LSC Officials Chairs Quarterly Conference Call

Every quarter, Officials Chairs from around the country get together via conference call to discuss the goings on around the country related to USA Swimming officials and officiating. On April 1, we had our latest call. Here are the highlights of the call...

Jay Thomas, Chair of the USAS Rules & Regulations Committee discussed briefly the new guidelines that I forwarded you a few days ago about deck changing and our recommended approach to dealing with it. He reiterated that our first responsibility was to watch the pool. He commented that if we do see a swimmer changing on deck, make a note of the swimmer/team and inform the Meet Director and/or Referee of the situation and they will follow up with the team's coach. He suggested that it probably wasn't a good idea to approach the swimmer while s/he is changing as we certainly wouldn't want to leave the impression that we're watching them change! Makes sense. It's not an area of major focus here in AMS but, with LC upon us, if it's going to happen, this is when it will happen.

Jay also mentioned that he attended the national meeting of the NFHS and indicated that there didn't appear to be any rule changes at the High School level to be concerned about.

Upcoming rules to be addressed this year involve the Board of Review/Code of Conduct, governance, eliminating timing corrections from the timing section of the rules (we'll have to wait to see what this is), trans gender athletes and the 120-day rule (when a swimmer changes club affiliation). More to come as these play out.

A reminder that the online tests administered by USAS will be down for updating at close of business on April 15 and will not be back online until May 1. If you or anyone from your club has already downloaded a test, you must complete it by April 15 or it will expire. The new tests will be updated for the 2015 Rule Book. Also, the new tests will be 1 part tests now and not 2 part tests and apparently there will be hints as to where to find the appropriate rule being covered by a question. 

Bob Griffiths indicated that Deck Pass is currently being updated to include both LSC and National level certifications.

If anyone is interested in Open Water officiating, there will be an Open Water Clinic being offered at the 2015 Open Water National Championships being held 4/24 and 4/26 in Miromar Lake, FL. 

There will be more opportunities for our LSC officials who are interested in working on a national deck. In late July, Junior Nationals (San Antonio, July 30 - August 3) and the new Futures Championships (Greesnboro, NC, Gresham, OR, West Lafayette, July 30 - August 2) are being held at the same time. As they'll need many more officials to cover all the decks, you may have the opportunity to get out on deck at this higher level. 

That's it for now. I'll update you on these issues as more information becomes available.