POTOMAC VALLEY SWIMMING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
MEETING NOTES
Attendance: Board Members: Jim Garner, John Hirschmann, Don Riedlinger, Bill Stephens, Ron Whalen, Jim Van Erden, Greg York. Non-voting Board members: Janet Auger, John Ertter, Boots Hall, Linda Klopfenstein. Guests: Mike Kraeuter.
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at approximately 7:05 pm by Jim Garner, General Chair.
Agenda: Jim provided the Board with a proposed Agenda.
Approval of Minutes: A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of the March 8, 2006 meeting as modified. The modification was to clarify that it was sanction fees that the Board agreed to waive for the Lindsey J Miller Invitational Meet. The motion to approve the amended minutes passed with one dissenting vote, Don Riedlinger, who indicated he wished his vote to reflect his disagreement with the new format of the minutes.
The Board was made aware that it had learned in the last day or so that Victor was under the impression that PVS had waived both sanction and equipment rental fees for the Miller meet. Hirschmann indicated he had not had time to research the correspondence that took place in early 2005 when the initial waiver was first requested and then granted. A discussion ensued in which the Board appeared to be willing to absorb the equipment rental fees since the revenue from the meet had probably already been donated to charity. [Subsequent to the meeting, Hirschmann advised that the request had been to waive sanction fees and that was the request that the PVS Board approved. No request to waive equipment rental fees had been made and thus it was not addressed.]
General Chairman Items:
Jim Garner reported that the Nominating Committee believes it currently has at least one individual to nominate for each position and that the slate will be posted by May 4th. Other information relating to the House of Delegates Meeting on which the delegates need to take action will need to be emailed to the Representatives by the same date.
FISH June Meet: Mike Kraeuter of FISH was welcomed to the Board meeting. He expressed his gratitude for the Board’s approval of the FISH sponsored June LC meet. Mike explained that he had received requests from invited non-PVS teams that the meet include the 800 meter freestyle. He asked that the Board amend its approval and allow the inclusion of the 800 meter freestyle event with the proviso that only FISH and non-PVS athletes be allowed to enter said event. Some members of the Board questioned the appropriateness of restricting an event to all but one PVS team. Another member reminded the Board that prior deliberations as to granting a sanction to this meet was necessitated by the fact that the meet was proposed on the same weekend as the PVS Distance meet and sandwiched between PVS Age/Sr 1 and PVS Age/Sr 2. It was agreed that the matter would be discussed again later in the meeting and that the Board’s decision would be forwarded to Mike.
Treasurer’s Report/Finance Division: Financial results for the period ending March 31, 2006, had been provided to the Board prior to the meeting. PVS’s current assets on hand as of March 31, 2006 were $634,326. The Board raised no questions regarding these reports.
John Hirschmann informed the Board that on April 15th, a Budget Planning Workshop was held at the McLean Community Center, with Jim Garner, Bill Stephens, John Ertter and himself in attendance. The product of their meeting (a proposed PVS budget for 2007) had previously been provided to all members of the Board for their review. It included the major assumptions that had been made in preparing the budget and a listing of those activities for which funding has been significantly increased or decreased.
Hirschmann reported that PVS’s financial health continues to be very strong due to program growth (both membership and meet attendance) and not expending some funded initiatives. He reported that PVS now expects a surplus for the current year (FY 2006) of approximately $ 20,569 even though we planned on a deficit of $20,845 when the budget was adopted. This is however in contrast to last year when the projected 2005 surplus (as of the time of last year’s House meeting was $84,351 and actual surplus for last year wound up being $88,914.
New and/or changed initiatives in the budget as presented to the Board for their consideration were as follows:
Reductions from FY06 Budget:
1. $9600 for the Swimposium which will not be repeated in 2006-07
2. $3000 elimination of budget for USAS Training Camps (no money spent on this program for at least 2 years)
3. A recommended $4000 reduction in PVS Travel Assistance due to the reduction in per athlete support from $450 to $250 for USAS 2007 Spring Championships MeetIncreases from FY06 Budget:
1. Pool rentals for PVS Mini-Meets $3,000.
2. Increased support for PVS Championship Meets $10,000.
3. Implementation of Real-Time Meet Results $2,000.
4. PVS Official’s Travel Assistance $5,000.
5. PVS Officials Evaluation Program $1,000.
6. Funding for Safety Committee $1,000.
7. Additional depreciation on $12,000 of New Capitalized Equip $2,000.
8. Increase in PVS 2006 SC Zone Team $10,000.
9. Increase in PVS 2006 LC Zone Team $17,500.
In addition, after discussion of PVS’s likely future capital equipment needs, it was agreed the $12,000 proposed for the 2007 capital budget was appropriate. This will result in about a $2000 increase in PVS’s 2007 depreciation budget.
The Board was given an opportunity to both ask questions about the budget and to propose revisions to it. Concern was expressed that some new initiatives and funding increases were being put into the budget before specific plans to utilize the funds had been developed. The view was expressed that it was therefore premature to include some items in the budget. Others noted that while specifics were lacking, these activities needed to be implemented. It was also emphasized that including an item in the budget does not mean the funds will be spent—the Board will still have an opportunity to
review any plans for specific use of funds that reflect a new initiative. One member asked if the Board had previously proposed a budget deficit. The response was, yes, that last year’s budget resulted in a deficit. It was pointed out that many of the new programs being proposed should be considered as on-going programs and there was a great likelihood that this year’s deficit could continue if revenues did not increase.
After discussing various items in the budget, two amendments were proposed to the previously circulated budget: (1) rename “Officials Travel” to “Officials Education/Travel Assistance” and (2) delete the line item “US Paralympic Summer Can-Am ($250)” with $750 in proposed ’06-07 funding. (The latter was done since funding will not be needed until Fiscal 2008.) A motion was made and seconded for the Board to recommend the budget as amended to the House of Delegates for adoption. The motion passed with one dissenting vote (Riedlinger). Ertter subsequently revised the budget to reflect these changes prior to it being sent to the House of Delegates for their consideration at the annual House of Delegates meeting. The budget submitted to the House reflects a projected surplus for the current fiscal year of $19,054 and a deficit for 2007 of $20,559.
Investments: John Hirschmann proposed two items regarding the placement of PVS’s financial assets: (1) opening a $100,000 one-year certificate of deposit to replace a current 6 month certificate of deposit that has a balance of approximately $80,000 and (2) increasing the balance from approximately $80,000 to $100,000 in an existing equity account thereby qualifying for a reduction in management fees. The Board unanimously approved these two actions.
John Ertter reviewed with the Board which individuals had signature authority on the various PVS financial accounts. It was agreed that financial controls were appropriately dispersed.
Administrative: Bill Stephens updated the Board on the construction status of Mike Pliuskaitis’ pool in Loudoun County, Virginia. As the site is located in VSI territory, Bill thought it prudent that the Board encourage Jim G to explore a reciprocity agreement for sanction fees between PVS and VSI. Don suggested that the discussion between the two LSC’s be expanded to include the possible integration of the scheduling of both LSC’s meets. Jim Garner agreed to pursue these matters with George Homewood of VSI.
Senior Division: Don Riedlinger reported that entry times for the PVS Senior Championship Meet had been verified against SWIMS. He passed out a list of fourteen entries which did not produce a match. He explained that emails were sent out to head coaches prior to the end of the meet notifying them of these discrepancies. Of the original fourteen, two entries were not swum and three on the list were verified after the meet. A motion to fine the athletes’ clubs $100 per invalid entry was passed (6-0, with 1 abstention). Jim Garner agreed that he would send out the fines to the appropriate clubs.
Competition Division: Don Riedlinger reviewed with the Board the bids that had been received to host the 2006-07 SC PVS sponsored meets. He noted that (1) no bids had been received from OCCS, (2) no bids been received for either of the PGS&LC sites for PVS November Open, and (3) no bids had been received for the January Distance and February Distance meets. In light of the fact that so few bidders had responded, the concept of forming a cadre of meet managers to run meets was raised, but this was met with the concern that, by using hired meet managers, the result might lead to no
teams being willing to host meets. After a discussion, the Board voted (7-0) to award the October Open and the January Open as follows:
October Open
Fairland CUBU
Fairland FAST
Lee District Potomac Marlins
January Open
PGS&LC Potomac Marlins
PGS&LC Machine Aquatics
MLK RMSC
and voted (6-0, with 1 abstention) to award the Cub Run site of the November Open to FISH. The fact that OCCS had not bid and performance of the clubs which hosted last year’s PVS SC Championship meets was reviewed Various concerns pertaining to some clubs performance were discussed.
The awarding of hosts for all remaining meets and/or sites (only some of which had been bid) was deferred until a later date.
Age Group Division: Jim Garner presented the Board with various documents that described the conduct of some of PVS’ 15-18 male athletes at the 2006 Eastern Zones Championship. Greg York provided additional background on the incident(s) that he had learned from the Zone Coordinator. The general consensus of the Board was that the matter had not been handled appropriately at the time of occurrence and that further action was required since the conduct, as described, was determined to be in violation of the PVS Athlete’s Code of Conduct. The Board then addressed the issue of what disciplinary actions should be taken. It was agreed that Jim G should send a letter to the parents of all 15-18 male Zone Participants. Additionally, the Board requested that Jim provide a written explanation and apology to the Allegheny Mountain General Chair.
Operations Division: John Hirschmann reported that PVS had received one meet sanction request from VSI and two requests from the Rappahannock Area YMCA Stingrays (a VSI club.) The request from VSI for PVS to sanction the VSI Senior Championship Meet on July 27-30, 2006, to be held at GMU-Fairfax, was approved with the understanding that participation will be primarily from VSI swimmers with no more than about 10-15% from non-VSI athletes. The request for a sanction for the VSI Regional Summer Awards Meet on July 7-9, 2006, to be held at GMU-Fairfax, was approved with the
understanding that participation will be limited to VSI athletes. The PVS Board deferred taking action on the request to sanction the 2006 LC A/BB/B/C Meet proposed to be sponsored by the Rappahannock Area YMCA Stingrays on June 3-4, 2006 at GMU-Fairfax pending receipt of the previously requested information of what athletes would be invited to participate in this meet. [Subsequent to the meeting, the requested information was received on April 26th and an electronic vote of the PVS Board to determine to now award the sanction was initiated that
day and approved on May 6, 2006.]
The Board then returned to the matter of the request made earlier by Mike Kraeuter of FISH. Several Board members noted that the Board had approved this meet in February – following discussions at that Board meeting. There had been considerable discussion at that time that it was being held on the same weekend as the PVS LC Distance Meet and not allowing FISH to offer distance events had been a key part of that discussion. Therefore, they did not feel it was appropriate to reopen this negotiation. Following this discussion, a motion was made, seconded and approved (5-1-1) that FISH not be granted its request to add the 800 free event to this meet.
Next Board Meeting: The Board agreed to hold its next meeting Wednesday, June 14th at 6:30 PM at either McLean Community Center or River Falls Community Center depending upon availability. [It was later confirmed that the meeting would be held at River Falls Community Center.]
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at approximately 10:05 PM.
Respectfully submitted by:
Janet Auger
PVS Administrative Assistant