As approved at July 2001 BofD Meeting

POTOMAC VALLEY SWIMMING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

7:00 PM -- TUESDAY JUNE 12, 2001
River Falls Community Center
Potomac, MD

The meeting was called to order at 7:10 p.m. by Thirl Crudup, General Chairman. In attendance were John Blaschke, Coco Buck, Jim Garner, John Hirschmann, Linda Klopfenstein, Kit Mathews, Bob Walker, Greg York, Irene Millman and Linda Edmunds.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES:
Motion to approve the April Board of Director Minutes. PASSED.

John H. asked if the minutes should in the future be posted to the website 7 days after they had been distributed to the Board members for their comments, assuming Board members had no significant comments. This was suggested in light on one of the themes from the Board retreat, namely to improve communication within the LSC. Thirl stated it was sufficient to promptly publish the motions adopted and a brief discussion with the rationale for the decisions made. After discussion, there was a consensus that the rationale would be posted along with the motions adopted, but the complete minutes would only become published after approval by the Board.

NEW BUSINESS:
No members present at the time indicated they had any New Business to present.

GENERAL CHAIRMAN'S REPORT:
The General Chairman stated he had nothing new to report.

TREASURER'S REPORT:
As John E. is not present, there was no Treasurer's Report.

Past due Meet Director's Financial Report:
Linda E informed the Board that one team who hosted a PVS meet in mid-March has failed to submit the paperwork and entry fees payable to PVS. In spite of many reminders, they are still delinquent. Kit asked if there were others. Linda E. stated that one other team had submitted payment for its club meet, but had yet to submit the Meet Director's Financial report (this matter is dealt with in the second motion of this section). Thirl stated that the Board had the option to send the delinquent team a fine letter or a demand letter. John H. expressed a concern about allowing the team to host another meet before the paperwork was submitted and checks payable to PVS were submitted. There was further discussion regarding this matter.

Motion: First that the club who is delinquent with the Meet Director's Financial report and associated payments be fined $100 at this time; secondly, that if in 15 days from this date, all the required submissions have not been made, the club will lose the privilege to host the next meet which they are scheduled to host; and thirdly, other future meets to be run by this club will not be awarded to this club until such time as the matter is fully resolved. PASSED.

[Special Note: The paper work and entry fees payable to PVS were received by the PVS Administrative Office the day following the Board meeting.]


With regard to the team who submitted payment, but no paperwork for the meet: Motion: That the club be given 15 days to submit the paperwork; failure to submit the Meet Director's Financial report within 15 days will result in a sanction in the form of a $100 fine. PASSED.

Irene informed the Board that one club was currently overdue on the payments for club meets to 2 different teams for meets that occurred in May. Linda E. explained that the payment information had been provided to the club and the PVS Administrative Office had been told the payments had gone in the mail the previous day.

Motion: That if the club is not current on these payments in 10 days from this date, the club will receive a fine letter. PASSED.

Irene informed the Board that another club was currently past due for payment of meet entry fees to another club for a club run meet that occurred in May.

Motion: That if the club is not current on these payments in 10 days from this date, the club will receive a fine letter. PASSED.

ATHLETES' REPRESENTATIVE:
Coco stated that she would like to distribute flyers at the Age Group I meet it encourage the athlete reps on the PVS Board and tell them of their concerns. It was agreed that this would show effort to communicate to the body. John H volunteered to place a similar reminder on the webpage and also suggested notices could probably still be added to the Senior II and Age Group II programs.

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION:
Kit stated that there is growing frustration within the Administrative Office with the failure of Board Member to respond to emails and meet deadlines. The Board is reminded that their cooperation in responding is vital to smooth operation of the LSC and its administrative functions.

Request for Relief of Delivery/Set-up Charges.
Irene discussed the letter that had been received from a team requesting relief from the equipment delivery fees for a Long Course meet. John H. stated that he had concerns about supporting this request. He stated that if the Board looks at the financial aspects of this meet, it should consider all similar Long Course meets this season (Senior I and II, Age Group I and II.) He further stated that the Long Course meet entry fee is $ .50 higher per splash than Short Course and that the club retains the additional $.50. Further, he stated that the number of splashes expected this year doesn't vary much from last year and that this club should have been considering when deciding whether to bid on the meet. . The consensus was that it would be inappropriate to potentially set a precedent by granting a fee waiver for this meet.

Bob Walker stated a concern about the number of clubs willing to host these meets. It was suggested that the Board may want to consider a change in financial arrangements or meet format for similar Long Course meets in 2002, if they felt these meets need to be made more attractive financially.

Motion: To deny the club's request for relief for the delivery fees of equipment. PASSED.

Meet Contract:
Kit stated that he and Irene were formulating a contract to be given to teams hosting meets for PVS in order to make sure there is an understanding of what are club responsibilities and what are PVS responsibilities.

Webpage:
The Webmaster submitted the attached written report in advance of the meeting. The transition of pvswim.org to a new web hosting service was highlighted. Kit noted that the figures were particularly interesting in the data downloaded area and in particular the very large download that occurred in March 2001. Greg stated the PVS webpage is serving as a sample and that his team is using it to get ideas for their own page.

COMPETITION COMMITTEE REPORT:

[Note: No draft Competition Meeting minutes from the meeting held on May 5 (nor the motions passed by the Competition at that meeting) were available and therefore the Board could not take action on those items.]

Approval of the 2001/2002 Short Course schedule:
The Board was provided with the attached schedule for PVS's 2001-02 Short Course schedule. Jim stated that changes may be necessary in the proposed schedule for March to change the dates for PVS SC Champs, PVS Age Group Champs and/or Mini Champs once the date for the Sectional meet has been determined. There was discussion of the 2002 SC Sectional dates -- it is not known at this time if Sectionals will be March 7-10 or March 14-17. John H. asked if the sanctions requested for 6 way meets were in fact for only 6 teams. Greg stated that the six way group was running the meets, but that more than 6 teams may be invited to participate. Thirl stated that as of this time, only the 6 identified clubs will participate and that if there will be additional clubs, the sanction requester must request approval to amend the sanction. John H. stated a concern about the RMSC October and November meets and the impact it will have on the size of the October Open and November Open. The consensus was that RMSC would only be inviting small teams to join their meets. John H stated the desire to have better understanding of RMSC's intentions so that its impact on the Open meets and allocation of teams to various sites could be done in an informed manner. Irene stated that the number of venues has already been adjusted to account for the non-attendance at this meet by RMSC.

Motion to approve the 2001/2 Short Course Schedule as presented with the exception of the PVS SC Champs and Age Group Champs. These two meets will be submitted for approval once the date of Sectionals is known. PASSED.

Jim stated concerns about the Joe Jacoby meet. Thirl stated that the Board had made a decision that the Joe Jacoby meet would continue and that any PVS team could bid to sponsor another meet during the same timeframe.

TRAVEL ASSISTANCE REQUESTS:

Regular:
Linda K. stated that there were 13 travel requests for Spring 2001 that were submitted and found to be qualified. Motion to pay the 13 travel requests for Spring 2001 Phillips 66 National Championships that were submitted and found to be qualified. PASSED.

Appeals:

Athlete #1: Attended college until Christmas, has been registered with PVS for ten years and has represented the PVS team and PVS at many local and national meets.

Linda K. stated that it was not clarified what the athlete had done after Christmas and if the athlete was then in the area. Kit asked how many events the athlete had completed. Linda E. responded that the athlete had participated in 7 out of 9 required events.

Motion to pay the club on behalf of this athlete. PASSED.

Athlete #2: Full time college student. (No additional information was provided.) It was noted that the athlete had participated in 4 out of 9 required events. There was discussion of the appropriateness of funding athletes who had competed for their college throughout the academic year.

Motion to deny payment to the club on behalf of this athlete. PASSED.

Athlete #3: Training to make the International USA team, had several college recruiting trips in conflict with PVS meets, traveled to and helped at PVS Mini Camp and reached goal by being named to the World University USA team for China in August.

Motion to pay the club on behalf of this athlete. PASSED.

It was reported that three athletes were found to have participated in the proper number of events, but not to have participated in the exact event as the exact event is not offered in PVS during this season; (i.e., 400 Free vs 500 Free) however, they all had participated in the equivalent SCY event offered in PVS. Kit asked that the language be added to the travel guidance to indicate the equivalent event may be used to qualify if the exact event is not offered.

Motion to pay the club(s) on behalf of these athletes. PASSED.

Linda K. read a letter from a club requesting acceptance of their travel assistance requests which were filed late. There was discussion of this appeal.

Motion to entertain the late requests with a letter to the club that late requests will not be entertained in the future and to pay the club on behalf of the athlete found to be qualified, but appealed due to lateness. PASSED.

Athlete #1: Hectic fall, as most high school seniors, with SAT testing on one day of the October Open and college visits. Then in January, he spent two weeks abroad with the National Junior team. It was stated that this athlete had many events (in excess of 9), but not the right combination required to be qualified for Travel Assistance.

Motion to pay the club on behalf of this athlete. PASSED.

Athlete #2: SAT's, numerous college visits, and illness thrown in, the athlete was prevented from swimming a meet until the December Championship meets. As a former member of the National World Team and an outstanding swimmer, the athlete did attempt to swim the January Open while sick but only competed in two events.

Motion to pay the club on behalf of this athlete. PASSED.

It was observed that the Board needs to be proactive in ensuring that the membership is fully aware of the requirements and deadlines for submitting requests for travel assistance. Ways to make this information more readily available on the PVS website were also discussed.

AGE GROUP DIVISION:
Bob W. stated that he had the following question for the Zone Team Coordinator regarding when Zone LC entries should be submitted. - specifically can entries for times achieved prior to the weekend of July 20-22 be required to be submitted during the prior week?. The Board expressed the view this was not a Board matter and the Age Group Chair and Zone Team Coordinator should establish an appropriate entry deadline.

OPERATIONS DIVISION:
Written report as attached had been submitted. Jim G. advised about the failure of 2 pieces of equipment at a recent meet. John H. stated that this had not been reported to him. Linda K. inquired as to whether PVS had a complete inventory of its equipment. Thirl stated that John E. is working on this. Linda K. asked if a safety survey is being done on the newer pools. John H. stated that he would look into this.

STRATEGIC PLANNING:
Nothing to report.

COACHES' REPRESENTATIVE REPORT:
Written report was provided at the meeting.

OLD BUSINESS:

Thirl stated that the PV Masters Swimming would like to donate $1000 to PVS to be used for the benefit of PVS athletes. There was brief discussion of how this donation might be used. Greg stated that the Masters' athletes were also willing to make themselves available to speak to PVS athletes amount opportunities to continue to compete in swimming as an adult.

Motion to accept the donation of the PV Masters Swimming in the amount of $1000. PASSED.

John H. stated that after the House of Delegates meeting, there was a request to add an athlete's name to the list of nominations for Athlete Representative. He further stated that there is currently nothing in PVS Policy and Procedures or the PVS By-Laws to address how names go on the ballot for Athletes' Representative or Coaches' Representative. He reminded the Board that only one coach and no athletes had been nominated at the House of Delegates meeting. When it was indicated at the House meeting that one other coach and one athlete might be interested in being nominated, but their desire to be nominated could not be confirmed prior to the meeting, objections were raised from the body and thus those nominations were not accepted.

John H inquired whether the Board would accept the late filed Athlete Representative nomination to be included on the ballot and/or the two names whose possible interest was not accepted at the House. He observed nominations could be opened and a notice placed on the pvswim website or nominations could be considered closed as of the House meeting. Greg stated that this Athlete should run as a "write-in." Bob W. asked if there had been a failure to obtain enough candidates. John H. stated that in the past, various parties have obtained a sufficient number of candidates, but that did not happen this year. The consensus was that only the Coaches' representative brought before the House will be included on the ballot, all others will be "write-ins." John H. recommended that a procedure be developed to be included in PVS Policy and Procedures manual for future elections (starting in 2002.)

A question was raised whether PVS had issued a sanction to VSI to hold their LC Championship at GMU-Fairfax in mid-July. Thirl stated that with regard to the sanction for VA to hold a meet at George Mason University, there were extenuating circumstances and that the sanction was granted with the stipulation that only VA Swimming Clubs would be invited to participate. Thirl further stated that inquiries should be made to confirm that VA Swimming's National Times Coordinator will be responsible for reporting any National Reportable Times arising from this meet..

Motion to Adjourn at 9:00. PASSED.



Respectfully submitted,


Linda Edmunds
Potomac Valley Swimming
Administrative Assistant