Teams Represented: Beaufort, Cherokee, Clinton, Greenwood. Laurens, Newberry, Sumter, Rock Hill, Hendersonville, Pickens, and Berkley

Teams Without Representation: Columbia YMCA and Florence

The meeting was called to order by President Don Kier.

Minutes from the July 27, 2001 meeting were approved as written.

Ashley Martin, league secretary reported a balance of $374.85 pending bills from clinics. President Kier was asked about reimbursement for clinics. Kier reported due to the large response of participants, only a small amount @$4.00 per person would be available for reimbursement. If anyone wants to be reimbursed, please contact Ashley Martin.

President Kier asked Jerry Coffey to update the league on the re-organization of the YMCA and how it might affect the Blue Ridge Cluster. Coffey reported that very little will change. Hendersonville will not be in our state alliance, but we could still allow them to participate in our league. He reported the one thing that will change is the league name. The Blue Ridge Cluster no longer exists. Several league names were discussed. A vote was called and Carolina YMCA Swim League was approved 7 to 1. The league will now be known as Carolina YMCA Swim League.

Discussion moved to cluster rules. Coaches need to be familiar with cluster by-laws and rules. Several sections of the rulebooks were on the agenda for clarification. It was brought to the attention of President that the name change would require the by-laws and rules to be updated to reflect the new name. It was suggested that a committee go through the rules and by-laws and put them in proper order. Several items are duplicated in multiple places. No rules are to be rewritten, only re-organized. Dena Goeckner, Merv Faassen-de-heer , and Don Kier volunteered for the committee.

Meet information is not being sent out in a timely manner. Teams were reminded current rule states "The host team will provide meet details, including but not limited to, starting time, location, directions, other invitees, etc. at least two weeks before the scheduled date of the meet." If a team is scheduled to attend a meet, and does not have any swimmers who can attend, they must let the host team know by the entry deadline.

Proposed Rule Changes

Proposal: Eliminate the rule allowing one false start (rules section) which states: "One false start will be allowed per swimmer for each event". No other governing body allows a false start. Discussion focused on our league being a starting ground for swimmers. If the false start is eliminated, new swimmers may be penalized unfairly. The proposal failed two to six. The current rule will remain in effect.

Proposal: "If a regular schedule meet was re-scheduled for any reason, only those swimmers registered with the cluster prior to the original date of the meet will be eligible to use that meet as one of their qualifying meets for the cluster championship." This was defeated 6 to 4. As long as a swimmer is registered prior to the rescheduled meet, they may use it as a qualifier.

Proposal: Change "Diving or entering the pool in shallow water must be according to home pool regulations. Please specify diving policy with meet information" to read "diving into water less than 5 fees deep will not be permitted." Proposal passed 10 to 0. Diving in less than 5 foot of water is prohibited.

Proposal: "For relay teams, the name of the swimmers in the relay will be written on the back of the entry card before the team goes into the starting area". Add the statements "Relay cards that are turned in without names are to be scored as exhibition. Meet results must show names for any relay team that is not entered as exhibition." Proposal passed 10 to 0. Swimmer names must be on relay cards for the relay to score. Meet results must show swimmers names.

Proposal: " Where a team cannot field a natural relay due to few swimmers, then in the interest of competition, a mixed relay may be entered as boys' events." Add the statement "To enter a mixed relay team, the following conditions must be met: 1) A natural girl's relay in the same event must be entered first if enough girls in that age group are available to do so, 2) All available boys in the relay age group must swim on the mixed relay team. " Proposal failed 9 to 1. The current rule will remain in effect.

Proposal: "A swimmer may move up one age group for a relay but will swim in that age group for the other relay if swimming two relays. This does not constitute moving up an age group for the season." Add the statement "A swimmer may move up one age group even if this results in one or more swimmers in the relay's natural age group being "bumped" from the relay team." Proposal failed 10 to 0. It was pointed out we have a rule in place for this. If a relay is trying to qualify for Y Nationals a team may bump a natural relay, but the unnatural relay must be declared prior to the meet, and must swim as exhibition.

Proposal: Add section to the championship meet article to define the order of events for a one-day or for a two-day championship meet. The one-day format would have the same order of events as a regular season meet. The two-day format would have the IM’s and Medley Relays swam during the first day (evening) and the remaining events swam the following day in their natural order. Proposal passed 10 to 0. The section will be added.

Proposal: Add a section to the Championship Meet Article to allow the 25 yard events to be timed with stopwatches (freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly only) so that the swimmers can get the advantage of starting from the blocks. The 25 yard backstroke could optionally be started from either end since it's and in-the-water start. Proposal passed 10 to 0. Rules will be updated.

Proposal: Revise age eligibility, which states: "The swimmer’s age the first day of the meet will determine the age group the swimmer is in." This rule puts us in direct violation of the YMCA eligibility for sanctioned meets, which is the swimmers age as of December 1. We could revise the rule to be the age the day of the meet for summer meets and for meets prior to December 1, and then use the December 1 date for the remainder of the winter season including the Winter Championship meet. Proposal failed 8 to 2. Current age-up rule will remain in effect.

Proposal: "Swimmers may participate through the season in which they turn 19 years old providing they have not participated on any college swim teams." Current rule states "Swimmers may participate in the league through the summer season immediately following their high school graduation provided they are not attending college classes during that summer. (Revised 3/25/2000). There was discussion that by allowing the current rule to stand the league would bar someone who graduated early from swimming. Vote was called. The proposal failed 7 to 3. Current rule will remain in effect.

Proposal: Eliminate the "A" events and renumber events 1 – 90. This will help avoid confusion at the championship meets. Proposal passed 9 to 0.

Proposal: Revise Article III of membership which states "Any YMCA in the Blue Ridge Cluster will be eligible for membership, by writing to a responsible representative of the League. Acceptance will be made by majority vote. Every participating YMCA will have one vote, to be designated by the association management. Other YMCA's and/or swim teams may swim in league meets but are not eligible or permitted to swim the Championship Meets". Change the first part to read "YMCA's may petition for membership in the Blue Ridge Cluster by writing to an officer of the Blue Ridge Cluster. Acceptance will be made by majority vote at any scheduled cluster meeting. Add the following statement to the end of the Article: "YMCA's which have been accepted as members of the Blue Ridge Cluster but have elected not to participate in three consecutive seasons must re-apply for membership." The proposal was amended. The league will recognize two seasons summer and winter. Currently the league has teams that only participate in the winter, and some that only participate in the summer. Several teams are year round. If a summer teams fails to compete one summer, it must reapply for the next summer season, in turn if a winter teams fails to compete one winter, they too must reapply for the upcoming season. The secretary will maintain a list of summer teams, and winter teams. The amended proposal passed unanimously.

Proposal: Eliminate the following rule "Swimmers 6 & Under may enter the 8 & Under IM, if the swimmer places in the IM it will not count toward individual high points, but will count as team points." If the event is 8 & U why do we need any rule to allow 6 & U to swim in the event and why would we not want the points to count as individual high points? Discussion followed, centering around why should 6 and unders not be allowed to swim an IM if they can do so legally. The rule was amended to make the 8 & under IM a 7 & 8 IM, and add a 6 & under IM. The proposal to add the 7 & 8 IM passed unanimously as did the proposal to add a 6 & under IM.

Summer schedule was established. See attached.

Clinton and Laurens will no longer swim as one team.

Sanctioned Championship Meets: In the interest of providing our league swimmers who qualify for Y nationals an opportunity to attend a sanctioned meet, the winter championship must be sanctioned. The league summer championship is too late to use as a qualifier for YMCA Nationals. It was recommended that a sanctioned mid-summer championship meet be held each year to provide summer swimmers a chance to attend a qualifying championship with out putting the burden of travel upon the swimmer. The mid-summer championship meet is in name only. The league championship will be the last meet of the summer season. Newberry agreed to host the 2002 mid-summer sanctioned championship.

The championship 2002 summer championship was awarded to Newberry.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Dena Goeckner

BRCSL Secretary

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