Courtesy: Southern Zone
HOUSTON: The Southern Zone will be hosting its first annual Athlete Workshop via Zoom on July 11, 2020 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. CT. The workshop will consist of more than 30 athletes from the various Local Swimming Committees (LSCs) spread throughout the Southeastern United States. In addition to including athletes from each LSC, the workshop will also include non-athletes to engage and work with their LSC athlete representatives.
The focus of the workshop is on personal and professional development for our athletes. Through Zoom video conference calls, athletes will engage in various activities– learning about themselves, fellow athlete representatives, professional communication, professional behavior, long-term project planning, and legislation writing, as well as meeting with previous Olympians, National Team members, workplace professionals and their respective LSC General Chairs.
Athletes will have the option to focus the majority of their time in either legislation writing and proposing or long-term athlete-based project planning. Annie Norris, the Southern Zone Senior Athlete Representative from the Gulf LSC, says that she hopes every athlete walks away with tangible skills and an action item ideas to focus on within their LSCs in the future.
“We hope that this workshop not only develops leadership skills to bolster our athlete representation within our organization, but also goes beyond our sport and helps our representatives into college and their professional lives,” Norris said.
Norris is excited to use the virtual workshop as a template for what the Southern Zone can get done and achieve once the athletes are back together again. She says the Zone’s hope is to facilitate productive collaboration while fostering stronger relationships on the athlete level and non-athlete level.
About the Southern Zone
The mission of the Southern Zone’s Athletes’ Committee is to empower and support athlete representatives to utilize their voice in the governance of USA Swimming. The Southern Zone contains the Border, Florida Gold Coast, Florida, Georgia, Gulf, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Texas, South Carolina, South Texas, Southeastern, West Texas and West Virginia Local Swim Committees.
Will someone please take the A3 job already! 🙂