Meeting minutes will be approved at the spring meeting
Potomac Valley Swimming
Competition Committee Meeting
Meeting Minutes
January 8, 2014
· Attendance – Brad Bowser, Manga Dalizu, Tim Husson, Kurt Thiel, Tom Ugast, Dennis Crean, Paris Jacobs, Dan Jacobs, Bruce Andersen, Emily Menard, Steve Menard, Jim Rumbaugh, Carrie Kreitler, Art Davis, Bill Marlin, Peter Karl, Brian Pawlowicz, Tim Hamlet, Carrie Tupper, Tim Delucia, Pete Morgan, Heather Haddock, Chris Schleigel, Robert Davis, Jim Garner, Greg York, Chris Huott, Mark Murray, Tim Kelly, Heather Purk, Aaron Dean, Elvin Foreman, Evan Stiles, Merari Cholette.
· Call to order – The meeting was called to order at 7:00 by Senior Chair, Manga Dalizu. Happy New Year to everyone.
· Approval of Fall Minutes – Motion to approve the minutes from the 2013 Fall Competition Committee, seconded and approved.
· Operations Reports – Tim Husson, Operation’s Chair made several comments -
o Review of Marshall Requirement – There is a policy that Marshals are required for all sanctioned meet in PVS. The minimum for a short course meet is 2, for long course it is 3 and if there is a separate warm up/cool down area there must be at least one more. These are the minimum; all teams are encouraged to have more if possible. While more and more teams are following this policy, we need to continue to be more diligent and proactive in making sure there are a proper number of marshals and that they know their job description. There is a link on the PVS website with a list of a marshal’s duties.
o Breaststroke Rule Clarification – The new breaststroke rule (touch rule) was adopted by FINA and USA Swimming in late September. Since then a new interpretation of the touch rule has been explained by USA Swimming Rule committee in December. There are still violations happening, but it is across the board and across the country. Please be sure to review the rule; all the new rules are listed on the PVS website. USA S rule books are in the process of being mailed out.
o Relays at Championship meets – One of the duties of the Admin Ref/Official at meets is to collect the names of the relay swimmers entered in the meet. At times this has proven difficult to do. However there is great importance in getting all the names in the computer accurately for all the relay swimmers. 1. If we don’t have four valid names in the database, then the time will not be loaded in the SWIMs database. 2. The lead off swimmer in the relay gets to count his/her time as a valid time. If all four names are not in the system and it doesn’t get entered into SWIMS then the lead off swimmers time doesn’t count. 3. If we don’t have the names, then the officials cannot confirm that it is in fact a legal relays (gender, age, etc.). Here in PVS, Coaches and Officials need to work together better and make sure that all the relay cards are being completed and turned in. Remember a change can still be made even after the relays cards have been turned in. The national “policy” and the one PVS follows is that names have to be turned in one hour prior to the start of the relays. Finally make sure the names are in the correct order, this too is important.
· Safe Sport – Greg York reported: Please be sure to remind your parents, official, timers of all the Safe Sport rules (i.e. no cell phones behind the blocks, no back rubs for athletes, no deck changing, the rules about giving rides to athletes, etc.)
o There are several things that we cannot “watch” you do, but you as a club, must do, regarding travel, bulling policies on the website, giving rides to athletes, etc. However as coaches/clubs you must follow these rules.
o Over the last several weeks there have been discussions with meet directors regarding the safety rules put in place while at meets. Coaches and Meet Directors must to a better job monitoring their swimmers, coaches and volunteers while on the deck. Meet Directors must make sure that the marshals are doing what they are supposed to be doing
o As a reminder, please be sure to renew your BGS, or else you will not be allowed on deck until you do.
· Zone Assistant Coaches Election -
o Assistant Coaches for the SC Zone Team – Chris Schilegel, Dylan Jones, Heather Purk, Meghan Thiel, John Leber and Jessica Lynn Frye.
§ Motion to accept Chris Schilegel, Dylan Jones, Heather Purk, Meghan Thiel, John Leber and Jessica Lynn Frye as assistant Zone coaches for the SC Zones by acclimation, seconded and approved.
o Head & Assistant Coach for LC Zone Team – There were two nominations; Derek Young for Head Coach and Jessica Lynn Frye for Assistant Head Coach.
§ Motion to accept Derek Young as Head Coach and Jessica Lyn Frye as Assistant Head Coach for the LC Zone Team by acclimation, seconded and approved.
· Eastern zone IMX Meet – Bill Marlin, Meet Director for the IMX meet reported
o It was noted in the Event File, when it first went out was limiting 9-10 for 2 events when there are three events they must pick, if you run into this problem simply override it.
o In order to qualify the athlete must have swum all events in a single season, all SC from last year, LC or this fall SC. You can’t use a time for one event from last year and the rest from this year. If there is an athlete who ages up, but was fully qualified at the younger age, they can still swim as long as all of their events were done at the younger age, they cannot split the events between the two ages.
· December meet Recap
o 40,000 splashes, between all the various Championship meets in December
o Records set – There were 6 NAG records set at the Tom Dolan Invite. Congratulations to Cassidy Bayer from NCAP and the other swimmers from other LSCs. Several more records set at Winter Nationals by Katy Ledecky, Andrew Seliskar & Janet Hu. Congratulations to all the swimmers from PVS on their great performances.
o Official’s staffing – While it was a concern amongst the board member about the staffing of so many championship meets in December, all meets reported being adequately staffed. Thank you to all of the Officials who worked those meets.
§ Carrie Tupper and her staff at UMD were also thanked for the great job they did at hosting two of the largest meets in the LSC back to back weekends in December.
· Club Bids for April 1-August 31, 2014 (last chance) – Motion to approve the Club Meet Bids for April 1- August 31, 2014 as presented, seconded and approved.
· Club Bids for September 1-December 31, 2014 (first chance) - Motion to approve the Club Meet Bids for September 1-December 31, 2014, as presented, seconded and approved.
· Length of Open Meets – This is for discussion purposed, no formal proposal is being proposed at this time. There is a national push to shorten meet sessions so swimming can better “compete” with other sports where competitions times are set at 2 hours or less (like soccer, basketball, etc). See report presented by Age Group Chair, Manga Dalizu.
o Alter 12 & U events for the Fall Open Meets – A thought is to change the events for the 12 & Under swimmers and possibly not offer all events for the 9-10 year olds or 11-12.
§ Are there other things we can do to shorten the timelines of the Open Meets. Many questions were asked by the body:
· What about the longer distance events at the October/November Open, should we take the 1000/1650 out and move some of the other events to Friday night? Yes, we would to try to keep the amount of total time down.
· Since we are coming off of summer league, what about doing the 50s in October Open and 100s in November. These are just thoughts at this time, so yes, we can reset the events however we want, we could even flip it each year.
· Would this body endorse running a distance meet in the fall? The general consensus is yes, we could do this.
· In the past, the summer/June LC meets used to be two day meets and then we split the meet so have the events are on one weekend and the other half on the other weekend. Here we are looking at doing something similar, but do this only for the 12 & U to begin with.
· With the numbers given in the report, even for the 12 & Us as a whole there are not many 200 swum. Would we want to take the 200s out of the Open meets? Probably not, there are some clubs that rely on PVS for all their meets, so we as PVS, really cannot take out all 200. 12 & U swimmers still need to swim these events because we offer them at Jos.
§ We can keep this discussion going and make proposals and decisions in the spring.
§ There is some concern that not all age group coaches are here to make a decision. Many coaches look at meet in November, including the November Open strategically and try to make sure their swimmers are able to qualify for the Championship meets.
o Jan Open – See report by Age Group Chair, Manga Dalizu, which includes changes for the January Open.
§ Some discussions –
· Depending on the club or the age group, many swimmers take a break over the holiday. What about taking the 10 & U swimmers out of the January Open and set up a separate meet just for the 10 & U swimmers so there is more breathing room for the older kids.
· January Open may be the only meet where the JO level 10 & U can get their events in. Most of February is full of qualifier.
· One of the biggest problems is finding dates on a calendar. There are very few available weekends.
o Inter-squad Meets – A motion was proposed to the Board of Director to allow Inter-squad meets to be sanctioned in a similar manner as dual and tri meets are currently sanctioned. For a little history on the subject; in the past inter-squad meets used to be sanctioned; however were disallowed due to these sort of meets being used as last minute qualifiers for National Level meets, often time unethically. There is a feeling that it is time to bring inter-squad meet. But if we do all meets must follow all the proper requirements for a sanction and all officials and timing system. PVS has moved ahead quite a bit and are much more professional in how we run meets. So the issues of the past are not considered problems any more. Especially with the addition of the SWIMS database it is more difficult to create times now.
§ USA Swimming Age Group Development (Bill Marlin is Chair of this committee) has a project to determine some alternative meet formats and to post on the (get from Bill) for USA Swimming.
· We hear all the time that swimming has to compete with soccer and basketball. But we also have to remember that we are a different sport, with a different competitive schedule. There are other sports, like gymnastics, where the competition time is similar to swimming (in the 4 hour range).
§ Carrie Krietler, FCPA Pool Rental Contract Administrator, was asked; if there are clubs who practice at a FCPA on a Saturday or Sunday morning will they be able to hold a sanctioned Inter-squad meet?
· She explained that the biggest problem is with all of the extra people on the deck. Because an inter-squad meet, most likely would require 3 timers per lane as well as officials, it is all of the additional people on deck, in their shoes that make the deck dirty and make it difficult for the guards to have the pool ready for the regular patrons in time. FCPA can’t do it simply on the fly, but with a little time, they could possibly allow inter-squad meets.
· Flash Mail/Email Address for Constant Contact communications – If you would like your club to be included in monthly and/or emergency email communications, please send your team’s email list to the PVS Administrator. Constant Contact is being used for association wide communication, as well as ways to create segmented member lists for better communication between PVS, the coaches, officials and family members.
· Graduating Senior Information – There is a list of PVS seniors and their college choices, if you have a senior who has committed to college, please send to the PVS Administrator for posting.
· Reports – PVS has three new Athlete Reps, Murphy Freal – MSSC, Trey McKula – SDS, Karina Kolb – PM. Please have your athletes communicate with them.
· Old Business – No old business.
· New Business –
o Concussion training being considered by USA Swimming, more information will be coming out of USA S in the near future.
§ At the November USA S Board Meeting, it was announced that we have a new insurance company, K&K. Under this new insurance policy, that is great coverage, they are going to start require concussion training for all clubs. There may also be new regulations on the numbers of swimmers per lane during warm up. K & K is the same insurance company that offers insurance policies for many other National Governing Bodies, such as; US Hockey, US Gymnastics, etc.
§ Red Cross – Coaches safety training has all the new modules on line. More information will be released as it comes from the Red Cross.
· Set date for Spring Meeting – Wedneday May 14, 6:30 Dinner, Meeting at 7:00. Location TBD