The Special House of Delegates meeting of Southern California Swimming (SCS) that was scheduled for January 15th, 2020 has been cancelled. The regular Board of Directors meeting for that date will begin at 8:00 PM as regularly scheduled.
The Special meeting was being called for SCS member clubs to vote on the proposal to form a new offshoot Local Swimming Committee in Orange County.
The meeting was cancelled after Southern California Swimming’s LSC leadership consulted with USA Swimming Chairman of the Rules and Regulations committee Clark Hammond. According to Hammond, the original 20 days’ notice given by SCS general chair Terry Stoddard on December 27th regarding a January 15th meeting was “ineffective,” because the 20 days are supposed to start on the day after the announcement of the meeting, meaning that January 16th is the first eligible date for a Special House of Delegates under SCS bylaws.
This means that SCS will need to give new notice of a new meeting and start a new 20-day clock before the vote can happen.
In his response, Hammond brought up other procedural issues. He notes that the petition to call the meeting, which requires signatures from 10 group members of the SCS House of Delegates, doesn’t appear to have any. Clark also observes that the SCS bylaws make it unclear who decides when the notice is given, and that Stoddard should poll the Board of Directors to set a date, emphasizing that it needs at least 20 days notice, but not exactly 20 says notice.
Stoddard notified membership on Friday that he still considers the request for a special meeting to be “received” and that the request will be added to the agenda for the January 15th BOD meeting (not for a vote, but in terms of setting a date).
From Stoddard’s email:
I will add the request to the agenda for January 15th’s SCS BOD Meeting by way of recognizing the Orange Committee – Chair during the General Chair Report and entertain a motion to call for a Special House of Delegates Meeting of Southern California Swimming at that time.
Should the SCS BOD desire to accommodate this request and pass such a motion then my recommendation would be to hold a Special HOD meeting on the third Wednesday of the month.
- This is when the SCS Board of Directors normally meets.
- I would recommend February 19, 2020 for the date of this Special HOD.
- This would help meet the March 31st deadline required by USA Swimming.
Every club in SCS gets a vote on the matter, and Stoddard encourages member clubs to ask questions beforehand to inform their decision. According to USA Swimming rules, two-thirds of the club members in Southern California Swimming must vote to approve the new LSC. Then the USA Swimming Rules and Regulations Committee would make a recommendation to the USA Swimming House of Delegates, with the House of Delegates having the final vote to approve or disapprove the formation of the new LSC.
Southern California Swimming is the largest LSC in the country as measured by year-round athlete membership. Clubs in Orange County represent 34 of the LSC’s current 152 clubs, and 7,000 of the LSC’s current 22,000+ athlete members.
Hmm, makes you think