The Future of USA Swimming

I was watching Rollerball (1975 with James Caan and John Houseman) the other day.  It was on sale on iTunes, and I had to get it, and it made me think about the future.  The my future, the future of the country, the future of our sport, and the future of USA Swimming.

The ultimate tough guy,
and no I don't think I am Jonathan E

Part of this is because I have been working on making the Alaska Swimming Bylaws conform to the USA Swimming Bylaws.  I have been working diligently on getting Alaska Swimming through the LEAP process so that we don't get fined and I don't lose my membership (read "Do we need to make a change in USA Swimming?  How about ASCA?").  The Bylaw updates are challenging because we have not been updating our bylaws to conform with USA Swimming for the last 10 years.  It seems that when we make a change to the AK Bylaws we have to notify USA Swimming, but not the other way around....but I am not really writing about  that.

What I am writing about is the conforming and the thumb of USA Swimming pressing down on me/us.  I am headed to the convention in September, and I am hoping to get a feel for the organization from the administrative angle.  It has been 10 years since I have been to the convention, and I feel like there has been a lot of change.

I am worried about the loss of some individualism at the LSC and club levels.  I feel like one of our founding fathers  who argued about states rights vs. federalism.  Right now we are drifting toward the "federalism" of our sport.  I don't feel like this is a good thing.  There are some things that should be taken care of by USA Swimming, and some things that should be handled by the LSC, and others that should be handled at the club level.  Lately, however, more and more things are being dictated by USA Swimming, and less is being left up to the LSC's and clubs.