1. Foreign Swimmers: Chairman had received inquiries about foreign swimmers having USMS cards. Discussion resulted in consensus that a person can only have one USMS registration, but there is nothing to prevent a foreign swimmer from holding an USMS registration and a membership in his/her own country. SWIM Magazine labels are prepared for swimmers with foreign addresses and forwarded to the SWIM Magazine printer with labels for USMS members with state addresses.

2. LMSC Handbook: The responsibility of compiling the LMSC handbook will be taken over by Tracy Grilli, the National Executive Secretary, as it would be difficult for new and/or old Chairman of Registration Committee to oversee this project during the transition of chairmanship.

3. 1998 Registration Cards: The contract has been signed with Gateway Printing to run 50,000 (fifty thousand) 1998 USMS membership cards. The initial supply of 1998 registration cards will be mailed from Gateway Printing to LMSC Registrars with labels and number count supplied by National Registrars. Additional cards will be obtained from the National Registrars as needed. It is hoped to have 1998 cards mailed by October 20th. If an LMSC has a change of LMSC Registrar, please inform the National Registrars immediately so cards will be mailed to correct person.

Question: Should a new card be issued with a change of address?

Discussion: The priority is to make sure that change of address gets from the LMSC Registrar to National Registrar to ensure the most current address gets printed for SWIM Magazine. Some LMSC's issue a new card with new address, some don't. Persons who attended meeting said that experience had taught meet entry processors to use address on entry for the address of the swimmer if different from the address on the card. The committee decided to allow the LMSC to set its own policy in this matter.

Question: Should there be a fee for new or lost cards?

Discussion: It is up to the LMSC to set a policy, but it makes sense to charge some fee to pay for the cost of processing the card a second time. Also, it was felt that it would make swimmers more responsible for keeping track of their card if a fee was involved with replacement.

1. Updated USMS Program: Six LMSC Registrars had requested the year 2000 update fix that was available after the 1996 convention. One LMSC Registrar had terrible luck with it. Others had no problem but it was strongly recommended to run it from DOS and not from Windows. The new USMS update takes care of year 2000 and figuring ages for 100 year old swimmers, but another registration program that is available seems to be more reliable as confirmed by a number of LMSC Registrars.

2. One-Event Registration: MSP* to keep one event registration in rulebook as written so that those LSMC's who want to use it can. MSP* not to bring up one event registration again unless there is a proposal to change the wording in the rulebook.

3. 30-Day Period Try Out form: It was discussed that an LMSC should have a form to cover the 30-day try out period for a swimmer. It only needs to be the USMS waiver titled as a 30 Day Try Out form with place for swimmer to sign and date. Local club/workout groups should pass on a copy of this waiver to the LMSC Registrar so that there is a way to track swimmers who may "hop" from group to group for workouts to avoid joining USMS. Only one 30-Day waiver will be allowed per swimmer per registration year.

4. Information on USMS Cards: Persons processing entries for National meets still have problems with one or two LMSC's whose cards do not have club number/club acronym on top line after individual's USMS registration number and do not have club name written out on the next line. Chairman will write to offending LMSC Registrar and Chairman (one particular LMSC has been notified in the past of this problem) to offer help in providing a registration program that will do this and to warn that cards that do not comply will have entries refused.

1. Registration and the Internet: Committee member Jim Matysek spoke to the group about how the Internet could be used by registrars. There is no reason not to investigate putting LMSC registrations on the Internet, but it may take a year or so to work out possible problems with security of information and how the process would actually work. Issues concerning acceptance/signature of waiver would have to be approved by insurance committee. The form of payment by using a credit card would have to be worked out with cost of using a credit card built into the fee to join USMS/LMSC. There must be someone to keep track of monies so that the receiving LMSC receives its share of the fee in a timely manner. There must be an issuance of a card or proof of joining to the LMSC so that registration number is compatible to the LMSC's order of numbers. At this time it is not practical to have the entire USMS database on line for use by local LMSC Registrars and/or meet directors as the file would be too large for the net provider to handle, and the question of security is a major concern.

2. Payment delays from LMSC to USMS: Every year there is at least one or two LMSC's who accumulate a large balance due USMS. Though the policy has been to only accept submittals with a check, the convenience to use E-Mail for submissions of registrations means that the check is received after the submittal. In order to clarify the process and to make the one or two LMSC's more aware of their lack of payment, the National Registrars will send out a monthly notification of receipt of submittal. The receipt will include a statement to those LMSC's in arrears that 1 1/2% charge will be added to the outstanding balances sixty days after the original submission. If no money is received by that time, the National Registrar will forward the name(s) of the delinquent LMSC ('s) to the USMS Treasurer who will follow up with her own notification that the LMSC is in arrears.

3. Wyoming LMSC: Donna Griffin has volunteered to accept the responsibilities of Wyoming and the former positions of Grace and Mel Dyck who moved to Arizona.

L-1 MSP* to wait until Insurance Committee and Fitness Committees have worked out differences in language that is unacceptable to Insurance Committee before considering proposal.

L-2 MSP* and Amended MSP* to wait to consider proposal until an ad-hoc committee composed of members from Registration and Finance is appointed to study how to implement this classification of membership.

506.2.15 MSP* - unanimous support of this legislative proposal

L-11 MSP*- unanimous support of this legislative proposal

L-12 MSP* - unanimous support of this legislative proposal.

5. Presentation by Jack Geoghegan: Jack gave a background history of USMS and its involvement with the International Hall of Fame. He then presented a proposal that the USMS registration have a box to check on the registration form that a swimmer is added a donation ($1.00) to the registration fees submitted. This extra money would be collected by USMS to make a donation to the International Hall of Fame from USMS. Presently five cents per swimmer is already being donated by USMS, but this additional money will make a stronger commitment to the IHOF.

MSP* - The Registration committee is willing to endorse the proposal to process voluntary donations to the IHOF and to the USMS Foundation (when it is operating).

Meeting closed at 10:20 to just committee members to discuss issues for next Position Statement of National Registrar and evaluation tool for the position of National Registrar. At 10:30 the closed meeting was adjourned after agreeing to meet again at later time to continue discussion.

Submitted by Diane Black, Recorder and Barbara H. Larsen, Registration Chairman

*MSP-Moved, Seconded, Passed