Board of Director meeting minute approved at March meeting
Potomac Valley Swimming
Board of Director’s Meeting
6030 Lee Highway
Arlington, VA
February 10, 2014
· Attendance – Bill Marlin, Paris Jacobs, Brad Bowser, Jim Garner, Bob Vincent, Merari Chollette, Manga Dalizu, Mike Rubin, Tim Husson, Steve Menard, Trey McKula (athlete), Murphy Feral (athlete), Greg York, Brian Pawlowicz, Kurt Thiel, Riley Eaton, Tom Ugast, Tom Tamse, John Ertter, Sumie Emory, David Arluck (Fitter and Faster Tour), CG Young (Fitter and Faster Tour).
· Call to Order – The meeting was called to order at 7:22 pm. An Executive Session was held from 6:45 to 7:15 to discuss the Executive Director/Controller position.
· Proof of Quorum – It was noted that there were enough voting board members in attendance for a quorum.
· Approval of January Minutes – Motion to approve the minutes from the January Board of Directors Meeting, seconded and approved.
· Approval of Chair Reports and January Financial Report: General Chair report, Sr. Chair report, AG Chair report, Operations report, Officials report, Webmaster report, Safety report
o Motion to accept the Chair reports as submitted, seconded and approved.
o Motion to accept the Financial report as submitted, seconded and approved.
· Guest, David Arluck from Fitter and Faster Tour Proposal for PVS Camp Program –
o David Arluck presented his company Fitter and Faster Tour.
o Has worked with Illinois Swimming for several year. Has done a number clinics in the Chicago area, including a clinic for Olympic Trail Qualifiers.
o It looking to establish a relationship with our LSC as well as others.
o Dave shared an overview of his company. Started the company in 2001, as a professionally managed Clinics that could benefit all swimmers.
o Last year did 115 clinics all over the country. They are different because they want to make every experience professionals, not only do they send the athletes, but also an event planner to ensure that the quality of the event is up to your expectations. The company manages the registration, does the marketing, sends flyers, posters, etc. Their goal is to make it easy for the Club/LSC and benefit the coaches, swimmers and parents.
o Custom tailors each clinic to the needs of the Club/LSC. They have the ability to focus clinics on a single stroke, underwater streamline/breakouts, Open Water, Dry land, etc.
o Also can send the Parents of Olympians to meet with the parents of the swimmers attending the clinics.
o Very interested in doing clinics in PVS, both at the Club level and the LSC level. Want to involve the host coaches. If your team/LSC hosts the events, the host team is not allowed to advertise their own team. These clinics are to be inclusive. The coaches and parents of the attending athletes are invited for free to attend.
o Can be a vendor at the meet, can bring Olympians to the meet.
o Relationship with Illinois Swimming
§ Both Illinois Swimming and Indiana Swimming both work with the Fitter and Faster Tour by promoting the clinics and in exchange F&F run clinics for the LSCs.
§ Believes in good customer services and focuses on the customers. Feels this sets them apart from other clinic companies.
o Q – If you come to a meet, who would be responsible for the vendor fee?
§ A – F and F would cover the fee and feels that is the right things to do, but there are many options.
o Q – What do you do that is social responsible? How willing would you be to help with clinics for swimmers who are economically challenged?
§ Nothing formal is currently set up, but can work out programs, so everyone can attend.
o What is the swimmer to Olympian ratio.
§ 110-120 swimmers to 2-3 Olympians (Essential Clinic – younger kids)
§ 60 swimmers to 2-3 Olympians (Performance – older kids)
· General Chair Comments –
o Summary of the Executive Session
§ We are going to continue with the Controller position and are asking John Ertter to continue in this position. We may or may not interview other people. The compensation committee will work on the amount for the salary. A number has been thrown out by Ertter, a counter offer will be sent back and then we reevaluate in 6 months. [A meeting was attended by Bill Marlin, Bob Vincent, Paris Jacobs and John Ertter on February 11, to discuss the elimination of the Executive Director position and the continuation of the controller position and having John Ertter continue in that role. A final decision will be made by April 15. A note to all BoD members was sent out on February 17 with details.]
§ Feels it is in the best interested of the LSC is to keep the Controller position and would like to keep John Ertter on if he is still interested.
· Old Business –
o Approval of new club – Paris Jacobs, the Admin Chair, had had multiple discussions with USA-S and the General Counsel regarding the concerns of the new team. Bill Marlin has had a personal face to face meeting with the head coach, who is now aware that the board has concerns. USA S and General Counsel are aware of our concerns as well.
§ Motion to endorse the The Alexandria Y Sea Dragons as a new PVS Club, seconded and 5 approve, 5 opposed, 2 abstained. The Sea Dragons were accepted as a new PVS Team.
· New Business –
o Additional Officials Travel Reimbursements – A fifth request for Officials Travel
§ Motion to approve on additional Official for Travel reimbursement, seconded and approved.
§ Motion to approve John Byrnes for the Florida Grand Prix, seconded and
· Is there concern regarding supporting this for officials? No
· Three Officials went; however only one has submitted reimbursement request. There is still about a week to apply.
· Friendly amendment, if the other two apply they will be accepted, seconded and approved.
o New Budget Items – any new budget items or changes in what you are asking for was due tonight.
§ One item came to mind, it has been two years since we did a Swimposium, but we have one more year until we get additional funding from USA S. If we want to try to do one next year, we will need to put money in the budget.
o Reminder – by April we need to bring forth any changes to P&P in the next few weeks, so we will have it all ready for House.
o Eastern Zones Regional Coaches Clinic – it is open to all coaches in the LSC, please remind your coaches. More information will be sent out regarding this event.
o Would Operations consider having a “seasonal” TIMES officer? To help with the extra load of HS meets and times.
§ At this time it is felt that creating this new position is not necessary.
· Round Table discussion topics
o Safe Sport Committee meeting in Colorado Springs – Greg York, Paris Jacobs and Riley Eaton all attended.
§ A Report from Victor Veithe, independent consultant to safe sport was released to USA Swimming and shared at the Safe Sport Committee meeting – They made 35 recommendations to USA Swimming about what they should be doing. About 78% are great, but the rest is poor. Some things will be difficult to change. (Report is now public and on the USA Swimming website).
§ The top Three recommendations are:
· An apology be sent out from USA Swimming, that we should have done things better. This would go a long way for the survivors.
· Establish a fund for the survivors to use for counseling and victim services. In the Boy Scouts, it was a bottomless fund. This fund would not be for the court costs or any attorneys, but for counseling to help the survivors if requested.
· Transparency - Veithe felt that USA Swimming still need to work on being more transparent.
§ The main thing we can do as an LSC is have a Safe Sport representative on each club. But really there is a lot we cannot do. It is purely educational process. It has to be sent out to our memberships. Most clubs that are not affected are not buying into it. If they don’t see it, they don’t want to deal with it. Many coaches just don’t see it.
§ In 33 states (including MD, VA and DC), by law a swim coach (any adult) is required to report issues of suspected child abuse at any level. We should be responsible for reporting these instances. Our Board should endorse this. (This is a mandatory reporter law – all adults are required to report suspected child abuse cases.)
· How do we give our coaches the tools? Do we hold clinics for coaches? There is coach’s education, but is that efficient? Is that enough?
· We as an organization have been educated on sexual misconduct but do not have the tools to look for psychological abuse. Over 70% victims have long lasting effects of psychological abuse who were abused as children. This is something we can start talking about this and making this more public.
§ Manual for Timers, Marshals and Meet Directors – Safe Sport has a manual coming out for the Referees for the timers, marshals, meet manager/director. Just to know what to say to these volunteers, etc. This manual will include information on cell phone usage on the deck, how to cheer for/not against other swimmers, bulling.
§ This manual will be a tool to help give Marshals a better job description.
§ It will also serve a guide to Meet Managers, for things such as; what do you do to if you suspect someone is behaving in an unsafe/inappropriate manner? What do you do if a person on the banned list? They can’t be on the deck, but can be it the stands, but can’t coach from the stands.
§ The manual must be endorsed by the USA Swimming Board before it can be released to the public, so will be the end of the April at the earliest before it is released.
§ It will be a fairly simple document with bullet points to make it an easy, quick read.
o Update on Numbers - We are still seeing an increase in our registration numbers and are ahead of where we were at this time last year.
§ The year after the Olympics we see an increase, but then the numbers decrease (nationally). Our growth trend is consistent with previous years.
o Report from Kevin (ASA) on Disability Workshop – See report submitted.
o There is now an “apprentice” registration so that Apprentice Officials can be loaded into OTS, it is for tracking purposes only and to get them into SWIMS, they will then have 60 days to complete their registration requirements.
o Long Course AG/Sr meets – Manga will take this information to the Competition Committee in the spring.
§ The LC meets haven’t grown as much the other Open meets. But they are still big and bursting at the seams. There are several options as to how we can alleviate the long crowded sessions. 1. We could look into adding a 3 site. 2. We could look into adding a Saturday afternoon session for a few events, then the rest of the meet would follow on Sunday. There are obviously financial concerns and pool rental issues, but we are going to need to start planning for the 2015 LC season.
§ Bill Marlin reported that FCPA is open to the possibility of allowing another pool to be rented for the two LC Open meets starting in June 2015.
o Motion to adjourn
o March 17, at KSAC