Southern California Swimming, the largest Local Swimming Committee (LSC) in the United States, has announced a $650,000 program to provide relief to its member clubs.
The program is specifically designed to help clubs at risk of folding, and to provide financial support to teams in need that choose to participate in testing new competition models with the probable restrictions on large gatherings after the shutdowns are relieved.
Phase I – YTD Until 90-days after Return to Operations
- Southern California Swimming will consider up to $80,000 in support for meets that were on the SCS schedule in March, April, May, and June 2020 but were cancelled in response to quarantine mandates.
Clubs must apply for this financial support to receive it, and this involves about 80 meets.
- Up to $220,000 is available to support teams that are in “dire need.” Among the definitions that will be applied here is less than 2.5-times their monthly operating expenses in the bank (a standard measure for solvency in the non-profit world). Clubs will also have to provide a number of financial statements and proof that they’ve applied for a government SBA loan. Teams will be reimbursed based on an “Athlete Share.
In short, the $220,000 will be divided by the number of registered athletes (as of April 7th) that are on qualifying teams, and each team will be reimbursed that amount per athlete.
Of note: this will likely be more per athlete than the $8 that the Southern California LSC took in per athlete this year. Of the $70 athlete registration fee, $62 went to USA Swimming. The $8 LSC portion is relatively low compared to other LSCs. Applications for this program are due by April 24th, 2020.
Phase II – Beginning 90 Days after Return to Operations
- SCS will allocate an additional $350,000 to help teams that are in need. This will come in two parts
- Part I will be $200,000 to support teams after they have returned to operations
- Part II will be $150,000 to help teams in need to run future meets, especially ones that might have new or different formats as a result of any post-lockdown restrictions on large gatherings.
By comparison, Southern California Swimming only took in an $8 registration fee per swimmer this year, so they’re giving teams back more than triple what those athletes paid.
A Finance Committee Report presented at Wednesday evening’s board meeting says that Southern California Swimming has $1,685,000 in the bank, with $680,000 of that money earmarked for programs already. That leaves them $1,005,000 in “Total Unused Funds.”
Restarting Plan
While there is no timeline yet on restarting swim programs around the country, Southern California Swimming did approve a “30/60/90” plan for restarting programs:
- 30 days of practice only
- 31-60 – limited meets
- 61-90 days – bigger meets.
There was some contention over this plan, as many clubs wanted to be more autonomous, while Southern California Swimming wanted to create a uniform plan.
Contention in the LSC
The Southern California Swimming LSC was already under some pressure after a group of teams in Orange County attempted to break off and form their own LSC earlier this year. While the LSC ultimately voted to remain intact, not all teams were happy about the plan. One coach told SwimSwam that, while there was still definitely tension between the groups, at the moment all teams are figuring out how to ‘survive’ and that those tensions would probably flare up again once swimming returned.
The Board of Directors initially proposed a block on team transfers, but that was withdrawn before the meet started. There is some concern that has been expressed that pools in Orange County will open before Los Angeles County, because of the different government mandates that might be seen in the different counties, and that this could lead to a flood of swimmers transferring to Orange County clubs.
Two brief comments…
1. We applaud SCS for using their financial reserves to help clubs in need. This virus’ impacts might go on far longer than we all want, and restrictions on meets will also hurt clubs’ revenue. But SCS should also lift their monopolistic rules on meet entry fees – let the host club and the location and the market set the price so clubs can make some money!
2. We didn’t realize ’til this article that SCS’ financials are not independently audited. That has to change. Member teams and swimmers deserve the assurance that their money is handled correctly and transparently.
Why did you include that they are not independently audited? I didn’t see that in the article. California has audit requirements for many large 501c3’s based on revenue and other reporting requirements so I would guess (but don’t know) that SCS would hit those requirements.
Glad they are providing money but I would think SwimSwam has a picture of a SoCal pool rather than using one of the George Haines International Swim Center in Santa Clara!
What is amazing in all of these stories is that no one ever asks why do the LSCs have 1.6 million or however many dollars in the bank doing nothing. The only thing they should be keeping money for is maybe a year or two of absolute necessary office functions. Perhaps if the LSCs did not take so much money from the clubs for surcharges and meet fees, many of these clubs applying for aid would not be at less than 2 months of reserves. The “LSC’s money” comes from the clubs, they do not generate their own revenue.
Yes your 100% correct! It is always told to us that it is a rainy day fund. Well its raining people!
SCS is dirty. There needs to be an independent audit of its financials. None of this money goes to what it’s intended for. A small example of this – at January’s Pacific Coast All Star Meet, 11-14 yr old swimmers were forced to sleep 4 to a room and were not even provided dinner on the last day of the meet. SCS is shameful.
Our LSC (somewhere in CA) isn’t perfect BUT they seem to have some passionate individuals making a difference in improving our LSC especially for our swimmers. Unfortunately, teams in reoccurring financial distress despite LSC subsidies for hosting certain meets and allowances $$ to elite travel meets may not survive with dwindling LSC reserves $$$$.
OC does not want to be governed by the SCS Clown show anymore. Let us go!
Thank god MaryJo is long gone. She was the ring leader.
Shes’ one of the people behind the group trying to break from SCS.
The old fart coaches trying to break away from the SCS are the real clown show. You’re free to start your own LSC whenever you want. You just can’t take the ball ($$$) with you.
Mission Viejo is about 60 miles from most of La. More likely La swimmers would picked much closer FAST in Fullerton or Golden West in Huntington Beach. Not only does OC have differences with La but so does Riverside and San Bernadino.