Candidate Information

Name: Ed Tsuzuki

LMSC: New Jersey

Nominated for: Vice President of Local Operations

Summary Statement

Response to Questions

Why are you interested in this position and why do you believe you would be a good candidate?

I have been a USMS member for 17 years, served as an officer at the LMSC level for 14 years, as a National delegate and active committee member for the last 12 years.  I have served as a committee chair for 2 years and as Vice President of the Local Operations division and member of the Board of Directors for the last 2 years.  I bring a tremendous amount of passion and energy to the USMS organization at the LMSC, Zone and National levels and am eager to continue serving a second term as VP of the Local Operations Division.  I have been able to develop a strong working and supportive relationship with the committees of the division and intend to build a stronger relationship with the Zone Chairs and assist in the development of the LMSCs.

What do you consider to be the major issues facing USMS now and in the future. As a person holding
an elected position within USMS, how would you address these issues?

The first major issue facing USMS is membership growth and retention.  We must continuously strengthen the value of membership and deliver consistent, positive membership experiences – for all of our member profiles – the pool or open water competitor, the fitness swimmer, the triathlete, and the coach.  We can improve the member experience by continuing to improve our LMSC support efforts in meeting our minimum standards as well as providing easy-to-use, standardized tools to support both personalized interactions (e.g. Go The Distance, Fitness Logs) as well as our event based activities (e.g. event sanctioning, results tabulating and recordkeeping).  Which leads to another major issue, which is the expansion of our IT staff in order continue to enhance our web-based experiences and process automation.  As Vice President of Local Operations, I would oversee many of these committee led activities and as a Board member, I can continue to ensure appropriate prioritization of our critical IT initiatives.

Please list USMS committees on which you have served. Include the dates you were on the
committees and the names of the committee chairs under whom you served:

Records and Tabulation Committee
Chair - Pieter Cath (1999-2004)
Chair - Mary Beth Windrath (2005-2007)
Chair - Ed Tsuzuki (2008-present)

Computer On-Line
Chair - Jim Matysek (1999-2000)

Please list any other experience that relates to your qualifications for the position.

In addition to serving on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors for the last two years, I have served as Chair or Vice Chair of the Records and Tabulation Committee for 10 years.  I have also led the End-to-End Event Management task force which has been responsible for the development of the on-line meets database and event rankings, as well as the eventual automation of the top ten tabulation process.  The task force is now also focusing on the event sanctioning process.

Please list any other information you would like included