Officials Rosters Updated to 10/21/14

AMS Officials Rosters have been updated and can be viewed on our website. To view the current rosters, click here. Please contact Bob Mermelstein at bob.mermelstein@gmail.com if there are any issues with your certifications.

AMS Officials Getting a New Logo

We're not sure how long we've used the standard AMS Officials logo...but it's been a really long time. Take a look at our new logo, which will be available soon through Log Cabin Embroidery.

Our plan is to provide one shirt to those officials volunteering to work "x" number of sessions at the Christmas Meet in December (details still being worked out) and then as you order new AMS Officials shirts, you'll be getting the new logo. Shirt prices will remain unchanged.

The creative genius behind this logo is our very own Referee extraordinaire, Dave Watterson. Quite a talent, wouldn't you agree? Be sure you thank him next time you see him on deck. Might there be a similar logo adopted by AMS? Hmmmm. Time will tell.

Allegheny Mountain Men of Movember

Our good friend and fellow AMS Official, Scott Pauley, has been involved with an organization that focuses on men’s health, including raising money for prostate cancer and testicular cancer research to name two. The name of the organization is the Movember Foundation. They’ve found a way to have fun while doing good. We figured, why not create our own team of AMS Officials and Coaches…

Allegheny Mountain Men of Movember 

In the month of November, you may see some of your fellow AMS Officials and Coaches sporting mustaches of various shapes and sizes. In support of men's health initiatives, this group of guys have joined the Movember movement and formed their own team, called the Allegheny Mountain Men of Movember. For the Month of Movember we will be busy sprouting hair on our upper lips to build awareness about men's health, raise funds for a good cause, and also have a bit of fun teasing each other on deck during our November swim meets. We're sure many of your family and friends would love to support you in this fun endeavor.

We invite all AMS Officials and Coaches to the team. Just go to the link below to sign up. If you don’t want to sport a mustache but want to make a donation to the team, you can do that, as well. If you just want to poke fun at us on deck during Movember, that's OK, too.

moteam.co/allegheny-mountain-men-of-movember

Stay tuned for ways our Mo-sista officials can become involved too, by sending permission slips to our male officials, and by donating to our team.

This should be a lot of fun and will allow us to do some good at the same time!

To view the Movember rules, click here.

AMS Officials Committee Creates a New Award

At its last meeting, the AMS Officials Committee unanimously approved the creation of the Jamy Pfister Official of the Year Award, established to annually recognize an AMS Official who has contributed outstanding service as an AMS/USA Swimming official.

The award is named in honor of Jamy Pfister's many years as an AMS official, both on our local pool decks and across the world. Recently recognized as an Outstanding Woman in Swimming, Jamy really had much to do with breaking down the barriers between men and women officials so that there were only officials...and gender really had nothing to do with it. After spending well over 40 years as an official (it's actually rumored that Jamy disqualified Moses for a one hand touch when he parted the Red Sea), Jamy is retiring form the sport she loves. And, so, with this award we will honor Jamy's tremendous impact on Allegheny Mountain and USA Swimming, having mentored so many of us.

The award will be presented in the Spring at the conclusion of the Short Course season. Congratulations Jamy! This recognition is very much deserved!

New Initiative for AMS Officials

Coming soon to an AMS Official near you...

Look for the unveiling of a new, fun initiative for our AMS Officials. We should be ready to reveal our top secret initiative for AMS Officials and a way to do something really good for others by week's end! Curious? Me too!

New Approach to Meet Session Sign Ups for Officiating Coming Soon

The AMS Officials Committee has now instituted, beginning with the BPR Mini/Xmas Qualifier (November 22-23) and thereafter, a centralized place for officials to go and sign up to work at meets. This should make it easier for officials to indicate their intent to volunteer to work meets. You can sign up for a single session, multiple sessions, multiple meets all in one worksheet.

You'll continue to receive requests from meet hosts but instead of your sending an email or calling the Officials Contact from that club, you'll visit the single workbook to sign up (the link to this workbook will be included in each request). We all can access the spreadsheet so we can see at any time where each meet stands with officials at any position and can quickly identify problem areas.

We believe this will be an improved approach. Each meet has its own spreadsheet within the single Google doc workbook. I've provided the link below. It is our hope that by streamlining the process, it will improve our ability to attract officials to work meets.

If you already know your schedule looking forward, go ahead and sign up for those sessions you intend to work. The meet hosts will send out requests as the meet gets closer, as they always have.

We appreciate your helping to implement this new approach.

To access the workbook, click here.

Need Observers for Pitt Invitational on Nov 21-23

Pitt has requested that we provide observers for their upcoming Pitt Invite being held at Trees Pool on 11/21-23. As you know, in order for their swimmers' times to be entered into the SWIMS database, the meet must be observed by USA Swimming Officials.

We need at least 2 observers for each session (prelims and finals each day). It should be a really fun and fast meet. If you've never attended a college meet, they have a much different feel to them than a USA Swimming meet.

The available sessions are as follows:

Friday November 21

Prelims 10am – 12:30pm ish

Finals  6:00pm – 9pm  (actually 6:25 start swimming…diving is first)

Saturday November 22

Prelims 10am – 12:30pm ish

Finals  6:00pm – 9pm  (actually 6:25 start swimming…diving is first)

Sunday November 23

Prelims 9am – 11am ish

Heats of 1650 – approx. 1-2pm

Finals  3:00pm – 5pm 

Below is a link to a spreadsheet to sign up for the various sessions. I'm not sure what the limit will be per session but sign up and we'll work with Pitt to figure out the number. I'm thinking 4 observers per session would be ideal. You won't be officiating in the traditional sense but will merely observe, especially necessary for events where NCAA and USA Swimming rules vary slightly.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tCeqx0dsUHxN2a-FMXW7IQ-Zlm7WuKqnTTCl0aL7U2A/edit?usp=sharing

Pitt and the other participating teams will really appreciate our support.

AMS Officials Launches its New Website!

AMS Officials, we now have our own website!

Like several other TeamUnify LSC's, we now have our own website to provide important resources and information to our AMS Officials. Take a look and let us know what you think. Go to www.amswim-officials.org and enjoy. The site can also be accessed from the AMS website by clicking on the "Officials" tab. You'll be redirected to our new site.

It is a work in progress. As the Officials Committee continues its work on providing a myriad of resources and tools to our officials, it will be added to the site. If there's anything you believe would be valuable to have as an online resource, let me know. 

We'll continue to use our blog as a great way to communicate with our officials about rules and process, news, share interesting officiating tidbits or just spread nasty rumors about your fellow officials.

Important Changes Arising out of the 2014 US Aquatic Sports Comvention

In September 2014, USA Swimming had its annual convention. I wanted to pass along a few items of interest...

• USA Swimming will be creating a new level national level meet called the Legend Series. It was noted that there was a significant gap between the qualifying times for the Super Sectional meets and Junior Nationals and wanted to create something in between. The Series will be held in the summer and should begin in 2015. These meets will likely be Officials Qualifying Meets and will allow more opportunity for officials to work on a national level deck.
• FINA is once again trying to change the rule related to the optional butterfly kick permitted at the start and after each turn of the breaststroke. Their proposed wording is nearly identical to the High School rule in that a swimmer will be allowed to optionally take a single butterfly kick at any time prior to the first breaststroke kick after the start and each turn. This would eliminate the need for a horizontal separation of te hands prior to allowing this butterfly kick. If passed by FINA, it will be adopted by USAS.
• There were some allowances in permitting deck changing by swimmers. This has now been eliminated and, effective January 1, 2015, there will be no deck changing under any circumstance.
• It appears that we're just a few months away from the allowance of a backstroke wedge/ledge. If you don't know what this is, google an image of the wedge/ledge. It gives the swimmer a better grip on the wall with their feet to launch off with. This will likely be allowed after Winter Nationals in December. Stay tuned!

These are the highlights of some of the changes that will have impact on us as officials.

Application to Officiate - 2014 Christmas Meet (QM14-146)

With the start of the new Short Course season, we look ahead toward December where the 2014 Christmas Meet Invitational will once again be a Officials Qualifying Meet (QM14-146). As you know, this is a very large, fast meet with swimmers coming from other LSC's to compete in a fast pool against fast competition. 

We need as many officials on deck as we can as the meet is run at both ends of the pool. Please indicate your availability to officiate by completing the Application to Officiate (click here). You can also indicate your desire to become nationally certified (or recertify). This year, we're pleased to be bringing Bob Griffiths as our National Evaluator. Bob is a member of the USA Swimming National Officials Committee and is well known in swimming circles across the country. Scott Wilshire will also be an Evaluator.

We look forward to seeing you at the Christmas Meet at Pitt (and many meets leading up to this meet)!