Starting A New Masters Team in North Carolina

Our Local Masters Swimming Committee (LMSC for North Carolina) has a set of bylaws which require at least 5 swimmers to make a team, it is hoped that each new team can be significantly larger than that, but of course, you must start somewhere. If you feel that your team can start with 5 swimmers, then it is a good idea to begin the team building process. The LMSC for NC has a goal for 2007 of expanding our membership in the LMSC to 800 swimmers, we reached 789 before the 2006 registration season began (November 1, 2005), but only 753 before the 2007 registration season began, so the goal still exists, your team can help.   (The LMSC for NC's bylaws can be found on this web site at http://www.ncmasters.org/bylaws.pdf .They haven't been updated in quite a few years).

The structure of our organization is one big parent club, North Carolina Masters Swimming (NCMS) with multiple chapters. You can read about our organization in http://www.ncmasters.org/about.html Starting a team can be made easier if you are affiliated with an age group team, where coaching is available to provide good work outs and instructions to new members.

The North Carolina registrar handles registration for each team's members in North Carolina in order to facilitate timely registration of each swimmer for both new registrations, transfers, and renewals. Swim Team renewal information is generally sent out early in October and each individual swimmer is sent a renewal invoice early in November.

USMS Membership runs from January 1 through December 31 of each year, but swimmers can renew or become new members for the following year in the months of November and December. As an example, a new swimmer registering on November 1st of 2006 is registered for the remainder of 2006 and all of 2007.

There is no proration of dues, however, a discounted registration for the current year is available only in the months of September and October. Someone registering in those months is sent a refund of the discounted months when the registrar processes those memberships.

Your team's personalized registration forms (in a pdf document) for new members will be created by NC's registrar and and placed on the web site, and the generic registration form will have your team listed. Once a team name has been chosen, you can get these individual forms for your members and have them register with USMS, specifying your team. If they are already members of North Carolina Masters Swimming Club (or another chapter in NC), their affiliation with your team is easily changed for them to be listed as members of your Chapter of NCMS.

Just a reminder about the requirements for USMS swimming, where your pool may require that formal team practices be insured for secondary accident and liability coverage. The USMS requirement is that all members must hold current USMS membership, and that there be a coach on deck supervising the formal team work out. The coach must be either a USMS member, or a USA Swimming Certified Coach. Also, USA Swimming youth members can swim with USMS members only if the coach on deck is a USA Certified Coach, and they are swimming in a different lane. For new people (age 18 or over) who want to try out with a team, they can only do so for a MAXIMUM of 30 days prior to registering, and only if they have not been previously registered in the past year (i.e., someone registered in 2006 cannot try out for the month of January before deciding to register for 2008 they must renew their registration in 2007.

A team registration form for you to register your chapter or club can be found on http://www.ncmasters.org/forms/teamreg.pdf . This is the first thing you need to complete and mail to the registrar. If you decide to be an independent club, not a chapter of NCMS, then I will have to verify the abbreviation for your club with our National Organization, and you will have to register your club first before anyone on your club can register. It is highly recommended that to start out, you choose to be a chapter of North Carolina Masters Swimmers, which will allow your swimmers to participate in meets relays with other swimmers from North Carolina if your group cannot get enough people to form age group relays, the parent club concept allows this.

Blank forms for new members of unnamed teams can be found on http://www.ncmasters.org/forms/nc-regform.pdf if you want to write in your own team prior to a personalized team form being created for you. A personalized form for your team will be placed on NC's web site with links to it once a team name has been chosen.

There will also be a web page on NC's site dedicated to your team, please review an existing one, such as CSM, and sending an e-mail to (NC's Registar, George Simon) to create one for your team with current information. You would be surprised at the number of requests and hits to these web pages, and having the current information is helpful to potential new members. Also, if you want more information displayed, just notify George in order to update your page. The CSM example is located at http://www.ncmasters.org/csm.html . Another team generated web page that can also be hosted for free on this web site is http://www.ncmasters.org/ram

Since the rule book can be downloaded from the USMS website, for 2006 and beyond, the LMSC has decided to no longer charge for establishing a chapter of North Carolina Masters Swimming, however, should you choose to form your own unique club and not be a part of NCMS, the fee is still $30, and you must have your club registered before anyone can join with your club.

Also, if you are not already aware, each registered member's name is placed on our web site with their current registration number and team affiliation, at http://www.ncmasters.org/byname.html and a summary of the teams at http://www.ncmasters.org/byteam.html These lists are generally updated monthly.

Thanks, and if there is anything the registrar can do once you have decided to form a USMS team, such as sending you an e-mail list of your members addresses and phone numbers, please e-mail me at

Return to Masters Swimming in North Carolina  home page.
Date: March 2, 2008
http://www.NCmasters.org/newteam.html