Board of Directors Meeting - October 10, 2007

AS APPROVED at the PVS Board Meeting – November 14, 2007
Meeting Notes

 

POTOMAC VALLEY SWIMMING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
OFFICIAL MINUTES

7:00 PM – WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2007
OAK MARR RECREATION CENTER
OAKTON, VA


 

ATTENDANCE:  Board Members:   Greg York, Chair; Art Davis, Riley Eaton, Mark Faherty, Boots Hall, Bill Marlin, Virginia Ratcliff, Jim Thompson, Ron Whalen.  Executive Director:  John Ertter.  Non-voting Board members:  Janet Auger, Jim Garner, Linda Klopfenstein, Jim Van Erden.  Guest:  Ashley Gels, FCPA; Tim Husson, Terri Marlin.

 

CALL TO ORDER:  The meeting was called to order at approximately 7:08 pm by Greg York, General Chair.

 

AGENDA:  John Ertter, Executive Director provided the Board with a proposed Agenda.

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES:  The minutes of the September 11, 2007 meeting were approved.    

 

APPOINTMENT OF AT-LARGE BOARD MEMBERS:   York recommended the appointment of Karl Hellmann, Linda Klopfenstein and Brian Pawlowicz as At-Large members of the Board of Directors and noted that, per PVS By-Laws, these were non-voting positions.  These three newly created positions had been authorized by the House at its May 2007 meeting. The Board unanimously endorsed the appointments.    

 

PVS TRAVEL ASSISTANCE FOR 2007 USA SWIMMING JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS:  Linda Klopfenstein, Travel Assistance Coordinator, informed the Board that 5 clubs had applied for travel assistance on behalf of 25 athletes who participated in the 2007 USA Swimming Junior Championships.  The Board was advised that their applications had been reviewed by the Travel Assistance Committee and they all satisfied the requirements for reimbursement.  It was noted that the amount of travel funds set aside for this meet was $3,750, with a cap of $250 per swimmer.  Due to the number of approved requests, the payment per swimmer was established as $150 so as to not exceed the maximum of $3750 budgeted for this meet.  The Board approved payment of $150 per athlete to the appropriate clubs for these athletes.

 

PVS TRAVEL ASSISTANCE FOR  2007 ConocoPhillips NATIONALS:  Klopfenstein informed the Board that 5 clubs had applied for travel assistance on behalf of 19 athletes who participated in the 2007 ConocoPhillips National Championships.  The Board was advised that of the nineteen applications, thirteen were received by the due date.  The Board agreed to accept for consideration three of the late applications due to extenuating circumstances due to an unexpected transition in the top leadership at the club just prior the submission deadline.  Of the 16 applications considered, the Board was advised that 8 of the applications, including one “college appeal,” satisfied the requirements for reimbursement, while the remaining 8 did not.  The Board was provided with information as to why the 8 athletes did not satisfy the requirement and concurred with the findings.  It was noted that the amount of travel funds set aside for this meet was $9,000, with a cap of $450 per swimmer.  Therefore, the remaining 8 could be paid if approved upon appeal without violating the meet cap.

 

A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to follow the Travel Assistance Committee’s recommendation to provide assistance on behalf of 8 athletes and deny reimbursement to 8 athletes.  The Board approved payment of $450 per athlete to the appropriate clubs for these athletes.

 

PVS TRAVEL ASSISTANCE COMMITTEE:  At York’s request, the formation of a PVS Travel Assistance Committee, comprised of the General Chair, Senior Chair and Travel Assistance Coordinator, was approved by the Board.  This formalizes what has been PVS’s practice in reviewing travel assistance requests for many years.

 

PVS ZONE MANAGEMENT & MARKETING COMMITTEE:  York offered a motion that a Zone Management & Marketing Committee be formed to assist in implementing the workshop’s suggestions.  The Board endorsed York’s motion and appointed John Ertter, Dave Greene, Mark Faherty, Dan Jacobs, Paris Jacobs, Bill Marlin, Terri Marlin and Virginia Ratcliff to serve, requesting that updates be brought periodically to the Board.

 

2008 PVS SHORT COURSE EASTERN ZONE HEAD AND ASSISTANT HEAD COACHES:    The Board approved the Competition Committee’s elections of  John Cyganiewicz as Head Coach and Mike Kraeuter as Assistant Head Coach. 

 

TRAVEL REIMBURSEMENT CRITERIA FOR PVS ATHLETES PARTICIPATING IN 2008 OLYMPIC TRIALS AND 2008 US PARALYMPIC TRIALS:  . The Board agreed to adopt Competition Committee’s  recommendation for reimbursement criteria for PVS athletes participating in the 2008 Olympic Trials and 2008 US Paralympic Trials..  It also agreed to acknowledge and forward to the Budget Committee for its consideration when they initiate preparation of the FY 2009 budget in early 2008, Competition’s recommended reimbursement schedule of $600 per athlete with no meet maximum payable amount.  [Subsequent to the meeting, the Board was advised that reimbursement for the 2008 US Paralympics Trials had been included in the FY08 Budget in the amounts of $600 per athlete, with a maximum payable for the meet of $1200.]

 

 

2008-09 PVS MEET SCHEDULE:  Competition Committee’s recommended 2008-09 Meet Schedule was presented as follows:

 

*Permit faxed entries to Senior Champs for qualifying times achieved at this meet.

 

After reviewing the schedule, Marlin informed the Board that, following the Competition Committee meeting, Janet Auger realized that the PVS October Open had been endorsed by Competition to be scheduled on the historical weekend for the Harvest Moon meet.  Noting that he was recommending the Board modify the scheduling of the PVS October Open later by one week, a motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to adopt the proposed schedule from November 2008 through March 2009.  A motion to modify Competition’s recommended date for the PVS October Open from October 10-12, 2008 to October 17-19, 2008 passed on a vote of 8 to 1. 

 

CLUB MEET SANCTION REQUESTS:  Marlin reviewed Competition Committee’s endorsement of 6 club meets to be held between January 1 and August 31, 2008:

For the Period 1/1/08 to 3/31/08

 

For the Period 4/1/08 to 8/31/08

 

With the exception of the MAKO bid for the Spring Blast Invitational, a motion was made, seconded and approved that the remaining meets be sanctions.

 

ADDITION OF PVS SPONSORED MEET TO THE 2007-08 SC SCHEDULE:  The Competition Committee recommended to the Board that a PVS Age Group B/BB Championship Meet to be held on February 22-24, 2008 at Lee District be added to the PVS meet schedule.  The Board voted to approve both the format and the addition of the meet to the PVS schedule; however, it deferred action on the matter of times achieved being used to enter the PVS 14/Under Junior Olympics Championships pending discussion with the host of the 2008 PVS 14/Under JO Championship. The concerns pertained to whether they could accept them so close to the meet entry deadline and the fact a formal meet program to be sold has historically be done.  PVS clubs will be invited to bid to host this meet for PVS.

 

ESTABLISHMEMENT OF POLICY FOR CHAMPIONSHIP MEET ENTRY TIMES:    Marlin explained that, at the recently concluded Convention, USA-S had adopted a modification to its Rules and Regulations to state that any requirements pertaining to what “entry time” time you may use to enter meets should be covered in the meet announcement, as the requirement to use your best time would no  longer be mandated in Rules and Regulations.  The significance of this change was that athletes would no longer be required by USA-S rules to enter meets with their best times, rather the decision now rested with the LSC when preparing its meet announcements.

 

Therefore, he advised that Competition had recommended the following for entry times for championship meets: 

 

Entry times for individual relay events shall have been achieved within the two years prior to the meet entry deadline; however, the times need not be the best competitive times of the swimmers but can be any time they have swum equal to or under the event qualifying time.  Swimmers entered in the 800/1000 and 1500/1650 freestyle do not need to enter their best times, but may enter themselves at their fastest time or at the time standard.

 

A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to adopt the entry time language, as presented.  

 

SELECTION PROCESS FOR ATHLETE PARTICIPATION ON THE PVS 2008 SHORT COURSE ZONE TEAM:  The Competition Committee recommended to the board that the PVS 2008 SC Zone Team be selected based on the two fastest times (limited to those swimmers eligible to represent PVS on the zone team and who apply to be on the team).  The selection period would start September 1, 2007 and end for 15-18 athletes at the conclusion of PVS Senior Champs (March 9, 2008) and for 14/Under athletes at the conclusion of PVS 14/U Age Group JO Champs (March 2, 2008).  Times to be considered remain the same as in 2007 with adjustments made based on the meet dates.  Without discussion, the Board unanimously voted to approve the recommended 2008 PVS Short Course Zone Team selection process.

 

AWARDING OF REMAINING 2007-08 PVS SPONSORED MEETS:  Marlin informed the Board that a bid had been received from CUBU to host the 2008 PVS January Distance Meet.  Noting that RMSC had previously agreed to host the 2008 PVS February Distance Meet, the Board unanimously voted to award these two meets.

 

BANNING OF ON-DECK USA-S REGISTRATIONS AT PVS SANCTIONED MEETS:  Art Davis recommended that PVS adopt the policy of banning on-deck USA-S registrations at all PVS sanctioned meets.  Following a motion and second, the recommendation was unanimously approved effective immediately.  [November 10, 2007 update—following the Board meeting of 10/10/07, the Insurance Committee of USA Swimming considered prior policy of PVS found in Policies and Procedures C-9f, second sentence as follows: “The club will then have 14 days to register the athlete,”  for athletes not registered at the time of the meet and confirmed prior informal opinion that this is outside the leeway granted an LSC to administer  athlete registration.  USA Swimming staff has been notified of the policy revocation of any grace period in connection with the banning of on-deck registrations.]

 

POLICY ADOPTION FOR DECK ENTRIES AT PVS SANCTIONED MEETS: The Board adopted the policy that deck entries would only be accepted with evidence of current USA-S registration, such as a copy of the athlete’s USA-S registration card, at PVS sanctioned meets. 

 

ESTABLISHMENT OF SEASONAL ATHLETE REGISTRATION PERIOD:  At Davis’ recommendation, the Board unanimously agreed to establish the Seasonal Athlete registration period as April 5th though August 31st.  This reduces the period to 149 days whereas the prior period of April 1-August 31 was 153 days – which exceeded the maximum permitted period of 150 days.

 

STATUS OF FINES FOR PVS OFFICIALS REQUIREMENT:  Davis explained to the Board that all applicable clubs had been notified of the status of their PVS Officials Requirement fines.  A motion was made, seconded and passed that Davis provide the PVS Controller with copies of the penalty letters and that the fines be recorded on the PVS financial records.

 

FINANCE / TREASURER:  Financial results for the period ending September 30, 2007 had been provided to the Board prior to the meeting.  PVS’s current assets on hand were $716,950.  In his transmittal, Bill Stephens indicated that the statements did not include a liability to USA-S in the amount of approximately $40,100 for registrations that occurred in September. 

 

OPERATIONS EQUIPMENT PURCHASE:  Ron Whalen requested and received approval from the Board to purchase a set of ten touch pads for the PVS October Open. 

 

DENIAL OF REQUEST FOR FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE :   Per John Ertter’s recommendation, a motion was made, seconded and approved to deny a PVS club’s request for PVS to pay the swim training fees for an athlete. 

 

OFFICIALS EDUCATION TRAVEL REIMBURSEMENT:  Boots Hall presented to the Board the Officials Committee’s Official Education Travel Reimbursement criteria for the period September 2007 through August 2008.  She presented the Committee’s recommendation that the requirements in effect during the prior year remain in effect and that a maximum reimbursement of $250 per trip and a maximum of three trips per official during the above period, subject to the availability of funds.  A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to adopt the criteria, as presented.

 

ESTABLISHMENT OF OBSERVATION SANCTION FEE SCHEDULE FOR COLLEGE DUAL MEET SEASON:  In light of USA-S’s data base now capturing all NCAA Division I times, John Hirschmann proposed that a flat fee of $100 be charged for observing each college’s season.  The proposal was modified to only include each college’s dual meets – the additional fee of $100 for Invitational and/or Conference Championship meets would remain as currently assessed.  The proposal, as modified, passed.

 

Next Board Meeting:  The Chair announced that its next Board meting will be held on Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 6:30PM at McLean Community Center.

  

Adjournment:  The meeting was adjourned at 9:29PM.

 

Respectfully submitted by,

Janet Auger

PVS Administrative Assistant