POTOMAC VALLEY SWIMMING
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
The November PVS Board of Directors meeting was called to order by Thirl Crudup, General Chairman. In attendance were Kelly Burke, Manga Dalizu, Mark Eldridge, John Ertter, Jim Garner, John Hirschmann, Linda Klopfenstein, Kit Mathews, Dave Scibetta, Greg York, Irene Millman and Linda Edmunds.
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTESThe October 19, 1999 minutes were approved.
TREASURER'S REPORT:John Ertter presented the attached financial report for October 1999. John stated that it was too early in the new fiscal year to draw any conclusions from the information. He further noted that the payment to USA Swimming for registrations must still be made. Discussion followed regarding the percentage of expected registrations received to date. There was discussion of the appropriate accounting journal entry of fines would be handled.
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION
Registration Report: Linda E. reported as of 11/15/99 there are 3,691 registered athletes, 15 registered clubs (2 of these being new to Potomac Valley Swimming), and 188 registered non-athletes for 2000. Irene reported that all non-athlete cards for registrations received before 11/5/99 had been printed and would be mailed. She further stated that only one club, York which had submitted coaches registrations as a club, had submitted all its information correctly. Those received incorrectly (~50%) were returned to the clubs for correction. Discussion of the coaches' requirements followed. Irene reported that some clubs have credit balances (related to prepaying registrations so a check does not need to be submitted each time an athlete is registered) and that the Administrative Office was working to zero these balances.
Kit introduced a proposal made by Mark Eldridge that the definition of "resident" for the Resident Record be more clearly defined. Kit recommended that a committee be formed to address this issue and other pending matters pertaining to PVS records, Members were to include Mark Eldridge, Marilyn Somensatto, John Hirschmann, Marie Buck and one of the coaches representatives. Thirl assigned Greg York to chair this committee
Kit introduced a proposal made by Mark Eldridge that the use of funds received from Athlete Scholarship be restricted . Discussion followed. Motion to accept proposed change to use of Athlete Scholarship PASSED.
Aquatics Guide: Irene reported that work on the Aquatics Guide is progressing. Following guidance received earlier in the year, the Guide will be approximately 65 pages. It will be about the same size as the previous Guide but will be "comb" bound with a color cover and black/white inside. It will cost approximately $2000 to produce 400 copies. Discussion followed regarding advertising, costs & income from the guide and distribution of the guide. Thirl directed the Administrative Office to work toward a February time frame.
Pool Rental Status: Irene presented the attached report. There was discussion of both the SC and LC seasons proposed pool rentals for PVS meets. Costs of various pools and the use of pools without restriction were discussed.
Irene introduced a request from a coach outside of PVS for invitation to the FAST Qualifier, the PVS January Distance meet and the PVS January Open meet. Ward Foley stated his opinion that the FAST Qualifier meet would be up to the club, but that the invitation can not be extended for the PVS meets because it goes against policy. John Hirschmann stated that Potomac Valley has many athletes who attend meets outside of our LSC relative to who come here ( a ratio of about 5:1) He stated he thought it would benefit our LSC if our meets were structured so more athletes from other LSC's could attend meets here. Greg York stated that PVS meets are long enough and additional swimmers would cause the meets to go longer. Dave Scibetta stated that while there is concern over session length, requests to attend PVS meets should be considered on a case-by-case basis and that allowing one club to attend did not set a precedence. Ward stated that if the athletes were allowed to attend they could only be given short notice and would be sent to a site based on entry numbers. Ward Foley commented Follow the policy, that's what the General Chair says. John Ertter stated that PVS should protect its reputation, if the Board chooses to change policy then the policy should change. Thirl stated that the requesting coach would be informed that they should contact FAST with regard to that meet, but that they could not attend the PVS meets
A motion was made to report the names of John Ertter and Thirl Crudup as controlling the investment account that PVS has with Dain Rauscher account -Motion PASSED.
STRATEGIC PLANNING:Dave reported that the draft Website Policy had been distributed. Discussion followed regarding advertising on the web page. Mark Eldridge inquired as to what specifically constituted advertising, could that be a link. Dave stated that advertising is an emotional issue and that the committee was leaving this to the Board. Mark suggested that the advertising line be removed from the policy. Dave said that Mark made a good point. John Ertter stated that he would check with USA as advertising could be considered unrelated business income and therefore taxable. Kit stated that in an effort to get this policy approved, an email vote could be taken after the committee handled the changes and housekeeping items. John Hirschmann said he had hoped for a vote tonight. A motion to pass the Website Policy with the removal of the advertising line and the housekeeping items corrected was made - Motion PASSED.
OPERATIONS DIVISIONHirschmann referred to his written report submitted in advance of the meeting. There was discussion regarding the conflict of interest when the Senior Chair referees certain meets. The consensus was that there was not a real issue for JO's since this was an age group rather than a Senior class meet.
COMPETITION DIVISIONWard asked if pool time was available on the Thursday of Age Group Championships in order to swim the 500 Freestyle events Thirl responded yes.
Ward took issue with the Board's action to not accept the floor nominations from Competition for Zone Coaches. Ward asked where policy said that the Board could set a new deadline for submission of the applications and further stated that only the 4 should be accepted and no further solicitations made. Dave stated that the Board has the authority to accept further nominations. Ward said that there was no reason to expect more applications than the first time. Greg stated that 4 coaches may be fine for a Zone meet held here, but not necessarily for future Zones. Ward reiterated his opinion that there should only be 4 coaches. Greg said that some coaches were unaware of the original solicitation. There was further discussion of the issue. It was announced that the Board's decision at the October BOD Meeting will stand.
Ward questioned the Board's action to modify and pass Item 3 (pertaining to ages used to define events at the Age Group Championships) in the Competition minutes during the October BOD meeting. He stated that his recollection of the Competition meeting was not the same as reflected by this item. Discussion followed. It was announced that the Board's decision at the October BOD Meeting will stand.
Senior. Division:Jim stated that there were some travel assistance requests -- mostly regular and 1 appeal- these requests were not settled at the October Board meeting as clarified by the Minutes of that meeting. Linda K. stated the opinion of the Travel Committee that the appeal be denied as the athlete did not meet residency requirements (a request for this athlete can be entertained for the US Open. She further stated the Travel Committee's opinion that the regular requests be approved. Motion to reimburse the regular requests and deny the appeal. PASSED.
A PVS team submitted an appeal for an athlete previously determined to be "unqualified" for whom assistance was denied and a fine had been issued. The request was to reconsider the request and the fine. Motion to deny appeal. PASSED. Motion to Deny Appeal of the associated fine. PASSED.
Linda K. stated that a request for assistance for Silver Camp had been received. Motion to grant assistance PASSED.
Discussion followed regarding the Policy on Camp Reimbursement.. Motion to set a $300 cap on reimbursement for Camp participation (with proof of purchase and participation) and further require that in order to receive reimbursement the athlete must have met the minimum requirement for 1 of the 2 previous seasons (either Short or Long Course). Motion PASSED - Effective for events occurring after Jan. 1, 2000. ATHLETES' REPRESENTATIVE:Kelly stated that she had been contacted by the head coach of a PVS team. It was noted that the Board had discussed this item in a previous meeting and further discussion was not appropriate given it might become a Board of Review matter.
Ward stated that the Board had not yet discussed the "tabled" Open Water Issue. Thirl stated that the travel committee would address the Board with its recommendations at the January Board Meeting.
COACHES' REPRESENTATIVE:Manga stated that there had been facility problems at the Pilgrim Pentathalon. Kit stated that the host team was sympathetic to the concerns, but unfortunately has little control over the facility. It was noted as a club sponsored meet, it is in that is primarily a club matter and that it is in a club's interest to use a venue that will attract entries. However, the LSC has to be concerned when safety issues may be involved.
Greg discussed the PVS Gold Medal Camp at Ashburn., 38 athletes participated. Greg further stated that the camps seemed to generally have low turnout and that the Board may need to reconsider Camp support. Kit explained that the Spring camps are oversubscribed and the Fall camps help to ease this problem. Additionally, he stated that PVS is ahead of the game overall.
OLD BUSINESS:Ward asked why the travel assistance requirements approved by the Board varied from those recommended by Competition. Linda K. stated that the idea was that in order to meet the requirement athletes would need to participate in two meets within the PVS region. Ward then stated that this theory must have carried for Long Course as well. It was confirmed.
Thirl stated that he attempted to contact the team who felt they were not awarded a "priority" meet to which they were entitled since they hosted it the prior year..
A question was asked about the distribution of travel reimbursement listings. It was stated that this listed is provided "upon request". to the PVS Administrative Office.
There was a discussion of the Olympic trials. The number of events an athlete must compete in within PVS in order to receive travel assistance was stated in an article in the previous Flash Mail. John Ertter will present a recommendation for dollar amount of funding for trials at the January Board meeting.
NEW BUSINESS:Mark Eldridge stated that he was contacted by a vendor wishing to sell T-shirts and other concessions at the Jr. Champs meet.. Discussion followed . It was decided that it was up to the host club whether or not to pursue this endeavor There was a discussion of having a link on the PVS webpage to material on the CUBU site that will have J.O. Well Wishes. Ward stated that he had no problem with it. Greg stated that he did not think this should be allowed. Thirl stated that the link would be created and that its success would be evaluated.
There was discussion of the time period delay between the submission of travel reimbursement requests and the payment of these requests. After discussion, it was decided that the decision would be made regarding travel reimbursement for the summer championship meets at either the Sept. Board of Director's Meeting or the USAS convention, whichever comes first.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Edmunds/Irene Millman
Administrative Assistants