·This year’s State SC meet officiating format
includes me as Meet Referee, with the assistance of Mike Bennett,
Mark Posey and Paul Schammel as meet CJ’s. Mike Bennett is
the Head Meet CJ. Meet CJ’s are a bit different than session
CJ’s. Each of the meet CJ’s have specific areas of
responsibility and may be calling upon some of you for your
assistance. I appreciate their help and am confident all i’s
will dotted and t’s crossed! I look forward to an
extraordinary meet experience and know Team Greenville’s
hospitality will continue to be exemplary.
·The State SC meet will be a National Qualifying meet.
Kent Easty will be this year’s evaluator. Please, please
consider this opportunity to receive or advance your national
certification levels for Stroke and Turn (up to N3) and Starter (up
to N2) levels. For evaluation, officials must submit an application
to Kent Easty by the first day of the meet at the officials meeting
(advance notice would be much appreciated). The
application form is attached and can also be found on the SC
Swimming website. All officials should plan to attend the pre-meet
meetings held one hour prior to the start of each session.
Applicants must attend a minimum of three (3) SESSIONS for N2
evaluation and four (4) SESSIONS for N3 evaluation. Please check
with Kent Easty regarding specifics for your advancement. (Kent
Easty email eastys@islc.net)
·The official uniform for this meet is navy
pants/shorts/skirts (prelims), and white shirts for prelims and
finals. No shorts for finals is encouraged.
WHAT’S NEW FOR 2013 PER USA SWIMMING:
·2013 USA Swimming Rule Books are in the mail. Technical
Rules are effective May 1, 2013. All non-athlete official members
of USA Swimming should receive a rule book. It is now available for
review on the USA Swimming website.
·MAJOR LEGISLATION AND RULE CHANGES FOR
2013
oThe Code of Conduct has been updated.
oApplications for sanction or approval
must include a statement regarding deck changing. (prohibited or
discouraged)
oAdministrative officials must be
non-athlete members and must be certified in their position. (see
Section 102.14.1 and 102.14.2 for specifics regarding this
position)
oRequired LSC Bylaws have been revised
to include the Safe Sport Chair and Safe Sport
Committee.
oAge is as of the first day of the
meet with no exceptions.
oAthlete Protection Policies contain
new requirements for clubs.
·Administrative Official position
– USA Swimming will be releasing, within 30 days,
certification guidelines for this position. Each meet must now have
a person serving in this capacity at every meet so the minimum
number of officials per meet is now 4. This person cannot perform
any other official’s duties at a meet. USA Swimming is
strongly encouraging all LSC’s to adopt similar certification
requirements for this position. They are suggesting this individual
take the following written tests as part of the certification
requirements: Administrative Ref, Clerk of Course, Timer and Timer
Judges tests. (whew!) Most clubs intend for one of their console or
meet computer operators to become certified in this position. So,
these folks will have to become a non-athlete member, get a Level
II background check and take the APT course. Stay tuned for future
publications on our LSC’s requirements. This position
is required by 09/01/13.
·Athlete Protection Course renewals
– the first wave of expiration dates of this test is
September, 2013. USA Swimming indicates it will be addressing the
renewal process. I know some folks just retook the test to get all
of their testing expiration dates to align. Per USA Swimming,
sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. They are
working on helping official’s get all of their testing
aligned so one does not have to reprint their certification cards
more than once a year. Again, stay tuned for the
“official” procedure to follow to renew your APT
course.
·USA Swimming asks the LSC Chair’s to qualify who
is responsible for various components of the certification and
registration process.
oLSC Official Chairs
(or their representatives) review each official’s
certification record for renewal of the OFFICIAL’S
CERTIFICATION CARD. In SC you are responsible for printing
your Official’s certification card once you receive an email
from USA Swimming (initiated by the Official’s Chair) that a
new certification card is available to be printed. You can also
print your OFFICIAL’S card any time by going to the website,
log in, go to Members Resources, Official’s tab,
Official’s Tracking System tab and then you will see
“My Certification Card”. Click on this and follow
instructions regarding printing a pdf file of your card.
oSC LSC office is responsible for
processing your non-athlete membership form. Again, you must, or
your club, complete a non-athlete form for 2013, mail to the SC
office with a check for $59 to get your membership renewed. Bobette
Sweezer is the SC administrative assistant. Email her if you have
not received your new blue card in the mail. This is your
NON-ATHLETE USA Swimming membership card. Official’s Chairs
do not have any control or awareness of your membership card
process. I can only see whether you are a current member, the
expiration dates of your background check and APT courses. Bobette
can be contacted as scswimminglsc@gmail.com. She is very attentive
and helpful if you have questions, confusions or concerns. She does
not have anything to do with your official’s certification,
but we work together very well and try to steer folks in the right
direction, but your cooperation would be appreciated. Also, do not
contact USA Swimming regarding your membership or certification.
Start with Bobette (if question is regarding USA Swimming
membership) or myself (if question is regarding your
official’s certification.)
·USA Swimming has indicated it will not be redoing the
Stroke & Turn clinic video. They do promise to create webinars
and vignettes for official’s training.
No doubt this is way too much information at once – but
thank you for your attention and please provide feedback with some
positive suggestions for improvement or if you have an announcement
you would like to make to our membership.
Welcome to 2013 and thank you for your involvement.
