Minutes approved at the 2012 December Board of Directors phone conference
Potomac Valley Swimming
Board of Director’s Meeting
Lee Graham
November 12, 2012
7:00 pm
· Attendance – Voting Board Members: Riley Eaton, Bill Marlin, Scott Bryant, Mike Rubin, Emily Menard, Manga Dalizu, Miriam Lynch. Non-voting members: Tim Husson, John Ertter, Greg York, Kurt Thiel, Terri Marlin. Guests: Tom Ugast.
· Call to Order & General Chair Comments – The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm by Riley Eaton. We do not have a quorum; therefore will not be able to vote on any business at the evening’s meeting.
o Appointment of Operations Chair: Riley Eaton reported that he has consulted with the legal department at USA Swimming, and there is no reason that Tim Husson cannot be our Operations Chair, while also being a paid contractor working as the PVS Wed Master.
§ By General Chair appointment, congratulations to Tim Husson the PVS Operations Chair.
o Equipment – With the November Open, the second PVS meet for the 12-13 season, in the books we have noted a very positive shift in with equipment performance and reliability. Carrie Tupper, from University of Maryland, has been working very hard to ensure all PVS equipment is in good working order. There is still some work to do, but we are headed in the right direction.
o Equipment Delivery - John Ertter and Riley spent 6-7 hours on Thursday picking up and delivering all the equipment to the various pools for the November Open. We are currently looking to hire someone to deliver equipment for all PVS meets. Individual Clubs will still be responsible for transporting equipment for their own Club meets.
o Safe Sport – USA Swimming will be holding their first every Safe Sport Meeting in January. USA-S will be paying for two people from each LSC to attend. All GC have been asked to attend along with one other LSC representative. Riley has asked Emily Menard to attend. Greg York will also be in attendance as a member of the USA Swimming Safe Sport Committee.
§ Greg reported that he has received 8-9 emails from other LSCs asking how PVS structured our LSC Safe Sport Committee (task force). PVS is still looked upon as a leader in the county in regards to Safe Sport and other important LSC issues.
o Registration Numbers – According to USA Swimming, there appears to be roughly a 27% increase over this same time last year. Our numbers in PVS are currently indicating that we too will be experiencing a spike locally as well. We need to continue to think outside the box and be proactive and creative as we look at facility usage, meet structure and in our general business, so we can continue to conduct business according to our Mission Statement.
§ One of our greatest challenges is the athlete count is larger in Virginia, but there is more competition pool space in Maryland. This tends to create problems within our structure when teams have to cross the river to participate in come meets.
o New Clubs in PVS – This year alone there at least 5 new clubs have registered in PVS. For the most part they are small clubs, but given some time they could become larger. In looking forward towards meets and meet size, we must remember that facilities are no longer allowing us to have “just any number” of swimmers on deck. Facilities are beginning to enforce maximum loads and restricting PVS for pool usage.
§ In PVS, we need to make sure that we are educating the clubs, the coaches and most importantly the parents on the policies and other important information in meet announcements. Proper communication is the key to success.
§ PVS is now encompassing at least 60 miles from point to point. There are continued conversations with Virginia Swimming regarding the LSC boundaries and the increased movement of PVS clubs into their territory. We are currently working well together; however VSI continues to ask when the growth/encroachment of PVS will stop. At this time we do not have a good answer.
· Action Items
o Approval of October 15, 2012 Meeting Minutes – Motion to approve the meeting minutes of the October 15, 2012. No vote taken
· Reports
o Executive Director – see report submitted
o Athlete Representatives – no report submitted
o Administrative – no report submitted
o Inclusion/Diversity – see report submitted
o Webmaster -
o Technical Committee – see report submitted
o Finance/Accounting – see report submitted
o Operations – see report submitted
o Senior Swimming – no report submitted
o Age Group Swimming – no report submitted
o Coaches Representatives – no report submitted
o Officials – see report submitted
o Strategic Planning – no report submitted
o Safety Committee – no report submitted
· Round Table Talking Points
o Distribution of teams for PVS Open meets – For several years there has been a need to balance the entries for the PVS Open Meets, this ensures that the sites are similar in athlete/splash count and timelines. The precedent has been set that when a club that has been assigned to “pool A” is moved to “pool B” the club is responsible for their entire meet entry fee, even if a number of families opt to no longer attend the meet.
§ PVS policy states that PVS has the right to move a club from one site to another site as needed. Given the current climate and the size of our LSC this policy should stand; however we many need to look at the financial impact this policy has on clubs.
§ Riley recommends that a smaller group (task force) meet to discuss various options as how to proceed and make sure that there is not a significant financial impact on any one club.
· There were several opinions expressed by various members in attendance.
o Once as a meet director the club was moved to a site with a different club host. The personal feeling is the club deserves 48 hours to make changes to their entries, then be charged based upon the updated entry file, assuming it was a significant move and there were significant change.
o There are two issues that need to be separated; Disgruntled parents, and the financial impact to the club.
o Team are scheduled tentatively – this needs to be made clear in the meet announcement and parents need to be notified when they sign up that they could be moved.
o If we give a club the opportunity to withdraw, the new file may possibly cause new problems and delay the process of balancing the meets and getting information distributed back to the clubs and families.
o One member doesn’t think we should be it will not be inconvenient fro the same clubs every time.
o What is considered a “significant change”? If moved from one physical location to another then allow a change to the entries.
o For open meets, only the host teams are preset, all entries are sent to the PVS Administrator and then assigned to the various meet sites.
o In September ask each team to indicate what their intentions are for the three Open meets and the expected number of entries, then assign sites accordingly.
o Communication seems to be at the root of much of this issue. Do we need to change the way information regarding the meet is distributed? Many parents and many coaches do not read the entire meet announcement, and do not know all the policies.
§ All information regarding the meet changes is posted on the meet announcement, the schedule page and the home page of the website.
o There are many issues all of which need to be examined. This idea will be looked at and brought back to the Board of Directors and Competition Committee in January.
· Old Business Excluding action items – nothing submitted
· Other New Business
o There are plans to contact CTS and purchase an additional set up timing pad brackets for use at Cub Run, since they required special brackets to hold the pads in place.
o According to the PVS Registrar, athlete numbers up 8.5% of this time last year.
o Currently on the schedule there are 32 PVS meets being held in Maryland and 33 in Virginia.
o As the newly elected Operation’s Chair, Tim Husson suggests we find a small group of people to deliver equipment to PVS meets. This was no one person is locked into the weekends assigned and if he/she is unavailable, there is a back up in place. It may be possible that we would have more luck find someone if they know they are not responsible for all sites and/or every weekend there is a PVS meet.
o Meet announcements…maybe there are ways to simplify them and “tier” them so there is less information for the parents to read through.
§ There are other LSC that do this and we can look into some other possibilities.
o December Meeting – Given the number of large meets in early December Riley recommends/suggests that the December meeting is done by teleconference. Date to be announced.
· Adjourn