Thursday, February 11, 2021
CEO Corner: The New Year
As we welcome the second month of the new year, I am excited to introduce you to the CEO Corner, a new platform and initiative meant to further assist me with sharing important news and information directly with our members.
Like many, I certainly had different expectations as to what I thought early 2021 would look like, and it can be daunting when reality falls short of hopeful expectation. But following our first board meeting of the year last Friday, on Feb. 5, I am pleased to report that the vigor and energy coming from our board members and staff is palpable.
As we look ahead to the first half of 2021, there are three critical priorities that will lead and shape every decision we make:
As with many things, the pandemic escalated our efforts to increase our member communication. I feel confident that USA Swimming, its leadership team and staff are accessible now more than ever and we continue to strive to provide transparency across all areas of the organization. We are utilizing more channels than ever to push information down through our membership. We have also endeavored to create new touch points within our community to better hear and listen to our athletes and members. We’ll always welcome more ideas if you have them.
A big thank you to former Board Chair Jim Sheehan and Board Consultant Bill Charney who are leading the next iteration of communication development – delving into the make-up and engagement of our USA Swimming Committees. As we continue to do more with less at our headquarters in Colorado Springs, it is important that we further grow our valuable network of volunteers and leverage the talent and skillsets within our volunteer committee ranks.
Lastly, and perhaps the most important undertaking in 2021 for our national governing body, is to ensure that USA Swimming complies with the updated United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Bylaws and the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, as amended by the Empowering Olympic and Amateur Athletes Act, in order to maintain our status as an NGB.
A Governance Committee, composed of Board members Chris Brearton (Chair), Katie Meili, Bill Schalz, Jeanette Skow, and Bob Vincent, will review required bylaw, rule, policy, and operational changes over the course of the next few months and solicit input from our membership. More information is to come, and we will be steadfast in our messaging and sharing of information.
I look forward to checking in with you as the year progresses.
Here’s to brighter days ahead and an exciting year for USA Swimming.
Yours in swimming,
Tim Hinchey III
Like many, I certainly had different expectations as to what I thought early 2021 would look like, and it can be daunting when reality falls short of hopeful expectation. But following our first board meeting of the year last Friday, on Feb. 5, I am pleased to report that the vigor and energy coming from our board members and staff is palpable.
As we look ahead to the first half of 2021, there are three critical priorities that will lead and shape every decision we make:
- Keeping Athletes First. Athlete development and well-being will continue to be the central elements of every decision we make, program we develop and dollar we spend.
- Digital Transformation. Continued technological developments to better service our membership, including the re-architecting of SWIMs, the final development of our Customer Relationship management system (CRM) to better communicate with our members and the roll-out of online member registration.
- World Class Event. Finally staging and hosting our long-awaited Olympic Trials, to both provide a great experience for future generations and to select the world’s greatest Olympic Team for Tokyo.
As with many things, the pandemic escalated our efforts to increase our member communication. I feel confident that USA Swimming, its leadership team and staff are accessible now more than ever and we continue to strive to provide transparency across all areas of the organization. We are utilizing more channels than ever to push information down through our membership. We have also endeavored to create new touch points within our community to better hear and listen to our athletes and members. We’ll always welcome more ideas if you have them.
A big thank you to former Board Chair Jim Sheehan and Board Consultant Bill Charney who are leading the next iteration of communication development – delving into the make-up and engagement of our USA Swimming Committees. As we continue to do more with less at our headquarters in Colorado Springs, it is important that we further grow our valuable network of volunteers and leverage the talent and skillsets within our volunteer committee ranks.
Lastly, and perhaps the most important undertaking in 2021 for our national governing body, is to ensure that USA Swimming complies with the updated United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Bylaws and the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, as amended by the Empowering Olympic and Amateur Athletes Act, in order to maintain our status as an NGB.
A Governance Committee, composed of Board members Chris Brearton (Chair), Katie Meili, Bill Schalz, Jeanette Skow, and Bob Vincent, will review required bylaw, rule, policy, and operational changes over the course of the next few months and solicit input from our membership. More information is to come, and we will be steadfast in our messaging and sharing of information.
I look forward to checking in with you as the year progresses.
Here’s to brighter days ahead and an exciting year for USA Swimming.
Yours in swimming,
Tim Hinchey III