I. ORGANIZATION

1. This organization will be called the Allegheny Mountain YMCA/YWCA Masters Swimming Association. The purpose of the Association is to promote Masters Swimming in the Allegheny Mountain area. It is open to YMCAs and YWCAs in Western Pennsylvania, Southern New York, Eastern Ohio, Northern West Virginia and Northern Maryland. Teams will be accepted throughout the regular season upon meeting eligibility requirements (See "Membership," Section A, below.) A list of teams is kept by the Treasurer. Each eligible YMCA or YWCA is entitled to one vote on all matters.

2. The rules contained in Robert's Rules of Order shall govern the Association in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with the constitution of the Association.

3. This Constitution shall be amended only by a 60% vote of the members present at any meeting called for the purpose of amending the Constitution at which there is a quorum present. A quorum shall consist of representatives from one-half of the member teams.

4. Upon the dissolution of the Association all assets of the Association shall be distributed to National YMCA.

II. MEMBERSHIP

1. Teams. A YMCA or YWCA in the Allegheny Mountain area becomes an Association member upon payment of a team fee. The annual dues for a men's team and for a women's team for each swim year will be determined at the organizational meeting for that swim year. (see "Meeting," III B hereinafter.)

2. Individuals. A swimmer in the Association must be an amateur and a full-privileged member or a registered and paid member of the masters team at the YMCA or YWCA he or she represents. A swimmer is prohibited from competition in the Association if he or she represents any non-masters organization (i.e., college) in open or closed competition during the AMYMSA season. Swimmers representing a YMCA/YWCA that is not an Association member will be referred to as Non-Association swimmers.

3. Transfer of Team Members. No swimmer may transfer affiliation within the Association and represent the gaining team in Association competition unless one of the following conditions is met:

   A waiting period of one full year is completed.
   A change of an address occurs
   A release is obtained from the team representative of the losing team.

III. ASSOCIATION OFFICERS AND MEETINGS

1. Each team will appoint or elect from its membership a Team Representative to attend meetings and act as the voting representative from that team. This Team Representative is responsible for making sure that the team fees are paid, that meet entries are properly processed (See "Meet Information," Section E, below) and that the competitors are informed of the special awards (See "Special Awards," below) and technical rules of swimming.

2. The Team Representative elect the Association officers at an organizational meetingthat will be held each year, no later than August 31. Officers shall serve for one year and shall be eligible for reelection at the end of their terms. The Association officers are Secretary, Treasurer, Awards Chairman, Office of the Internet and Historian. Nominations for these positions are open to all Association individual members and one person may hold more than one position. The duties of the officers are as follows:
   

   a. Secretary. Calls annual organizational meeting and presides over all Association meetings during the season. Sends out a monthly newsletter to all eligible teams with upcoming meet information and other pertinent information to the Association. At the same time, meet results shall be mailed to those teams paying a nominal mailing fee. Responsible for providing heat or entry cards, meet entry forms and directions to the host pool. Acts as head coordinator and entry host for the Championship Meet. Appoints Chairpersons for Special Awards Competitions (See "Special Awards," below) Insures smooth operation of the Association and handles any problems brought to his or her attention by Team Representatives. Informs prospective new teams of the Association's organization and operation.

   b. Treasurer. Collects all team fees, pays all bills and keeps receipts of payments. Oversees financial conditions of the Association, collects all fees and reports number of swimmers at the regular season meets. Informs Secretary of the financial condition of the Association on monthly basis. Supplements Secretary's account when requested. Provides a financial statement and Treasurer's report for presentation and approval of the Team Representatives at the annual meeting. Turns over to the succeeding Treasurer all funds and banking records at the end of his or her term of office.

   c. Awards Chairman. Keeps individual point standing to determine high point winners in each age-group and division. Is responsible for purchasing all trophies to be awarded at the Championship Meet and in that capacity works with the Special Awards chairpersons, Secretary and Treasurer.

   d. Office of the Internet. Keeps and posts/enters to the Internet Top Ten Times, Trophy Points, Meet Results, and all reasonable and applicable data which can be collected for the Association and disseminated through the Internet.

   e. Historian. Keeps Association's historical files that include meet results, newsletters, correspondence, annual lists of the Special Awards winners and Top Ten Times. Appoints a second person in a different part of the Allegheny Mountain region to maintain a duplicate set of the files.

3. Bank Account. The Association Treasurer is authorized to open a checking account and any other deposit accounts in any Federally Insured banking institution. The signature of any two of the officers is necessary to withdraw or make checks payable to anyone from any Association account.

IV. TECHNICAL RULES.

Rules of the current United States Masters Swimming will apply to all meets.

V. MEET INFORMATION

1. Slate of Meets The slate of meets will be determined at the organizational meeting. Regular season meets will be held each month from September to March and a Championship Meet will be held in April. The September, December, and March meets will be hosted in a geographically central location and these will be referred to as "combined" meets. The other months will have both a Southern team and a Northern team host meets. These "Northern" and "Southern" meets will be held on different dates, preferably two weeks apart, to allow swimmers from the whole Association to attend. Host teams are responsible for supplying officials, facilities, and equipment.

2. The 1650 Freestyle will be a mail-in meet held at mid-season. The Secretary or an individual he or she designates will act as host for this mail-in meet.

3. Schedule of Events. These schedules of events will alternate monthly and will run consecutively from season to season.

   Schedule A	Schedule B
   200 Medley Relay	200 Freestyle Relay
   100 Freestyle	100 Individual Medley
   200 Butterfly	200 Breaststroke
   25 Backstroke	50 Butterfly
   100 Breaststroke	100 Backstroke
   50 Freestyle	25 Freestyle
   200 Backstroke	100 Butterfly
   50 Breaststroke	50 Backstroke
   200 Individual Medley	200 Freestyle
   25 Butterfly	25 Breaststroke
   200 Mixed Freestyle Relay	200 Mixed Medley Relay
   500 Freestyle	400 Individual Medley

   The order of the Schedule of Events at the Championship Meet will be determined by the host and the Associations's officers.

   Order of events at the Championship Meet will be different from the regular season. The 1000 Freestyle will be the first event on the first day and the 500 Freestyle will be the first event on the second day.

   Distances for scheduled events will vary depending on the length of the pool. In 25-yard and 25-meter pools, the distances listed will apply. In 20-yard pools; 25-yard events become 20-yard events; 50-yard events become 40-yard events; 200-yard Individual Medley becomes 160 yards; 100-yard Individual Medley becomes 80 yards and all relays become 160 yards.

4. Competitive Categories:

   a. The competitive categories will be determined by sex and age. The individual age-groups for competition are: 18-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 80+

   b. The relay age-groups are 72+, 100+, 140+, 180+ 220+, 260+, and 300+. The age-group for relays is determined by adding the actual ages of the four swimmer entered.

   c. Swimmers who have an age-group change during the regular season must swim the entire season, including the Championship Meet, in the age-group they would be in as of December 31 of the current season.

5. Entry Restrictions. At regular season meets, entries are restricted to four individual events and two different relay events. At the Championship Meet, a swimmer may enter any seven individual events and two relay events. There is no daily restriction and swimmers can span these events in an combination over the two days; i.e. 1 Saturday/ 6 Sunday or 2/5, 3/4, 4/3, 5/2, 6/1, or 0/7. To be eligible for the Championship Meet, each swimmer must have entered, paid the entry fee for and competed in three Association regular season meets, including the mail-in meets.

6. Entries. Team Representatives will mail the standard Association entry form, as provided by the Secretary, to the host team, postmarked no less than nine days prior to the meet. No phone entries are to be accepted by the host team. Violations of this rule are to be reported to the Secretary immediately.

   The age-group on relay entries can be changed at the meet so long as the cumulative, exact ages of the swimmers qualifies them to be in that age-group.

   Deck entries will be accepted by a host team for a regular season meet up to one-half hour before the scheduled start of the meet. Mail entries that were postmarked past the deadline will be treated as deck entries.

7. Entry Fees.

   a. Association swimmers will pay an entry fee determined at the organizational meeting for regular season meets.

   b. Entry fees for the Championship Meet will be determined at the organizational meeting for the season.

   c. Non-Association swimmers will pay an entry fee determined at the organizational meeting for regular season meets.

   d. A surcharge may be made for the Championship Meet depending on the financial condition of the Association. The additional surcharge will be determined by the Association's officers.

   e. All entry fees are to be made payable to the Association (AMYMSA) and are to be submitted with the standard Association form, as provided by the Secretary, to the meet host.

   f. Deck entries and entries postmarked after the deadline have an entry fee determined at the organizational meeting.

8. Seeding. All seeding will be based on time, regardless of sex or age. Deck entries will be seeded to fill empty lanes.

9. Heat or Entry Cards. Host teams are responsible for providing heat or entry cards for swimmers in each meet. Heat or entry cards for relays shall be completed by the Team Representative before the start of the relay event and must include full name of each team member, team affiliation, exact age of each swimmer and event.

10. Awards. At the Championship Meets medals will be awarded to the top eight places in individual events and relays. Duplicate awards will be given in case of ties; there will be no swim-offs. Team scores will be kept at the Championship Meet. Teams will be divided into three male and three female divisions for the purpose of scoring. The Secretary will determine the aligning of Divisions I and II by the number of individuals swimming from each team. Division III will be made up of teams with three or fewer swimmers. Awards will be presented to the top three teams in each division, both male and female.

11. Postponements, Cancellation and Delay. For postponement of a meet, the host team must contact the Secretary and the Team Representatives of all participating teams at least 24 hours in advance. For cancellation of a meet, host team must contact the Secretary at least two weeks in advance. In the event of bad weather causing travel delays, a meet can be delayed a maximum of thirty minutes if this delay affects at least half of the traveling participants.

VI. SPECIAL AWARDS

1. High Point This competition has been established to encourage swimmers to attend regular season Association meets. Points are assigned for the first six places (7,5,4,3,2,1) of each competition age-group (see "Meet Information", Section C.) Each swimmer's points are accumulated during the regular season. Trophies will be awarded to the top three point-winners in each age-group, both male and female. There is no charge for this competition and it will be administered by the Awards Chairperson.

2. Iron-Person Competition A special award will be given each year at the Championship Meet to the swimmers who compete in all of the events OVER 25-yards on both Schedules A & B. This must be done at meets during the regular season. The 1650 Freestyle mail-in meet must also be completed. Participation in twenty-five yard events is not required for an Iron Person Award. An appropriated prize to be determined by the Award Chairperson will be awarded to the swimmers completing the Iron-person Competition. The cost of entering the Iron-person Competition will be determined a the organizational meeting for the season and must be paid by the first Association meet in January. The completed Iron-person entry sheet must be submitted to the Iron-person Chairperson who is selected by the Secretary to administer this competition by the final meet of the season.

3. Marathon Swim. This competition has been established to encourage swimmers to practice regularly and to swim in Association meets. To complete the Marathon Swim, a swimmer must swim a total of 120,000 yards and accumulate 75 points during the regular season. The competition starts the day after Labor Day and ends the day of the last regular season meet in March. Swimmers must keep track of their yardage and points on special forms provided by the Association. Points are awarded for the following:

   1 point for each time a swimmer practices (maximum of 2 practices per day with a minimum of 750 yards per practice session)
   2 points for participating in a Non-Association Masters Meet
   3 points for participating in a regular Association meet
   1 point for each 200-yard event swim during the regular season with the exception of the 200-yard Butterfly (see below)
   2 points for swimming the 500-yard Freestyle in a regular season meet.
   3 points for swimming the 1000-yard Freestyle or the 1650 Freestyle in a regular season meet or mail-in meet
   4 points for swimming the 200-yard Butterfly or the 400-yard Individual Medley in a regular season meet
   

   Awards will be presented to those who complete 75,000 yards and who accumulate 50 points; to those who complete 100,000 yards and who accumulate 64 points; and to those who complete the Marathon Swim by completing 120,000 yards and accumulating 75 points. Awards will also be given to the first male and first female who complete the Marathon Swim; to the male swimmer who accumulates the most yards; to the female swimmer who accumulates the most yards; to the male swimmer who accumulates the most points; to the female swimmer who accumulates the most points; and to the team who swimmers (male and female combined) accumulate the highest number of yards.

   The cost of entering the Marathon Swim will be determined at the organizational meeting for the season and must be paid in advance in order to receive the "Tracking Sheets." The person administering this competition will be selected by the Secretary.

4. Top Ten Quality Swimmers. This award has been established to recognize the top ten "Quality Swimmers" each season in the Association. At the end of the regular season (prior to the Championship Meet), each swimmer will receive points according to his or her ranking in the Top Ten list for each event. Points will be inversely proportioned to the ranking. A first place is worth ten points and a tenth place is worth one point. Only top ten times established during the current season will be considered for the Top Ten Awards for that season. The ten swimmers with the most points at the end of the regular season will receive this award. Duplicate awards will be given in the case of ties. There is no fee for this competition and the Office of the Internet will administer this competition.