Attendance -- Jim Garner, Chair Board Members: John Hirschmann, Dan Jacobs, Bill Marlin, Don Riedlinger, Bill Stephens, Jim Van Erden, and Greg York. Non-voting Board Member: Linda Klopfenstein. Guest: Paris Jacobs.

Call to Order -- The meeting was called to order at approximately 6:58 pm, by the General Chair, Jim Garner.

General Chairman Items -- Publicizing Non PVS Meet Announcement -- Garner informed the Board that he had received a meet announcement for a meet to be held in Midland, TX at which up to $35,000 in prize money would be awarded. There was discussion whether the LSC should help publicize this meet. It was noted that such a request had probably gone to all the LSC's. The general feeling of the Board was that the PVS should not formally publicize this meet on its website. It was suggested we do not have the resources to give general publicity to meets held outside PVS to start doing it on a routine basis, it would have significant workload implications and PVS has not done it to date, even for meets in adjoining LSC's for meets that PVS teams are more likely to attend (or have historically attended.) Garner indicated he would bring information about this meet to the attention of PVS teams most likely to be interested.

Garner also brought to the Board's attention - an expression of interest he had received from an individual to provide volunteer assistance to the LSC. The possibility of having this person serve as a liaison to the various PVS teams was raised. While the Board indicated it is very anxious to encourage individuals to volunteer their services, no Board members present were familiar with the individual and little information was provided about his background or skills. It was felt it would be prudent to first find out more about his skills and interests before making a decision on how to make the best use of his services.

Aquatics Guide -- It was noted there had been very little interest the last time the Aquatics Guide had been issued in 2001-02. Most copies printed were not distributed. This was presumably because the same information is available on the LSC website and can be both published and updated there more rapidly.

Board of Review Matter -- Garner also noted a matter had been brought to his attention that may need to be referred to the Board of Review. It was not clear, however, given the provisions in PVS's by-laws that Board of Review action would be needed to accomplish the goal sought. It pertains to a situation where a Club Member has secured a final court judgment against an Individual Member for non-payment of financial obligations. Article 3.7 of PVS By-laws gives guidance on how to proceed under such circumstances.

Coaches Continuing Education (CCE) Grant Request -- The Board was advised that a request for a continuing education grant had been received from a coach who had already received one in both FY03 and FY05. It noted PVS policy was to not pay CCE grants to the same coach anymore frequently than every other year. Accordingly, the Board decided not to approve the grant request. It also observed that relatively few coaches were applying to receive these grants and urged the coach representatives on the Board to look for better ways to publicize the availability of these grants to PVS coaching community.

Approval of Minutes -- A motion was made to approve the minutes of November 16, 2005 Board of Directors meeting as posted in draft form on the PVS website. The motion PASSED without objection.

Status of Blue Wave Swim Team (BWST) Application -- Garner reviewed with the Board the history of teams training at the Ashburn Sports Pavilion and information and background regarding BWST's application to join PVS. This included that AVST/AST had been a member club in PVS for approximately 15 years, that the Home Owners Association (HOA) originally ran the team, Eric Moore had approached them several years ago about running the team and it had been accepted. (though there appears to be limited written documentation explaining how this new arrangement was structured.) As a result, the team started to rent water from the HOA and the team assumed responsibility for paying the coaches, etc.

In 2004, Eric Moore was requested to change the team name from Ashburn Village Swim Team (AVST) to Ashburn Swim Team (AST) and did so. The HOA made a decision to stop renting water to AST in May 2005. Eric Moore still however owned the Ashburn Swim Team, including the right to reregister the club with PVS for 2006 as an existing team. As a result, BWST has now been advised that they must register with USA Swimming as a new club. Since their training site and the majority of their athletes is in VSI territory, they must submit material under the "three question test" if they wish to apply to be accepted as a new club in PVS.

BWST is now training at the same time and in the same site as AST did previously. A majority of the swimmers were previously members of AST, several of the coaches previously coached for AST, and many parents now providing leadership support for BWST had previously done so for AST. The team changed its name and team colors to indicate it was undertaking a "fresh start."

Bill Stephens advised the Board that BWST had submitted its request to be a member of BWST to the USA Swimming staff on December 9th. Its submission included a response to the "three question test" and provided a statement in support of their request to be allowed to join PVS as a new club. Copies of their statement had been provided to the PVS Board subsequent to its submission to USA Swimming. It was observed that this statement included considerable additional information in support of their application that had not been available previously. This submission had also been provided to VSI for their consideration - the PVS Board was advised that the VSI Board had not changed its position as a result of receiving this additional submission that BWST should become a new member club in VSI.

Bill Stephens also provided the Board with a proposed statement for PVS to submit in support of BWST's request to become a member club in PVS. The Board discussed it and agreed it should support BWST's request to be a member of PVS. A few changes were proposed to further amplify and clarify the statement. The statement as revised was approved by the Board to be submitted to USA Swimming.

[On December 15th, Garner and Hirschmann made further editorial revisions to the statement supporting BWST's application, consistent with the statement endorsed by the Board. The revised statement was submitted to USA Swimming (Pat Hogan) that same day. PVS was advised on December 21st that Mary Jo Swalley, Vice-President of USA Swimming for Local Administration had approved BWST's application to be a member of PVS.]

The PVS Registrar has so far treated in SWIMS what has happened as a team name change from AST to BWST rather than putting BWST in as a new team. It has now become clear that all now view BWST as a new team and that they should be entered into SWIMS that way. It was also agreed that AST has retained the right to reregister for 2006 with PVS as an existing club. Given these facts, it was agreed that it was important for the PVS Registrar to take the actions necessary to reverse this so that AST shows as a continuing club and BWST as a new club - with the appropriate athletes transferred from AST to their new clubs (including BWST.) The Board again urged that this be done as soon as possible in support of the credibility of the process. [The Registrar advised the Board on December 26th that she had done so. Also, AST has renewed its membership with PVS for 2006.]

Dale City Jets (DCJT) -- The Board was also informed that the application of DC (Dale City) Jets (DCJT) to join PVS Swimming had been submitted to USA Swimming. The Board was also told that it was not believed that DCJT had answered the "3 questions" pertaining to where their athletes predominately live, where they primarily train, and in what LSC they think it would be in their best interest to join.

The Board was also assured that VSI had been informed of this application. It was agreed that it was important to keep VSI fully informed whenever a club application (or other matter) of potential interest to both LSC's came to our attention.

The possibility of another team also wanting to join PVS was mentioned, but nobody had any particulars.

Fairland Aquatic Center -- Garner read to the Board a statement he had received from Art Davis pertaining to the October Open held at Fairland. It was noted that Kevin Osborne has in the past year been a very proactive as manager in support of competitive swim meets being held at Fairland - This includes the improved lighting (as of the time of the October Open), new starting blocks, new flags and new lane lines were noted as well as how the two courses were set-up in a way that also allowed for limited warm-up/warm-down. Art also reported on the problems with the starting systems that had also been reported upon by Mark Faherty when he came to the November board meeting.

The Board was also advised that Fairland had taken major steps to clean its lighting (the glass under each of the lights) and improve visibility in early September. Lighting was still good for the October Open, but it was reported it had deteriorated again by the time of the Xmas meet in early December, due to flaking onto the glass below the bulbs and difficulty of access from the deck in order to do routine cleaning. Fairland is closing from December 19 to January 9 to allow new lighting fixtures to be installed throughout the pool. The fixtures will be similar to those at UMD and are expected to resolve this recurring problem. [The new lighting was installed as expected.]

Athlete Representative to PVS Board -- Bill Marlin had made the Board aware earlier that day that Frani Hess was interested in serving as the Junior Athlete Representative to the PVS Board. She is currently an athlete on his team and a Junior at Thomas Jefferson High School. Bill stated he had discussed with Frani what the obligations of the position are, i.e. regular attendance at the PVS Board meeting, attending the annual USAS convention in September, and staying in contact with the athletes to be able to advise the Board what the athletes interests and concerns are. Some Board members suggested that a high school athlete was more likely to be successful in interacting with other athletes and finding out their views regarding competitive swimming and PVS. Bill indicated she had advised him that she is prepared to assume these responsibilities.

Garner formally nominated her as the Athlete Representative and the Board concurred in the recommendation. She was elected to fill the position previously held by Ethan Bassett, so her term of office will expire August 31, 2007.

Garner indicated he would check with Breanne Smith regarding her intentions to continue serving as Athlete Representative to the PVS Board. Her term expires August 31, 2006.

Administrative Assistant -- The Board was given an update regarding the status of filing the position of PVS's Administrative Assistant. Nine applications had been received. The five Board members involved with the selection had independently ranked the applicants and after they each completed that step, the relative rankings were compared and that information was used to make an initial selection to interview four candidates. One of the four had in the interim accepted another position so the remaining three candidates were interviewed. That process has now been completed.

It was the expectation, given the upcoming holidays, that the person selected would hopefully be able to come on board about January 1st.

PVS Records Policy -- Riedlinger provided the Board with a revised proposal regarding how PVS records policy might be modified. This had been previously discussed at the November Board meeting. Since then he had reviewed the proposed policy with Mark Eldridge and concluded some changes in how to handle college athletes competing for a school at a meet outside their LSC should be treated - this applies to such athletes both temporarily outside our territory as well as athletes temporarily competing inside our territory.

He also indicated he still needed to work out with John Hirschmann whether documentation would be needed (permitted) to support any record applications - given the current ability to research at least most of them through various searchable times data bases.

Don indicated it was still his intent to seek Competition Committee input at their January meeting and then bring their recommendation back to the Board.

Finance Division -- There was limited discussion at this meeting of the November 30, 2005 financial statements that had been distributed to the Board prior to the meeting. These financial statements and reports on the financial aspects of PVS sponsored and club sponsored meets thru December 7, 2005 had been distributed to the Board in advance of the meeting. They showed that PVS's current assets on hand as of November 30, 2005 were $660,502 including $4,496 in the Dave Davis fund.

Hirschmann had advised the Board prior to the meeting that the audit of the FY 2005 statements was underway with the audit report expected in January 2006, the Form 990 had been completed and was under review, and steps were in process to move the Dave Davis funds to the Restricted Operating Account (ROA) with the funds to be applied to the Officials portion of the recently conducted Swimposium. It was noted that about $75,000 was due to USA Swimming for athletes that had been registered in November - in response to a question, it was indicated it was not practical to routinely report accruals in connection with the monthly financial reports that are provide the Board.

Operations Division - Team Assignments for PVS January Open -- The status of assigning teams to venues for the PVS January Open to be held January 21-22, 2006 had been put on the agenda so the status of getting this information - necessary to release the meet announcement could be ascertained. Hirschmann advised after seeking that information for several weeks, he had decided earlier that day to post the meet announcement.

The Board discussed the matter and decided in the absence of the Operations Chairman to direct the PVS Webmaster to post the same team assignments as were used in 2005. It was noted with two courses at PGS&LC and with the third course at MLK, the resulting impact on reassigning teams after all meet entries have been received should be minimal. [The PVS Webmaster did so the next day after adjusting for clubs leaving/joining PVS in the interim.]

Names of relay only swimmers -- Hirschmann brought to the Board's attention that getting relay only swimmers into meet results has sometime proven to be a challenge since the names are not put into the Meet Manager file ahead of time. This requires extra work at the meet site when the names have to be entered while the relays are in progress - frequently late in the meet. Name misspellings, missing and/or inaccurate DOB's and/or USA-S ID numbers prevent the relay results from loading into SWIMS.

Hirschmann noted that other meets have established a policy of requiring that relay only swimmers be included with the initial entry file submitted by each club. This results in those swimmers names (and USA-S ID numbers) being in the meet file prior to the meet - thus it also permits the PVS Registrar to confirm their registration status (including what club they may represent) prior to the start of the meet.

It was agreed that submitting relay only swimmer names and USA-S ID numbers would now be required for PVS sponsored meets (where relay only swimmers are eligible to participate in the meet.) It would not be required, but would also be strongly encouraged for club sponsored meets.

Jim Van Erden reported about Pat Lunsford's visit to the Swim and Rock Meet on Sunday November 20th and how he had worked successfully with many of our starters and other officials at that meet.

PVS Eastern Zone Team Status Report -- Paris Jacobs provided information regarding PVS participation in future zone meets and how what PVS does compares with what other LSCs in the EZ do. She reported that most other LSCs in the EZ charge about $350/athlete to be on the zone team, though one charged $425. In contrast PVS for the 2005 LC team, charged $500 (initially it planned to charge $590, but reduced it to $500 after the Board approved an increase in the level of support.)

Paris, in response to previous requests, provided information on how the LSC support would have to be for PVS 2006 LC team for the meet in Buffalo. She did so under the assumptions that 60, 100 or 120 athletes would participate and that the level of financial support from the LSC would be $11,500, $15,000 or $20,000. (The current level of support in the budget is $15,000.) Depending on which the above scenarios regarding team size and financial support is chosen, the cost/swimmer to participate could range from $312 to $589. One key breakpoint in the costing is whether 2 or 3 buses need to be used - having to send partially filled buses can substantially increase the cost/swimmer.

These costs do not include outfitting costs - which would add the same cost/swimmer regardless of the scenario chosen. The possibility of selecting an apparel provider to be the exclusive supplier to the PVS EZ was mentioned as a way to reduce outfitting costs.

She pointed out that obviously costs would be different if the meet was not held in Buffalo - bus costs would be less for a closer destination, Saturday lodging might not be needed, and lodging/meal costs could vary.

Paris stated she hoped to finalize planning for the 2006 LC team by February so it could be publicized on the website and people know what to anticipate. The Board agreed it would be desirable to publicize this information as soon as possible.

Paris separately reported the for the PVS 2006 SC team, costs in Long Island will be high due mostly to the cost of hotel rooms there. She reported she was in the process of finalizing arrangements for rooms there as well as transportation.

Old Business -- There was no Old Business

New Business -- Hirschmann made the Board aware that the issue of posting psych sheets and timelines for club sponsored meets had recently arisen. PVS has historically posted psych sheets and timelines for a limited number of club sponsored meets and the precedent was set several years ago. A recent request was received to do it for another club meet - PVS, rather than doing so, provided a link to where the same information was provided on the club site. This solution was acceptable to the club involved.

Hirschmann suggested that given the ability to provide not only this type of support on behalf of a meet, but also the capability to post meet results by session, post results real time on the net by heat, and prospectively use a wireless network to broadcast results throughout the facility from the data in Meet Mgr. He suggested that PVS should be developing a policy as what support it will provide at both PVS sponsored and club sponsored meets. Another possibility would be to have the sanction fee or charges in another form reflect the level of service provided for club sponsored meets.

Some concern was expressed if results were released real time, less volunteers would make themselves available. No decision was made at the meeting.

Next Board Meeting -- The Board agreed to have its next meeting Wednesday, January 18th at River Falls. It was scheduled to be on the 3rd Wednesday in order to be after the January 15th Competition Committee meeting and permit the Board to take action on recommendations coming from the Competition Committee.

Adjournment -- The Board meeting adjourned at approximately 9:07 pm