In this non-legislative year, all proposals require 90% of the Board of Governor's vote to pass. The Rules Committee will discuss (if time allows) a suggestion made at the Board of Director's meeting that "due to high cost of printing the rulebook and potential costs associated with making future changes…that the organization work toward making rule changes in the odd years (rather than even years) as well as move to making rule changes once per quad." In the past, the organization has made changes only to have proposals made to change them again the following year. We need to continue to thoroughly study and discuss all potential rule changes and only make those absolutely necessary for the betterment of the sport as a whole. The Rules Committee has worked very hard to look at the "big picture" and not consider how it "affects each of our individual teams or areas". Based on the results of our BOG meetings, I feel we, as a committee, have done just that. I am also very proud that our meetings have been open and not limiting in their discussion. I feel this has helped us to be very productive when we actually go to vote. I look forward to that continuing this year and thank all of the committee members for their hard work and commitment to this committee. I hope to see everyone at the rules meeting on Wednesday, September 10 from 4:30-6.

Proposed rule changes for 2004: (underline=proposed addition..strikethrough = proposed deletion) (These proposals were submitted to the Rules Committee for consideration in the format below. If you have questions or suggestions, please send them to cmitchel@richmond.edu as soon as possible. Any ideas received prior to convention can streamline the discussion there.)

Item 1. Rule II.C.2.b.(1)(b) page 5 (Solo/Duet Qualifications for U.S. National Championship):
(b) In the top 4 (excluding foreign federations and foreign clubs) in the most recent
U.S. Senior Open Championship.

Item 2. Rule II.C.2.b.(2)(b) page 6 (Team Qualifications for U.S. National Championship):
(b) In the top 2 (excluding foreign federations and foreign clubs) in the most recent U.S. Senior Open Championship.

Item 3. Rule II.C.4.c.(2)(b) page 9 (Overqualification for next 2 U.S. Age Group Championships):
(b) U.S. Senior Open Championship
i. Solo - top 8 top 12
ii. Duet - top 8top 12
iii. Trio - top 8top 12
iv. Team - top 3 top 4
Rationale…current rules are for finalists in Solo,Duet and Trio to be overqualified. FINA rules have finalists thru 12 places. FYI..2003 Sr. Open…4 soloists from foreign federations or US national team…4 duets same…if the rule remains the same…only places 5-8 are overqualified since 1-4 wouldn't be swimming age groups anyway…there were only 3 senior trios.

Item 4. Rule II.C.4.c.(2)(d) page 9 (Overqualification for next 2 U.S. Age Group Championships):
(c) U.S. Junior Open Championship
i. Solo - top 3 (excluding foreign federations, foreign clubs and U.S. National Team entries)
ii. Duet - top 3 (excluding foreign federations, foreign clubs and U.S. National Team entries)
iii. Trio - top 3 (excluding foreign federations, foreign clubs and U.S. National Team entries)
iv. Team - first place (excluding foreign federations, foreign clubs and U.S. National Team entries)
Rationale…this keeps the same overqualifications as currently exist...but allow for foreign federations and U.S. National Team placement….If not changed, no solo, duet or team from the 2003 Junior Open would be eliminated from age groups under this rule…since the top 4 solos, 4 duets, and 2 teams were foreign federation/US National team entries…the top 3 trios were US club entries and would be overqualified based on current rules anyway.

Item 5. Rule II.D.2.b. page 11 Housekeeping
b. Free routine Combination: (Held at the 2003 U.S. Open)

Item 6. Rule IV.C.3.b.new (7) page 27 Event Referee
(7) Intervene in the event at any stage to ensure that the rules are observed
and that the safety of the athlete(s) is not compromised.
Rationale…along with item 7 below…allows the event referee to deem whether a specific situation is dangerous to an athlete and stop the routine if necessary.

Item 7. Rule IV.C.5.b.(5)(a) page 28 Disqualification
(a) Failure to complete the routine after entering the water, unless caused by circumstances beyond the control of the competitor. If the cessation is caused by circumstances beyond the control of the competitor(s), the Referee shall allow the routine to be re-swum during the session. Loss of swimwear or swimming aid is considered the responsibility of the competitor.
Rationale…due to safety and liability issues involved with the continued growth of our sport, and since the sport has become more athletic in the pool and on the deck, these proposed changes would ensure that our rules are closer to FINA's and give the referee the ability to decide if the routine can be re-swum.

Item 8. Rule III.A.3.d. U.S. National Championship---delete d.
d. Not eligible to compete in the Olympic Year.)
Rationale…This rule was put in place when we were afraid that a foreign federation would come to our US Nationals and see our Olympic Team. Since our Olympic Team will more than likely not be competing at our US Nationals (due to the Olympic qualifying meet & year round training) is there a reason not to let foreign federations compete? There has already been interest expressed from a federation about competing next year.

In addition, the Scoring Committee will join the Rules Committee for the second half of the meeting at convention…discussion will revolve around the following issues:
· ties (does a tie occur at 100% routine score only? What happens if you the 50% routine score creates a tie? This is critical when moving routines from prelims/semis to finals.
· Rule IV.D.1.b.(4) pages 30-31…Do we need to add wording for Execution and Overall Impression for technical routines? Currently, the information on completing routine sheets only includes "definitions for scoring" Technical Merit and Artistic Impression
· Rule II.C.4.c.(2)e.(4) page 10…Numbers 9 & 10 shall be the pre-swimmers at US Age Group Champs. This rule was put in place for 2003 under the rationale that when a routine was in 10th after figures, they didn't get to swim which served as a huge let down for the swimmers. The thought was we were only adding 1 routine, and everyone thought this was great. However, in reality, (as seen at the 2003 US Age Groups)…we could have 3 or more routines tied for 9th or more than 2 tie for 10th…and therefore could have 3 or 4 pre-swimming routines. How do we want to deal with this and still allow 2 preswimming routines? Do we let them all swim figures and the 9th & 10th places after adding figures get to pre-swim? What if there's still a tie for 10th? Or, do we let them all swim, since no one could tell the difference in them when they swam the first time…remembering that we do have a schedule that will be affected…and remembering that this is a National Championship and sometimes, events will run longer in order to be fair to everyone…maybe additional time needs to be allotted in the schedule to accommodate extra pre-swimming routines…the swimmers have to come first…and if they judges need a longer break, maybe changing the schedule is all that is needed.