I am honored to have been nominated and elected President at the MSC Board meeting on June 10th, 2007. Many thanks to the Board for having the confidence in me to carry out the functions of President for the 2007-2008 swimming year.

I am really excited about the year ahead. My hope is that MSC will be delivering new programs and services by this time next year and that many of you will take advantage of these programs to broaden and deepen your swimming lives.

We have lofty goals at MSC. We want to become the aquatic organization of choice for adult Canadians seeking fitness through swimming. We are going to need a lot of help doing this and that help starts with us (the Board) and our relationship with you, our members. It is very important to us that Masters Swimming Canada provides value to its members. We believe that if we do that, you will become our best promoters.

Norm McKee, our Director of Operations, will be forming work groups to design and implement new programs and services for you to utilize and participate in. One particular initiative will be launched this summer. With the idea of moving towards an Open Water Swimming Championship series, Glen Mehus from B.C. and Norm are launching an open water series this summer. We will be having events in Western, Central, and Eastern Canada run during existing events, with a National Participation Award given to each entrant.

We are also actively reaching out to partners in the aquatic family to help tell our great story of adult fitness through swimming. Nigel Kemp is working closely with Swim Canada to design and implement a National Coaches Accreditation Program that would include a segment for Masters Coaches so that we can continue to enhance the expertise of our coaches around the country. We will be working more closely with your representatives on the Council of Provinces and partnering with the National Officials Committee to help officials better understand and administer the Masters Rules.

We want to communicate with you more clearly and more often and Lindsay Patten's work on our website should provide you with more information, links, forums and breaking news as we continue to roll out our vision of enhancing your experience as a member of MSC.

It is just early days and we have a lot of work to do. We will be having some discussions over the summer, but formal Board meetings will not start again until September. Over the course of the summer, as you get out of the pools and into the open waters of the lakes and rivers to do your training please think about ways we could improve your swimming experiences.

Chris Smith, Mark Sandilands, Sylvie Deliencourt, Christian Berger, Mike Morrow, and Jennifer Power-Hawrylak also sit on your Board and will be chairing or working with various groups on a number of different fronts this Fall. If you see one of them in your swim travels this summer please bend their ears with your ideas for creating a swim culture in Canada.

I look forward to serving as President this year and hope you all have a very enjoyable summer.

Stay Wet and Keep Healthy

Frank Coy
President
Masters Swimming Canada