USA Swimming is waiving the 120-day Club transfer rule ... Collegiate swimmers are often faced with funding issues when it comes to participation in Olympic Trials. Here is the waiver to permit them to participate more freely.

May 21st HOD meeting location has changed ... The Wednesday, May 21st HOD meeting will be held at The Sarah Heinz House, 7:30 PM. Parking is available at the location of the building as well as on the other side of the tressel bridge in the large lot. SARAH HEINZ HOUSE, One Heinz Street, Pittsburgh PA 15212 www.sarahheinzhouse.org/directions.php

Attention AMS Coaches! If you have not been getting emails being sent to the AMS Coaches email distribution list, please forward your preferred email address to the webmaster to be included. You must be registered as a Coach within USA Swimming to be added to the list. Also ... this just in! 2008 Summer Coaches Clinic Saturday, June 14, 2008, 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM The University of Pittsburgh's Trees Hall Time Program 8:30-9:00 Gather and Introductions 9:00-10:15 Basic Biomechanical Observations 10:30-11:45 Season Planning 12:00-1:00 Lunch (provided) 1:00-2:15 How to Incorporate Video into Your Program 2:30-3:45 Simplifying Race Analysis All of the topics will be presented by Dan McCarthy, Sport Performance Consultant with USA Swimming and former AMS Coach. The registration fee includes lunch. Complete the registration form and return with check to Tom Donati.

We have a new Junior Athlete Representative! By acclamation, Katie Brinkhoff (BPR) has been elected as our new AMS Junior Athlete Rep. Congratulations, Katie! Katie joins our Senior Athlete Rep., Caitlin Molloy as the athletes' voice of AMS during the upcoming year.

Here are the most current nominations for the May HOD meeting election.

Three AMS Athletes selected to attend the Eastern Zone Select Camp ... Congratulations to Stephanie O’Toole (FCKW), Rachel Zilinskas (IUPA) and David Paulk (JCCS) for being selected to the Eastern Zone Select camp!

2008 Long Course Schedule information ... The 2008 Long Course meet awardees have been notified, and the LC08 schedule (modified 3/20/08) has been posted. This document includes the sites to which the meets were awarded. Please note that there remain meets for which no Clubs have bid. Those wishing to bid on them should do so as soon as possible. Important Note: The Age Group Open's being hosted by the Hampton Dolphins (May 31-June 1) and WHAT/FCKW (June 7-June 8) are considered to be the same meet. You may not enter your Club into both meets. Please make sure that your Coaches, Parents and Club Entry Personnel are aware of this rule. Thank you! -Donna Beyerl, Age Group Chair

2008-2009 Short Course Schedule information ... The schedule of dates for the Short Course Season has been approved. The structures are still a work in progress on some of the dates. The Age Group Committee wanted to get the dates approved in order to open up the Meet Bidding process. Meet Bids are now open. Please submit the Meet Bid Questionaire, the Meet Bid Application as well as the Safety Checklist to our Age Group Chair, Donna Beyerl, no later that midnight on Friday, May 9th. You may Fax the completed forms to 412-487-0836 or e-mail them to donnabeyerl@gmail.com. Please note that you should submit a bid for alternate dates for each meet on which you bid. For example, if you bid to host one meet, please bid on an alternate meet as well. If you are bidding to host two meets, then two alternatives should also be bid. We are inviting Clubs that have never hosted meets to take this opportunity to submit bids to host a meet. If you have any questions on the process, please contact me. Thank You -Donna Beyerl, Age Group Chair

Congratulations to two of our very special AMS Officials ... Congratulations to the following Officials who have been invited to work the upcoming Olympic Trials at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska, June 29-July 6, 2008. Allegheny Mountain, Carol Zaleski - Meet Referee and Jamy Pfister - Chief Judge - Conneticut, Mike Huffman - Maryland, Jamie Cahn, John Lee, Linda Sue Lottes, Steve Lottes - Chief Judge, Chris Pulley - Middle Atlantic, Cecil Gordon - New England, Paul Maker, Paul Memont - Starter - New Jersey, Ann Leaver, Jim Sheehan - Deck Referee - Potomac Valley, John Hirschmann, Don Riedlinger - Virginia, Michael Downs. This is a great honor for these Officials to be selected. Please congratulate them on their selection.

The 2008 AMS Budget has been approved ... The 2008 AMS Annual budget was approved at the November 2007 HOD meeting.

Important message from the AMS Webmaster regarding computer viruses ... We continue to experience the effect of some recently created viruses. These viruses are being propagated by email from AMS members who choose to not employ virus protection. If you do not use an updated form of virus protection, you could be the cause of our problems. Please read this important message.