Re:  upcoming district meeting

January 5, 2006

Dear SMSC Member teams,

This is a note to remind you that we have our semi-annual meeting coming up on February 26, 2006 at 2 pm in Riverside Regional Library in Jackson (about 3 blocks from the square) at 204 S Union.   Please have a parents meeting or speak with a number of the swimmers’ parents before the meeting because there will be a number of issues brought up for discussion and likely a vote.  BE SURE TO BRING A LIST OF DATES THAT YOUR HOME POOL WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR MEETS!!!

Remember to bring a check for the SMSC fees.  Last year I think the amount was $35.00.

BE SURE TO HAVE 2 WELL-INFORMED TEAM REPRESENTATIVES IN ATTENDANCE SO YOU MAY VOICE YOUR TEAM’S OPINION IN THE ISSUES VOTED ON!!!  (if not then don’t complain to us!)

Some of the issues to be discussed are as follows:

How many weeks do we want our swimmers to be inside at the beginning of the summer?  With 3 indoor pool we could conceivably have everyone inside for the first 3 weeks if we had only 2 meets a weekend the first 3 weekends in June.

These has been some discussion about possibly dropping out of AAU and being an independent league.  If we do this we can save a little money on insurance (or so we’ve been told) and have slightly better coverage.  If we do this we will not be able to host the JO Qualifyer and our summer league times probably won’t count as valid qualifying times for submission for the Junior Olympics in August.

The SMSC Summer League is, for most, a rec league that only lasts a limited number of weeks during the summer.  For the last 4 years we have had finals open for all swimmers who wanted to participate and had participated in at least the minimum of 9 events.  As always we can’t keep everyone happy.  Some have avoided finals because they are sometimes on a hot day and are long in duration.  We are open to suggestions about changing the format.  Ideas presented to date have been:  1)go back to a prelim system;  2)go to a qualifying time standard; 3)have one “final” for the younger swimmers at one location and one for the older swimmers at another; 4)have the finals at Cape Central Pool every year, run 10 lanes and have a rotating system of teams to act as host and take care of set-up, running the meet and cleanup; and 5) having finals inside where everyone can be inside such as in Perryville or Farmington--we are limited to 6 lanes at these locations; 6) going to a multi-day format for finals.  I am sure that you can easily come up with a number of pros and cons to each of these ideas proposed so far.  PLEASE TALK TO YOUR TEAM MEMBERS PARENTS BEFORE THE MEETING.

Do we want to require each member team to have a minimum number of adults who will be trained to help as meet officials (primarily stroke judges)?

Please remember to check the website regularly for any new information or last minute changes.

Respectfully yours,

John Esswein, vice-president