Board Minutes approved at the July meeting
Potomac Valley Swimming
Board of Director’s Meeting
Overlee Community Center
June 9, 2014
· Attendance – Bill Marlin, Bob Vincent, Jim Garner, Tim Husson, Mike Rubin, Brad Bowser, Manga Dalizu, Emily Menard, Steve Menard, Greg York, Merari Chollette, Murphy Freal (athlete), Trey McKula (athlete), non-voting members – Kurt Thiel and Sumie Emory.
· Call to Order – The meeting was called to order at 7:12 pm by the General Chair, Bill Marlin.
· Proof of Quorum – There are 12 voting Board Members in attendance to make a quorum.
· Approval of April Minutes – Motion to approve the minutes from the April BOD meeting, seconded and approved.
· Approval of Chair Reports and May Financials –
o Motion to accept the Financial Report as submitted by the PVS Controller, seconded and approved.
o Motion to accept the BOD Reports as submitted, seconded and approved.
Report from Competition Committee Meeting
· General Chair Comments – HOD went well, thank you all for your support. However we still need to figure out a way to get more teams involved at the HOD level. There were 22 clubs in attendance. The General Chair stated that his goal for next year’s HOD is to have at least 35 clubs to be in attendance.
o Someone asked about possibly fining clubs who don’t attend. The General Chair is open to discussing this possibility as well as other incentives to increase participation at HOD.
o Bill Marlin reported that with the election of Steve Menard, current Coaches Representative, as the incoming Age Group Chair, he is going to appoint Heather Purk, from Life Time to a one year term as Senior Coaches Representative. An election will be held during the LC Championship meets for the Junior Coaches Representative.
· Old Business
o LC Open meets – This year’s LC Open meets are very large. Fairland will be most likely be going with Chase Starts. For next year, we will have a third pool, Audrey Moore to help elevate the large numbers of swimmers.
· New Business –
o Officials Reimbursement – There were two Grand Prix meet, April and May. There were 3 Officials who went to Charlotte, All three sent in receipts and have worked their minimum number of sessions in PVS and sent in a request for reimbursement. It is the recommendation of the Operations Chair to reimburse these three Officials.
§ Motion to approve the reimbursement of three Officials for attending the Grand Prix in Charlotte, seconded and approved.
o Athlete Reps proposal – After the Eastern Zone meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, Athlete Representative, Murphy Freal, contacted USA Swimming, to discuss ways that PVS can start improving how we encourage Safe Sport on the pool deck, in the locker rooms and during travel. See report submitted by Murphy Freal.
§ There were a lot of great ideas in the written report. The athletes were asked to put together a formal proposal for the July Board meeting.
o Action Items from the May CCM –
§ Zone Assistant Coaches – Manga reported that he still needs to select 3 zone assistant coaches for the summer LC Zone team. Once selected their names will be sent to the Board for an e-vote.
§ 2015 PVS LC Schedule – See the attached PVS Schedule for the 2015 LC season. Motion to approve the PVS LC Schedule as endorsed by the Competition Committee, seconded and approved.
§ Club meets – Club meets bibs were presented for September 1-December 31, 2014 as a last chance and the first chance for club meet bids for January 1- March 31, 2015.
· Motion to approve the club meet bids to be added to the 2014-2015 PVS schedule for September 1-December 31, 2014, as endorsed by the Competition Committee, seconded and approved.
· Motion to approve the club meet bids to be added to the 2014-2015 PVS schedule for January 1-March 31, 2015, as endorsed by the Competition Committee, seconded and approved.
o Convention Paperwork – If you received the Convention papers regarding your intention on participating in Convention, please get it back to Linda K as soon as possible.
o Convention – Additional At-Large names to get voting credentials – Since PVS is the 4th largest LSC in the country, we are eligible to receive 3 At-Large votes at the USA Swimming Convention, we can also apply for additional Presidential votes. Here are the names that will be submitted for the additional At-Large voting members: Tim Husson, Boots Hall, Arvydas B, Greg York and Bob Vincent.
§ We may possibly take 2 athletes.
o Coaches Safety Training (set date and location for PVS course) – A few months back, we voted to run a Coaches Safety Course in PVS in the fall and the spring. This is the new course with the Red Cross seems to be difficult to find. We can try to do it during Swimposium. There is an On-line course, then the water part of the course should take about an hour. We can start at 6:30 am, before the Swimposium itself. PVS will pay for the instructor and the coaches will pay for the course.
o Swimposium update – We are still focused on Saturday September 27, as the date. However it is not yet confirmed by the facility. Terri reported that she will continue to work on the planning and will keep the board informed.
o Website updates (OW Schedule & Info page/PVS Meet Evaluation form) –
§ The Open Water page is ready to go, but needs content.
§ The Meet Evaluation form – Tim has looked at Maryland and Connecticut’s forms. They are on line and easy to do, but we need to figure out who is going to look at them and collect them. Tim feels he can work on them this summer. He will make it his goal to have them ready to test for the LC Championship meets and then ready to roll them out for the fall meets.
o Set athlete fee for LC Zones – Last year we set the fee at $525. There has been discussion to reduce the summer fee, due to the surplus from the spring zone meet. Manga feels if we can bring the fee under $500.
§ There is some questions as to why are we reducing the fee. Historically parents have not complained, nor have we had trouble getting participation during the summer with a fee of $525.
§ Motion to remain the fee at $525, seconded
· There is an amendment to set the LC Zone fee at $500, seconded, approved. Motion to set the fee for the Summer LC Zone Team at $500, seconded and approved.
· There is a possibility of an Open Water Zone Team. We might need to think about how we as an LSC will handle the approach of there being a LSC team.
o Update on MSSC – Lynne Gerlach, asked Manga to give an overview of the transition process of MSSC. Everything has been going very smoothly, a majority of the coaches are “adults” and have been with the team for many years. There have been multiple meetings with the parents, coaches and some swimmers. They have all been given contacts at USA Swimming in case they have any additional questions. While there is not much we can do to prevent unfortunate situations from happening, we can continue to educate the swimmers, parents, coaches and officials of the things to look for and how to support and protect our swimmers.
· Round Table Discussion Topics –
o Chuck Wielgus Blog – Chuck Wielgus, was nominated to be in the International Swimming Hall of Fame, and it was protested. Ultimately he pulled himself from the nomination list. Chuck has written a blog and apologized for his actions and some earlier statements regarding the issue of Safe Sport. It was reported that some felt it was a very heartfelt statement, but there are others who felt this statement came out a little too late.
o Fairland equipment update – This past weekend, there was a meet at Fairland hosted by FISH. They rented the new equipment at Fairland and not PVS. Tim stopped by the meet on Saturday and was brought up to speed on how the new equipment was working.
§ Fairland doesn’t really know how to set up the equipment the correct way.
§ The facility didn’t have anyone onsite who was fully/properly trained
§ All the equipment is in a locked closet; however no one on site seemed to have a key.
§ Once everything was set up it appear that the scoreboard worked well, as did the other equipment.
§ For the two LC Open meets and the LC Distance meet at Fairland, PVS has already determined that we will be using our own equipment for multiple reasons.
§ While there are a number of people in PVS who would be interested and available to help train Fairland with their equipment, they do not seem interested in accepting our help.
§ Merari, feels if might be a good idea to have a liaison to work with the various aquatic staff and how we can work better with the staff of the different aquatic centers.
§ In the past the Board has asked/expected the meet directors to work on the relationship with the aquatic directors
§ It was reported that on June 12th there is a meeting in Alexandria, to asses interest in building a 50 m pool near/at Chinquapin.
· July meeting – we will set up a video/phone conference on Tuesday July 15.
· Motion to adjourn, seconded and approved.