn more about what the committees do and get answers to any delegate questions. During this time period I visited with Open Water, Long Distance, Championships, Sports Medicine, Fitness Education, and Coaches. Here were a few of the tidbits I learned through these quick segments:
*Open water committee developed a Safety Director Training (online) and an event director training will be the next online training developed.
*The Sports Medicine committee encouraged us to remind members that they can send in sports medicine questions that once received the committee will reach out to experts to obtain answers. Sports medicine also has a booth in the vendor village at nationals typically.
The round table lunch was an opportunity for delegates to have discussions with other leaders who hold their same LMSC volunteer position. As coaches chair for the Montana LMSC, I got to mingle with other coaches chairs from around the US over the lunch hour. Having another delegate from a small LMSC in the group much of our conversation involved some suggestions from the bigger LMSCs on things we could try to both grow our LMSCs and increase the “virtual” or electronic engagement with our members (where we are pretty spread out with our membership). Expect to see some great new things coming soon in Montana to help us connect with each other more frequently.
The final House of Delegates session was probably the most exciting. There were lots of things to vote on, but the items that seemed to have the most discussion were things that related to fee increases. There was a proposed fee increase for single event fees (proposal was to increase the $15 fee to $18) which did not pass. The remaining fee increases (annual membership fee, annual club fee, annual workout group fee, pool sanction fee, recognized event fee) all passed—most by a large majority, except the recognized event fee which only passed by 7 votes.
The weekend wrapped up with the USAS Awards banquet, this included annual awards from all aquatic sports and wrapping up an Olympic year this was pretty cool to attend. Katie Ledecky won USA Swimming’s Athlete of the year, but unfortunately she wasn’t present to accept her award (she was off at college), but her brother accepted her award and gave a great acceptance speech.
There are SO many ways to be involved with USMS and I would encourage you all to find some way to “give back” to the organization through volunteer work either at the local club level, the LMSC level, the zone level or even the national level. You can really learn so much from engagement in the process that governs this sport we love. Here is a link to application for joining a national committee, if you’re interested in getting involved at the Zone level contact Sally Dillon. If you’re interested in getting involved at the LMSC level contact Jeanne Ensign. I look forward to implementing some of the great ideas taken away from convention back home in Montana.