Meeting minutes approved at the November, 2015 Board Meeting
Potomac Valley Swimming
Board of Director’s Meeting
Overlee Community Center
6030 Lee Highway
Arlington, Virginia
October 20, 2014
· Attendance – Bill Marlin, Tom Ugast, Bob Vincent, Tim Husson, Mike Rubin, Greg York, Manga Dalizu, Steve Menard, Trey McKula, Murphy Freal, Heather Purk, Merari Chollette, Riley Eaton, Art Davis, Kurt Thiel, Jim Thompson, Linda Klopfenstein, John Ertter and Sumie Emory.
· Call to Order – The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm, by the General Chair, Bill Marlin
· Proof of Quorum – 12 Members of the Board are present, there is a quorum.
· Approval of July Video Conference Meeting Minutes – Motion to approve the minutes from the July Video Conference Board Meeting, seconded and approved.
· Approval of Chair Reports and September Financials – Motion to approve the reports submitted by the Board Members and the October Financials, seconded and approved.
· General Chair Comments
o Update on Open Board Positions – There is an opening for the Junior Coach Representative. Mark Faherty has been appointed as the Junior Coach Representative.
· Old Business
o Swimposium wrap up –
§ Swimposium went well. The athlete track was great! Fitter and Faster did a great job, all the athletes really enjoyed the clinic and the parents who stayed liked the parent talk as well. We were thin with the coach’s track. We included the CCM as part of the Swimposium in the hope that it would attract more coaches and more teams, but we still only had 14 teams attend.
§ Officials – This year they offered clinics. They had a great presentation regarding the Paralympics. It was well attended
o Conflict of Interest statement forms – Forms have been passed out and signed, If you did not sign it, it will be emailed to you and must be signed and returned to Admin Chair, Tom Ugast.
· New Business
o Coach Stipend, Travel & Hospitality Motions-
§ Continuing Education – Derek Young was the Head Coach of the PVS Zone Team and has applied for a $500 continuing education grant, Motion to accept Derek Young’s request for a Continuing Education Grant, seconded and approved
· Derek will have to present a report in order to be approved for the grant.
· Motion approved and contingent on a report to the Board.
o Hospitality – There were 4 clubs who exceeded their Hospitality Funds for the Long Course meet this past June. Three are asking for approval to be reimbursed for the difference.
§ FAST – AGSR 2, went over by $166.90. Motion to approve the reimbursement to FAST for the $166.90 hospitality overage at AGSR 2, seconded and approved.
· Currently the fee is $250 for a “regular” meet per session. Maybe we need to look at how we decide on the amount of money spent on hospitality, and maybe look at the size of the meet, not just the number of sessions. .
· FAST was asked why they went over: Manga Dalizu answered that some of the meals were catered.
§ PAC – AGSR 1, went over by $306.71. Motion to approve the reimbursement for $306.71 to PAC from AGSR 1 Hospitality, seconded and approved.
· This meet was large and chase starts were used during the 13 & Over session, which required more Officials than a typical session/meet.
§ FBST – Age Group Champs. Motion to approve the reimbursement to FBST for $3,472.68 for Hospitality overage at LC Age Group Champs, seconded and defeated (1 abstained).
· Numbers of Officials from LC Junior/Senior Champs for a comparison – 10 sessions LC – Senior champs had 78 Officials working 245 sessions. Junior Champs had 33 Officials working 65 sessions with some overlap, 310 total session worked
· Number of Officials at LC Age Group Champs – 72 Officials 273 sessions worked.
· How many coaches (best guess), there are likely more coaches at AG Champs. We will guess with 30% more coaches at AG Champs rather than at JR/Senior Sessions.
· Were there any anomalies in the receipts? A lot of charges for catering food. It appeared they a majority of the meals were catered and brought in.
· How do we discuss the amounts of money without discussing our philosophy? Years ago, we did just sandwiches and now we seem to be offering food such as Chipotle, Jersey Mikes, etc.
· This is a small club that don’t have a lot of support. Are we awarding the meet to a club too small to be run a meet?
· In the past when MACH was going over the budget, they contacted BoD Members to let them know it was likely going over the budget.
· The size of the meet and the number of hours the coaches and officials is increasing.
· Afraid if we approve all of these amounts there is a precedent being set.
· Amendment to approve 50% of the overage, seconded and defeated (in favor – 3, opposed – 8, abstained – 1)
§ FBST – has requested lodging for 4 rooms for the meet, Meet Referee, Admin Referee, plus the meet manager and a coach.
· Motion to approve the 2 additional rooms, seconded and defeated.
· In the Past PVS will pay for the Meet Referee and Admin Referee if they live a significant distance from the venue, but have never paid for the meet host to stay closer to the venue.
§ Athlete Travel – US National 22 athletes requested travel, 1 has been removed (due to Grant from USA Swimming), recommend to approve 21
· Motion to approve 21 athletes for US Nationals ($450 per share), seconded and approved.
· Juniors 8 applied. All 8 met conditions.
· Motion to approve the $250 share per athletes for US Junior Nationals, seconded and approved.
§ Officials Travel Reimbursement – 13 Officials attended different Zone and National level meets. A request for travel reimbursement has been made for them.
· Motion to approve 13 Officials (5 Junior Nationals, 7 Zones, 1 for Pan-pacific Paralympics), $250 a share, seconded and approved.
o PVS Bank Accounts –
§ Bob Vincent reported that we plan to upgrade the two accounts at Wells Fargo to a different type of account which will help reduce fees and save us money, there are no cost associated.
§ Motion to upgrade our bank accounts to Wells Fargo account, seconded and approved.
o LC Zone athlete fees still outstanding – 260 signed up (pre meet), in post meet 259 actually swam. We have collected full payment from 255 athletes. Of the other 4, 2 are RMSC swimmers, in the past these same two athletes have paid half and Rockville paid the difference, but at this time have not heard from RMSC or received any payments. There was one check bounced, when contacted the parent sent a new check and it too bounced. Sumie was then contacted that this athlete could not reregister until paid. Final athlete, because the way the checks come in, it is sometimes hard to figure out who they are because the child’s last name and parent’s last name do not match, so it is hard to tell who didn’t pay. The zone coordinator has been contacted but has not yet been able to figure out who this last unpaid swimmer is.
o Competition Committee Meeting Action Items – Is there anything we need to discuss specifically. The report was approved earlier in the meeting.
§ All items were briefly reviewed.
· Jessica Fry is interested in being the head coach for the SC Zones.
· Motion to approve Jessica Fry as the Head Coach for the SC Zone Team, seconded and approved.
§ Email from Pete Morgan regarding a concern on the date change for the LC Junior & Senior meets, there is a short turn around for the date changes for the LC JR/SR Champs and was concerned that the individuals in attendances were not a good representation of those teams/coaches will this will affect. NCAP has indicated that they will not host JR/SR Champs on the weekend of July 23-26 (new date for the meet).
· The concept of moving the meet has merit in that it will prolong the LC season.
· Bids for the 2015 LC meets have not yet gone out. So right now no one is hosting.
o PVS Fact Sheet – Jim Thompson presented: There seems to be a continual problem in pool time and increased number of athletes. The idea is to outline the PVS services we provide, what we do, what we provide, how we have grown over the years and how we think we will grow in the next few years.
§ The intended audience is the Recreational Management, a level or two above the pool management.
§ This could possibly even go to State Governments to help county programs and facilities.
§ A good way to educate county facilities on what we do and how we do it.
§ Possibly this could even go to the Media.
§ This seems to be a good time to do this, with a lot of National attention on some our swimmers
§ This document is just to get the discussion started. There may be other issues
§ It was commented that, It all comes down to economics. We (swimming) are 1% of the total population of the people who use the facilities (when you look at learn to swim, recreation programs), this will help and will keep the programs going, but need to build the base with other aquatic programs…need a much large coalition. Will need to add Master’s, Diving, American Red Cross, American Heart Association, Child Hood Obesity programs, to help boost your numbers.
§ But every one of those groups are looking to take away the water time/lanes we have. We need to be very careful in what information goes out, because if the wrong person gets the numbers then all of this could be counterproductive.
§ In FCPA, if they were to see the numbers and amounts of money the club make, they could considered making their own Fairfax County team.
§ We have no PAO (Public Affairs Officer) in PVS, there is a good reason we don’t have one.
§ Will table this discussion for now. Is there anything we want to add? There will be a little funding need to complete.
o 8 & Under Coordinator –
§ Trying to do more educational information for parent and swimmers as they start in PVS.
§ Want to give these parents little nuggets of information. Maybe a table with information at meets, etc. different info at each meet (different months).
§ An email to just the 8 & Parents, either through the coaches to their clubs, in the General Chairs newsletters.
· To get started, send an article to Bill for the GC Newsletter, on the parent’s corner and out to coaches to send to their 8 & under families.
o Athlete Committee – Thanks to Manga for his help. Murphy learned at convention about how powerful the athlete voice is. All committees need athletes, but it is hard to get athletes interested. This would be a way to get more athlete input on the board level. Murphy and the Athletes Representatives are interested in putting together an Athlete Committee and adding athletes to all committees which is required.
o Some of the general ideas are:
§ Want the committee to be made up of one athlete from each club.
§ Want to consider to set up meetings similar to the Coach’s Competition Committee Meeting.
§ Athletes have the “blessing” from the Board to set up an Athlete Committee.
· How do we contact the athletes? GC Newsletter, Flash Mail, through coaches.
· Round Table Discussion Topics
o Leap 2 updates – If you were at Convention, saw several LSC’s receive checks for having complete LEAP 2 and/or 3. We often talk about how PVS Is perceived by other LSC, in general we are highly regarding; however we are level 1. Riley Eaton and Tom Ugast were asked by the General Chair to work on Level 2, but Riley feels we should be level 3. Tom and Riley have met and have begun to look at the areas we need to complete for level 2. In many cases we already have the information need, we just need to get it written down and submitted. With the new rules in place, we can now work on Level 2 & 3 at the same time. We are all board members here and we all have the responsibility to make sure our LSC gets the recognition we deserve. Over the next few weeks, Riley and Tom will be sending out emails asking you for information regarding your committees. Riley believes we can be at Level 3 by the New Year. When you get your request please just get it done, so we can get LEAP 2 & 3 completed.
o Safety Chair, Lightning Detectors – There are now 2 generations of the personal lightning detectors.
§ We need to have a lightning safety detectors, personal safety person.
§ We as PVS, do not run any outdoor pools. This might be a better proposal to the clubs regarding workouts.
§ What does K & K insurance say on this? Kurt Theil will find out.
§ Who makes the decisions? The pool manager/operator generally has the authority above and beyond the meet management/referee.
o SNOW Pumpkin Invite/Coach Incident – At a recent meet there was an altercation between the coaches of two different clubs. During the Saturday afternoon session which included 8 & Under swimmers, the lane line broke during warm up, in the competition pool. The teams in those lanes were asked to move to different lanes. When they moved there was apparently an issue between two coaches. No one noticed until their heard the 10 & U swimmers yelling “fight, fight, fight”.
§ There is a question as to whether or not one of the coaches is in good standing. [The coaches in question are both members in good standing with PVS/USA Swimming]
§ The behavior that happened is a violation of the USA Swimming Code of Conduct.
§ Report needs to be sent to USA Swimming and should be submitted by either the Meet Referee and/or the meet management.
§ Bill Marlin will follow up with the Meet Referee to get a report and will decide from there how to proceed.
o Diversity Program – Bring awareness about the Diversity event this coming weekend.
§ EZ Diversity Summit in June 2015.
o PVS Athletes of the Year – There was a lot of feedback regarding the selection process for PVS Outstanding Athletes. In order to resolve these issues, there is a task force to look at this selection process and will come up with a point system.
o Fairland Equipment – Several months back the board voted to have three sites for the LC Open meet, which is great; however there is a concerned about the amount of equipment available. Carrie made a proposal to Fairland and has agreed to train the staff at Fairland to use and take care of the equipment in exchange for PVS to use it for the weekend’s meets. Carrie has made notes about what they still need and will go over it with the management. So they will have everything. Once she does that and try to understand why they set their fee structure the way it is and try to talk them into restricting their fee to a more reasonable amount. Or in the future allow teams who bring their own equipment to rent just the scoreboard.
o List of Open spots in the committee – all committees need an athlete.
o Motion to adjourn, seconded and approved.