Important Information from USA Swimming

A few important pieces of information from USA Swimming...

ATHLETE PROTECTION TRAINING - BROWSER

Windows 10 was released last week, and the APT is not currently compatible with the browser, Microsoft Edge, that comes with it.  There have been a few reports from members about this. Praesidium (the APT provider) is working toward a more permanent solution, but the temporary work-around is to use Google Chrome from a desktop or laptop computer (not a tablet or mobile device) to complete the course.

  

ONLINE TESTING NOT AVAILABLE APRIL 15-30

As happens every year, the officials’ online tests will be unavailable from April 15-30, 2016. All of these tests are being updated to allow for the May 1^st rule changes and to align with the 2016 Rulebook. Tests will be back online on May 1.

If any test-takers have not completed their tests by April 15th, the uncompleted tests will be deleted and they will have to be taken over from the beginning on May 1st. COMPLETED tests will not be deleted. Note: NCAA tests will not be affected and will still be available from the NCAA testing link on the website.

  

SAFE SPORT WEBINAR FOR OFFICIALS

Safe Sport at Meets: A Conversation about the role of officials

Tune into a conversation with Rebecca Landre, official and LSC Safe Sport Chair for Sierra Nevada Swimming, as she shares her experiences and best practices for implementing Safe Sport at meets.  She will discuss the role of officials and ways to mitigate risks at swim meets.

April 13, 2016 - Noon Eastern/11 AM Central/10 AM Mountain/9 AM Pacific

Registration and Information - http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=1920&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en

Update on Team Pittsburgh LC Invitational

As many of you saw from Jeff Berghoff's email, the LC Invitational, designed specifically to allow our elite swimmers an early opportunity to get their Olympic Trial cuts, is on for this Friday and Saturday. This is a very short prelims/finals meet. 

There should be about 75 athletes vying for their cuts. Typically, the swimmers will be swimming in one event each day as the focus on the events that they are most likely to attain their Olympic Trial cut in. As a result, the sessions are very short. It is expected that the prelim and final sessions will last only 1 hour.

We are still in need of a Starter for prelims and Referee and Starter for finals on Friday. We also need a Referee and Starter for Saturday Finals. Further, we need an Admin Official for Sunday Finals. We need Stroke & Turn officials for all sessions. Right now, we don't have any officials for any positions for Saturday finals.

Please sign up to help using the following link...

http://vols.pt/B32XPc

While a small meet, it is a very important opportunity for these swimmers. If they don't make their cuts it's on them but we can't allow US to be the reason their times won't count.

Thanks for your help!

Team Pittsburgh LC Invitational Needs Our Help

We all know that we're in an Olympic year. There are precious few Long Course meets prior to the US Olympic Trials. In order to provide an opportunity for some of our fastest swimmers to swim a 50 Meter meet against some strong competition, Team Pittsburgh is hosting a very special meet at Pitt on March 25-26 (Friday/Saturday). The meet is a Prelims/Finals meet. We know a lot of families are traveling for the holiday weekend but for those of us in town, we need your help.

Prelims begin at 9:00 AM on Friday and Saturday mornings and Finals will be at 6:00 PM both days. We need officials at all levels for this meet. Please help if you can. We need a Referee, Starter and Stroke & Turn for Friday Prelims and Finals and Saturday Finals. We also need a Starter and Stroke & Turn for Saturday Prelims. Prelims should last no longer than 2 hours so we're in and out!

Please siign up as soon as possible using the following link...

http://vols.pt/B32XPc

You can look at the Meet Announcement in the Meet Portal on the AMS website.

Any questions, please email Terri Cook at terricook27@yahoo.com or Jeff Berghoff at berghoff@pitt.edu.

Thanks for your help! This will be a very fast meet. You don't want to miss it.

Bringin' It Home!

It's hard to believe that Spring has just about sprung (did I jinx it?) and the Short Course season is coming to an end. We have our Age Group Championships at Pitt this long weekend followed by Last Splash the following weekend at PRA, SFAC and WHAT. These are all very full meets. We officials seem to be running out of steam as we wind down the season. 

Our remaining meets are very short of officials and we need your help (if you haven't signed up already) to properly staff the deck. If your team is going to any of the remaining meets, please consider volunteering...even if you don't have a swimmer in the meet. AMS swimmers have worked very hard to get to this point of the season and they deserve a well staffed deck to ensure fairness and consistency from our officials.

All of our meets are listed on our website (amswim-officials.org) and links to our volunteer sign up are provided. Looking forward to seeing you on deck!!