This past weekend, September 8-10th was the 2023 USMS Annual Meeting (Convention). This is the annual meeting of delegates from each LMSC that get to review, and vote on Legislative, Rule, Distance events, and governing sections of our USMS Rule book.

The number of delegates each LMSC is allowed to send depends on their registration amounts. AZ has been allowed three for multiple years. Our LMSC Chairman sends out a blast to the membership to see who would like to attend. This year we had four swimmers from our membership send in their letter of interest. All four, including Jeff Commings who is an “automatic” delegate attended. Jeff is an “automatic” since he is currently the Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee AND he also the SW Zone At Large Delegate to the USMS Board of Directors.

This year’s four delegates were, Barbara Sloan, Gini Baker, Jim Rowland, and Judy Gillies. Prior to the actual meeting in Houston, there were multiple Virtual Committee Meetings that all delegates were encouraged to attend to get a feeling of what was going to be voted on during the actual House of Delegates (HOD) at this annual meeting. Then, after the meetings, each delegates fills in a review of all of the meeting, and the meals, and a second follow up form where they can select which committee’s they would like to be on.

The photo above shows the four of us: Jim Rowland, Judy Gillies, Barbara Sloan, and Jeff Commings. Gini ended up doing the annual meeting virtual since she had a family emergency the week before leaving for Houston.

Article by Judy Gillies