Technical Committee—August 28, 2003

The following report is the Technical Committee report including changes and votes by the Board at its meeting on September 2, 2003.

The Technical Committee met at the home of Priscilla Davis on August 28, 2003. The meeting was called to order at 6:15 pm by chairman, Dan Warner. Attending were: Dan Warner, Priscilla Davis, Ray Grant, Pam Warner, Mike Parratto, Amy Parratto, Caitlin Grant, and Mary Riddell.

Meet Managers Materials: The committee recommends that the Meet Managers Meeting include a component on Hytek.

Evaluation of Summer Meets: Two evaluations were received from the Open meet. Concerns included the heat, crowded warm ups, and slow results. The committee discussed the crowded warm ups and agreed that adding another warm up session would not be helpful since it would make for a warm up time that would be too long. The best solution would be to reduce the number of swimmers in the meet.

Open Championships: The committee discussed the format of the Open Championships and agreed on several items.

1. Individual awards should be “on demand” and should include the 13 and 14 swimmers. These 13 and 14 awards would have to be hand written and it was agreed that all the awards would be hand written as they were requested.
2. We should continue to have the 13 and 14 high point awards
3. The 13 and 14 heat should not score for team points.
4. Because of the large number of administrative DQ’s, the 400 free and 400 IM (in addition to the relays and the 1500 and 800 freestyles) should be positive check ins.
5. Updated times should be allowed until 5 pm on the Monday before the meet begins.
6. Each team should be allowed up to 2 relays. Teams with 1, 2, or 3 swimmers would be allowed to add enough swimmers to make one relay. All relays could score.
7. The committee wants to keep the open meet an open meet, not a 12 and over or 13 and over meet, so does not want to put an age limit on younger swimmers who qualify for individual events.
8. Once the meet is posted, no changes will be made.

9—12 Championships: The committee recommends unlimited relays and relay only swimmers for this age group.

Combined Scoring: The committee recommends team high point scoring (8 places) for 12 and unders and Open and combined scoring for the top 3 teams. Small, plastic banners were suggested for the combined winners.

Meet Stipends: The committee recommends adding a $500 stipend for the Regional Meets and increasing the stipend for Seniors to $2500. The other stipends would stay the same--$1000 for 9—12 or 12 and unders and $1500 for 13 and over or the Open.

Finalized Meet Calendar: Pam Warner reported that we have 4 bids for Regionals since NCAC had to withdraw its bid due to a change in the Ivy League schedule. The bids are from PVAC, EB, ABF, SD. The problem is that the pools are not very well spaced in New England. However, Ray Grant is not concerned about this situation. Since we are not sure what the attendance at these meets will be, this set up will give us the flexibility to switch teams from one facility to another at the last minute. It was agreed to give the meets to the teams who bid.

We have two bids for March 4—7. BOSS has bid on Seniors at Harvard and BGSC has bid on 13 and over or the Open at Wheaton. There are no bids for 13 and over on the date scheduled, February 26—29. There were concerns about who would be running the meet and the equipment at Harvard and about the size of Wheaton and its ability to handle the numbers who would be attending the Open. Pam will contact Tim Murphy about who would be the meet manager and if they were willing to run the Open. She will report back to the September 2 Board Meeting.

Pam reported to the Board that Tim Murphy said that BOSS would be willing to run an Open meet at Harvard on the weekend of March 4—7. Carol Healey said that there would be a responsible meet director for the meet. Rick Osterberg added that there would be new touch pads and other equipment purchased by Harvard and in place before the proposed meet. There was some question about running a full four day format at Harvard. Pam will check with Tim Murphy. Since we still do not have a bid for 13 and over Age Groups, the Board voted to go with the Open format. Dan Warner stated that he thought recognizing the 13 and 14 swimmers with 13 and 14 awards would please some of the past opponents of the open format.

Time Standards: Ray Grant is working on the time standards for next year. It was agreed that the number of swimmers at the Open has to be reduced. Some coaches and athletes are concerned that 15 and over swimmers are able to qualify for the meet with what used to be 13 and 14 age group times. Ray suggested that we have two sets of time standards—one for 14 and under swimmers and one for 15 and over swimmers. Caitlin Grant will contact her athletes committee to see how they feel on the subject. The Board voted to keep uniform time standards for all swimmers in the Open meet.

Joann Foley from GMSC has suggested that we add 25 meter time standards to our time standards. The committee agreed that we did not have enough swimmers with 25 meter times. They can continue to convert their times to yard times.

Regional Meets: The committee discussed the format of the new Regional Meets and agreed on the following:

1. The meet should be 2½ days.
2. We should include the 200s for 11 and 12 swimmers but with a limited number of heats. (These events were not included in the District Meets.)
3. There would be no scoring either team or individual.
4. Each team could have 2 relays and up to three relay only swimmers would be allowed. Each age group would have 2 relays offered (shorter distance relays only).
5. There would be no special recognition of 8 and unders. The regional meet would not be considered the championship meet for 8 and unders.
6. There are many left over bronze and district awards. The committee did not favor reusing the bronze awards but would consider reusing the district awards.

Zone Proposal: Ray Grant had proposed “flip flopping” New England’s participation in the long course and short course zone meets. For short course, swimmers would go with their parents the way they now do for long course. Because we can only send 2 swimmers in each event, we would have to have an early dead line for those applying so that families could make hotel reservations, etc. For long course, we would take a team on buses, etc. the way we now do for short course. Ray suggested that a swimmer would have to make a certain number of qualifying times (3?) in order to go with the team. The committee feels that more families would be willing to send swimmers in the summer because they would not be missing school. The logistics for forming a team would not be easy for the short course meet. Ray said that at the zone meeting, Maryland and New England both voted to get rid of the short course Eastern zone meet. (The other zones only have meets in the summer.) He would not be upset if New England did not participate in the short course meet. The proposal will be discussed at the Board Meeting. Ray is also concerned about the number of swimmers who sign up for the meet and do not attend. This means that in some cases other swimmers could have attended but were not selected and that relays are often left without enough swimmers. He would like us to have a larger, non- refundable deposit.

The Board voted to instruct the New England delegates at the zone meeting at the convention to inform those present at the zone meeting that New England would not be attending the short course zone championships. New England will be supporting the long course zone championships and send a team (with a bus, hotel rooms, meals, etc.) the same way we have supported the short course zone team in the past.

SWIMS program: Mary Riddell presented a proposal for handling meet entries and results so that no unregistered swimmers would be in meets and so that results could be entered into the new USA Swimming SWIMS program without difficulty. Members of the committee were concerned about the technicalities of the proposal and the amount of work it would entail. It was agreed to turn the matter over to the web site development committee for further consideration.

Top 10: Mary Riddell said that NE needs to be on the same calendar for Top Ten as the National Top 16 if we were going to use the SWIMS program to our advantage. Currently, National Top 16 runs from September 1 through August 31 for both long course and short course. New England uses the same calendar for long course, but uses a June 1 through May 31 calendar for short course. The committee agreed that we need to change our calendars to September 1 through August 31. This would mean that for this year only, the short course meets in Top Ten would run from June 1, 2002 through August 31, 2003. The committee also would like New England Top Ten to include all New England sanctioned meets (sanctioned invitationals, dual meets, time trials, etc). Mary Riddell is concerned about what this would do to the calendar and still does not want to include dual meets and time trials even when sanctioned. At her request, this item will be put on the agenda at another meeting when there will be more time to discuss it.

Web Directions: Rick Osterberg had sent some comments and agenda items to the committee. Much of what he suggested was proposed in Mary Riddell’s SWIM proposal. Again, the committee would like the web site development committee to look at the proposals, suggestions, etc.

Other Business: Distance Awards at the Open: A suggestion was made that the distance awards which are being given at the Open should be given at the 12 and under meet also. The committee agreed that the purpose of the awards was to encourage and recognize distance swimmers at the Open and that this encouragement and recognition was not necessary for the younger swimmers.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.

Submitted by Mary Riddell