In August, Celeste Jacroux applied to attend the USMS annual meeting as an Arizona delegate. Her reason was simple: she wanted to see if there was a way for her to give back to the sport that has given much to her.

From Celeste:

Swimming has served me well, both as an age grouper, and Masters swimmer. I was interested in seeing how the organization operated to support lifelong swimmers, and how I might be able to help those efforts. 

As a lifelong swimmer, I’ve been a USMS member off and on for 20-some years. Some Masters programs required membership, others encouraged it, and others only required it if you wanted to swim in meets. Attending the Annual Meeting provided really great insight into the USMS organization and the people supporting it, and I appreciate the AZLMSC giving me the opportunity to experience it. 

There are 3 things I walked away learning about the USMS organization and the Annual Meeting as a newbie:

1. Everyone is passionate about promoting the sport of swimming, even though there are differences in opinion on what might be the right path to get there
2. The organization is fairly progressive in policies and tries to be inclusive. 
3. The Annual Meeting is run professionally, which allows attendees to voice their opinion. 

The first thing I noticed is that the people involved are all passionate about swimming and providing the best path forward, whatever they believe that is. From what I’ve been told, the voting this year was some of the most decisive in the history of the organization. This was the basis of many of the informal conversations in the public spaces. But it was obvious that regardless of opinion, each person was pursuing what they felt was the best path for the future success of USMS. 

I listened in on a few of the committee Zoom calls prior to the Annual Meeting, including the Diversity and Inclusion committee. I was impressed that, even without the updates to the language, the existing amendments were fairly inclusive. With the passing of the amendment, the USMS amendments clarify that gender identity in the USMS Equal Opportunity statement (article 501.3) include gender expression. Inclusive language like this is so incredibly important to help people feel comfortable and welcome at any USMS club. 

Attending a large meeting like an Annual Meeting for an organization like USMS was an eye-opener. I’ve been to corporate board meetings which are yawners because everyone pretty much knows what will happen. I’ve also been to HOA meetings which are full blown circuses, mostly due to wildly conflicting views and not following any sort of meeting process. The reason the USMS meeting was eye-opening is because while there are different points of view, the meeting process is dialed in to provide a voice for all that wish to speak, while maintaining control of the meeting. In the rare chance that a process wasn’t followed correctly, there was someone there to return to the process to ensure all i’s dotted and t’s crossed. 

I was glad for the opportunity to attend this meeting, and learned a good deal about the priorities of the paid staff of the organization. They are well aware of the weaknesses in the USMS products and services, but also have decades of experience to know how to build the membership.