Minutes approved at the October Board meeting

Potomac Valley Swimming

Board of Director’s Meeting

River Falls

7915 Horseshoe Lane

Potomac, Maryland 20854-3830

August 3, 2009

• Dinner: 6:30 pm
• Attendance: Greg York, Bill Marlin, Dan Jacobs, Virginia Ratcliff, Bill Stephens, Boots Hall, Linda Klopfenstein, Art Davis, Jim Thompson, Manga Dalizu, Dave DiNardo, Tim Husson, Yuri Suguiyama, Brian Pawlowicz, Miriam Lynch, Ward Foley, Naomi Lynch, Paris Jacobs, Art Lopez and Terri Marlin
• Call to Order: Greg calls the meeting to order at 7:00 pm
• Approval of June 8, 2009 meeting minutes: Motion made to approve the June minutes, seconded and approved.
• PVS Safety Committee Chair: The General Chair is asking the Officials Committee to nominate someone as the Safety Committee Chair. Once the nomination is made and the General Chair feels comfortable with the decision, he will appoint a new Safety Committee Chairperson.
• Jim Van Erden has been thanked for his years of service as the Officials Chair.
• Jack Neill has been accepted as the new Officials Chair, his appointment begins Sept 1, 2009.
• Repair of Fairfax County High Schools Infinity starters: There are 2 starters being used by FCPS, neither of them work. These starters are housed at Oak Marr and Cub Run and are used by PVS when needed. Motion: PVS will pay for the repair of the 2 FCPS Infinity Starters for the use of both FCPS swim teams and PVS when needed, the motion is seconded and approved.
• There seems to be a discrepancy is the practice of how PVS equipment is rented/lent to Summer Leagues for their summer All Star Meets. This will be looked at closely by the Operations Chair and a policy will be made so it is fair to all Leagues.
• Continuing Education Grant Requests: Denise Adams from All Star Aquatics has requested a Continuing Education Grant so she can attend the ASCA Convention in September. Ward Foley from AAC has requested a Continuing Education Grant so that he can attend the USA Swimming Convention in September. Both of them will be required to submit a report to the Competition Committee about what they learned before they receive their respective grants. Motion: To approve a Continuing Education Grants of $500 for both applicants, seconded and approved.
• Issue Regarding PVS athletes in VSI open water meet: Art Davis is submitting a formal petition to the National Board of Review regarding a team of PVS athletes who registered and swam in an Open Water meet in VSI territory. The athletes sent in their entries, were accepted by the meet manager and included in the psych sheet. The swimmers who placed high enough were given awards immediately following the event on the beach. However, several days later someone from VSI requested that all PVS athletes be removed from all results because the event was intended for VSI athletes only and the result were then altered. According to the meet announcement the event was open to “all USA Swimming athletes”.
• This petition is being sent in by Art Davis the PVS Administrative Chair on behalf of the athletes.
• The PVS Board of Directors has full knowledge of this action; however did not vote to support these actions.
• Convention Planning: Linda Klopfenstein is handling all arrangements for Convention. All attendees please make sure to send her your travel arrangements as soon as possible.
• PVS has invited four additional people to attend Convention as PVS representatives. PVS will pay for their registration as long as they attend meetings; John Mason, PEAK; Carrie Tupper, UMD; Kerry Ellet, CUBU and Board of Review and Art Lopez, Nada por Vida. PVS will also help with their hotel accommodations if they stay with other members from PVS. Motion: to pay the registration fee for the four invited PVS members to attend the USA Swimming Convention, seconded and approved.
• Athlete Travel: As of August 3, three athletes have applied for Travel Assistance for World Trials. All three applications were completed correctly and accepted. The application deadline is Aug. 11, so it is hard to how many more applications will still come in. A motion is made to approve payment to the appropriate club for these 3 athletes and up to other clubs for 12 additional athletes at $450 per share, seconded and approved.
• Old Business:
• How are we going to spend our equipment budget from the 08-09 budget? If it is not spent prior to end of the fiscal year (Aug 31, 2009), then we will lose the money. It is approved to spend up to $20,000 on equipment. The Operations Chair is being given authority to come up with a list of equipment to purchase
• New Business
• “Timers” proposal presented by Manga.
• A discussion on how best to achieve the goal of having at least 2 timers per lane, at PVS meets, to volunteer ensued. It was determined that Bill Marlin, Paris Jacobs, Brian Pawlowicz and Sam Burgi would get together to come up with a “timer policy” to be used at all PVS Championship meets. Once established then filter the new policy to the PVS Open meets in the 2010-2011 season, with the hope that many clubs will also adopt the policy for club meets. They will report back at the October Board of Directors meeting.
• College Meeting Proposal: Miriam Lynch presented a proposal to hold a “College Knowledge” event for Diversity athletes in Potomac Valley and has asked PVS for support.
• All athletes in PVS will be invited to attend to this event, although the primary focus is on Diversity athletes and their families.
• It was discussed that PVS plans on having a similar presentation at the Swimposium on Oct 3. However it was determined that the “College Knowledge” will be conducted in a more informal format, similar to a “round table” discussion as opposed to a more formal presentation.
• Several dates were discussed and Ms. Lynch will get back to PVS with the exact date. The weekend of Oct 31-Nov 1, was proposed as an available weekend.
• PVS has committed to helping find the resources, swimmers, parents, etc to present at this forum.
• Motion: PVS will support this College Forum financially up to $500. If additional money is requested and receipts are turned in PVS will increase the funding, seconded and approved.
• Lynch has also asked for support from the PVS Coaches by informing their swimmers about this event.
• It was recommended that she also talk to John Mason and Art Lopez who are both involved in Diversity issues with PVS.
• Suit Rule Proposal: Bill Marlin presented a motion regarding the pending USA Swimming ruling on the “new” suits. Motion: If USA Swimming adopts the New FINA Swim Suit criteria, effective January 1, 2010, at the September USAS Convention, PVS will institute the rule as of October 1, 2009, prior to any meets being held in PVS, seconded and approved.
• PVS will not have to come up with the rule, USA swimming will determine the rule, PVS will just have to decide when it becomes effective.
• Possible new part time PVS position: Bill Stephens stated that he will be putting together a proposal and job description for a new paid position within PVS. This position would be geared towards “special events” (events that are not part of the daily operations of PVS). These events might include; zone coordination, assisting with PVS Championship meets, Swimposium, college forum, etc.
• Zones:
• Zone Director, Dave Greene, has asked that Emily Felker, the 10 & under Zone Coordinator, receive an additional $250 added to her stipend due to her involvement in coordinating 10 & under activities. Bill Marlin presented this Motion: PVS pay the 10 & Under Zone Coordinator, Emily Felker, an additional $250, as recognition for her hard work, seconded and approved.
• For the past several years the Age Group Zone trip has exceeded the budgeted amount for the meet. It is hard to say if it is because the cap on the athlete’s payment is to little, or if the budget is too low. The Competition Committee needs to decide what the priority is, keeping the price per athlete low or raising the budget. The Age Group Chair will take this matter to the fall CCM for discussion.
• It was pointed out that by having to add a third bus for travel meets adds a considerable expense and is likely one of the primary reasons there are problems with the budget.

• Art Lopez say Thank you: Art Lopez formally thanked the Board for their support of the Nada Por Vida program again this year. At this year’s USA Swimming Convention, Nada Por Vida is presenting Chuck Wielgus, USA Swimming Executive Director, an award for at Convention.
• USA Swimming is sending Art Lopez to give several talks about Diversity in swimming. He will be presenting in Atlanta, San Antonio and in Chicago prior to the Convention. He will also be presenting at the PVS Swimposium for the Diversity track.

• Swimposium: All of the information has been sent to the Webmaster and Executive Director. Only the Officials Track is left for final confirmation, a sub committee is working to finalize their plans. A Coaches track is set up, Mutual of Omaha with Rowdy Gaines, Kate Ziegler, and a yet to be named athlete. Parent Track: Susan Anderson; Diversity Track with John Cruzak. Club Business Management, Peter Clark.
• No coaches reception this year.
• Do we want an Officials Reception then? Or on Sunday somewhere. The Officials Committee will get back to the Board with their preference.
• A mass mailing will go out, but most information will be on the website.
• $25 pre-registration, $35 at the door.
• It is suggested that a safety component be added to each track.

• Reports
• Athlete Representatives: No report submitted
• Executive Director: No report submitted
• Administrative: see report submitted; the issue on not having an updated P & P was discussed. Art said this will be presented in September; this includes creating a Meet Announcement template.
• Webmaster:
• Scholar Athlete Application still has not been received. [as of Aug. 25 the Scholar Athlete Application has been posted]
• Real time results were used for Junior and Senior Champs with good results
• Thinking about changing the web hosting company. We tend to go over the ban usage at least two months per year (December and March), so in order to avoid an additional charge and change in host company maybe the best solution.
• Would like to have an on-line form for Swimposium, working on this.
• Age Group Champs; used the 8 line scoreboard and the coaches were thrilled. Kent Williams, RMSC, was instrumental is figuring out a way to get it set up and working.
• The new pool at Wilson High School in DC has two score board that could be run at the same time. The pool opens on Thursday Aug 6. They have a lot of new equipment; we should get in on the ground floor and help them learn how to maintain their equipment. They would love to host some PVS meets.
• Finance/Accounting:
• We have now retained the same Audit Company as last year. The Audit Company will be working directly with the Audit Committee. Ertter will now be doing the PVS taxes.
• Operations Division; no report submitted
• Senior Division: no report submitted.
• Age Group Division: See report submitted
• USA Swimming thanked Tim Husson for putting the Disability Information on the PVS Website. They noticed and were very pleased.
• Dave Kraft from RMSC has been voted as the PVS Age Group Coach of the Year.
• Coaches Representatives:
•  Manga received several complaints about Age Group Champs being at Fairland. Although it is not ideal the air quality was better then it has been at PGS&LC. Thursday was very hot, Friday a bit cooler as well as Saturday since there were fewer people.
• Are the lights going to be fixed? This concern will be brought up with the Fairland Building Manager.
• People do like the fact that there is at least minimal warm up at Fairland in compared to PG when swimming LC.
• At PG…they are rethinking their default Chlorine levels, which should help with the air quality issues.
• Would like to negotiate with GMU for putting AG LC Championships there so there is a Championship meet on the Virginia side of the river.
• Dan wanted to thank the Board and welcome Yuri as the new Coaches Representative.
• Officials: See report submitted.
• Two officials are going to the USA Swimming Officials Conference
• All Champ meets were well staffed.
• Clinics are already up on the Website.
• A new DQ slip has been issued that matches the new rules.
• Strategic Planning: No report submitted

Parents were concerned about cameras on the deck at Senior Champs, taking pictures of their children, but getting other children in the background. This will be looked into.

• Next Board Meeting: Monday October 12, 2009, 6:30 dinner, 7:00 meeting at Overlee. All Board meeting for the 2009-2010 season will be on the second Monday of each month.
• The fall Competition Committee Meeting will be held Sunday September 27, 10:00 am at Overlee.
• Adjournment at 9:43.