Bob Groff comments on SC MSC

I have been involved with SMB, SC and MSC for more than 40 years. Since my children were in age group swimming and I started masters swimming I have enjoyed the sport. I was not happy with the policy that age group clubs discouraged recreational swimmers when my children swam. I talked to one woman who tossed all her awards after she was not welcomed at her club when she no longer wished to compete. Her club has been renamed and I understand this policy has changed but I see little evidence of it.

When I was on the MSC board I got the impression that MSC bent over backwards to try to work with SC and found that SC would at least give the impression that they supported MSC When I had discussions with SMB I found that they seemed to believe that masters swimming was difficult to deal with but always failed to provide any examples.

In Manitoba we get our insurance through SMB and currently register with the SC registration system. SMB sanctions our meets and usually provide a few officials. This is the extent of their support.

The registration system is not designed for adults and often we find the process takes months to complete rather than minutes. I am not sure why their system does not seem to allow swimmers to enter meets on line and it is often a problem certifying names and birth dates when doing meet entries.

MSC currently handles Manitoba records. I have not seen any indication that anybody else is about to take over this task.

Since masters swimmers in Manitoba have used the SC registration system we have lost both clubs and swimmers. The SC policies do not help with starting small clubs. The constraints to be a club are far too much for a small group of masters swimmers form one.

The new direction SC is proposing is to have a master swimming coordinator and an advisory committee of masters swimmers. It seem to me that is just what they threw out.