Minutes approved at the November 2013 Board Meeting
Potomac Valley Swimming
Board of Director’s Meeting
Overlee Community Center
6030 Lee Highway
Arlington, VA
October 16, 2013
· Attendance – Bill Marlin, Bob Vincent, Tim Husson, Paris Jacobs, Manga Dalizu, Brad Bowser, Greg York, Jim Garner, Merari Chollette, John Ertter, Riley Eaton, Emily Menard, Steve Menard, Mike Rubin and Kurt Thiel.
· Call to Order – The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by General Chair, Bill Marlin
· Approval of the Agenda: Before approving the agenda two items must be added. Diversity Grant program was added under “Old Business” and Drowning Prevention was added under “New Business.”; Motion to approve the agenda as amended, seconded and approved
· Proof of Quorum – There are 11 voting members in attendance.
· Approval July Meeting Minutes & Committee Reports – Motion to approve the minutes from the July Board of Director’s Meeting and the submitted Committee Reports, seconded and approved.
o Pull the Travel Assistance from the Sr Chair Report, Safety Certification Class motion and Diversity Grant program for voting.
· General Chair’s Opening Statements - Welcome to the meeting tonight.
o Welcome new to the Board, Brad Bowser – Sr Chair, Steve Menard – Coach Rep.
o Congratulations to; Jack Neill recipient of the Maxwell Award, Tim Husson our new PVS Officials Chair, Bob Vincent the new Eastern Zone Officials Chair, Paris reelected as the Eastern Zone Non-Coach Director. Special Congratulations to Ward Foley, John Ertter and Riley Eaton for receiving a Lifetime Membership to USA Swimming.
o General Chair newsletter – Bill issued the first “General Chairs Newsletter” the first of October. The goal is to make this a monthly publication with information/education for all members of the LSC and to share important information regarding the association.
o Association Status – With our new philosophy of moving forward, we are now in a transition phase. John Ertter has been gracious enough to agree to stay on and help us through this phase. Because the Board has voted to move forward without an Executive Director this means that Board members will be taking on more responsibilities. It is vital that all Board Members do their jobs and complete tasks in a timely manner. There are volunteers and employees who need the support of the Board Members to carry on with their duties. We are one of the top of the LSC’s in the country and it is the General Chair’s job is to keep us there and moving ahead. Please check emails regularly and be prompt in your responses.
o Corporate Sponsor – Marlin reported that he met with Matt Farrell from USA Swimming about securing a corporate sponsor. By doing this we could help defray costs associated with the LSC and to carry out new programs in the future. A committee will be formed to help establish the criteria and relationship with sponsors.
o Awards & Recognition – A celebratory dinner/ceremony to is part of the vision of the General Chair. The purpose is to recognize many of the people in the LSC; Outstanding Athletes, Outstanding Officials, Vital Volunteers, Lifetime Achievement and to celebrate together. A committee will be formed to discuss these possibilities and then to carry it out.
o Year to Stats – Currently just over 7,000 registered. It is important to note that several of the larger teams have not yet renewed all of their athletes. However by December all swimmers must be renewed/registered, so the numbers are expected to rise. There are 187 Officials and over 200 Coaches, currently registered.
o Safe Sport – Greg York, Safe Sport Chair, met with Fairfax County Park Authority regarding three teams that had coaches on deck who were not certified. One didn’t even have a business license. How are we as a LSC supposed to handle this? We are told that they have to become members and they get pool space, but we have a hard time monitoring it.
§ This is a touching subject through USA Swimming, because USA Swimming doesn’t govern how clubs do business; however they do require that all athletes and coaches must be registered.
§ USA Swimming/LSC – we are handed and packet from USA Swimming that say “this” club is now a club in USA Swimming and we as an LSC simply “rubber stamp” the new clubs approval.
§ This issue has come up because Fairfax County Park Authority has discovered that several teams were in breach of their Fairfax County contracts. FCPA and Greg York, Safe Sport Chair, have had numerous discussions regarding the contracts and whether or not these teams are in any violations of USA Swimming Rules. We all have to follow all of the same rules. One question now is, do we have to go back to all clubs to ensure that all clubs have coaches properly registered and their swimmers are properly registered?
§ The biggest issue that we need to ensure is that all coaches and swimmers on deck are certified.
§ Several ideas were discussed as to how to check with all clubs without pointing our fingers at any one team.
§ We may need to send a letter to the facilities (counties) that we as an association have very little governance over how these clubs handle their business.
§ A non-registered coach can be on deck as long as they are supervised and under direct supervision of a certified coach. However this is not allowed by some of the facilities.
o Athlete Rep status – None of our Athletes reps are currently active. The General Chair can appoint an athlete to the position until the term is up. A letter needs to be send to the current athletes to “remove” them from the position and then new appointments can be assigned. A notice will go up on the PVS website asking coaches to submit nominations/volunteers of their athletes who are interested in the Athlete Rep position.
· Athlete Travel Reimbursement – Brad Bowser, Senior Chair, review all travel reimbursement applications and has made his recommendations for approval.
o Recommend to approve the Junior National Travel assistance. Motion to accept all travel reimbursement applications as submitted for Junior Nationals at a $250 share, second and approved.
o Recommend to approve all 7 applications and the one appeal for US Open travel assistance. Motion to approve all travel reimbursement application and the one appeal as submitted for the US Open at a $250 share, second and approved.
· Competition Committee Action Items – See report on CCM
o Motion to accept the CCM endorsements as submitted, seconded and approved.
· Eastern Zone Action Items –
o We will appointing the Eastern Zone Safe Sport Chair. “Applications” having been coming in and they are currently being reviewed.
o Based upon discussions and legislation at the USA Swimming Convention in September, there will be a fourth Sectional meet added to our overall schedule. 2 SC and 1 LC meet in the spring and a Super Sectional meet in the summer. In the summer of 2015 an additional meet will be added to the Eastern Zone Meet Schedule. More information to come as the meet is developed
· LEAP progress Report (level 1 & 2) – PVS has begun the process of LEAP Level 1 resubmittal. By-laws has been resubmitted with everything from the 2013 HOD. John Morse has receive them and so far his only comment is the General Chair cannot be BoR or Nominating committee. Everything for renewing Level 1, should be ready and easy.
o According to USA-S Rules, we must have Safe Sport Committee that consists of a a Chair, plus a 4 member committee with at least one coach, one non-coach and one athlete.
o The General Chair indicated he wanted to look into Leap level 2 to see what we need to do to get it complete. Paris Jacobs indicated that we have a lot of it already; however there are several items that refer to Grant Programs and how the LSC allocates funds for programs such as travel assistance, continuing education, etc. We as PVS will need to decide as a philosophy how we want to expand our Grant program. Do we as a LSC, want to leave Travel as the only grant and it up to par with across the country? Do we want to add other Grant Programs to our budget?
· P&P revisions to USA Swimming Progress Report – This has been sent to John Morse and he will review.
· Action Items
o Coaches Safety Training – Motion to endorse PVS coordinate one ARC training session in September and one in April-May time frame for Coaches Safety Training certification. PVS would pay for the instructor and it will be open to all coaches to take or renew their safety certs. Coaches/Clubs would be responsible for paying for the course and all coaches would still have to take the on-line test at least 48 hours prior to the in-water skills portion of the certification, seconded and Withdrawn.
§ Currently clubs and/or individual coaches have gone out and scheduled their certification courses (Safety and CPR), but there are difficulties getting instructors, particularly for the smaller clubs.
§ There are LSCs that provide a fixed date each year when instructors are available for the certification. The coaches would be required to do the on-line class.
§ The big question is who is paying for what. Some felt that adding a program like this is a good idea, but we need to decide how to pay and/or how to charge.
§ It would also be important to determine if this is really a need across the LSC.
§ It is a great service to offer, but not sure PVS needs to pay for it. Maybe we should provide the opportunity and the instructor, but the coaches/clubs pay for it themselves.
§ It was suggested that on the Safety page on the website we list instructors who are available for teaching classes and let the coaches/clubs set up their on classes. Then we as an association have made the gesture to offer this service. It was agreed this was a good way to proceed.
o Red Cross is having a hard time getting all of the classes and therefore all of the certifications. It is taking a long time to get verification and or cards. This is an FYI with the October Open coming up this weekend.
o Equipment Rental Payment – Motion to Amend P&P O-24 as follows: Non-PVS entities that wish to rent PVS equipment must pre-pay for the rental before they pick up the equipment. All rental requests from both PVS and non-PVS organizations will be sent to the Operations Vice-Chair. If equipment is available to fulfill the request, the Operations Vice-Chair will forward the request to the Equipment Manager for action and to the Treasurer for billing and accounting, seconded and approved.
§ Who rents the equipment outside of PVS? Virginia HS and Maryland HS both rented last year. Some years the Private Schools have rented from us. As well as summer league.
§ There is an agreement that all renters sign. The issue with entities outside of PVS is that many don’t pay in a timely manner.
§ The payment process will remain the same as it is currently for PVS clubs renting equipment.
o LPSC Club Approval –
§ Motion to approve Lion’s Pride Swim Club as a new member club of Potomac Valley Swimming, seconded and approved.
· Old Business
o Bullying Policy update to clubs – This is a reminder that all clubs must have an anti-bullying policy posted on their website. Either their own or copy the one from USA Swimming.
o Diversity Grant Program – Proposal for a Grant program was submitted over the summer. The funding for the program would be through the Diversity budget that any clubs can apply for a Grant to help promote the sport of swimming in Diversity, Inclusion and Outreach. If they apply and fulfill the requirements, they will get the money. If there is a club who wants to extend a program, they would not be allowed to get a continuous supply of funds. The intention of the Grant program is to get programs off the ground not fully fund them.
§ A number of questions were asked regarding this proposal:
· It was indicated that the money would come from the Diversity Budget (currently $12,000) which has already been approved.
· A committee will review and then approval/reject the applications; however this committee has not yet been established.
· The amount of each grant will be a case by case basis. Given the overall Diversity budget of $12,000, there is not a specific amount set aside for the Grant program.
§ Right now as it is written there must be approval from the committee and then the PVS BoD.
§ The tax implications must also be addressed before we start giving out money to clubs/groups as Grants.
§ Merari, is looking for feedback as to how this Grant Program will be able to work.
§ It was asked, who could apply for the Grant. Would entities outside of PVS be allowed to apply? Initially it was indicated that it wouldn’t have to be a USA Swimming organization, but they must be a non-profit organization. However because this is a PVS program if we, PVS, decided that only PVS clubs could apply then that is the policy we establish.
§ The overall consensus is that we want to move this forward, but feel there need to be more specific information before we can set it into motion. The Diversity Chair was asked to bring back a more concrete policy to plan to have it ready in January. Then we will be able to start offering the Grant program in March.
§ Anyone with additional questions or suggestions please email Merari with thoughts and questions, what are the issues and concerns then she can work through them and get this flushed out and bring this back to the Board in January.
· New Business
o USAS Registration with credit cards – Finance Chair, Bob Vincent, contacted Wells Fargo and asked several questions regarding the ability to use credit cards for registration and how best to handle getting a credit card for the LSC to pay for things like Zones, etc.
§ The fees have dropped to just over 2%, compared to the over 3% previously charged for using credit cards (except for American Express, is has been suggested not to accept AMEX). Previously we had to have a machine, now can have it all online and guaranteed to get funds the very next day. Bob Vincent feels that we are a service organization and we should be finding ways to better serve the clubs.
§ Is this specifically for teams? Registrations? Zone meetings? Meet entry fees? What are all of the implication and how do we want to use it.
§ The reason to discuss this, is to find out if this is a good thing for the clubs.
§ Many agreed that this could be a nice service for teams; however the primary concern is amount this is going to cost us for providing a service.
§ It was noted that since we are no longer going to have an Executive Director, we are losing our “watch dog”. There has to be some way to make sure we are getting paid by the clubs and other entities.
§ It was also noted that not all clubs will use this service. There are some clubs run though the various counties who will not have the ability to pay for anything by credit cards. So the overall fees will be lower than currently calculated.
§ No minimum and a $99 set up fee (cutting it to $50) and a $31 monthly fee.
§ Bob will gather some more information and report back to the Board.
o Bag Tags – Merari Chollette has advised the LSC that Bag Tag Inc. have offered to other LSC a discount if the LSC is willing to sign an agreement. For any club order with the PVS logo the LSC will receive $25 and clubs will receive a significant discount on their bag tags.
§ PVS pays about $10000 a year on Bag Tags for the Championship meets. This would be a great savings for the LSC just on PVS meets.
§ Bag Tag Inc. is an approved vendor of USA Swimming.
§ It is recommended that we sign the agreement and go forward with this.
§ Bill Marlin will work with Merari Chollette, to secure this contract, ensure that PVS as an LSC will also receive a discount on orders and then sign the contract.
o Drowning Prevention – A recent article about a young child drowning has inspired a discussion on drowning prevention and what is the responsibility of PVS within our community to bring awareness and prevention of these types of tragedies.
§ At the heart of drowning prevention, is learning to swim. It was suggested that we are “Potomac Valley Swimming”, not “PVS Competitive Swimming.” [However the LSC tag line is “Governing body for Competitive Swimming in the Nationals Capital Area”].
§ There are significant concerns regarding the overall rate of drowning of young people across the country.
§ Drowning is something that affect all races, all socio-economic communities, no one is immune; so programs to help prevent drowning will fall under the Diversity/Inclusion/Outreach program that Merari is proposing.
§ We as a board need to think about “social responsibility”. What are we doing to be socially responsible? We should be the authority on swimming in this area.
§ But we are not here to prevent drowning in the community, PVS is chartered as being a competitive program in the area.
§ While this is a lot of concern about these issues, we also have to look at the liability involved. Especially if we were to offer any sort of “free lessons” or clinics.
§ It was noted that being socially responsible is not necessarily teaching lessons, but provide links and flyers with information.
§ Merari was asked to pull together links for the website to help get the information out there.
· Adjourn, motion, second and approved. November meeting will be Monday November 18, 2013 at Overlee.