In attendance were Thirl Crudup, John Blaschke, John Ertter, Jim Garner, John Hirschmann, Bill Marlin, Greg York, Irene Millman.

The meeting was called to order at 7:05pm

The board met in executive session.

The open meeting was called to order at 7:50pm

MOTION Approval of October Minutes APPROVED

New Business
Bill Marlin submitted a proposal of Steve Ercolano to conduct a study of NCSA Jr National meet. The report would "explain if the meet is a viable meet, how it was run (format), attendance, if it was a success or failure and if it's something that PVS should consider funding travel for or not." (see the email attachment from Bill Marlin.) Meet occurs last week in March. RMSC, TCSD, York and PM are all expected to attend. Greg York with the agreement of John Hirschmann feels granting a Coaches Continuing Education award for this type of purpose would set a bad precedent. It would appear it is paying for coach's travel and since other PVS coaches will be in attendance (some of whom are PVS Board Members) it could put PVS in a difficult position.

Thirl suggested that he conduct his study and submit in the summer for a Coaches Continuing Education Grant and then request that his summary of the meet be approved for use of that grant.

General Chair's Report
As submitted - see attached

Greg York commented on HS swimming stating many coaches are making statements regarding HS swimming conflicts. Greg stated he feels that we can't fight the High School programs and/or the Summer League Meets. High School and Summer League are not going to go away and we need to find a way to work with them -- not against them for the good of the PVS programs and athletes. He further stated that if a club wishes to schedule meets then they should be running them as club meets and PVS should not be running competitive events to HS and Summer League.

Bill Marlin stated that his thinking was along the same lines and that is why he made the proposal for format changes to the championship season SCY meets that he brought to the Competition Committee Meeting earlier this month. Clubs have much more freedom in running club meets and therefore for someone to say we (PVS) should be the ones sponsoring the meets then they are saying we (PVS) should be taking the risk. If a club has an idea for a meet as alternative to the PVS meets then they should submit it for sanctioning and run it as a club meet.

Treasurer's Report: As Submitted

November - very little activity.
It was observed that registration numbers do not equal deposits. The Treasurer requested that this reconciliation be completed by January 31. Irene is reconciling this and she will have a report to the Board in February. Expense - pool rental expenses down. Irene stated this is mainly because of being down two venues for the October and November Open Meets.

Motion: No registrations will be accepted w/o payments. Any deviation from this will be at the sole discretion of the Vice Chair of Finance. PASSED

John Ertter requested that the clubs be notified via email ASAP to inform them of this procedure change.

Athletes:
Nothing to report

Administrative Report:
As Submitted - see attached

Peter Karl (TCSD) made a request at the Competition Committee that the CC receive a report at its May meeting regarding the problems that arose with pool rentals for the PVS January and February Distance Meets and PVS January Open. The request called for the response to be in writing, and address procedures being taken to assure this does not happen again. The General Chairman indicated this request would be responded to.

Issues regarding Pool rentals to be emailed directly to Peter Karl per his request at the January CCM.

Webmaster Report:
As Submitted - see attached

Competition:
Several motions were submitted to the Board based on items acted upon by the Competition Committee at its January 12, 2002 meeting.

Motion: Accept the LC schedule for PVS sponsored meets, as presented with hosts and venues - PASSED

Motion: Club Meets; Two requests for sanctions have been received --
Early Bird LC on May 4-5
MD States on May 31- June 2.
It was noted that no request to sanction the Bunky Lewis Mini Meet had been received to date. The Board agreed to sanction it if such a request is submitted. Motion to sanction these meets. PASSED

Motion: Funding - To provide athlete assistance funding for Jr National meet being sponsored by NCSA. John Hirschmann requested the issue be tabled; Bill Marlin, Steve Ercolano and others will be attending the meet this spring. This should provide some insight. It is unknown at this time if the meet will be sanctioned, and the degree of support it will get from USA Swimming. It was agreed no funding would be considered until next budget year. The board agreed to table the issue and John Ertter would take it under advisement when preparing next year's budget. Further discussion followed and several suggested that if there was to be funding, it would not be similar to the former USA Swimming Junior National Meet, but more of a stipend.

There was discussion at the Competition Committee meeting regarding 2002 LC AG meet being moved to LC Jr Champs weekend to be at the same venue in consecutive sessions. The board discussed this possibility and determined that at this late date the meets should remain the same as on the schedule approved by the Board in September.

It was noted the Competition Committee did not make a recommendation regarding travel assistance for Summer Nationals 02 and US Open 02. The Board felt it was best not to defer setting the amount and criteria for this until after the Spring 2002 Competition Committee meeting. Therefore the following motion was made:

Motion: Current reimbursement rate for Summer Nationals 02 and US Open 2002 would remain the same as it was for 2001 Summer Nationals ($450.00) and 2001 US Open ($250.00) including swim requirements (4 PVS sanction events with at least two from PVS sponsored meets during the 2002 LC season.)PASSED

There had been discussion at the Competition Committee meeting regarding whether certain events should be 9-10 or 10 & Under (to permit young swimmers to compete in events not offered at Mini's). There was also discussion whether other events should be open to 12&U athletes since longer distance events are frequently not offered to them. It was noted there was a lack of consensus on this matter at the Competition Committee meeting. The board would like the committee formed at the January CCM meeting to take this into consideration when reviewing these format changes

Thirl directed Greg York as Strategic Planning Chair to follow-up on these committee meetings to insure reports be provided in a timely manner in advance of the next CCM scheduled for Monday, May 13th at 8:00 PM at River Falls. This could include the possibility of some provisions to limit the opportunity to athletes who achieved at shorter distances.

It was also reported that a request had been made at Competition to have the Treasurer examine the impact of reducing the PVS sanction fee for club sponsored meets from $.75/splash to $.25/splash. It was agreed the Treasurer would address the feasibility of doing so as part of his preparation of the FY '03 budget.

Age Group Division:
Report submitted

Discussion regarding refunds for the PVS Jan Open for the two sites at PGS&LC as a result of the Saturday sessions being moved to Monday. It was pointed out that any decision should consider Section 102.8 of USA Swimming Rules and Regulations.

It was announced that as soon as everything is in and reconciled, a comprehensive review of the actual refunds due would be conducted with the support of the Meet Directors. The Board felt that any properly submitted requests for reimbursement be accepted regardless of the basis for the request.

Motion: Refund the clubs for scratched entries for the Saturday to Monday move providing they submitted their request prior to the Thursday January 17 deadline. PASSED

Travel Reimbursement for attendance at 2001 USA Swimming Open Meet- See the Administrative Report 26 athlete names were submitted 25 from 6 clubs were qualified, 1 appeal - see the appeal in the Administrative Report.

Motion: To approve the all travel reimbursement submissions including the appeal PASSED

Operations:
Report (including a supplemental report) was submitted. Hirschmann noted that he will be asking at the February Board meeting that starting with PVS LC season, that host clubs be made responsible for providing marshals rather than asking officials to continue to perform this task as collateral duty.

Strategic Planning:
As submitted

The Board concurred in his proposal to place ads (as submitted) in various HS championship meets occurring in February. Greg will also be looking into placing ads in the summer league handbooks.

PM reported it used Marshals for the 13 & Over sessions of the January Open. Although more were scheduled, the ones that were there were a good deterrent to keep parents off the deck. PGS&LC also used its staff to control deck access so there was less need for marshals than at most PVS meets

Steps had been taken to preclude swimmers scheduled for Satuarday at PGS&LC from swimming at MLK since that site was fully subscribed. However, it was noted that one swimmer from PG KINGS swam at two venues for the same meet. This athlete could not attend the Saturday session at MLK therefore swam the Monday session at PGS&LC as a deck entry.

Old Business:
It was announced that:

It was observed that:

Meeting adjourned at 9:31pm

Respectfully submitted,


Irene Millman
Potomac Valley Swimming
Administrative Assistant