2014 USAS Convention Workshops

[Timswim]

The Education Sub-committee is open to suggestion's for Workshops for the 2015 USAS Convention.
If there are any topics you would like to see facilitated please reply with your ideas.
The committee is also interested in ideas for Webinar ideas and/or topics.

[TosbornMOORE]

"Roberts Rules of Order" - we need training for *all* House of Delegates members on what the rules are and some 'role playing' examples of how a discussion should play out in terms of motions, discussion and voting

[TosbornMOORE]

"Creating and Managing a Budget" - a class not just on the Accounting aspects of financial reporting but also the Operations aspects of setting a target cash-on-hand amount, setting priorities for you LMSC, putting dollar amount estimates against those priorities and creating a budget with the right amount of income or expense to move toward your long term cash balance target, then managing expenses to match your budget throughout the year.

[Paige]

Ever wondered what people have suggested as a future topic upon leaving a convention workshop? Here are suggestions from 2011 and 2012. Are there any that sound like the seed of anything interesting to you for 2014 or 2015?

For the LMSC Development committee, which organizes 4-5 of the workshops, the focus is on governance, budgeting, volunteer development in LMSC roles and how LMSCs support their club and individual members. I've *starred* some suggestions that don't fall into those categories. However, we'd love to hear if there is strong support for that type of convention programming. At recent conventions the USMS Coaches Committee has organized seminars for dryland and in-pool training trends. Likewise a Meet Director workshop can contain information that helps delegates who wear many hats back at home.

Future Convention Workshop Ideas from 2011 & 2012
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*meet director workshop: what to expect if you host a meet, what you need to know, how to market your event
*dryland exercises for advanced competitive athletes
outreach to engage and involve younger participants. Need next generation of leaders and volunteers
same one (Officials)
educational topics
*meet directing - running a meet
the types of awards and recognitions for new delegates
how to start a new open water event
what should LMSCs do to have cyber-liability insurance?
overview of what USMS insurance covers for an LMSC
Examples of clubs who are meeting & exceeding the minimum standards. Giving specific examples of successful LMSCs to model after would also be helpful.
Conducting an annual meeting. Maybe an annual meeting could be a self-audit of these 14 high-priority items.
Face to Face development w/individual LMSC delegates
Best Practices for LMSCs
Contracts with coaches. Contracts with swimmers.
The open forum portion was very helpful regarding the work of this new committee. I look forward to what they will bring forth
Best practices in structuring your LMSC
More on Min basic standards
Communication within the LMSC
More Stroke, Weights & Dryland clinic. Dealing with problems such as alcoholism/dementia
About USMS certification
How to develop a grant program for an LMSC w/additional funds to allocate funds that clubs/other programs can tap into.
Detailed marketing workshop
Tips on how to "barter" is helpful & smart!
A workshop on club formation
How to organize and run a stroke clinic
How different LMSC’s conduct meetings, do things, etc.
An “Intro to LMSC Chairmanship” for those of us new to USMS and new in leadership roles.
Perhaps a Phase 2 as the technology develops.
How to promote meet participation
More on proactive LMSC Standards
Do LMSC create job descriptions and expectations for each volunteer position?
Absolutely, good leadership is essential.
Any sports medicine topics-hands on
*Writing workouts
Motivating people to join (finding them, getting them excited and getting them involved)
This topic (Managing Member Dynamics - Conflict Resolution) needs to be explained-need 1.5 hours minimum to fully cover
Education on by-laws for LMSC and Clubs
Setting expectations for volunteers
This one (Managing Member Dynamics - Conflict Resolution) should be mandatory for all delegates. This is a great organization and the people here are great, but these courses need to filter down to the team level
I believe this is a good topic (Practice Safe Swimming) every year
people with disabilities
ocean safety
proper guarding & qualifications
coaching/developing open water team/club
USA Swimming and USMS insurance cross-over and the proper practices combined teams must adhere to and not assume is adequate
Anything you think we need-great to hear what other LMSC's are doing
First meet clinic Agenda/Topics
How to get volunteers
How to get more participation in LMSC meets
More on LMSC deficits-Improving to meet standards
Day 1 For new people...15-20 minutes with each committee chair presenting to the committee****Goals, functionality(How often meet? In person or tel. conf.) Who is on committee other responsibilities
Sanctioning pool and Open Water events
Most effective communication to geographically diverse populations.
Club make-up of LMSC’s, perhaps focus on Club and Club growth
A chance to work one-on-one inside or outside convention on computer/web issues

[erinswim]

I like the running a meet/meet director idea. We could cover not just how to run a meet (sanction, officials, etc.) but we could also cover how to run meets with USA swimmers, etc.

[MPohlmann]

The running a meet/meet director idea is always worthwhile. We have many changes in how to apply for a sanction and what is required in a meet entry form, as "erinswim" mentioned how to run a dual sanctioned meet. There are also differences between small and large meets, those run with manual timing vs automated timing, online registration and mailed registration, etc. I've put together a summary for our LMSC which tries to tie together the multiple resources available in the USMS Guide to Operations and the USMS Rule Book. We are trying to encourage new meet hosts at new facilities, but the process is intimidating to someone who has never run a meet.

[swimsmar]

I am not sure if you are still taking suggestions, but some of our meet directors have been complaining about coordinating entries with Hytek. They don't know how to do it, they want an easy way to download USMS swimmers info into Hytek, and even have trouble submitting results. I am not that familiar with Hytek and do not know the answer to these questions, but as sanctions chair I get asked these questions all the time. To find answers, I have been looking for You Tube How-To videos. I am not sure how accurate they are, but it would be a wonderful resource for meet directors if someone from USMS made a video capturing the computer screen shots. Perhaps using JING???

[ALM]

I am not sure if you are still taking suggestions, but some of our meet directors have been complaining about coordinating entries with Hytek. They don't know how to do it, they want an easy way to download USMS swimmers info into Hytek, and even have trouble submitting results. I am not that familiar with Hytek and do not know the answer to these questions, but as sanctions chair I get asked these questions all the time. To find answers, I have been looking for You Tube How-To videos. I am not sure how accurate they are, but it would be a wonderful resource for meet directors if someone from USMS made a video capturing the computer screen shots. Perhaps using JING???

Please contact me at: Membership (at) usms (dot) org. I have tutorials for all of these things.

Anna Lea

[jroddin]

I am not sure if you are still taking suggestions, but some of our meet directors have been complaining about coordinating entries with Hytek. They don't know how to do it, they want an easy way to download USMS swimmers info into Hytek, and even have trouble submitting results. I am not that familiar with Hytek and do not know the answer to these questions, but as sanctions chair I get asked these questions all the time. To find answers, I have been looking for You Tube How-To videos. I am not sure how accurate they are, but it would be a wonderful resource for meet directors if someone from USMS made a video capturing the computer screen shots. Perhaps using JING???

The Potomac Valley website has a few links that may be helpful to Meet Directors. Mostly they are just links to external references, but at least it is one place to get much of what is needed to help with meets. Please click on this link and scroll down to the info for Meet Directors:
http://www.pvmasters.org/admin.htm

Jeff

[Michael Heather]

I have a couple of observations: although it is too late now to suggest workshop subjects, by scanning Paige's list and viewing other posts, it is obvious that the LMSCs are best prepared to help one another in most tasks. They should be encouraged to reach out (possibly through this forum, possibly through the NO) to one another to solve issues and discuss remedies. One workshop once per year will only help those who attend the convention.

The actual number of workshops should be pared down to 4 or less. Not because there is not enough subject matter, but because there is not enough time. Delegates are severely stressed from a day long meeting schedule, and unless its schedule has been modified, the hospitality suite is not open enough hours for the delegates to unwind and share their experiences. The evenings are precious down time in which the delegates can recharge for tomorrow. The addition of workshops every night creates an obligation and extra time commitment to which most delegates respond.

Here is the bad part. Because they are at many workshops, they do not have time to review minutes of committee meetings or discuss the ramifications of possible legislation. This means that the delegates are not as well prepared to do the work of USMS at the HOD meetings, voting only because they are expected to, not because they are well informed.