2021 Volume 32 Issue 3

VOLUME 32 | ISSUE 3 2021

U N I T E D

S T A T E S

S W I M

S C H O O L

Together, We Can!

A S S O C I A T I O N

CREATING THE RIGHT CORE VALUES FOR YOUR BUSINESS

The Right Mindset for Networking THE CURE FOR WHAT DIVIDES US

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IN THIS ISSUE TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

Letter From the President

6

National Conference 2021 Update

5 From the Desk of the Executive Director 9

Creating the Right Core Values for Your Business

12 The Right Mindset for Networking 14 The Cure for What Divides Us 17 Leaders Learn Always 18 Calendar of Events 20 New Member List

21 The ASSA National Conference is Back and Virtual!

22 How Small Businesses can Protect Themselves From Cyber Threats 25 How to Celebrate Holidays (Inclusively) at Work

28 Book Buzz

30 A Better Definition of Accountability in the Workplace 32 Board of Directors — Best Advice Received 35 Making Business Decisions Without Data is Like Driving With Your Eyes Closed!

39 Family Tragedy Spurs Proposed Legislation, Debate That Would Have Over-Regulated Swim Schools in Texas 41 What are We Unbundling and What are We Keeping?

43 I’m Keeping “LEADER” 45 Skill Building for Under 4 Year Old’s 48 Ask Al

ASSOCIATION HEADQUARTERS 4815 E. Carefree Hwy., Suite 108-480 Cave Creek, AZ 85331 480.837.5525 usssa@usswimschools.org usswimschools.org Executive Director Lisa M. Zarda, CAE, CNAP Editor Anne Swanson ASSOCIATION OFFICERS President John Kirk, Little Otter Swim School Vice President Tracy Koleber, Nitro Swimming Treasurer Buffy Folise, Chicago Swim School ASSOCIATION DIRECTORS Karen Clay SwimWest Swim School Brad Grzelka Atlanta Swim Academy Bobby Hazen SAF-T-SWIM Melissa Taylor Small Fish Big Fish Swim School USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 1

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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT “We have the opportunity to craft a

process for teachers to learn about broader child development principles and make our lessons safer.”

As the world thankfully starts to return to some sense of normalcy, the board and the office have been working hard to further our mission. The learn to swim industry is facing some new challenges in addition to the pressures brought by COVID. There is a movement in several states to require that swim schools and swim instructors carry some sort of permit or license. We believe that if a few states adopt then others will follow. Our vice president, Tracy Koleber, has testified in front of the Texas legislature about this. We feel this is not going to go away and we really need to get in front of this effort. It is coming and we can choose to get in front of it or be run over by it.

JOHN KIRK

During this year, we have surveyed a number of members about undertaking a certification for teachers. Through many conversations with swim schools, we learned that as a group we are open to this. We have also been in contact with a group that can guide this process and help us to get it accepted by government entities.

The danger that I see is that if we don’t do something, then we will have to be certified by some of the non-profits that we voted against last year that we did not want in our organization. We can choose to work on our process and at the end of the day support USSSA with our fees paid in this process. Or we can send checks to other organizations. We have the opportunity to craft a process for teachers to learn about broader child development principles and make our lessons safer. You would still teach your curriculum. We are not interested in dictating your curriculum. We are well aware that everyone has their own style of teaching. But if we sit and wait, we will be dictated how to teach by other groups. We will have more information at the National Conference in Tampa.

I truly believe this is a path to relevance. It will mean something when you see our logo. It will mean that our teachers are professionals and have training that is held to a national standard. So I would ask you to engage in and embrace this effort. Join the board and the office in moving this wonderful organization forward into a brighter future.

JOHN KIRK President US Swim School Association

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 3

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FROM THE DESK OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Don’t we all feel at times like we are on a fast track treadmill and wonder when you have the opportunity to get off?

Hopefully as summer turns to fall you are able to regain your footing and re-set your pace to something that is more comfortable. Now may be a great time to revisit some important tools that will help you and your business in the coming months. In this issue you will find the article by Clint Smith with CareerPlug on “Creating the Right Core Values for Your Business.” He will challenge you to consider how you are living your values, including hiring, developing, promoting, and firing people based on your values.

And speaking of developing and firing your staff, Jamie Notter with PROPEL shares his definition of workplace accountability and how you can use it to make sure results are delivered in the article, “A Better Definition of Accountability in the Workplace.”

We are always learning and our upcoming National Conference this October in Tampa, Florida will be a great opportunity for you to be a leader that is always learning.

Our keynote speaker for the conference served under L. David Marquet who in this issue shares how learning is a “key enabler” to allow you to pass decision-making authority to lower levels within your organization in his article, “Leaders Learn Always.” And speaking of the National Conference, get your business cards ready and brush up on your networking skills with John Spence’s take on, “The Right Mindset for Networking.”

As we look at the coming months as opportunities to refocus our efforts and come out even stronger than before, your board of directors has been working to establish minimum standards for swim school members in the US. As we start to see an increased trend in state regulations impacting swim schools we want to position ourselves as the leaders we are in the learn to swim industry. Watch for more details on these minimum standards, which were based on standards required for insurance and based on recent surveys are things our members are already accomplishing each and every day. And for those that may need a little assistance in these areas we will be providing resources to help elevate swim schools to meet these standards as well as provide a window of opportunity to get there. We are here to support you and your swim school business.

When we lift others, we too rise.

LISA M. ZARDA, CAE, CNAP Executive Director US Swim School Association

Reserve

NATIONAL CONFERENCE OCT. 4-6, 2021

YOUR ROOM AND REGISTER TODAY!

Saddlebrook Resort, Tampa, FL

Early Bird Deadline is August 25!

Have you been dreaming of reuniting with friends and colleagues? We have too! It’s about to become a reality this October during the USSSA National Conference in Tampa, FL. In addition to that priceless networking, you’ll be treated to top-notch speakers. Monday will be memorable with a day-long leadership workshop led by Andy Worshek. Andy worked along David Marquet on the USS Santa Fe and will be diving into the principles of intentbased leadership, talking like a leader, and rethinking leadership.

The next two days of the conference are filled with sessions on customer experience, client acquisition, leadership, instructor-based sessions, specialized roundtables and more. And plan on staying for the entire conference because you won’t want to miss our closing session with Tami Evans! Tami will have you laughing, crying, and laughing some more as she wraps up a fantastic three days for us.

6 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

In the spirit of networking and reunion, the Awards Banquet is also INCLUDED in your registration fee this year, so you will have the perfect opportunity to kick back and celebrate with friends. If you choose to stay at the Saddlebrook Resort during the conference, your reservation will also include breakfast and lunch for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. More details along with registration are now available on the USSSA website. Don’t forget to call and make your reservation at the Saddlebrook as well. Mention the group rate for USSSA in order to secure the discounted rates available now through September 8.

Can’t make it in person? Not to worry…we have a virtual registration option that will give you access to some of the best sessions at the conference.

Get ready for an exciting 3 days where, together, we can! For more information, please visit https://www. usswimschools.org/events/

Pre-Conference Events

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CREATING THE RIGHT CORE VALUES FOR YOUR BUSINESS

BY CLINT SMITH CAREERPLUG

Your core values signify what you, as a company, prize more than anything. They should guide everything that you do. If you are not sure about what direction to head in a tough situation, you should be able to look at your values to determine the right course of action.

You should be hiring, developing, promoting and firing people based on your values. If you’re not, then you’re not truly living them.

A company’s values are a reflection of its leader. You cannot lead others if you do not know who you are. And you cannot expect others to follow you unless this is crystal clear.

This bears repeating: your values should represent what you actually value.

They define your culture. We have all been somewhere where they have a generic set of values printed and framed on the wall. You know that they are totally bogus and that no one follows them—or even knows what they are!

It’s better to be real, even if you don’t think it sounds socially acceptable. If earning money is the #1 thing for you and your company, then you should be honest about that. There are people out there who value the same things, and those are the people you want to hire.

Part of being real is having values with character. They need to be genuine and come from the heart. We value teamwork at CareerPlug, but that term didn’t capture Continued on next page...

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 9

the essence of it. So, we came up with our own: Work Together, Win Together.

I hear people say this throughout the company when we talk about the importance of collaboration. I don’t think that “teamwork” would have stuck the same way as a core value.

Your values should reflect who you are right now. When you write your values, you should be drawing from your history; save the aspirational stuff for your vision. When we decided to include Speak Up, Step Up as one of our values because we have always valued people who are willing to take initiative. We have a history of allowing people to take on special projects at the company simply because they’ve shown a strong desire to make an impact in a certain area. It wasn’t just a goal — we were already living it.

Don’t make a laundry list of values.

When you “value” everything, you really value nothing.

We had to learn that lesson the hard way.

Your core values should guide everything that you do. If you are not sure about what direction to head in a tough situation, you should be able to look at your values to determine the right course of action.

REEVALUATING OUR CORE VALUES CareerPlug has always defined the guiding principles for our business in three key ways: • Mission • Vision • Core values But I still felt like there was something missing: a way to determine the traits that I wanted every single person in CareerPlug to embody.

About five years ago, I felt like our culture had taken a turn for the worse.

We made some hires that were not a good culture fit for us, and there were consequences. We became more divided as a company, and each department started to operate in its own silo. Something had to change.

I knew we had to address the situation with certain employees at the company. That was tough but fairly straightforward. I was more concerned about how we were going prevent 10 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

ourselves from hiring people who were not a culture fit in the future.

Our core values should have been helping us, but they weren’t. I identified three issues: 1. We had too many values.

There were seven of them. There was no way that our team could focus on seven different things when evaluating candidates in the hiring process—on top of evaluating them for their fit for the role itself. Plus, it’s hard to make any core value non-negotiable when you have seven of them. If someone is living six out of the seven values, doesn’t that sound good enough? It does, and that was the problem.

2. Some of our values did not have clearly defined boundaries.

For example, most of the emphasis on our Give Back core value was focused on a candidate’s time spent giving to external charities. But that value was also meant to cover how a person approaches giving their time to others within the company. It was too much.

3. The values didn’t nail what truly makes our employees a culture fit.

I actually added a list of four additional items, which I called culture drivers, to address this gap. It helped in some ways, but it was a band-aid. We should have rewritten the values to reflect what really matters. It took longer than it should have, but that’s what we eventually did.

Don’t make a laundry list of values.

When you “value” everything, you really value nothing.

REDEFINING OUR CORE VALUES We identified our new core values based

on a process that Patrick Lencioni recommends in his book, The Advantage.

First, we had each person on the leadership team identify the top performers at the company who truly embody our culture. Then we asked each leader to list out the behaviors or attributes that made these individuals so respected. These became our potential core values. We wrote this list on a whiteboard without discussing any individual employees by name. There were around 15-20 potential core values to start.

Then, we went through the list and discussed each value as a team. After eliminating a few and consolidating some that were similar, we were left with around eight values.

Next, we asked each leader to think about the employees, both current and former, who were not a good fit at our company — regardless of how well they performed in their roles.

Then, we had our leaders assess these individuals on the list of remaining core values. We identified a couple of core values that, while important, didn’t do a good enough job of excluding people who were not a good culture fit. We eliminated them from the list, leaving us with six values.

Finally, we reviewed the remaining values and thought deeply about what was really true to us at our core. We eliminated one value that was too aspirational and another that wasn’t as important as the rest. That left us with the four core values we have today: I knew that these were genuine because I had a backstory that I could tell for each one.

The lesson I learned is that simply having core values is not good enough.

You must be able to use your core values to hire, develop, promote, and fire employees effectively. If you cannot, then I recommend you follow a similar process to the one we used to reevaluate your values.

TAKE ACTION Your core values should provide a vital blueprint for the kind of people you want to hire – but your hiring process doesn’t stop there. Check out these free resources created by the hiring experts at CareerPlug that will help you recruit with those core values in mind: • How to Build a Great Hiring Process • How to Build a Compelling Careers Page • How to Create an Ideal Candidate Profile They can all be found at https://www. careerplug.com/blog/how-to-write-corevalues/

BE KIND My employees would tell you that I’m a nice guy. I don’t like to work with people who aren’t. Neither does the rest of our team. When we dug deeper into it, we discovered that we value something more than “nice”— we value kindness.

We look for people who care deeply about each other, our clients, and the world around us. We realized that we are givers. And we didn’t know how important hiring givers was for us until we hired a couple of takers!

SPEAK UP, STEP UP We have always valued people who take initiative, and we give them the room to do it. One of our long-time employees, Anna, read our vision and was energized by our commitment to give back to the environment. She took the initiative to create a sustainability committee, which has been a big hit with our team. Within a couple of months, they implemented several programs to reduce our waste. This is one example of many situations where someone has stepped up. And when we reflected on employees who were not a fit, we realized that most of them

had thoughts about things we could improve (and some were quite vocal about them)—but they didn’t take action.

KEEP GROWING I didn’t know much about hiring or software when I started CareerPlug, but I knew that I could make up for that by focusing on continuous learning and growth. We have always been attracted to hiring learners with high potential over people with more experience but a lower trajectory. This was solidified when I read Carol Dweck’s Mindset and her research on people with fixed versus growth mindsets. We didn’t see the real impact of this until we hired some people with fixed mindsets and saw how difficult this made things for us.

WORK TOGETHER, WIN TOGETHER We are a collaborative company. It’s in our DNA: we ask for help, we help, we solve problems together. We put the good of the team and the company above our individual benefit. If you are a lone wolf or someone who puts your own interests first, then this isn’t the place for you.

Clint founded CareerPlug in 2007 with the simple idea that there was a better way to help employers connect with quality applicants. Today Clint works every day to fulfill CareerPlug’s mission: Make Hiring Easier. Leading by example, Clint loves spending his time developing new ideas and teaching others.

After graduating from the University of Florida, Clint worked in investment banking and strategic marketing; both experiences influenced the development of CareerPlug. He also spent a year away from the business world teaching 5th grade in Boulder.

Clint is passionate about helping others succeed and is involved in numerous mentoring programs. He and his wife, Sarah, are also foster parents. Clint enjoys family time, beach volleyball, and outdoor adventures.

Reprinted with Permission

USSSA is proud to partner with CareerPlug to offer a free JobBoard.

USSSA members can also upgrade to a Pro account at a discounted rate. Visit https:// beta.careerplug.com/getstarted to get started today.

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 11

THE RIGHT MINDSET FOR NETWORKING

BY JOHN SPENCE

Several years ago, I put together a special workshop on networking for the Women’s Foodservice Forum, the largest gathering of female senior executives from worldwide food companies. For many people, networking is a dirty word, as we’ve come to associate it with “working” a room to try to sell something to somebody. However, as I told the audience, networking can become fun and rewarding if you can change your mindset. Here are two big ideas that will help you become superb at networking.

1. IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU Real networking is 100% about helping other people. The goal is to offer advice, connections, and ideas, not to close a deal. Your focus should be on meeting as many people as possible to help as many people as possible. Instead of talking about how great your company, products, or service are, be curious. Ask them if they have any business challenges where they need help. When they share a challenge or issue with you, please do everything you can to assist them. Their problem may have nothing to do with your business, they may not want to buy anything from you, but when you focus on helping them, they typically reciprocate and help you grow your business.

When you think about networking this way, it is gratifying to spend time looking for ways to help them.

2. THE THREE C’S OF NETWORKING Competence People will not want to network with you, work with you, or refer you if you’re not exceedingly good at what you do. You have to demonstrate that you are highly competent and continuously learning and trying to improve. The goal of networking is to meet as many high-quality people as possible, and the only way to do this is to be someone they want to spend time with.

12 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

Connection I mentioned above that you want to network with “high-quality people,” let me explain what I mean by that.

The goal of networking is to connect with individuals who are already wellconnected. You want to connect with the connectors! The people who have a vast network that might be a good fit for your products and services. When you demonstrate a high level of competence and work hard to help someone like this, they don’t tell a few people about how great you are; they tell dozens, hundreds, thousands, or with the Internet, millions.

I’ll give you an example. When my first book, Awesomely Simple, was released, it won a few awards then dropped to number 1137 on the Amazon bestsellers list. Not very impressive. Then, Guy Kawasaki, the former marketing director at Apple, tweeted that he liked and recommended my book. It shot up from number 1137 to number 11 in the next 24 hours. Guy has 1.4 million followers.

That is the power of connecting with the connector.

Character If you have the first two C’s in abundance, but you lack honesty, integrity, and character, then it doesn’t matter how much you network. People will not want you in their network. I had a meeting a few weeks ago with the CEO of a large company who said to me: “You know, John; honesty is not the best policy. It’s the only policy. Tell the truth 99 times and lie once, and people will say you are a liar.” The single most significant factor in building strong relationships across your network is to be a person of unquestionable honesty and integrity.

The three questions you must ask yourself every day are: • What did I learn today to increase my competence?

• Who did I meet and help today?

• Did I live my values today?

If you connect with the right people, connectors, who know you deliver high-quality products and

services, and they also know you are a person of character, you will build a valuable and robust network.

John Spence is an author, international executive coach, professional development educator, virtual trainer, strategic planning facilitator, keynote speaker and developer of online learning programs.

John is recognized as one of the top business thought leaders and leadership development experts in the world and was named by the American Management Association as one of America’s Top 50 Leaders to Watch along with Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. As a consultant and coach to organizations worldwide, from startups to the Fortune 10, John is dedicated to helping people and businesses be more successful by “Making the Very Complex… Awesomely Simple.”

Reprinted with Permission.

THE CURE FOR WHAT DIVIDES US

BY JON GORDON

I remember as a child, when my parents were having problems in their marriage, I asked my mom if they were getting divorced. She said, “No because we love each other and when there is love you find a way to work it out.”

Given the horrific events that have happened last week and especially over the last few years, it appears that our country could be headed for a great divorce. A division of irreconcilable differences based on opinions, political views, color, hate and anger.

But when my son asked me the other day if our country was going to fall apart I said no because I believe deep down love will find a way to overcome all this hate and division.

Sure, from all the hate spewing on television and social media you might think I’m just being idealistic. But actually it’s not idealism that guides me but truth. I admit that I’m a pessimistic optimist. At first I allow negative events to really affect me but then I have this eternal hope because I know deep down love is all that is, all that we are and all that remains in the end.

Everything else fades away but love endures.

14 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

If love is all that is and all that endures then why is there so much anger and hate? Why do things appear so hopeless?

Because we live in a world of duality.

There is night and day, positive and negative, good and evil, and the ultimate battle between love and fear.

Right now fear is causing people to look OUTSIDE where they see political and ideological differences and “us” and “them.” This leads to a feeling of separateness which leads to division.

But if we look INSIDE to the soul we realize the truth that we are one. There’s no “us” and “them.” Love is all that is and this leads to a feeling of oneness which leads to healing and unity.

This is why teams and organizations that love each other also thrive. And teams and organization that are fueled by fear eventually crumble. Fear is draining and love is sustaining.

Fear divides and love unites.

The fear that is currently dividing our country is the same fear that sabotages marriages, careers, teams and organizations.

The antidote is the same for all of it and it is love.

Love is truth.

Fear (False Evidence Appearing Real) is an allusion, a big lie.

We can look outside and believe the lie or look inside and know the truth.

We can allow the lie to continue to divide us over time or we can let the truth inspire us to unite.

When my mom passed away 14 years ago at the age of 59 her last words were love, love, love. I think in the end we know it’s all that matters.

But let’s not wait until the end to say it or live it.

Let’s start today.

Love, Love, Love, - Jon Jon Gordon’s best-selling books and talks have inspired readers and audiences around the world. His principles have been put to the test by numerous Fortune 500 companies, professional and college sports teams, school districts, hospitals, and non-profits. He is the author of 23 books including 10 best sellers and 5 children’s books. Jon is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Masters in Teaching from Emory University. He and his training/consulting company are passionate about developing positive leaders, organizations and teams. www.jongordon.com Reprinted with Permission

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LEADERS

LEARN ALWAYS Leadership Nudge – Leaders Learn Always A key philosophy of “leaders learn always” is that you learn as much as possible from the things you are already doing. Onboard my submarine, we found that if we just paid attention to our everyday operations, like starting the reactor, getting under way, and submerging the ship, we could learn a lot.

When you delegate authority to make decisions further down the hierarchy, your teams’ operational and technical knowledge takes on a greater importance. There is an extra burden for operational competence. If all you need to do is what you are told, then you don’t need to understand your craft. However, as your ability to make decisions increases, then you need intimate technical and operational knowledge on which to base those decisions. Control without competence is chaos.

Learning is a “key enabler” to allow you to pass decision-making authority to lower and lower levels in your organization. The purpose of learning is to increase technical and operational knowledge. The result of increased technical and operational competence is the ability to delegate increased decision making to your teams.

Increased decision making among your team members will naturally result in greater engagement, motivation, and initiative. You will end up with significantly higher productivity, morale, and effectiveness.

My leadership nudge to you this week is this: Deliberately put yourself in a new position where you are forced to take a new perspective. So maybe you sit in one of your employees’ chairs and you see what the world looks like from their side.

BY L. DAVID MARQUET

Interested in learning more about leadership?

Join us at the USSSA National Conference this October in Tampa, FL where David’s former shipmate and Sonar Chief, Andy Worshek, will host a full day leadership workshop. For more details, visit the USSSA website at https://www. usswimschools.org/events/

David Marquet – Student of leadership and organizational design, former nuclear submarine Commander, and named one of the Top 100 Leadership Speakers by Inc. Magazine.

David is the Author of the Amazon #1 Best Seller: Turn the Ship Around!, and The Turn the Ship Around Workbook. David’s new book, Leadership is Language was released on February 4 th, 2020, by Penguin Random House. Reprinted with Permission USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 17

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

THANK YOU ANNUAL SPONSORS

AUGUST 24-26, 2021

AUSTRALIAN SWIM SCHOOLS CONFERENCE 2021 VIRTUAL

assc.australianswimschools.org.au

SEPTEMBER 13-14, 2021

NDPA DROWNING PREVENTION SYMPOSIUM

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OCTOBER 4-6, 2021

USSSA NATIONAL CONFERENCE TAMPA, FL & VIRTUAL usswimschools.org/events

MARCH 1-2, 2022

SPRING WORKSHOP MESA, ARIZONA

usswimschools.org/events

SEPTEMBER 19-21, 2022

USSSA NATIONAL CONFERENCE MAUI, HAWAII

usswimschools.org/events 18 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

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Career Plug | p44

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THE ASSA NATIONAL CONFERENCE IS BACK AND VIRTUAL! Save the date: August 24-26, 2021!

This year’s Australian Swim Schools Association National Conference will not be your average conference. This year we are going BIG! With the virtual world taking a larger place in our lives over the last 12 months, we are ready to RE:GROW, RE: INSPIRE, and RE:ENGAGE. This three day event will consist of extraordinary RE:connection, learning, and inspiration. As always, this event will be jam-packed with speakers who will expand your knowledge, RE:spark your creativity, RE:inspire you to dream big, and challenge you to take your team and business to the next level.

Topics are intended to be noteworthy and fresh including from surviving to thriving, swim school diversification and sustainability and talks around your swim school brand strategy. Our three day packed agenda will have many presenters and subjects that will enhance your knowledge and give you practical advice for you to implement at your swim school.

During this time when we need to be working together and remain connected, we will be offering this event virtually. All tickets and further information on presenters and daily schedules are available on our ASSA Conference website https://assc. australianswimschools.org.au. If you have any further questions please contact chaundra@australianswimschools.org.au.

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 21

HOW SMALL BUSINESSES CAN PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM CYBER THREATS

BY PATRICK THIELEN WWW.SECURITYMAGAZINE.COM

“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, many small businesses have remained resilient.”

Across the country, small business owners have worked tirelessly to transform the way they operate to align with evolving customer needs. From introducing contactless payment options to offering new virtual services, they’ve moved swiftly to expand their offerings and digital capabilities in light of social distancing guidelines.

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In the midst of these changes, however, it’s critical for small businesses to make sure they’re guarding against potential cyber threats. Here are key steps they can take to help ensure that they stay protected.

SECURE NETWORKS, DEVICES AND SERVERS According to data from the Chubb Cyber IndexSM, this year, roughly threequarters (72%) of cyber incidents among U.S. businesses with revenues under $25 million were a result of external actors (a.k.a. “hackers”).

Fortunately, there are quick and easy steps small businesses can take to reduce their risk to these attacks.

For example, using Multifactor Authentication (MFA) techniques on company computers and mobile devices can offer small business and restaurant owners much needed peace of mind.

This extra layer of security helps ensure that even if a bad actor happens to identify an employee’s login ID and password, they won’t have access to company systems or information.

In some states, small businesses have started transitioning back to their typical operations —albeit while making some adjustments to comply with social distancing guidelines. Even during these “normal operations,” it’s imperative that they continue to keep their guard up and protect themselves from potential cyberattacks. A good example of this is public Wi-Fi. While it might make a cozy café more attractive to customers, it’s also an easy target for cybercriminals.

Even if small businesses offer public Wi-Fi to their patrons, they should use

a private and secure network for their business operations.

KEEP SECURITY SYSTEMS UP TO DATE While it’s important to stay vigilant about all kinds of cyber threats, small businesses have become frequent targets of malware attacks. The Chubb Cyber Index reveals that in the past year, malware was the most common cause of cyber incidents among U.S. businesses with revenues under $25 million.

Malware is particularly dangerous because it can spread across a network of connected technologies — credit card scanners, for example — to steal information. As a result, small businesses should ensure that all of their devices have been updated with the latest software. Additionally, they should consider enabling automatic updates on their devices, since not all updates install automatically. This way, small business owners, who already have so much on their plates, won’t miss a beat.

EDUCATE EMPLOYEES As important as it is to protect the technology they rely on, it’s crucial for small businesses to arm their employees with the information they need to keep company data secure.

Small business owners should consider holding employee education programs that offer comprehensive instructions around how to identify, prevent and report potential cyberattacks. This way, management staff and small business workers can help stop cybercriminals in their tracks. Plus, many programs come in free or low-cost

versions, or are even offered as a cyber insurance policyholder benefit, which can be helpful for businesses struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic.

One benefit of these educational programs is that they can help employees recognize cyberattacks that might seem less obvious to the untrained eye. As the Chubb Cyber Index notes, 40% of cyber incidents impacting U.S. businesses with revenues under $25 million were caused by social engineering this year. For a restaurant, this type of attack could be as subtle as someone pretending to be a food vendor and trying to trick an employee into clicking a malicious email link or wiring them money. If workers know how to recognize this and other kinds of malicious behavior, they’ll be in a better position to protect themselves and their employers.

PLANNING FOR 2021 AND BEYOND As they plan for the year ahead, small business owners should not only update their cyber defenses, but also ensure that they have the proper cyber insurance coverage in place. Good cyber defenses can guard against most common cyberattacks, but no business is ever impenetrable — which is why even large organizations sustain breaches. To that end, small business owners should work with an independent agent or broker to find the policy that best suits their needs.

After everything they have endured — from suspending their services to altering their operations and then changing them back again — the last thing small businesses need is to become the victim of a cyberattack.

Patrick Thielen is a Senior Vice President and product lead for Cyber and Technology E&O for Chubb North America. Patrick is an underwriting leader with roughly 20 years of experience focused on providing a broad array of tailored property/ casualty, cyber, and E&O insurance products and risk management solutions to customers of all sizes, industries, and geographies. Reprinted with permission by www.securitymagazine.com

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 23

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COMING SOON!

HOW TO CELEBRATE HOLIDAYS (INCLUSIVELY) AT WORK

BY MEGAN ROGERS GATHER

Whether faith-based or cultural, holidays and celebrations are a window into the values of your employee. However, certain holidays receive more attention than others in the workplace. Workplace celebrations are tangible signals of what matters to your organization. It’s important to evaluate which traditions are being highlighted, and which ones might be missing.

DIVERSITY OF WORKERS MEANS DIVERSITY OF HOLIDAYS A balance of perspectives leads to more innovation, 87% better decisions, and often prevents big mistakes. However, it’s unlikely that your diverse talent will share their perspectives and ideas if they don’t feel included. The first step is changing company systems and policies to reflect the diversity of your employees.

TACT AND INTENTIONALITY Rather than stress about making the perfect inclusion plan, understand that steps forward aren’t always perfect. As long as your management team is thoughtful and takes a genuine interest in the backgrounds and beliefs of their employees, the outcome is bound to be a net positive.

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Inclusive Winter Holidays Inclusive holiday planning goes beyond the simple switch from a Christmas party to a holiday party.

Ask. Ask. Ask.

Be aware of employee backgrounds For example, don’t schedule the holiday party on a day that some employees are fasting for Ramadan.

TIP: A global holiday calendar for the busy holiday season can help to avoid scheduling a meeting during an important holiday. Google Calendars offers an “Add Calendars” feature with calendar add-ins for most countries, religions, and cultural holidays.

Be aware of alcohol Many Muslims don’t drink, and many others prefer to avoid alcohol for other personal reasons.

THE FIRST STEPS

Ask. Ask. Ask. The best way to know what your employees care about is to ask. Integrate asking about what holidays employees would like to see recognized into your onboarding process and check in yearly for changes. Consider consulting with your legal advisors to know which questions are appropriate to ask, and be aware that these questions can be personal and sensitive. Keep answering entirely optional.

Some questions to consider asking: • What holidays would you like to see recognized in the office?

• What cultural celebrations are important to you?

• Is there anything else we should know about the holidays that are important to you?

From here, this information about your employees should inform the path forward.

THE FIRST CHANGES TO MAKE Use the right tools to hold you accountable for remembering your office’s

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important celebrations. Some ways to make your systems and policies inclusive: •

Representative Leadership. Having diverse leadership in Employee Resource Groups and a variety of perspectives is the best way to avoid insensitive mistakes.

•

Floating Holidays. Offer flexibility for holiday celebrations. Consider offering floating holidays as part of your paid holiday schedule.

•

Multicultural Calendar. Upload the holidays that employees celebrate in the company calendar, or create a separate calendar to be displayed in the workplace.

• Holiday Announcements Slack Message. Consider incorporating a monthly Slack message about holidays coming up, and offer employees the chance to include a blurb about their holiday.

Always ask for permission first before sharing what employees celebrate.

Holidays + Celebrations A guide on creating a more inclusive workplace, through intentional holiday celebrations.

TIP: Consider having the first part of the party, such as the one with speeches, announcements, and awards, be without alcohol. Then, transition to a more free-flowing event once most of the party itinerary has been covered.

Make holidays non-specific Make sure decor isn’t super specific to any religion, and be conscious of religious and non-religious dietary restrictions.

TIP: Consider planning a New Year’s party instead of a holiday party. Let the theme of the New Year’s party be about the company’s goals for the new year, and the values that employees can rally around as part of your organization. Venue reservations before or after peak holiday season are much more affordable. These dates are often more convenient for employees as well.

Make holidays truly optional The holidays can be a hurtful time for those experiencing depression, or the loss of a loved one that they would have celebrated with. For some, steering clear of celebrations is the best option.

TIP: Communicate that employees are not obligated to attend. Keep tabs on who may need support and make a thoughtful effort to communicate your appreciation for them.

Encourage group participation Rather than a select few members planning the holiday celebration, allow employees to have a voice and share their stories through decor and multicultural events.

TIP: Allow employees to bring in decorations from their faith and background, so that the office can be inclusively decorated in the winter months. This decoration day also works for a potluck.

Employees can opt to bring in holiday dishes from their culture, or their favorite winter treats.

INCLUSIVE CULTURAL CELEBRATIONS Time off of work doesn’t necessarily need to be the solution for celebrations and inclusivity. Often, cultural holidays

can be celebrated in the workplace community and can be used to bring awareness.

Examples of cultural holidays include: • Black History Month - February.

• Women’s History Month - March • Autism Awareness Month - April • Pride Month - June • Juneteenth - June Nineteenth Ways to Celebrate Include: •

Get involved outside the office.

Invite the office to join in for the local Pride Parade. Send out a Facebook invite, details on where to meet, and consider grabbing a meal beforehand.

•

Get involved in the office. Host a panel discussion for Black History Month. Have an external speaker to come in and teach about LGBTQ+ history.

• Highlight Support Groups Available.

If there’s an office group that fundraises and hosts events related to that topic, give them the spotlight to ask for donations or plan an awareness event.

THE PATH FORWARD Employees perform best when they feel seen and understood. We hope that celebrating the diversity of your employees is one small step towards creating a more inclusive work environment, and that this inclusivity propels your business forward.

Megan is Gather’s first intern. She is passionate about bridging the gap between academia and business design, and is currently studying Marketing and Human-Centered Design at the University of Notre Dame. Reprinted with permission.

WHERE USSSA MEMBERS SHARE THEIR LATEST OR ALL-TIME FAVORITE READS AND WHY! “ I am a Reader.

Yes, a Reader with a capital “R”. ”

BY BOB HUBBARD OWNER HUBBARD FAMILY SWIM SCHOOL

My preference is to read books, magazines, and newspapers. Things I can hold in my hands. I do read the NY Times and various news feeds online (Huffington Post, Slate, Politico, Yahoo, ESPN, etc.) I respect my friends and relatives who prefer audio versions of all of the above. I do have an Audible account but do not access it or podcasts very often.

Why in the USSSA’s section on books do I go through all of those disclaimers? My encouragement to you today is not to read a book that I might recommend. It is to encourage you to read (or listen) voraciously. That means to read “a lot”. A little bit every day.

There are currently seven (7) books on my bedside table: Two mysteries, Bruce Springsteen’s biography, Bill Gates on Climate Change, Origin Story, A Big History of Everything by David Christian, a book of poetry by Leonard Cohen, and a thought provoking book on the bible. I am struggling with the new information about Mr. Gates. It has impacted my enthusiasm for his new book.

I am also working my way through an amazing history of the US These Truths by Jill Lepore, on Audible.

My bookshelves have to be purged two or three times a year. The ladies at our local neighborhood bookstore know my name and that of our swim school. The local library and high schools welcome my bags of used books.

Do I read every book that I buy? No! My rule is that if I get 30% into a book and am not enjoying it I put it down. As my family knows, I am reading multiple books, all at the same time. Sometimes I need a mindless mystery or a soothing passage from a book on meditation or some hard core new knowledge from a business writer or a historian.

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If I read something interesting to share, my team and even my grandchildren are used to getting pages torn out of magazines and newspapers with their initials on them to read for themselves.

Finally, don’t get stuck reading current stuff. I love to pick up classics. I have recommended Tarzan of the Apes, the book not the movie, to a number of swim school friends. It is a great book. Adventure combined with great history and yes a bit of a love story.

We can learn from great writers, who have tackled many of the same challenges we face today in their own times. I am happy to share specific recommendations if you email me at: Bob@hubbardswim.com. For more on this topic, check out https:// dailystoic.com/not-just-to-read-but-to-read-critically/ as well.

Thank you. Happy Reading.

If interested in joining a USSSA book club, please visit BIT.LY/USSSABOOKCLUB

Want to share your favorite read with members? Email anne@usswimschools.org to join in the fun!

Bob & Kathy founded Hubbard Family Swim School & Hubbard Sports Camps in 1998, a job that they are grateful for every day, and which has led to many professional presentations and positions including US Swim Schools Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bob’s highlights include growing up in NYC, ocean lifeguard, cheerleader, auctioneer, and music lover. His healthy passion is biking with a group of old guys that gets him out on most of the roads in Phoenix. Bob earned his undergraduate degree from Xavier University in psychology(1973) and a law degree from the University of Cincinnati (1976). He worked as a lawyer and as an executive in a variety of industries including homebuilding, life insurance and hotels.

BOB HUBBARD’S CURRENT READS Bruce Springsteen’s Biography Bill Gates on Climate Change Origin Story – A Big History of Everything

by David Christian Poetry by Leonard Cohen And more...

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 29

A BETTER DEFINITION OF ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE WORKPLACE Please don’t google “definition of accountability in the workplace.” I just did, and the results are seriously disappointing. The posts and articles aren’t horrible, and they raise sensible points like accountability shouldn’t be about punishment and that it’s somehow about “taking responsibility” for actions and decisions. That’s all fine, but it’s also kind of scattered, and that’s why accountability has become an Inigo Montoya word — you keep using it, but I do not think it means what you think it means.

And dictionary definitions don’t really help, because the word itself was long in use before we had the workplace context, and it has its root in counting and numbers, which ends up being distracting. I actually think workplace accountability needs its own separate definition. Because we all have an intuitive feeling that we need more accountability in the workplace, and if we had more/better accountability, we’d be performing better. I want us to take that out of the realm of intuition and into the realm of the clear and tangible.

So here’s my crack at a definition:

WORKPLACE ACCOUNTABILITY: the creation and maintenance of a system that ensures agreed-upon results within a particular functional area (or the organization as a whole) are achieved.

Accountability is not just about doing what you say you’re going to do, or admitting failure when you don’t. Accountability in the workplace is a system that is designed to make sure results are delivered. That can certainly include a record 30 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

BY JAMIE NOTTER PROPEL

of who’s going to do what, and a conversation when things don’t happen as promised. But those elements are part of an overall system designed to ensure that the results come through.

Accountability itself is fundamentally about the health and functioning of that system. So the phrases we use in the workplace around accountability should be defined in that way: •

To hold someone accountable = to make sure they’ve got their system in place and that it’s working, or to insist that they perform their agreed-upon role/function within that system.

•

To be accountable = to put the system in place and make sure it’s working, or to perform your agreed-upon role/function within that system

•

To improve accountability = build systems that work better and faster or improve discipline in role performance within the system.

So if you are “in charge” of anything, that means you need to build and

maintain an accountability system. Here are some tips: Get clearer on results. “A successful annual meeting” is not clear, and it will be very difficult to build an accountability system around that, since everyone will have a different definition of what those results look like. We advise clients to define results as binary outcomes whenever they can—either we did it, or we didn’t. You won’t always hit the target (if you do you’re aiming too low), but it makes it much easier to build the accountability system.

Get better at metrics, particularly leading indicators. A big piece of accountability systems is transparency — making things visible along the way.

It’s not about “busting” people if their numbers are off. It’s about seeing which numbers INDICATE that there might be a future problem with the results. Good leading indicators are a hallmark of a good accountability system.

Identify the “stucks” sooner. A good accountability system has a simple process that enables people to say they are stuck. We use software called Align

as part of our system, and in our DAILY meetings we have a place where I can call out another employee who is holding me up on something. Again, this isn’t about “busting” them. It’s just that there are a lot of moving parts, and the entire system can be thrown off by even a short delay. By making those stucks visible, we simply reduce the delay (and improve the results).

If you don’t have an accountability system, start building one today (and let us know if we can help).

Jamie is an author and growth strategist at PROPEL, where he helps leaders integrate culture, strategy, and execution to achieve breakthrough performance and impact. He brings twenty-five years of experience to his work designing culturedriven businesses, and has specialized along the way in areas like conflict resolution and generations.

Jamie is also the co-author of three books— Humanize, When Millennials Take Over, and The Non-Obvious Guide to Employee Engagement— and holds a Master’s in conflict resolution from George Mason and a certificate in Organization Development from Georgetown, where he serves as adjunct faculty. Reprinted with permission.

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 31

BEST ADVICE RECEIVED

BY BOARD MEMBERS The thing I learned during COVID was to take a hard look at everything we do and how we do it.

The pause gave us time to see if we could do things better. The other thing I learned was to not stress out over so many things. Before COVID the thought of canceling classes for a teacher was unheard of. We would figure out some way to cover them or try to convince the teacher to come in. We have changed to understand that sometimes we don’t have enough staff and we might have to cancel. It was liberating to just accept that occasionally we might just have to cancel if we can’t cover. It is not something that we want to do frequently but if we have to; we have to.

JOHN KIRK LITTLE OTTER SWIM SCHOOL

THE BEST ADVICE I’VE RECEIVED DURING COVID IS TO GROW YOUR PEOPLE FROM WITHIN. I got this from Miren Oca when we were having a difficult time finding leadership staff. It has been tremendously helpful.

BUFFY FOLISE CHICAGO SWIM SCHOOL

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There’s so much we’ve garnered from the members over the years.

Here are a few: 1. Be a reader and lifetime learner 2. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

3. Learn how to delegate TRACY KOLEBER NITRO SWIMMING

THE BEST ADVICE I RECEIVED WAS REALLY TWO PARTS:

First was from Bob Hubbard who said build what you want to run! My first conference in 2009 I showed up and spoke to every person I could and asked how to not fail. The second best advice I received was while starting my plans for my build-out. Miren Oca told me, put your money into your water. A clean pool is the most important thing! I am very proud of my water and would not have my school as safe as it is if it wasn’t for those two pieces of advice.

MELISSA TAYLOR SMALL FISH BIG FISH SWIM SCHOOL

BEST ADVICE WAS ACTUALLY RELATED TO MERCHANDISE.

Back in 2014 a colleague at another swim school in Florida suggested that we follow their 2 reusable swim diaper rule! Wow, let me tell you, we implemented this new policy for all existing and new clients under 4 years of age. Our merchandise sales increased and our pool closures due to accidental brown outs improved by 75%. As you can see a dramatic 2 way improvement that allowed us to make some extra $, kept our patrons safer, our pool cleaner, and our pool open so we did not have as many cancelations or make-ups to reschedule.

BOBBY HAZEN SAF-T-SWIM

The best advice I received was to have other swim schools review my building plans and utilization of the space.

When I was building my second leased location in a tough layout of space, I brought the building plans to a conference and gave different members a specific color pen, and then had them mark what they would change on the floor plans. When I left the conference, I had an entirely different floor plan! Not only did I save space, but I also saved money, kept dry areas dry, and made a very comfortable space utilization for our swim families. Our leased location started with 4000 square feet, and over time we were able to acquire another 1000 square feet to add showers, 4 more toilets, and 12 more changing rooms.

KAREN CLAY SWIMWEST SWIM SCHOOL

WOW, THIS IS A LOADED QUESTION AS I HAVE HAD LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF AWESOME BUSINESS TIPS AND ADVICE OVER THE YEARS.

The 1st couple of years was a bit overwhelming and now I still learn something with every conversation I have with swim school friends. As far as the best one, I would say it’s the next one, as I am always learning and sharing with our membership. If I had to pick one, I would say it was to create a Culture and have Core Values in my business and always refer back to them with all business decisions.

BRAD GRZELKA ATLANTA SWIM ACADEMY

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 33

MAKING BUSINESS DECISIONS WITHOUT DATA IS LIKE DRIVING WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED! Driving with your eyes closed…

Dangerous, right?

So is trying to make important business decisions without first understanding your data.

You have your data. You have questions about your business. You just need to be able to unlock that information it holds to help get answers to your questions in order to succeed.

If you are going to target one area first, I highly recommend finding out your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). With this, you can get your customer lifetime profit to compare to your customer acquisition cost.

A good chunk of your expenses go into marketing to grow you customer base, but are you getting your money back?

Here is how you can find out.

BY BRETT HERMSEN ACTIONABLE DATA ANALYSIS

You can also find Brett at the National Conference this October 4-6 where he will be speaking at the session

“What Keeps You Up at Night? Your Data has the Answers.”

For more details or to register, visit https://whova.com/web/ usssa_202109/

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USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 35

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT I CAN PROVIDE USING YOUR TRANSACTION DATA.

I like to view this from a yearly perspective so that you can see any major business changes over the past 5+ years to get a good view of trends. Each step (calculation) to get to the end goal of CLV has its own unique piece of information that can provide valuable insight into your business’s average customer. Let’s get started!

AVERAGE PURCHASE SIZE = INVOICE $ / ORDER COUNT Take your total sales for the year and divide that by the total number of order transactions for the year to get the average purchase size. This tells you how much your average sale transaction was.

AVERAGE PURCHASE FREQUENCY = ORDER COUNT / TOTAL CUSTOMER Take your total number of order transactions (same as above) and divide that by the total number of customers you sold to that year (even once) to get the average purchase frequency. This tells you how often customers paid you for your services.

For example, when you are looking at the entire year, the number 10 would mean your average customer paid you 10 times during the year. If your business model is monthly payments, then this would make sense if you have some customers that have been with you for years but more new customers that have only been paying you for a few months. Or, a big chunk of your average customer takes the summer off?

AVERAGE CUSTOMER VALUE = AVERAGE PURCHASE PRICE X AVERAGE PURCHASE FREQUENCY Take the average purchase price you calculated above and multiply that by 36 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

the average purchase frequency you calculated above to determine the average customer value. This tells you the average sales dollars from each customer during the year for your services.

AVERAGE CUSTOMER LIFESPAN (YEARS) = (LAST SALES TRANSACTION - FIRST SALES TRANSACTION) / 365 For all your active customers, you want to determine how long they have been with you. Some will be a couple days and others will be years. This will tell you how long your average customer has been paying for your services. For each customer, determine the number of days they have been a customer with you and divide it by 365 to determine the average number of years a customer has been with you.

CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE = AVERAGE CUSTOMER VALUE X AVERAGE CUSTOMER LIFESPAN (YEARS) Take the average customer value calculated above and multiple it by the average number of years your current customers have been with you to determine the customer lifetime value. This tells you the average sales dollars each new customer will bring to your business.

CUSTOMER LIFETIME PROFIT = CLV X PROFIT MARGIN Take your CLV and multiply it by your average profit margin to get customer lifetime profit. This will tell you the total profit from your average customer.

CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COST = TOTAL MARKETING $ / NEW CUSTOMERS Take the total dollars spend on marketing for the year and divide it by the total

number of new customers for the year.

This tells you the dollars you spent to acquire a new customer.

Now you know.

Obviously, best-case scenario is that your customer lifetime profit is significantly larger than your customer acquisition cost. If not, you need to make changes.

Now that you have that information, look for past trends. When you spent more in marketing, did you bring in more new customers? Were you able to maintain or grow the average customers lifespan?

The reality is, the important business questions that can be answered with your data is nearly endless. The only limit?

You. How much would you like to grow your business?

The next step?

Well, no matter how good your classes and your instructors are, you know you still have students that are getting ‘stuck’.

It happens. But when it does, it costs you money.

In which classes are students getting stuck because parents stop finding value and leave?

Email me at brett@actionabledataanalysis.com to discover how to find out.

Brett has a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Milwaukee School of Engineering with 15+ years of business experience leading continuous improvement projects. He enjoys the challenge of taking a big puzzle (raw data) and organizing it into something beautiful (charts & tables) to help business owners see the big picture from different angles.

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FAMILY TRAGEDY SPURS PROPOSED LEGISLATION, DEBATE THAT WOULD HAVE OVER-REGULATED SWIM SCHOOLS IN TEXAS

The legislative challenge in the 2021 Texas Legislature was absolutely daunting.

The family’s testimony before the House committee was emotional and gut wrenching.

A hush fell over the committee room, as April Chang openly wept while describing the incident that every parent fears: her 3-year-old son Mitchell had drowned and later died after he was found in a pool at a San Antonio swim school in 2018. The Changs had dropped off their children – not for swim lessons – but at a “parent’s night out” event at the facility.

Thus, the Mitchell Chang Swim School Safety Act (HB 3357) was introduced by State Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa). The bill would have required commercial swim schools to apply for and become licensed to operate by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). And the agency would set license, application, and renewal fees in amounts necessary to cover the costs of administering the program, potentially increasing annual operating costs by tens of thousands of dollars for each swim school location across Texas.

BY SHANNON AND MIKE MERONEY MERONEY PUBLIC AFFAIRS, LLC

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USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 39

Our lobbying firm – Meroney Public Affairs, LLC – was hired after HB 3357 was filed, but before the House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee hearing described above.

In anticipation of a committee hearing, we quickly got up to speed on the issue; contacted the bill author’s office; spoke to the attorneys working for the Changs; and began engaging in the complicated legislative process to either stop the bill or amend it to our satisfaction.

The bill author claimed the bill was “urgently needed to bring straightforward, common-sense regulatory scheme for commercial swim schools in Texas,” adding that “commercial swim schools are unregulated, but provide similar services to daycares, which are highly regulated by the state.” Even committee members stated they were surprised that no regulation existed.

The proponents of the bill cited alarming statistics claiming “Texas has the highest drowning rates in the country, and several incidents similar [to the Changs story] had been reported in the state.” And citing the Center for Disease Control (CDC) said “drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death among children age 1-4.”

We then helped prepare message points and strategy for USSSA President-elect and Austin-area swim school owner Tracy Koleber to use as she testified at the April 14th hearing.

In her testimony, Koleber said, “Mandatory licensure will be a financial burden on many smaller swim schools, which will result in many closing up shop and becoming even smaller, nonregulated swim lesson-givers which may actually create more danger than currently exists. It will also result in fewer affordable opportunities for parents to obtain help teaching their kids to swim. As a result, this bill may actually do more harm than good overall and that possibility should be carefully considered.”

It was also pointed out that the tragic incident for which the bill was named happened during a “parents’ night out” event – not structured swimming lessons. “The swim schools that would have been covered by the bill are devoted to lifesaving swim instruction and safety, and there are hundreds of

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informal and even casual operators that are unknown with no single way of identifying them,” she said.

Also, the proposed legislation would have required licenses required be issued by 1/1/22. Koleber pointed out that USSSA members already comply with voluminous state and local governance because pools are permitted by the health department, which collects annual fees and conducts unscheduled inspections. “It would be impossible to go through the entire rulemaking process with TDLR, educate all potential swim school operators about the new rules, and implement a new requirement for them to apply for and obtain a license that previously did not exist by 1/1/2022,” she said.

Finally, Koleber said “If the purpose is child safety around water, then all water, all types of water parties would and should be considered. Many situations with danger are completely missed by this bill. We implore you to have a longer and more thorough conversation with us about the best ways to prevent the situation that contributed to Mitchell Chang’s tragic death.”

Several comments and questions were raised by committee members that were sympathetic to USSSA’s position, including asking about lifeguard certification for all staff, including clerks and back-office personnel. We followed up with those members, many of which were rightly concerned with over-regulating an industry and causing unintended consequences.

We also argued that the bill would not have prevented the tragedy of the Chang family – limits or rules around recreational programs would have been a better solution. And we shared that USSSA has been engaging in a lengthy process for more than six months of creating a teacher certification program which we anticipate will be ready for launch in early October.

There was also a separate bill (SB 2120) in the Texas Senate that would have directed the state health agency to conduct a study about whether swim schools should be regulated. That bill also received a brief hearing but did not advance.

In the end, neither HB 3357 nor SB 2120 passed their committees, much less the full legislature. But we anticipate this issue is not dead, and will likely be revived during the next regular legislative session, which begins in January of 2023. And USSSA will be ready for the debate.

Shannon and Mike Meroney serve as a trusted advisors to clients, helping them influence legislation, regulations and perceptions through: 1) direct legislative and regulatory advocacy; 2) grassroots activation and coordination; 3) coalition building; 4) message development and written communications tools; and 5) news media relations management.

Their expertise and network of relationships help clients achieve their public policy goals and business objectives by shaping decision-making in Texas.

Learn more about the legislative process and what you can be doing now at this year’s USSSA National Conference. In the session Swim School Licenser Legislation, we will be discussing recent proposed legislation activities and what swim school owners can be doing now to establish relationships and build credibility with legislators.

To register for the National Conference, visit https:// whova.com/web/usssa_202109/ or the USSSA website.

WHAT ARE WE UNBUNDLING AND

WHAT ARE WE KEEPING?

BY DAVINA LOPEZ DAVINA’S SWIM HOUSE KAREN CLAY SWIMWEST SWIM SCHOOLS

“ To start a new chapter of your life you need to stop re-reading the last one.”

To start a new chapter of your life you need to stop re-reading the last one. The Membership Committee is excited to share with you how they have become more streamlined and efficient in their businesses. Being forced out of a routine gives you new perspective on your business which creates new opportunities.

These tips are collectively listed from our Committee on how we have become efficient and lean.

INTERNAL CHANGES • Restructuring our team by eliminating positions to streamline management • Automated scheduling and programming online to reduce payroll.

• Went from a no makeup policy to unlimited makeups to show our flexibility.

We will not be continuing this. Too much inconsistency and parents take advantage.

• Re-designed, updated the content and branded all of our manuals.

• Learned, created and implemented meetings and staff trainings online.

• Created remote office and administration staff with increased flexibility which allows for work life balance.

• Used the knowledge from the USSSA members in our zoom gatherings to take a fresh look and perspective at our policies and procedures regarding refunds and closures.

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 41

PROGRAMMING • Re-designed and updated our programs and swim levels • Re-designed our pre-lifeguarding, First aid, CPR, and babysitting courses to move to hybrid • Online vs in person phone registration to reduce staff administration cost.

• Offering classes on a staggered start schedule which helps with crowd control in the building FINANCIAL • Became aware of local and government grants that have always existed and learned how to research them. ie: The Chamber of Commerce helps with finding grants.

•

Changed perspectives on finances, thinned what we did not need ie. some memberships and services, phone and internet plans and negotiated a reduce cost. Used up supplies scattered around, comparison pricing, and think twice before purchasing supplies. Need vs Want.

•

Did a very detailed search of my income statement and balance sheet to review every single expense, and where are the opportunities to add more revenue.

• No longer loan out goggles, swim diapers or towels and increased our sales FACILITIES: • Will encourage and make available hand sanitizer • Cleaning more all during the day • Keeping our acrylic shields up at the sales desk CHANGE ROOMS • Took away shower curtains so families take a quick rinse and get dressed faster • Automatic soap and paper dispensers for less touch points

WAITING AREA AND LOBBY • Took out our couch/chair separations which makes more room • Wipe stations throughout the facility if parents want something “cleaner” • Took out lost and found and not sure I am bringing it back • On-line or iPad Check -In stations STAFF MENTAL HEALTH • MyGroup Program available through the USSSA (amazing program) • Created mental health training and seminars for our team USSSA SWIM SCHOOL OWNERS: • Friendships amongst owners • USSSA membership- WOW THE SUPPORT IS INCREDIBLE! • Sharing of ideas

POOL • Divided out teaching zones • Continue using face shields but making it a personal decision for the instructor

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I’M KEEPING “LEADER”

BY DAVINA LOPEZ DAVINA’S SWIM HOUSE DLOPEZ@DAVINASSWIMHOUSE.COM WWW.DAVINASSWIMHOUSE.COM

The past year and a half has been very complicated, challenging, rewarding and has allowed for personal revelations and growth. As an owner of Davina’s Swim House, I’m expected to be strong and show no weakness, no worry, put on the happy face even when we struggle, we must show that we are okay, and the business is strong. Our team members rely on us, and we rely on them. We must lead with strength and endurance and give them motivation to grow and lead.

How do you lead a team when you’re unsure, have no control and no answers?….As owners and humans on March 13th, 2020, the carpet was ripped from underneath our feet. I paced back and forth and tried to remedy something I had no control over. My swim school was shutting down and I was not sure what was next. I had no answers for my team, no answers for my family and I had no answers for me. Davina – what’s next?

When are we opening? What do we tell our team, clients and worst of all what do I tell my family…The first closure March -end of June I was nervous and confused but my team colleagues and USSSA pulled through for me and I was able to talk and share. I was in fight mode. I took

my uncertainty and did what I do best…

FIGHT. I went to the banks, I secured money and cut backspending and I convinced my staff that we are strong, and we are going to make it. Davina’s Swim House was going to pull through.

I was cheery, I was ok, I talked to my spouse, friends, and I was optimistic, and I knew for the greater good this was what I had to do.

June 2020 1st reopening- nervous but super happy things were opening, and people were happy to be back, as things progressed, and we dealt with potential cases etc. My anxiety grew but used my connections with other swim schools to help assist and give me moral support. It got easier. I realized I was stronger and that the threat of getting a case or 2 could come into our facility got easier to deal with once I realized it’s not just me. My team and I did all the right things. We were prepared, had all procedures in place and realized there are just some things we can’t control. I had to learn and again to be strong. I can’t control this and I did everything I could.

Then it happened again we were locked down again November 22, 2020. – angry, frustrated feeling of uselessness all of these feelings spiraling out of control.

How do you close again? What do you tell your team? What do you tell your family? And most importantly how do I do this again? This was harder than the first round. Most of my colleagues were open, most were almost back to normal.

Who relates to me? My local swim schools in Ontario and some parts of Canada are the only people who get it. I had lots of phone calls, tears, frustration, and laughter. Who better to laugh with than your friends? Thank you to all of you!!!! As the winter passed, I knew this was going to be a few months, but I had no idea I would be writing this article in July and still closed. I went down that rabbit hole of anger and feeling

of uselessness, but wait I still have a team. How do I show strength? You don’t. At this point you need to show a little bit of vulnerability. I had to talk about my frustrations about the millions we didn’t make, but never once that I was giving up, I’m going to survive, I’m going to be amazing, I’m a survivor. Yes, March-May was bad and thanks to my family, team, swim buds I came out of my darkness and realized who I am and that is a LEADER! When membership committee asked us, what are we unbundling and keeping and I’M KEEPING LEADER. That’s right, I’m a leader, getting my team through this. I have learned that they rely on me, as much as I rely on them. They rely on my energy, they need guidance to know that we are going to survive, I learned that all of us swim school owners who dug deep need to show the positive, show the vulnerable side, and just reassure the team that we got this, is what I will focus on once I re-open and carry forward. I will use this strength to grow my business.

As owners we focus lots of time and energy on our team and rightfully so, but what I learned from the past year in a half we must invest in ourselves and its okay to be vulnerable and it’s ok not to have all the answers. Get your strength from others and talk to people. It’s ok not to be ok. Thank you to all the swim owners that spent hours talking to me, advocating with me, and to the USSSA for helping me survive and I promised myself, and I promise all of you, I will be stronger and better moving forward!

FUN ACTIVITY: We didn’t mention the C word until this activity…When you can please participate in collecting all your one-way directional signage, your COVID manuals, screening stations and create one big healing bon fire and celebrate by letting it all go. I hope to be able to do this in the new year!

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 43

SKILL BUILDING FOR UNDER 4 YEAR OLD’S

BY LAURIE LAWRENCE WORLDWIDESWIMSCHOOL.COM

Swimming is a building block process. It’s important that instructors and coaches progress slowly with skills. Once each skill is learned and mastered, then it’s time to move on to new activities. It is imperative that skills are conquered before moving on - if any steps are rushed, or missed in the learn to swim process, then the eventual stroke and swimming techniques may suffer.

Many instructors come across swimmers in the upper levels of their program that are stiff and awkward in their swimming strokes. These swimmers may have missed one of the most important parts of the learn to swim process – floating. If instructors move on from floating too soon and try to teach propulsion and movement through the water, then swimmers may not relax and learn the freeing sensation of floating in the water. There are many steps from the initial stages of learn to swim that run all the way through until the squad swimmers in any program.

This article will break down skills in the learn to swim process. It is important not to skip these steps in order to produce excellent swimmers with good quality skills and strokes.

The skill building process as discussed in this article can be broken down into six stages. Swim schools may have different stages within their program. The most important thing is that instructors take their time in each of the phases of learn to swim to ensure confident swimmers ready to progress and continuously improve within the program.

Continued on next page...

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 45

The following stages are a guide that the World Wide Swim School uses in teaching their swimming curriculum.

These building blocks for swimming lessons are focused on in each and every aspect of the program from infants all the way up to stroke development and squad. Specific skills and drills can be given to swimmers to improve each of these stages of swimming. The 6 stages of swimming that will be focused on in this article are: • Breath control • Submersion • Floating • Propulsion (arms and legs) • Breathing • Safety Skills It is important to note that even Olympic champions, world record holders and the best swimmers in the world still work on their technique and specific skills to become stronger faster athletes. This shows us that even the best swimmers in any centre can break down their swimming into these smaller swimming steps to achieve better results.

STEP 1: BREATH CONTROL Breath control is the process of taking a big breath in, and closing the mouth and nose off whilst holding the breath in. This breath control activity is introduced so swimmers learn how to hold the air in their body. Breath control can be improved by holding the breath for 1, 2 or 3 seconds in the initial stages all the way up to 10 seconds. Breath holding activities shouldn’t be forced as children may end up holding their breath for too long and blacking out.

Good instructors will demonstrate breath holding for short periods of time with cheeks full of air. A good way to explain this is by saying, “Look at my balloon face. Now you show me a balloon face.” This activity of breath control if taught slowly and practiced will often produce the following results: • Water does not enter the nose or mouth, keeping swimmers comfortable.

• Deep breathing activities will raise the level of cardiovascular fitness.

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• Filling the lungs with air will assist swimmers in remaining on top of the water.

• Eyes can be placed in the water in the lead up to the next skill of submersion. * Once this activity is performed suitably it is time for the swimmer to put move on to submersion.

STEP 2: SUBMERSION Submersion is where part, or all of the body, is submersed under water.

The aim of submersion is to get the swimmer under or moving through the water (changing levels in the water from standing to squatting, sitting on the bottom, walking along the bottom, crawling along the ledge in a crocodile fashion, monkeying along the side of the pool or entering the water from outside the pool. By using breath control learned in the previous stage, the instructor can ask swimmers to take a big breath and enter the water. This can be a daunting step for many swimmers, especially frightened beginners.

Putting the eyes in the water, or going under the water, is an assault on all the senses: • Sight changes as the eyes go under (with or without goggles) • Hearing changes as noises are muffled or blocked out as the head goes under water •

Smell of the water is a different sensation. It’s hoped that the initial step of breath control is mastered, so that the water doesn’t enter the swimmer’s nose

•

Taste may be affected if the swimmer accidentally gets a little bit of water in their mouth, or if they lick their lips after submerging

• Touch is going to be completely different in the water – swimmers will have the moving sensation of the water as people throughout the pool move, as well as the individual swimmer moving slower, with the dense feeling of water surrounding them.

Any part of the body can be used in submersion activities. Shoulders under, ears in the water, lips under water and

face in water are all a great start when introducing submersion activities into a lesson. Good instructors will go slow and give swimmers activities that they can achieve and excel at. Once these activities are mastered, it’s time to move onto the next step. Instructors should be empathetic towards their swimmers and remember that not everyone is as comfortable in the water as they are – everyone has to start somewhere and learn at their own pace. *Once the skill of submersion is mastered and swimmers can move confidently through the water while holding their breath (breath control) and putting their face in the water (submersion) it’s time to move onto the next step.

STEP 3: FLOATING Floating is the process of pushing off the bottom of the pool, ledge or side of the pool. It’s important to note that during the floating process, the main aim is to relax and feel comfortable in the water without kicking the legs or moving the arms. Swimmers need to feel their own buoyancy in the water.

Floating in the water without movement will help swimmers to learn to relax.

Swimmers will learn to let the water work for them in assisting them to float, and not fight against the water by remaining stiff, and trying to swim too early.

Swimmers should practice floating on both their front and back. In the initial stages of floating swimmers may like to use a kickboard to assist their floatation.

Things to remember when teaching beginner swimmers, the skill of floating: • Start small by using a kickboard during initial stages of floating. Once swimmers are comfortable with the f loatation of a kickboard, the instructor can vary the skill by removing the board.

•

It can be a huge step in a swimmer’s learning process to take their feet off the bottom of the pool. They may need to start with hopping or jumping activities in working towards floating.

•

Teach swimmers how to recover.

It may seem like a basic skill, but a frightened swimmer will need a lot of assistance in learning how to stand up from a floating position.

•

spot in the pool, rollover breathing for recovery, reach rescue and tow rescue.

The result we are after in the floating aspect of learn to swim is pushing and moving through the water, from one spot to another, and standing up to recover.

* Swimmers may work towards taking a deep breath (breath control), putting their face under water (submersion) and pushing from one spot to another (floating) for quite some time.

Once they have mastered those skills it’s time to move on to the next step.

STEP 4: PROPULSION Propulsion is the movement of arms and legs in the water to cause advancement from one point to another. There are two different types of propulsive skills in the water – arm movements and leg movements. These two propulsive activities should be broken down into separate learning opportunities for swimmers and practiced regularly.

Manipulation is suggested during the propulsion stage of learning to swim to ensure correct technique is achieved, and a high level of neuromuscular patterns (or muscle memory) is created.

Arm propulsion - a step-by-step building block process will come into play when teaching all 4 competitive strokes and the rescue strokes.

Instructors will need to understand their swimmers needs, and abilities, to know which propulsive activities to teach at what time. Refer to your swim schools training manual and curriculum for more advice on when to teach each propulsive activity.

Leg propulsion - as discussed above, manipulation is key in teaching leg propulsion. When introducing a new propulsive skill for the legs, instructors should slow down and take the time for understanding and repetition. If swimmers are given an opportunity to hone their skills effectively at an early stage, they will excel in their swimming as they progress. * Propulsive skills will get swimmers moving through the water.

Instructors should ensure they are teaching a ‘feel for the water’, to enhance propulsion when swimming.

Once swimmers have perfected breath control, submersion, floating and propulsion it’s time to move onto the next step.

STEP 5: BREATHING Once swimmers have good propulsive drive through the water and can swim for longer distances, breathing can be introduced into the swimming lesson.

Breathing is different for many of the different strokes. There are different breathing types (side/front) and techniques (single side/bilateral).

Like any skill in the swimming process, breathing should be broken down and taught slowly and efficiently.

Swimmers will need to be taught both exhaling and inhaling within their lesson.

There are many types of breathing drills and skills that can be taught within the lesson. Refer to your swim school for ways to teach specific breathing skills.

Remember that the body position may change in the water when breathing is introduced, so, as with all skills, it may be desirable to practice less difficult skills when initiating breathing activities in the lesson. *Once swimmers have achieved the skills of breath control, submersion, floating, propulsion and swimming they are well on their way to becoming excellent quality swimmers with good technique.

STEP 6: SAFETY SKILLS Safety skills are an important part of swimming lessons and should be practiced sporadically throughout the learning process. Important safety skills can be planned for swimmers of all ages and abilities. There should be multiple safety skills that can be practiced in each and every swimming stage, as discussed in this article. Some examples are entries, exits, calling for help, turns to a safe

CONCLUSION Age is not a factor in learn to swim – prior experience often limits or enhances individual needs. A fouryear-old may be at the same learning stage as a twelve-year-old. So too may an adult. Good instructors will factor in the above swimming skills discussed and plan activities that are skill building to ensure swimmers are constantly learning, improving and have opportunities to excel in their swimming.

Remember to ensure activities are achievable and exciting while building upon skills that have previously been mastered. Remember – skill building can help instructors plan and deliver lessons to many age groups and abilities within a single lesson, or an entire swim school.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Read more articles on our web site https://worldwideswimschool.com and sign up to our newsletter for more tips and hints.

Laurie Lawrence, a top athlete in his own right, is a former Australian Rugby Union Representative and Olympic and World Champion Swim coach. There would be few, who do not know of Laurie Lawrence or his spirited personality, his sense of humour or his zest for life. For those who know him well, there would be no disputing that his manner is direct, sincere and honest.

Whatever Laurie is involved in, he gives all of himself. He cares deeply about the people he influences and he refuses to rest until he has achieved his best. Laurie has been claimed as one of Australia’s favourite sons, and is admired by many Australians, from little children who attend his coaching clinics to International Corporate Leaders who look to him for inspiration and new ideas.

Laurie today is a water safety advocate with the ‘Kids Alive Do The Five’ program for under 5 year old’s. He also shares his knowledge and philosophies for the swimming community to learn from on the World Wide Swim School online platform.

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 47

ASK AL

BY ALVARO G. MENDOZA COMMERCIAL ENERGY SPECIALISTS, INC.

WE HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT SWIMMING POOL “FILL” WATER: HOW MUCH NEEDS TO BE ADDED, HOW DO YOU SPOT THE WARNING SIGNS, WHAT’S THE IMPORTANCE OF MAINTAINING WATER LEVELS, AND HOW IMPORTANT MAINTAINING THE MIX OF NEW WATER IN A SWIM SCHOOL POOL. CAN YOU PLEASE HELP COVER SOME OF THE MAJOR POINTS?

Welcome back to our “Ask the Expert” feature designed to assist you with issues related to swimming pool water, mechanical equipment, space conditioning, and code compliance.

Ask a question, and we will try to answer to the best of our ability.

Sure thing. Water can indeed be one of the centerpieces of a successful swim school operation. If you can combine a good curriculum with well-trained instructors and crystal-clear irritant-free water, you have a winning combination for years to come.

48 | USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG

However, water can be complicated. For something that looks clear and harmless when sitting inside a glass, it can be brutally irritating if improperly managed, potentially scaring away valuable staff and hard-earned customers at the same time.

Here are a couple of potential issues and solutions to keep in mind when managing the water in your swim s chool operations: MORE THAN JUST CHLORINE AND PH: The first realization is that water quality is MUCH more than just adding chlorine and pH correction chemicals. There are important items such as oxidation (ORP), water balance (whether it is aggressive or scaling), overall water chemistry (calcium, alkalinity, dilution, skin irritation, etc.) that must be considered in order to provide the best environment for your instructors and patrons.

LEARN WHAT YOU ARE DEALING WITH: The first order of business is the study of the composition of the water that you are filling your pool with. Use an 11-parameter digital test to get the best overall picture, if possible. Don’t have one? Feel free to email and arrange to send a 16 oz bottle of pool water and fill water for complementary lab analysis courtesy of your USSSA membership.

Once you get your results, the answer will be clearer…

• Low calcium and alkalinity fill water: you’ll need to add these balance chemicals on a periodic basis or change to a calcium-based chlorinator.

•

High incoming combined chlorine: you’ll need to make sure your UV system is properly sized to handle the extra workload from the chloramines introduced via the water supply.

•

High phosphate levels: you’ll need to add concentrated phosphate remover periodically to keep this oxidation suppressant and possible irritant under control.

• High Copper or Iron levels: you’ll need to add sequestering agents periodically to prevent the pool from

staining the first time you have to shock the pool to comply with the CDC’s “code brown” protocol.

HOW MUCH WATER TO USE: Rule #1 is don’t try to save water on your pool operations or try to use specialty filters for the sake of saving water. As a rule of thumb, the swim school needs to dilute about 4-gallons per bather on a weekly basis. So, if you have 1,000 bathers a week, you’ll need to dilute about 4,000 gallons of pool water that week.

If your backwash system uses 2,000 gallons, then you’ll need to supplement an additional 2,000 gallons. If your filter backwash uses zero, then you’ll need to drain all 4,000 gallons proactively.

IRRITATION FROM LACK OF DILUTION: Not diluting enough? You’ll soon be answering complaints from instructors (first), then patrons that are experiencing skin irritation. If you drain about 1 ft of water from the pool and refill, you often will be able to stop the complaints faster, then you can keep up with the 4 gal/bather recommendation to stay out of trouble.

POOL COVERS ARE GREAT, 90% OF THE TIME: Pool covers save lots of money on your dehumidification costs, but it is best not to use them when you are trying to recover a pool from an irritation issue.

Covers lock in the heat, but also prevent some irritants from escaping into the room. Also, poor room ventilation or a non-functioning dehumidification system can contribute to irritation by helping lock in some of the irritants, preventing them from escaping.

WATER LEVEL IS CRITICAL: Your pool is designed to distribute filtered and chlorinated pool water evenly across the perimeter, BUT only if your skimmer or gutter system is being maintained at the proper level.

If your gutter water level is too high or too low, water will not be distributed homogenously. This holds true if your skimmer system water level is not properly maintained, or if your floating weir (flappers) are missing or improperly set. This small detail can make a huge difference in your pool water quality.

ORP, THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT WATER QUALITY VARIABLE: ORP (oxidation reduction potential) indicates the “kill power” or “potential to oxidize” of your existing oxidizer (chlorine, bromine, ozone, etc), INCLUDING the impact of the (3) detractors (pH, stabilizer, and chlorine demand). It is one of the most critical parameters to monitor and control 24/7/365, as it gives you constant indication of your complete water quality. As an overview… the higher the ORP number the better, and the target range is 780 mV to 850 mV. Being able to reach that level with Chlorine of 2.0 PPM or less normally is indicative of a clean, clear, irritant-free pool. If your ORP is less than 650-700 mV, your pool is struggling, especially if it takes more than 2.0 PPM to achieve that level.

Don’t fully understand ORP? no problem. We invite you to take an DPBR-accredited online class “Understanding ORP” by accessing ces.learnupon.com, and take advantage of a 75% USSSA-discount by using the following code (USSSA-CESORP75).

CONCLUSION: Safe, attractive, irritant-free water may truly be one of the most important aspects of a successful swim school operation, and following a few important guidelines and proactively addressing any deficiencies can help you avoid costly closures and/or staffpatron irritation issues.

Please feel free to reach out with any lingering unresolved issues and we’ll try to direct you to someone who will be able to assist you in correcting.

Best Regards, Alvaro G. Mendoza

USSWIMSCHOOLS.ORG | 49

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