NISC Bylaw

 

 

The purpose of the Northern Illinois Swim Conference is to efficiently and economically provide a swimming opportunity, which is designed to provide wholesome, constructive and enjoyable leisure time experiences that benefit the individual and the participating member agencies.

 

To meet this purpose the Conference has identified the following to be major components of its organization:

 

1.      The Conference will be designed to promote positive learning experiences that enhance the quality of life.

2.      The Conference will emphasize fun, developing new skills, fair play and sportsmanship.

3.      The Conference will be conducted with the utmost safety of the participants and spectators in mind.

4.      The Conference will be designed to promote positive self-esteem and self-confidence of the participants.

 

The Northern Illinois Swim Conference is a recreational swim conference for youth through 18 years of age. The emphasis of the Conference is placed on learning competitive skills, enjoyment of the sport, and lifelong participation in swimming. The Conference focuses on dual meets and these meets are strictly for experience purposes. The sport of swimming involves competition either as a team or on an individual level. It is the desire of the Conference to keep the intensity of the competition at a recreational level, which stresses fun, learning and the concept that everyone swims.

 

The Conference recognizes that competition in and of itself is a part of life and if placed in the proper perspective something that an individual learns from. Competition as viewed by the Conference will encourage the participants to strive to be the best they can be. Winning and losing will be de-emphasized whenever possible, with the emphasis placed on participation, learning and enjoyment. In an effort to keep the recreational philosophy and to serve the greatest number of participants, swimming programs should be designed to encourage participation for the beginner and mid-level athlete.

 

A.                 Organizational Rules

1.      An Administrative Council made up from the administrators or designated representatives of each member agency shall govern the Conference.

2.      The Administrative Council shall meet twice a year on the second Wednesday in September and the second Wednesday following the Divisional Championship Meets, respectively. The representatives of each agency shall be notified by mail as to the time and location of conference meetings at least two weeks in advance.

3.      The Administrative Council shall elect two officials: the Council Chairperson, and the Secretary-Treasurer. The elected officials will serve out a minimum two-year term. Elections shall take place at fall meetings.

4.      The two officials will have the responsibility of conducting the business of the Conference. Individual responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

Council Chairperson

Schedules meets

Decides division alignments

Rules on petitions for out-of-district swimmers

Rules on protests for illegal entries and other violations

Handles correspondence

 

Secretary-Treasurer

Orders and maintains inventory of awards and rule books

Develops annual budget

Maintains minutes of meetings

Informs member agencies of times and locations of meetings

Assumes the duties of the Council chairperson in the event that the Council Chairperson is unable to perform said duties

5.      In the event that the Council Chairperson resigns before the end of his or her term, the Secretary-Treasurer will assume the position of Council Chairperson immediately. In the event of a vacancy in the Secretary-Treasurer position before the end of his or her term, a new Secretary-Treasurer will be elected at the next fall meeting.

6.      Each Agency shall designate a representative to the Administrative Council prior to the fall meeting. Only the administrator or designated representative from each member agency will be permitted to vote on rule changes and Conference business. An agency administrator or designated representative may vote by proxy only if the proxy is received in writing by the Council Chairperson prior to the vote.

7.      Host site for Divisional Championships will be determined at the fall meeting. If there are no volunteers to host the championship meet from a particular division, the host will be determined by lottery of the teams in that division. Teams, which have hosted a championship meet during the previous two seasons, will be exempt from the lottery. The host site must be a 25-yard or 25-meter pool with at least as many lanes as number of teams in the division, up to 6 lanes.

8.      Any changes to the Conference Rules and Bylaws shall be proposed and voted on at the fall and spring meetings.

9.      A quorum of all member agencies must be present or must submit proxies to hold a meeting. A quorum exists when at least 51% of the NIWSC member agencies are represented in person or by proxy at the meeting. If a meeting is canceled due to a lack of a quorum, the Council Chairperson is responsible for setting the date of a new meeting within three weeks of the original date.

10. A $50.00 fine will be assessed to those teams who do not attend, either by physical presence or by proxy, any administrative meeting. The penalty will be added to the team registration fees. If the fines are not paid, the team will not be allowed to participate in the Conference.

11. New teams wishing to enter the Conference must submit an application including the agency’s recruiting boundaries to Council Chairperson by September 1 to be considered for the coming season. New teams may only be added to the Conference by unanimous vote of all member agencies present or represented by proxy at the fall meeting.

B.                 Financial Rules

1.      The Secretary-Treasurer will submit a written budget at the fall meeting detailing proposed expenses for the coming season. The budget must be accepted by a simple majority vote of all member agencies present or represented by proxy at the fall meeting.

2.      All purchases shall require at least two price quotes. The Secretary-Treasurer will be responsible for maintaining a record of price quotes and accepted bids.

3.      Team registration fees are based on the budget accepted at the fall meeting. All team registration fees and fines for the coming season must be paid by each member agency by two weeks prior to the first interagency competition. An additional $50.00 fine will be assessed for fees not received by the due date.

4.      The two officials shall have signature power to sign checks for the Conference. Any check must be signed by at least one of the two officials.

5.      The Conference shall maintain a minimum of a $500 bank balance from season to season.

6.      The Conference shall pay expenses at the time of purchase. The Conference shall be responsible for ordering dual/triangular meet ribbons, based on the meet schedule or by request of member agencies. Upon approval of the vendor, the vendor will be instructed to ship and bill member agencies directly for their respective ribbons. Championship ribbons, medals and trophies will be ordered and paid for by the Conference and distributed at the coaches meeting.

7.      The Conference shall purchase supplies for only one season at a time.

8.      Member agencies that host a Divisional Championship shall be paid a stipend of $300 to help cover the cost of expenses. This stipend shall be paid only when results from the Divisional Championship meet are turned in to the Council Chairperson.

9.      No member agency or individual may incur debt or make payments in the name of the Conference. Expenses for the Conference may only be paid by the Conference checks.

10. In the event that a team selects to drop out of the Conference, the registration fee will be forfeited.

C.                 Conduct of Competition

1.      The Conference shall be divided into divisions as necessary to assure fair and equitable competition between member agencies. The Conference will try to maintain an equal amount of teams in each division. The first place team in each Divisional Championship meet shall be moved up to the next division and the last place team in each Divisional Championship meet shall be moved down to the next division. Any team may request to stay in their current division. If such a request is made, the Conference members will determine divisional alignments at the next administrators meeting.

2.      Competition shall be divided into five age groups:  8 & under, 9-10 years, 11-12 years, 13-14 years, and 15-18 years.

3.      Interagency meets shall be rescheduled only by mutual consent of all involved teams.

4.      Except where specifically noted as different, all Conference competition shall be conducted according to the most current rules of the National Federation of High Schools.

5.      During all Conference competition, a swimmer may enter a maximum of three individual events and one relay or two individual events and two relays.

6.      A swimmer may compete in an older age group but may not swim the same event in two different age groups. A swimmer may not compete in a lower age group.

7.      A swimmer’s age group shall be determined by their age at 11:59 PM on December 1 of the current season. For example: a swimmer is 10 and will be 11 on December 2^nd may swim in the 9-10 age-group through the entire winter season.

8.      The Council Chairperson shall have power to rule on all protests. Any protest must be submitted to the Council Chairperson within twenty-four hours of the end of the meet to be considered.

9.      The host team of any competition shall be responsible for procuring officials necessary to conduct the meet. Visiting teams shall be prepared to provide at least three timers and one scorer for each meet.

10. When there are physical restraints at the hosting facility, the coaches from all teams in a competition may agree upon changes in the order and distances of the events.

11. Host teams shall not charge admission for any competition.

12. As specified in the Illinois Swimming Pool and Bathing Beach Code, Section 820.300 Personnel, 4) A): At all Conference competitions, the host team shall provide a certified lifeguard to directly supervise the in-water activities. The lifeguard must be in the lifeguard chair and have no other responsibilities.

13. Teams that are currently in the Conference must host interagency meets in order to maintain their standing in the Conference.

14. All divisions will use a 80-event format. See Appendix B for the order of events. A valid dual meet consists of at least fifty percent of the order of events scheduled.

15. Host teams will present a hardcopy of the final results and/or a disc copy to the visiting teams at the end of the meet. The visiting teams must provide a disc if results are desired in this format.

16. Each lane will have at least two timers with hand-held watch. All hand-held watch times must be documented on seed cards or lane/timer sheets.

17. Unless otherwise agreed upon prior to the start of the meet, when an automatic timing system is used and there is less than a .5 second difference between the timing system and the hand-held watches, the timing system time will be the official finish time. When there is at least .5 seconds difference between the automatic timing system and the hand-held watch times, the official time will be determined from the hand-held watches: times are averaged (2 watch times) or the middle time will be used (3 watch times). For example: If two watches read 1:01.22 and 1:02.09, they will be averaged to 1:01.66. If three watches read 1:01.22, 1:02.09 and 1:01.89, the middle time of 1:01.89 will be the official time.

18. NIWSC will not enforce the 2-logo NFHS cap rule.

19. Body-writing is not allowed at any NIWSC interagency competition. Events, however, can be written on each swimmer’s hand.

D.                Conduct of Competition – Dual Meets

1.      The Conference is a 25-yard or 25-meter course with at least 6 lanes, unless a facility has been grandfathered in by the Conference to host dual meets.

2.      An attempt shall be made to compete with each team in the respective division during the season.

3.      The host team of any competition shall call the visiting team(s) at least four business days prior to the day of the meet. Refer to Appendix A for a checklist of information to provide to the visiting teams.

4.      Each team may enter three individuals or three relays in each event.

a)       Exhibition swims may be added without permission as long as these additions do not alter the number of heats in the meet.

b)       Additional heats may be added as exhibition, when agreed upon by all participating teams prior to the lineup deadline.

c)       Each team has the right to use assigned lanes as desired.

d)       Every reasonable attempt should be made to accommodate the needs of all teams.

5.      Coaches must designate what swimmers are swimming exhibition.

6.      Visiting teams must provide a line-up to the host team by the start of the warm-up period at the beginning of any interagency competition when the line-up is provided by electronic format. Electronic format is defined as a Meet Manager Export file, using the Entries for Meet Manager Merge of Same Meet option, including heat and lane assignments. Team Manager files are not acceptable electronic file formats.

Visiting teams must provide a manual roster to the host team by the Monday prior to the meet when the line-up is not provided via electronic format. The roster must include gender and birth dates for all swimmers. The manual line-up must then be provided by the Wednesday prior to the meet.

The penalty for failing to provide line-ups on time is a disqualification for the first event in which the visiting team has a swimmer entered. Once the meet has begun, no changes except scratches can be made to individual events. Relays can be adjusted when swimmers must leave unexpectedly during a meet.

7.      The starting time for dual meets shall be based upon the availability of the host facility and mutual consent of the teams involved. At least thirty minutes of warm-up time shall be allotted prior to the start of the meet.

8.      It is the responsibility of the host team to start meets on time. Meets should not last longer than 2 ½ to 3 hours.

9.      Whenever possible, combine events, for a more efficient meet. Swimmers entered into events prior to the lineup deadline cannot be removed from events in order to combine events.

10. There shall be no intermission during regular season meets.

11. During all interagency dual competitions, events will be scored as follows:

                                              Points Earned for                   Points Earned for

        Place                            an Individual Event                   a Relay Event^*

                                                   All Divisions                  ‘A’ Div        ‘B’ & ‘C’ Div

          1^st                                             6                               8                      7

          2^nd                                             4                               4                      0

          3^rd                                             3                               2                      0

          4^th                                             2

          5^th                                             1

          6^th                                             0

 

            ^*Only two relays per team can score points during a single event. In

                 cross-over meets, the B & C Division scoring system will be used.

 

E.                 Conduct of Competition - Divisional Championships

1.      The Divisional Championships shall be held on the first weekend in March.

2.      Divisional standings shall be determined by the Divisional Championships only. Interagency competition shall not count in determining standings except in the event of a tie at the Divisional Championships.

3.      Each team may enter two individuals or one relay in each event.

4.      Coaches shall be required to submit legible Divisional Championship line-ups to include: name, date, location of seed time, original time and converted time to the Divisional Championship host agency. Times should be to the nearest hundredth of a second.

5.      Seed times for Divisional Championships must be confirmed by an interagency meet from the current season. Meet results must contain first and last names of swimmers, times and event numbers and be legibly written on the standardized meet score sheet or computer printout. Seed times must be turned in by the requested date and are subject to validation by meet results sheets turned in to the Divisional Championship host. Each team must bring all of their current season meet results to the Divisional Championship scratch meeting for verification in the event of a protest. Seed times that cannot be validated shall be entered as “NO TIME”. Late entries shall be entered as “NO TIME”. No entries can be changed after the verification deadline.

6.      The starting time for Divisional Championships shall be based upon the availability of the host facility and mutual consent of the teams involved. At least one hour of warm-up time shall be allotted prior to the start of the meet.

7.      During Divisional Championship competitions, events will be scored as follows:

                                                Points Earned for                   Points Earned for

            Place                           an Individual Event                a Relay Event

            1^st                                            16                                            32

            2^nd                                            13                                            26

            3^rd                                            12                                            24

            4^th                                            11                                            22

            5^th                                            10                                            20

            6^th                                            9                                              18

            7^th                                            7                                             

            8^th                                            5                                             

            9^th                                            4                                             

            10^th                                          3                                             

            11^th                                          2                                             

            12^th                                          1                                             

8.      NIWSC will not enforce the High School Rule 3, Section 2, Article 2 penalty of eliminating a competitor from further competition if they miss an event.

 

F.                  Changes in Meet Schedules

1.      An interagency competition may be moved to another location for rescheduled by mutual consent of all involved coaches.

2.      An interagency competition may be cancelled or suspended due to adverse conditions by mutual consent of all involved coaches.

a)      In the event of meet cancellation or suspension, the original lineup, once submitted, becomes official meet entries for determining swimmers’ eligibility for Divisional Championship participation.

b)      If possible, a competition that is called due to adverse conditions shall be made up on an alternate date and location agreed upon by all involved coaches.

3.      In the event of a meet forfeiture, the non-forfeiting team(s) line-ups become official meet entries for determining swimmers’ eligibility for Divisional Championship participation.

G.                Eligibility Rules

1.      A swimmer may compete on one NIWSC team – unless the family moves to another community.

2.      Girls and boys competing on any high school swim team are ineligible during their respective high school swim seasons.

3.      Swim team members must swim in at least two interagency competitions on two separate dates during the current season in order to be eligible to swim in the Divisional Championships. One individual event per meet is required.

H.                Awards

1.      Interagency competitions shall award ribbons for first through fourth place in individual events and first through third place in relays.

2.      At Divisional Championships, medals shall be awarded for first place and rosette ribbons shall be awarded for second through sixth place in individual events. Medals shall be awarded for first place and rosette ribbons shall be awarded for second through sixth place in relay events.

3.      Trophies shall be awarded to the first through third place teams at each Divisional Championship for each division consisting of at least 6 teams. Trophies shall be awarded to the first and second place teams at each Divisional Championship for each division consisting of less than 6 teams.

 

 

 

 

q     Directions to the host facility

q     Do they need to bring seed cards

q     Lane assignments - odd/even

q     Warm-up / Meet time

q     Is there a concessions stand

q     Format and Due Date of Lineups

q     Phone and Fax Numbers

q     Peculiarities of host facility (rules, procedures,

physical structure, etc.)

q     How will false starts be handled?

q     How many swimmers are expected?

q     Are exhibition heats allowed? If so, how many?

q     Access to deck, including volunteers

q     Number of officials

q     Are visiting volunteers needed

q     15-18 age-group events

q     Any additional questions or concerns?

 

Girls Event #				Age		Distance		Stroke				Boys Event #
	1				Open		200 Yd		Freestyle				2
3				8 & Under		100 Yd		Medley Relay				4
5				9 & 10		200 Yd		Medley Relay				6
7				11 & 12		200 Yd		Medley Relay				8
9				13 & 14		200 Yd		Medley Relay				10
11				15 - 18		200 Yd		Medley Relay				12
13				8 & Under		25 Yd		Freestyle				14
15				9 & 10		50 Yd		Freestyle				16
17				11 & 12		50 Yd		Freestyle				18
19				13 & 14		50 Yd		Freestyle				20
21				15 - 18		50 Yd		Freestyle				22
23				8 & Under		25 Yd		Breaststroke				24
25				9 & 10		50 Yd		Breaststroke				26
27				11 & 12		50 Yd		Breaststroke				28
29				13 & 14		50 Yd		Breaststroke				30
31				15 - 18		100 Yd		Breaststroke				32
33				9 & 10		100 Yd		Individual Medley				34
35				11 & 12		100 Yd		Individual Medley				36
37				13 & 14		100 Yd		Individual Medley				38
39				15 - 18		200 Yd		Individual Medley				40
41				8 & Under		25 Yd		Backstroke				42
43				9 & 10		50 Yd		Backstroke				44
45				11 & 12		50 Yd		Backstroke				46
47				13 & 14		50 Yd		Backstroke				48
49				15 - 18		100 Yd		Backstroke				50
51				8 & Under		50 Yd		Freestyle				52
53				9 & 10		100 Yd		Freestyle				54
55				11 & 12		100 Yd		Freestyle				56
57				13 & 14		100 Yd		Freestyle				58
59				15 - 18		100 Yd		Freestyle				60
61				8 & Under		25 Yd		Butterfly				62
63				9 & 10		50 Yd		Butterfly				64
65				11 & 12		50 Yd		Butterfly				66
67				13 & 14		50 Yd		Butterfly				68
69				15 - 18		100 Yd		Butterfly				70
71				8 & Under		100 Yd		Freestyle Relay				72
73				9 & 10		200 Yd		Freestyle Relay				74
75				11 & 12		200 Yd		Freestyle Relay				76
77				13 & 14		200 Yd		Freestyle Relay				78
79				15 - 18		200 Yd		Freestyle Relay				80

 

 

q     Receive all meet results for each team in division (each set of meet results must be received within 1 week of dual/tri/quad meet)

q     Teams not submitting their meet results run the risk of having entries changed to NO TIME. Use a copy of the master meet schedule to keep track of which teams sent results.

q     Load all meet results into Team Manager (load only those teams participating in the divisional championship)

q     Print top times report to verify entries

q     Receive all entries by 2^nd Friday prior to championship

q     Load all entries into championship MM database

q     Verify all entries by Noon on Monday prior to championship

q     E-mail backup of championship MM database to all teams in the division by 11:59PM on Monday prior to championship

q     Receive notification of corrections from participating teams by 11:59PM Tuesday prior to championship

q     Make corrections on Wednesday prior to the championship

q     Print and copy heat sheets

 

Meet Packet:

q     Send championship meet packet to participating teams by the first Monday in February. Include in packet:

            Date / Time / Location of the meet

            Pool specifications (yards or meters, number of lanes, etc)

            Meet entry format and deadline

            Participating Teams lane assignments for timers and warm-ups

            Eligibility information

            Volunteer information (timers and ribbon writers)

            Watches needed for Timing

            Awards

            Seed Cards

            Scratch Meeting

            Scoring

            Team areas

            Concessions

            Order of Events

            Coaches Names form

 

 

 

 

Additional Pre-Meet Planning:

q     Allow approximately 2 hours for warm-ups

q     Bullpen swimmers prior to race

q     Secure at least one IHSA officials

q     Provide coaches hospitality: sandwiches, beverages, snacks