Arthur Lopez was welcomed to the Board meeting and updated the Board on the Outreach Program, “Nadar Por Vida – Swimming for Life,” he has been running in conjunction with Curl-Burke to do outreach to primarily the Hispanic, socially disadvantaged, and at risk youngsters.  Highlights of his presentation included the fact that he has now formed a non-profit corporation that has no affiliation with CUBU and thus his program can now be in partnership with all PVS teams.  Examples were provided of where he was already supporting other swimmers. They have now been approved by the IRS as a 501(c)3 at a cost of $750.  Many people have been supporting the program and they received complimentary legal services to obtain their 501(c)3 status.  Current enrollment in his program is just under 100 children – almost a 50% increase from when he last approached the Board for assistance.  Lopez has also been appointed to the USA-S Diversity Committee and both he and his organization have received recognition from numerous public and civic organizations. The Washington Post is believed to be preparing an in-depth story on the program. Thanking the Board for its previous grant money, Lopez informed the Board that he wished to be able to offer scholarships for swimmers and was requesting a donation of $3,000.  A motion to approve his request was amended to increase the grant to $3,750, then seconded and unanimously passed as amended.  The contribution will be made to Nadar Por Vida, Inc.

Athlete Representative:  Frani Hess advised the Board that she had received two emails from athletes.  One email expressed the writer’s desire that the 1650 yard free event be scheduled in the last session of a meet.  The second email raised concerns about the air quality, air temperature and lack of deck space at the Cub Run site of the PVS November Open. The first request was discussed and judged to not be a desirable scheduling change for most athletes.  Bill Marlin informed the Board that noticeable improvements in air quality had since occurred at the Cub Run site in the past few weeks, and concurred that PVS should be sensitive to the amount of deck space available.  Hess concluded by reporting to the Board that she had spoken with a number of athletes regarding their interest in participating in a proposed 2006 New Year’s Eve Athlete Activity.  Her informal poll indicated that those most likely to attend were between the ages of 13 to15 and perhaps some tight-knit senior groups.

Marlin then took the opportunity to provide background on the proposed New Year’s Eve Party.  He explained that the original idea was to provide an activity for 13 and up athletes from Machine, Potomac Marlins and York at the FCPA Audrey Moore facility.  He addressed a concern previously raised and confirmed that it would be a covered activity under USA Swimming’s insurance program.  If the Board were to agree to provide funding, the activity would be opened up to the entire LSC.  

While supporting the concept, the Board expressed concerns about whether sufficient time remained to properly prepare for a successful event as well as whether the LSC would be supporting an activity that would likely to be perceived as being geographically inaccessible to at least most of its athletes.   In denying the request to support the request for 2006, the Board suggested that future planning be commenced earlier and that the planning consider including two sites.  It would be appropriate to request funding when the FY 2008 budget preparation was underway in April.  It was noted the three clubs were still free to hold the event as a club sponsored activity if they wished to do so.

Returning to General Chairman Items, Garner informed the Board that he had requested receipts from the “Age Group Coach of the Year’ for the ASCA Convention so that reimbursement could be made.

He then advised the Board of the progress on the sanction fee reciprocity agreement between VSI and PVS, noting that he had yet to hear from the Maryland LSC as to whether they were going to also take action on this proposal.  The Board unanimously approved the following “Sanction Fee Treaty” with VSI. 

When meets are held by VSI in PVS territory (and vice versa), the sanction fee assessed by the LSC in which the meet is being held will be a flat $100 when all of the following conditions are met:

•         The meet must be sponsored by the out-of-territory LSC or one of its member clubs.

•         A minimum of eighty percent (80%) of the athletes participating in the meet must be from the out-of-territory LSC.

•         Responsibility for staffing of the meet is handled by officials from the out-of-territory LSC.

•         Meet Announcement preparation is the responsibility of the out-of-territory LSC.

•         Meet Announcement and results are posted on the out-of-territory LSC’s website.

•         Verification of athlete registrations (both pre and post meet) is performed by the out-of-territory LSC.

•         The loading of times into SWIMS is performed by the out-of-territory LSC.

•         Warm-up and safety procedures of the out-of-territory LSC are followed with Report of Occurrence reports, if any, submitted to both LSC’s, in addition to USA Swimming and Risk Management Services, Inc.

•         The effective date will be January 1, 2007.

The “Sanction Fee Treaty” will become effective only if VSI also enters into this agreement.

The Board was advised that Peter Clark, Eastern Zone, Sport Development Consultant, was planning his first trip to PVS during the period of January 13^th through January 19^th.  This scheduling would allow him to attend both the Winter Competition Committee Meeting to be held on January 14^th and the Board of Director’s meeting to be held on January 17^th.  It was suggested it be determined whether Peter’s schedule would allow him to meet for dinner (or some other time) with the PVS Board.

Garner’s final item involved the question of determining who should bear the cost of certifying the measurement of GMU’s pool as was necessitated by the two American Records set by Kate Ziegler at the 2006 Tom Dolan Invitational Meet.  It had originally been assumed that GMU would absorb this cost as they did in 2005 when Ziegler also set an American Record. As the invoice had yet to be produced, the matter was tabled until the Board’s January meeting. 

Senior Division:  Don Riedlinger informed the Board that he had received appeals for Travel Assistance Reimbursement denials from two clubs (one for one athlete and the other for two athletes).  The first appeal was for a swimmer who had participated in the 2006 ConocoPhillips National Championship.  Riedlinger recapped for the Board the timeline of the submission of both the original request and subsequent appeal.  By a vote of 6-2, the Board denied the appeal primarily based on the timeliness of the submission.

The second Travel Assistance Reimbursement appeal involved two swimmers who had attended the 2006 USA Swimming Junior Championship.  The basis of the appeal was that, in a previous year, travel assistance had been granted to an athlete who had swum the same meet schedule.  Acknowledging that an administrative error did occur in the previous year, the Board unanimously voted to deny the appeal since the athletes had not satisfied the requirements to be eligible for reimbursement.

Treasurer’s Report / Finance Division:  Financial results for the period ending November 30, 2006 had been provided to the Board prior to the meeting.  PVS’s current assets on hand as of November 30, 2006 were $758,819.  This number includes approximately $31,000 in athlete registrations whose portion payable to USA-S has just been invoiced.

With his transmittal of the financial results to the Board, Hirschmann had pointed out that the audit of PVS’s statements for 2006 is nearing completion.  He anticipates that the Management letter will address three points:  (1) the need to establish a better procedure for reconciling registrations with registration income, (2) establishing a contract with the Administrative Assistant, and (3) establishing a formal investment policy for PVS.  He indicated that he agreed that these matters should be addressed and that steps were underway to address at least the latter two.

Age Group Division:  Prior to the meeting, Bill Marlin, Age Group Chair, had provided all members of the Board with a written report.  The Board requested that discussions of the co-hosting responsibilities and financial arrangements between PVS and VSI occur prior to the May 2007 Eastern Zone meeting.

At Marlin’s request, Paris Jacobs, Zone Team Manager, presented three requests for changes to Policy and Procedures regarding Eastern Zone activities:  (1) an increase in Zone Coach Stipends, (2) providing support for chaperones, and (3) implementing a travel option for the Zone Team Manager.

Noting the difficulties in obtaining Zone coaches, Paris recommended that PVS Zone Coach stipends be increased. Her initial proposal was that they be increased as follows:  $500 – Head Coach, $300 – Head Assistant Coach, and $200 – Assistant Coaches.  During discussion, Paris indicated that a stronger applicant pool would be available if the compensation was increased.  A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to increase the Head Coach stipend from $500 to $700, the Head Assistant Coach stipend from $300 to $450 and the Assistant Coach stipend from $250 to $350.  These increases will become effective in 2007. Marlin indicated that several coaches had already expressed interested in participating as assistant coaches and if more express interest, an election will be held at the Spring Championship meets.  It was suggested that the fact these positions are compensated be better publicized – some coaches may not be apply since they not realize they would be paid.

Paris’ second request was that the Board consider providing financial support to Zone Team Chaperones.  Her request was for PVS to pay one-half the double occupancy rate for hotel accommodations for up to 6 chaperones per trip. (Appropriate adjustments would be made as necessary if a chaperone wished to share a room with a non chaperone, or there were not an even number of chaperones of the same sex needing accommodations.)  Chaperones would also be provided complimentary seating on the team busses, when extra seats were available. If seats were not available, chaperones would be reimbursed for automobile mileage at the then current charity mileage rate for travel to and from the meet    The number of chaperones supported would be one per each 25 athletes (or fraction thereof) participating on the team. A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to adopt these recommendations.

Paris’ final request was to ask the Board to modify Policy and Procedure to provide the Zone Team Manager the option to travel to the meet location prior to the team arriving thereby providing them with the opportunity to address various logistical matters prior to the team’s arrival. Jacobs indicated when she had to travel in advance to Buffalo for other reasons, she was able to make sure lodging arrangements were in order at the hotel, athletes were in logical room locations within the hotel, etc. this precluded the team having to stay on the bus for an extended period of time after arrival – which has frequently happened when prior arrangements could not be made. She also reported this is the practice followed when the national team travels.  A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to adopt the modification.

Marlin closed out Age Group matters by informing the Board that he had a potential candidate to serve as Jacobs’ replacement as Zone Team Manager.  However that person has not yet been made familiar with the duties of the position and no determination has been made as to whether that person is interested in being considered

Operations Division:  Prior to the meeting, the Board had been advised by the Administrative Assistant that FCPA had offered to rent the Mt Vernon pool in addition to Cub Run for the 2007 PVS November Open.  The Board authorized the rental of both sites.  Two courses in Maryland are also expected to be rented for this meet.  At this point, possible pools to rent for a fourth course for the October or January Opens have not been identified.

The possibility of making the November Open a 2 day meet was also discussed, but this was not judged to be desirable for several reasons including the risk of not being able to return to a 2 ½ day format at a later date.

In response to a question posed by Riedlinger about the status of the program of having PVS rent additional pool time to support  mini-meets that was approved by the House last May, the Board was informed that no specific planning had occurred and no requests to rent water had been made..

Due to the lateness of the hour, the remaining agenda items were deferred.

Next Board Meeting:  The Chair announced that its next Board meeting will be held at McLean Community Center on Wednesday, January 17^th at 6:30PM.

Adjournment:  The meeting was adjourned at 10:20PM.

Respectfully submitted by,
Janet Auger
PVS Administrative Assistant