General Chair Report: The First 20 Days

Southern California Swimming,

On behalf of the newly installed board of directors, please allow me to share my notes from our first 20 days. We’ve set an ambitious agenda to move our LSC into 2022, and the board has made significant progress in addressing several issues that needed immediate attention. Communication, both internal to the board, and external to you, will be a key focus of the new board and myself. I invite you to take a moment to read about the initial projects we’re working on:   

New SCS Organizational Email Addresses: We’ve secured Google Workstation for NPO, and I’ve already started using generalchair@southerncaliforniaswimming.org. On November 1st, the full board of directors will migrate to @southerncaliforniaswimming.org. and the new addresses will be updated in the contact section of the SCS website.

New SCS Office. I’m thrilled to announce the SCS Office is relocating to a professional office building in Rancho Palos Verde. This new space has ample room for the new Executive Director, as well as a conference room for meetings. As we focus on the process of moving the day-to-day business operations to the office staff (sanctions, meet fee processing, etc.), you should expect to see a dramatic improvement in the timeliness of the services our office staff provides to teams and members. Special thanks to our Treasurer Ron Ross for orchestrating this move.

New Executive Director Search. SCS is a large, diverse, and geographically dispersed organization with almost 20,000 members. As such, our organizational structure calls for the day-to-day administrative and operational responsibilities to fall directly under an Executive Director that works with the board of directors. Quite simply put, this organization cannot function properly without a full-time Executive Director assuming those responsibilities. I’ve assembled a working group to begin the process of hiring an interim executive director first, and then conduct a national job search for a highly qualified and experienced director to fill this role.

New Online Platform and SCS Socials: The new Online Presence working group is meeting next week for our initial planning meeting. We have a great team including a professional developer, Mike Pearson who will lead the initial planning. This project will move quickly, and we hope to time the launch of the new site and services with the release of the newly designed SCS Logo currently underway at USAS marketing.

Transition from BRW to USAS National Age Group Motivational Times: I am aware that we need to provide detailed instructions for the transition from BRW time standards. Those instructions will be vetted and provided in a timely manner. The previous board approved this much-needed change; we’re going to roll out the transition guidelines. This is a top priority for the new Age Group Chair, Chris Barber.

Meet Sanction Processing: Until we transition the sanctioning process to the front office, Administrative Vice-Chair, James Gallagher is processing all swim meet sanctions. All sanction applications should be sent to sanctions@southerncaliforniaswimming.org. James is also taking on the monumental tasks of creating the first-ever SCS Policy and Procedure manual which will provide us with the much-needed information to operate under clear directions.

I’m thrilled to share some of the progress we’ve made already. Thank you to all our board members for their hard work! The next few months will be filled with the strategic planning process in 7 key areas that will transform the way the LSC serves its athletes, coaches, clubs, officials, and volunteers.

Strategic Planning: There are 7 key functional areas that will undergo a transformational change in both form and function. These changes will not happen overnight, but we are confident the right team is in place to move deliberately and with purpose. 

1.         National Search for Executive Director

2.         Transition to new website and Social Sites

3.         Develop Policies and Procedures

4.         Budget Review 

5.         Officials Program

6.         Facilitate Committee Autonomy 

7.         LA Co Outreach

I hope this gives our membership a sense of where we’re headed and what we’re doing to get there. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, and please contact me to get involved with this new movement, as we need additional volunteers in several areas!

Thank you, 

Mitch Gold

General Chair, Southern California Swimming