At USA Swimming’s Virtual House of Delegates on Saturday, a motion which would allow “club members in a contiguous area within an LSC…to form a new and independent LSC” if they obtain a simple majority vote rather than the current regulation, a two-thirds majority vote from the House of Delegates of the LSC, was denied.
This vote to dismiss comes after a Special House of Delegates meeting among Southern California Swimming LSC (SCS) teams in February which resulted in a vote against Orange County’s proposal to split off and form their own independent LSC.
The motion (R-21) reads: “To align the formation of a new LSC adoption vote with that of other Article 604 adoption votes.” The other three Article 604 adoption votes all handle significant changes within an LSC, and they only require a simple majority vote. Whereas, the formation of a new LSC requires a more difficult two-third majority vote.
Dave Salo, the general manager of Irvine Novaquatics in Orange County, California, proposed motion R-21 at the Convention today. As the manager of one of the largest teams in the SCS, he has told SwimSwam, “It remains my opinion that SCS is too large of an LSC.”
SCS is the largest Local Swimming Committee in the nation. This motion (R-21) which would make it easier for Orange County teams to split and form their own LSC, as large SCS club teams and their coaches including Salo and Mission Viejo’s Mark Schubert, have been arguing for since the beginning of this year.
Today, Salo cited precedents set forth by other LSC adoption vote Articles. He said, “R-21 moves article 604.3 into compliance with article 604.1 (which speaks to club members LSC affiliation, which requires a simple majority) 604.2 (which addresses changes in LSC territory, which again requires a simple majority) and also 604.4 (which addresses the merging of two contiguous LCS) all of which speak to the application of majority rule in making significant change in LSC affiliation.
We want 604.3 to be in compliance with these other three articles.”
After the motion was denied this morning, Article 604.3 still requires “two-thirds of the number of Club Members in a contiguous area [to] wish to form a new and independent LSC” and for the House of Delegates to approve that change by a two-thirds majority vote. Only then, will the proposed formation of the new LSC be submitted to the Chair of the USA Swimming Rules and Regulations.
Orange County, by itself, is huge. This should have passed.
Seems obvious what’s going to happen next, the big OC teams (such as Nova, Nada, Gators) with the most talent and resources will reduce bidding on diverse LSC meets that host the lower budget and slower teams from L.A. county, and will focus on dual and tri meets with only their OC teams. I know there is volumes of discussion to be made about equality and equity between swim teams in LA vs OC. Yes, improvements are needed. Anybody who has done a Rose Bowl meet would agree that the SCS LSC is way, way too big and needs to be divided somehow before full time racing resumes again. Pandemic or not, way too many swimmers in one place almost… Read more »
Honestly, anyone who logged in to that HOD meeting probably knows the entire set-up was such a shit-show, that they should have postponed it until they could ensure that the voting members could have any idea of what was being said. I’d love to know how many of the ~510 voting delegates made it past the first break. I didn’t.
Amen…you couldn’t be more right, especially the way you described it!
Changing the rules because the plan didn’t work the first time
That’s too bad some of these LSCs are even more corrupt than USA Swimming. Less regulation = less ineptitude