The Midwestern House of Delegates was called to order at 12:04pm at the University of Omaha HPER Building, Room 102. Present were Scot Sorensen, Mary Losee, Betty Kooy, Lisa Ellis, Jill Orton, Archie Heffernan, Mike Jacobson, Jackie Wiles, Chris Brammer, Mike States, Ed Muller, Susie Schmitt, Brian Jensen, Marsha Ketcham, Sara Juster and Mary Kocsis.

Reading, Correction and Adoption of the Minutes
The reading of the minutes from the October 2001 HOD meeting held at Burke High School was dispensed. Copies had been mailed to all Board Members and posted on the web site. No one objected. Minutes were accepted.

Reports of Officers:
General Chairman – Scot Sorensen
Update on Board of Review Protests - The Board of Review vs. Doug Humphrey is in process. Someone asked what the charges were. Doug allegedly falsified entry times and proof of times at the Sectional meet in March.

Technical Chairman Update – Doug Humphrey has resigned his position as Technical Chairman. Midwestern Swimming is seeking nominations through Scot Sorensen, General Chairman.

USA Swimming Dues Increase Proposal - USA Swimming has proposed to increase membership dues from $25 to $40 per individual swimmer. The proposed increase will generate money to be used for TV and national exposure. This proposal will come up for vote at the National Convention in September.

Age Group Vice-Chairman – Lisa Ellis
Not yet arrived at the meeting.

Reports of Committees and Coordinators:
Meet Sanction Committee – Betty Kooy and Scot Sorensen
2002 Long Course Meet Schedule Update –Betty has all the LC sanctions out. Event files are on the web page.

2002 Long Course Championships – The Sanction Committee has made some recommendations to be brought today to this House of Delegates. (This recommendation does not need secondary approval due to the fact it has come from a committee.)

The consensus continues to be that this meet is way too long. The committee looked at the number of swimmers involved and looked for a way to promote best performances. The recommendation is to take these events out of the meet because they have the most effect on the time line: 11-12 400 Free-R; 11-12 400 Medley-R; 13-14 200 Free-R; 13-14 200 Medley-R; 13-14 800 Free-R; Sr 200 Free-R; Sr. 200 Medley-R; Sr. 800 Free-R. These are all relay events. Much discussion was held. The rationale behind this recommendation is the fact that all the relays are held in the morning and run the morning session over by at least an hour. Each individual swimmer would still be allowed to swim 9 individual events. The relays still offered include the 11-12 200 relays; 13-14 400 relays and Sr. 400 relays. A suggestion was made to add another day to the meet. Meet administration said the current meet runs a full 3 days and staffing especially on the Friday becomes a problem. Another option brought up was to run the relays at night. The House consensus was to keep the relays, as they wanted to stay consistent across the board. It was brought up that all the distance events were run in the morning session. How about running the fastest heats at night? Another thought was that it would be fun to have sprint relays in the evening session. It could add some excitement and a team atmosphere. Motion to drop the relays listed above. Denied. Scot asked if the House wanted to send the issue back to the committee at such a late date. His recommendation was to have the House solve the issue today. Motion to drop all 800 relays; swim all heats of the sprint 200 relays in the evening session; swim 13 & Over 400 relays all heats in the mornings on opposite days (leave the 11-12 400 Relay as is); swim the fastest 1500 heat in the evening session; swim the fastest 800 two heats in the evening session; no longer give teams the option as to when their team swims relays. Motion carried.

Division I and Division II System – The Sanctioning Committee presented a recommendation to the House of Delegates concerning revisions in the 2002-03 Short Course season. To facilitate discussion of this proposal, Scot Sorensen prepared a draft letter of explanation titled, "The Times – They Are A Changin." This letter is to be sent to all MWS families/members and posted on the MWS home page, if authorized to do so at this meeting. It is a relatively simple and straightforward proposal. The goals are to simplify meet eligibility; coordinate a meet schedule; address the desire to have a Division II Championship Meet; and facilitate meet bidding.

The discussion started out on the fact that MWS currently allows teams to bid on and run meets based upon the national time standards (A, BB, B, etc.) However, MWS Championship meets are based upon cut times derived from our own swimmers. This new proposal, which will begin with the 2002-03 short course season, states that MWS will start using the LSC cuts as the division line to running all meets. The rationale is to better coordinate and meet swimmer/family needs throughout the year. The intention is to have a Division I and a Division II meet each month, as well as a pentathlon or relay meet, and then schedule one weekend a month where our LSC does no offer any meets. This evolution is to help the LSC to grow in a positive way.

This year clubs will need to decide if the meets they are currently asking for sanctions on will be Division I or II meets. For the 2003-04 year, clubs will bid for weekends so the LSC has a more uniform and equal process in place for setting up a meet schedule. A swimmer friendly schedule is desired. The intention is to work into the process LSC wide, including all areas outside of Lincoln and Omaha.

Discussion was held that those swimmers who have 3 Division I cuts can still swim in a Division II meet. However, they cannot swim the events they have Division I cuts in. The host of Division I meets can swim all swimmers regardless of times. A question was asked who is to police this process. The LSC is asking for honesty from all parties involved, as there are no penalties for fudging times. MWS is not big enough and there is no desire at this point to police these issues. Coaches are asked to be ethical and honest role models.

Presentation and Approval of the Annual Audit – Pat Lacy
Treasurer Mary Kocsis gave the report. Pat Lacy was out of town. The audit is still not finalized. Scot will call Pat and give him one week to finalize the reports. If Pat is unable to do this, Scot will ask for someone outside of MWS to complete the audit. The expectations are to have the audit presented at the next BOD and HOD meetings in October.

1. General Chairman – Scot Sorensen
2. Administrative Vice Chairman – Mary Losee
3. Senior Vice Chairman – Peggy Speer
4. Coaches Representative – to be voted on at the LSC Long Course Championship Meet by all coaches
5. Secretary – Becky Connolly
6. At Large BOD Members – 2 - Brian Jensen and Kim Pappas
Board of Review Members (3), plus 2 Alternates (MWS has 5 members on the Board of Review, could have 6)
Nominating Committee candidates – to be elected October, 2002

No nominations from the floor. Motion to accept the slate. Seconded. No discussion. Motion carried.

New Business:
Action Accents Bid for LC Champs – Discussion was held that Action Accents gives MWS 15%; they pay immediately; and they are very good to our Zone and All Star Teams. No other bids were made. Motion to accept the bid. Seconded. No further discussion. Motion carried.

The USA Swimming National Convention is September 10-15 in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.

The Searchable Database includes 62 short course meets; 1 long course meet; and 1 short course meter meet.

MWS has two swimmers going to the Disability Championships.

The 2002-03 Short Course Schedule was discussed. Most clubs have submitted their bids. Council Bluffs just made a late bid. All teams will need to decide whether they want a Division I or II meet.

Safety Chairman – Mike States started a discussion on pool depth, temperature and clarity, and other issues. He asked if these issues were addressed when accepting or denying meet bids. Mike agreed to develop a checklist that will go to each team’s Safety Marshal. The Marshals will be asked to turn their pool specs into the MWS Office along with each sanction application. This information will also need to be included in the meet flyer.

USA Swimming:
USA Swimming had a Board of Directors meeting on May 4, 2002 in Omaha. The meeting was held in Omaha because of the Mutual of Omaha sponsorship kick off. Mutual of Omaha has agreed to be a co-branding sponsor and will be underwriting the SPLASH publication that goes to each USA Swimming member. The House of Delegates expressed that USA Swimming needs to do a better job promoting the "grass roots" swimming organizations. They do a poor job on getting information to those who need it and are slow to education all members.

A New Club Program will be coming out the Fall of 2002.

USA Swimming will have some upcoming TV spots. Go to the USA Swimming web page for channels and times.

A Governance Study was done by USA Swimming, and will have a large impact on how we do business.

A head to head dual will be held between Australia and USA.

Clarification:
The Sectional meet reimbursement deadline is May 15, 2002. Documentation is necessary. No provisions will be given for mileage.

Adjournment , Seconded, Approved– 12:56pm

Respectfully Submitted,
Jill S. Orton - Secretary