Attendees: Don Riedlinger, PVS Competition Committee Chair, Greg York, PVS Competition Committee Vice-Chair Jim Garner, PVS; John Hirschmann, PVS; Ron Whalen, PVS: Bill Stephens, PVS; Ethan Bassett, PVS; Bob Walker, ASA; Denis Crean, ASA; Kerry Ellett, CUBU; Mark Faherty, CUBU; Cheryl Bauman, CUBU; Manga Dalizu, FAST; Rod Larkin, FBST; Mike Kreauter, FISH; Kerstin Severin, HACC; Kirby Weldon, HOYA; Christian Doud MACH; Joel R Cyganiewicz, OCCS; Ginger Cyganiewicz, OCCS; Bill Marlin, PM; Peter Karl, SDS; Breanne Smith, SDS; Victor Abrahamain, SDS; Mike Piluskaitis, SNOW; Erik Adams, SNOW;

Call to Order - Don Riedlinger, Competition Committee Chairman, called the meeting to order at approximately 12:15 pm at River Falls.

Agenda -- Don Riedlinger provided an agenda for use at the meeting.

Approval of Minutes -- The minutes of the May 19th Competition Committee meeting were approved as submitted.

Age Group Award -- Jim Garner had prepared a ballot of athletes who had been nominated. He also provided copies of the criteria in P&P for making the selection. All holding a vote at Competition were provided an opportunity to vote.by paper ballot.

Later in the meeting, Jim Garner announced the results of the voting. The winners are as follows;

A motion was then made, seconded and approved to destroy the ballots.

Distance Awards -- The Committee was advised of the apparent winners of this award and best times known to PVS.

These times had been circulated prior to the meeting to determine if there were better times not currently known to PVS. The Committee voted to approve these awards subject to the proviso that a better time could be submitted for consideration within a week (by October 3rd.)

Distance Coordinator - Don Riedlinger advised the Committee that Rod Montrie would like to step down as Distance Coordinator. Don invited nominations for a new person to serve in that capacity. One possible candidate was identified at the meeting. Don asked if others were interested to let him know within two weeks - by Sunday, October 10th.

Review of 2004 Long Course Season - Don brought the Committee's attention to the new format that has been used this past summer - combining Senior/Age Grp I on one Sunday and Senior/Age Grp II on a second Sunday two weeks later. Those coaches who commented on it thought it had gone well and welcomed the fact it did not require them to attend competition every weekend.

A Motion was made to endorse a similar meet format for the 2005 LC season. PASSED.

Report on PVS Eastern Zone LC Team - Chris Houtt advised shortly before the meeting that he was out of town and would not be able to attend the meeting and present a report. He indicated he would be submitting a written report and asked that it be appended to the minutes of this meeting. (still awaiting report.) The Committee agreed to that request.

Don Riedlinger explained to the coaches that there had been confusion this summer resulting from the expectation that Linda Crudup was still going to serve as zone coordinator. The fact she was not going to do so only became apparent quite late in the pre-meet planning process. Don emphasized that any problems due to late postings or arrangements being made late were not the fault of Chris Huott as Head Zone Team Coach. He had stepped forward to address many of the gaps late in the process. That was a consideration in why PVS dropped the fees for being on the PVS LC Zone Team this summer. The responsibility rests with the PVS Board - not Chris.

Greg York informed the Competition Committee that since Linda Crudup will no longer be involved as zone team coordinator, he was recommending that Brianne Smith now serve as Zone Team Coordinator.

Election of PVS Eastern Zone Short Course Head Coach 2005 and Asstistant Head Coach -- Greg York informed the Committee that only two nominations were received for these positions. They are Brianne Smith and Mark Faherty. He made a motion to have Mark Faherty elected as Head Zone Coach and Brianne Smith as Assistant Head Zone Coach. The Committee voted to confirm these selections.

The committee also agreed to continue with past practice and have the two coaches who will have primary responsibility for the 13-18's be elected during the PVS Senior SCY Championship and the two coaches with primary responsibility for the 12/U be elected at the PVS 14/U JO Age Group Championship.

The Committee also agreed to stay with past practice for selecting the zone team and that the end of the selection period for 15-18 year old swimmers will be the last day of PVS Senior SCY Championships (March 6, 2005) and for 14/U swimmers it will be the last day of PVS 14/U JO SCY Championships (March 13, 2005.)

Travel Reimbursement Policy - The Committee was reminded that 2005 was no longer an Olympic year and therefore the special travel provisions in place for the summer 2004 nationals were no longer needed. Don Riedlinger recommended that meet participation requirements for receiving travel assistance remain the same as they have been in the past. Specifically, the requirement for the April 2005 Conoco-Phillips Championship will be swims in 9 PVS sanctioned events, at least 6 of which must be in PVS sponsored meets. For the August 2005 USA Swimming Nationals, the requirement will be swims in 4 PVS sanctioned events, at least 2 of which must be in PVS sponsored meets. This recommendation was put in the form of a motion which PASSED unanimously.

A questions was raised about providing travel reimbursement for the the USA Swimming Junior Championships which will resume in August, 2005. The Committee desired to make a recommendation about the travel reimbursement policy for that meet at this time (since Nationals which will be a week earlier) had also been discussed. A formal decision whether to fund travel to these meets will be as part of the FY 2006 budget preparation process.

A motion was made to have the policy be the same as for the August 2005 USA Swimming Nationals - namely swims in 4 PVS sanctioned events, at least 2 of which should be PVS sponsored meets. The motion was expanded to include the provision that reimbursement could not be made on behalf of the same athlete for both August 2005 USA Swimming Nationals and the Junior Championships. This is because the Junior Championship meet will start one day after Nationals at the same venue. The MOTION PASSED unanimously.

The question of what financial level of support clubs sending athletes to this meet would receive. It was noted it was the Board's responsibility to address this as part of the FY 2006 budget preparation. Some suggested that since the QT's for this meet were similar to that of the US Open, a similar level of funding would be appropriate.

Planning for 2004-05 Short Course Season -- The Committee was reminded that PVS still needs a club sponsor to host the PVS February Distance Meet at Fairland - February 20-21. Hirschmann indicated he was aware of one possible bid that he hoped to receive prior to the September 29th Board meeting. He asked if any other clubs were interested in bidding that they let him know by September 28th.

Hirschmann advised the Committee that the only bid he had received to add a club sponsored meet to the 2004-05 SC schedule was for the Mini Championships to be sponsored by RMSC at Olney on March 19-20, 2005. The meet would be conducted in a manner similar to 2004. In response to a question, it was explained that it was not too late to request a sanction for this meet - this being the third of three opportunities to request a meet during this timeframe.

There was discussion on the wisdom of having three meets on the same weekend. It was noted that one of the three other meets is the Sectional being sponsored by VSI at a PVS pool (GMU-Fairfax.) Others observed that is current PVS policy to allow meets to be in direct competition with each other so long as they are adequately officiated (have at least the minimum officials required by USA Swimming) and are conducted in a safe manner.

Cy suggested that PVS add a requirement that in order for clubs to bid on meets -- they must have enough officials He recommended that PVS should address making a change in its policy regarding officiating requirements. It was suggested that this discussion be deferred until after Peter Karl could present his report to the Board on the results of the task force he has headed on recommendation regarding setting the PVS Competition Schedule.

The Committee voted to recommend to the Board that the submitted RMSC Mini meet receive a sanction.

Planning for PVS 2005 Long Course Season -- Hirschmann informed the Committee that GMU/Fairfax would not be available the summer of 2005 due to planned construction. He indicated he expected to be able to confirm shortly that UMD would be available for PVS Senior/Junior Championships on July 14-17, 2005. However, obtaining a high quality pool for PVS Age Group Championship was proving to be challenging --- particularly given the requirement to rent the pool all day on Thursday.

He sought the Committee's views on the desirability of renting a high quality facility (and swim a timed finals format for one year) versus pursuing other facilities that would be available to support the schedule for the prelim/finals format used the prior two summers. This included the possibility of renting an outdoor pool where the schedule might be impacted by the weather.

All those who spoke to the matter stated they felt retaining the meet format used the past two summers was more important than obtaining a superior venue. Possible venues to consider were suggested, including one outside the LSC. Hirschmann indicated he would attempt to proceed on this basis.

Reports from Task Forces -- Don Riedlinger reminded the Committee that two task forces had been established at the Spring Competition Committee meeting. One pertainined to setting time standards for meets - which he had agreed to chair and the other pertained to how to set the PVS Competition Schedule which Peter Karl was chairing.

He explained that as the task forces started their work that it became clear that until the recommendations of the Competition Schedule task force have been made and acted upon, it would be premature to address the Time Standards. He noted given the data available, once the competition schedule and the goals of the meets within that schedule were established, it would be relatively "straight forward" to set the time standards.

Peter Karl then presented his report entitled "PVS Season Planning/ Meets Schedule/ Time Standards - PVS Needs Your Help." A copy of that report is appended to these minutes.

Peter presented the report to the Committee. After presenting the report, he stressed that he was inviting input from both those in attendance and other PVS clubs so that the recommendations have the benefit of input from as many perspectives as possible. This includes B-C level coaches, etc.

He also stressed that in order to make use of the input, he needs it well of advance of when the report is due - not the day before.

Many present thanked Peter for the effort he had put forth in preparing this report. Some coaches offered specific comments.

Initially input was sought in time to be presented at the Winter Competition Committee meeting. Hirschmann indicated that given the scheduling constraints involved in setting the 2005-06 SC schedule, firm agreed upon recommendations would be needed before then. He indicated that if the Competition was willing to make the commitment and effort necessary to fast track this effort, it might still be possible for it to impact the 2005-06 SC season schedule.

As a result of this, the Committee decided to convene a special meeting of the Competition Committee meeting on Monday, November 8th - exact time and location TBD.

In order for Peter's committee to be ready to make a presentation reflecting the views of the membership, Peter asked that specific comments on the task force report be sent to him by Sunday, October 10th. This will allow the task force time to consider the comments and formulate a recommendation to the Competition Committee. He would hope to distribute the recommendations by Oct 31 so that they could be well read and understood prior to the special meeting. He stated that specific edited comments on recommendations of the task force would be a particularly helpful format in which to receive them.

He noted that it thought it would be particularly helpful to attempt to agree on what are our most important priorities and use that to decide in what order decisions about the competition calendar should be set.

Establishment of 2005-06 PVS Sponsored Short Course Schedule -- Hirschmann informed the Committee that normally at this point in the meeting, he would be seeking input from them as to what meets they would like PVS to sponsor during the 2005-06 SC season. However, in light of the just completed discussion, he was now recommending this discussion be deferred until the specially scheduled Competition Committee meeting on November 8th. He noted that if specific recommendations regarding how to proceed with at least the 2005-06 season are not agreed to, he will be making a recommendation that PVS plan to sponsor the same meets in the 2005-06 SC season. He stated he would be doing so in order to assure pools would be available for competition - since it both be imprudent to wait longer and under current policy, the PVS schedule needs to be set before clubs can be invited to submit bids to conduct club sponsored meets - which they are first permitted to do in January.

Athlete's Report -- Ethan Basset had to leave before he was able to give a report to the Competition Committee. Greg reported on his behalf and noted the athletes prefer having bonus events in a meet as the way to get in extra swims as distinct from time trials. He indicated that when the they were swimming as part of the primary event, they were much more likely to have a successful swim.

Joint Senior Meet with VSI Swimming -- Riedlinger advised the Committee that he had been approached by the Senior Chair of VSI about having a joint senior meet with PVS. He noted that a prior impetus for having such a meet had been for the summer of 2003 when their scheduling difficulties involved the desire to both use the same pool on the same weekend for their Senior Championship meet. At that point in the time, the possibility of conducting a joint championship was explored, but was not agreed to - primarily because of the impact it would have on the number of swimmers from both LSC's who could make it back for finals.

Currently VSI is also interested in considering a joint Senior level meet with PVS in the November timeframe. There might be more interest in this than a joint Senior Championship meet at this time in the VSI community. It was clarified that any meet that might be planned would not occur earlier than 2005 - therefore it would not impact the currently planned November Open meets.

Riedlinger invited input on whether there would interest in pursuing such a possibility. Some expressed concern about how it would impact with plans team currently have for November. Others suggested it be viewed as a new opportunity and teams consider foregoing a currently activity in order to do this. The possibility of having swimmers compete representing their respective LSC's rather than their teams was also raised.

The general consensus of the Committee was that the possibility of a joint meet with VSI is worth pursuing further Victor and Cy agreed to serve on a Committee with Don Riedlinger to explore further.

Adding Events to PVS Records Program -- Don R advised that a request had been made to expand PVS age group records program to include 11-12 400 IM, 11-12 800/1000 Free and 1500/1650 Free since these events are now part of the national age group program. A suggestion was made that rather than approve adding these specific events to the program, the Committee instead endorse maintaining age group records for those events found in Section 102.1.2 of the USA Swimming Rules and Regulations. It was agreed that currently doing so would have the same impact as adding the specific events that were proposed.. It was agreed it was not appropriate to include the open water events that are listed.

There was also discussion that USA Swimming starting this competitive season is no longer recognizing Top 16 relay times separately for 15-16 and 17-18 year olds, but would rather just maintain a 15-18 relay category. A question was raised whether this should impact PVS's relay records. There was some uncertainty as to how the change in T16 relay record keeping would impact USA Swimming age group relay records.

The Chairman interprets the sense of the CCM was for the PVS Records Program to mirror that of USA-S and to make that recommendation to the BOD.

Hirschmann proposed that to initially establish these records he proposes researching the PVS searchable data base back to the 1996-97 SC season. This was what was done when 11-12 200 Back, Breast and Fly were added to the records program a few years ago. There was no objection to doing so.

A question was asked as to who was the current PVS Records Chairman. The Competition Committee was advised it was Tyanna Ertter. Concern was expressed about the accuracy (inclusiveness) of some records set many years ago that are in the Top 100 list maintained by USA Swimming, but not reflected in PVS records. Kerry Ellett volunteered to help in this regard.

Foreign Swimmer Procedures -- Don shared with the Committee information about the procedures pertaining on how to handle situations where athletes registered with a non-USA governing body wish to swim at a PVS sanctioned meet. Protocols need to be followed so a proper invitation is issued.thru USA Swimming to the federation from which the athlete(s) (is)are coming. (This is distinct from foreign athletes who are registered with USA Swimming teams who wish to compete in a sanctioned PVS meet.)

He also noted while USA Swimming does not have rules in regard to our athletes competing in foreign countries - however, FINA does have rules which pertain to an athlete/ team going to a foreign country and competing. Therefore PVS teams planning trips outside the US should be careful to obtain any needed approvals.

Strategic Planning - The Committee was informed that the PVS Board held a special gathering on August 29th for sole of purpose of discussing Strategic Planning issues. In Jim V's absence, the results of the meeting were briefly summarized for the Committee.

Reports from USA Swimming Convention -- Don Riedlinger initiated the discussion of news from the recently completed United States Aquatic Sports convention. He noted that is was no surprise that Michael Phelps was selected as Athlete of the Year. A major honor came to PVS as Arvydas Barzdukas was awarded the USA Swimming Award. This Is the most prestigious award United States Swimming makes to a non-athlete each year.

He reported that Senior Swimming had finalized the plans for USA Swimming Junior Championships to be held in Irvine, CA August 9-13, 2005. It was noted this meet may be too late for swimmers whose high schools start early - particularly those in the Southeast part of the country. This will be after Nationals which will be held August 3-7, 2005. Copies of important facts about the meet were made available at the meeting. He noted that Senior Swimming had been directed to develop this meet as a result of a prior vote of the House, therefore the specifics did not come back to the House for another vote. It was noted that while the meet retains the word "Junior" it is different in format from the prior Junior Championship meet. One other change is to take the 18/U recognitions out of the USA Swimming National Championships.

The meet is expected to have 900-1000 swimmers with individual QT's designed to balance entries by event. Entry times for women are generally faster than the US Open, those for men are generally slightly slower. The qualifying times may be more like those when USA Swimming had a single site Junior Championship meet.

It was noted it will be up to NCSA to decide if it wishes to continue to hold a LCM meet in the same time frame as this meet. They are likely to continue to hold the Spring SCY meet. That meet is generally recognized as serving the purpose of a developmental meet for swimmers, having qualifying times resembling that of Juniors before it was terminated. The newly formulated Juniors is actually an 18/Under Championship meet rather than serving as a progressive step between Sectionals and the US Open.

Don reported that USA Swimming is developing a Club Recognition program in addition to its already established Club Excellence program. He provided a draft version of the criteria that were being made for making such a selection. Don observed that clubs might want to review the proposed criteria as it could give them ideas as to what makes a "good club."

Greg York gave a report on his attendance at the OIOC meeting. He noted they reported on the challenges that were faced in assembling the team after Trials, taking them to Athens and having them compete.

He noted there was also a discussion of what were duties of LSC Age Group Chairman in the various LSC's and that in many the duties are loosely defined.

Garner briefly reviewed the rule changes that had been made at convention. A rule change was made to permit in-water relay exchanges when required by water depth. The rules for Nationals are being changed so the goal will be to have 900/1000 athletes rather than 1100/1200 athletes.

Jim also reported USA Swimming voted to endorse a pilot program to do background check on coaches as a condition of registration. It is expected that this program will be expanded into a program to do background checks on all coaches (and possibly other non-athlete members) starting with the 2006 registration year.

Eastern Zone Activity -- Kerry Ellett reviewed with the LSC plans for future Sectional and Zone meets. The time standards and order of events for Sectionals should be posted very soon. Both spring Sectionals will be swum in a common format and both will offer "bonus swims." The idea of continuing to have a "Super Sectional" in the summer continues to be well received. Middle Atlantic has agreed to host the Spring 2005 Zone meet at GCIT after Buffalo (STAR Swimming) had to resign its prior successful bid.

The summer 2006 Super Sectional and Zone meet will be in Buffalo. No bids were received for the two 2006 spring Sectional meets nor the Zone meet. A committee has been formed to address this problem and determine what can be done so the Zone receives adequate bids in which to conduct its meets.

Kerry also reported on several new features on the USA Swimming website that would be of value to coaches including the nutrition tracker feature for swimmers.

He also noted that a report is out on how USA Swimming has implemented the dues increase in terms of bringing new services to its membership. This included three individuals who have been hired to assist clubs with acquiring pool time, possible pool design, pool utilization strategies, etc.

Old Business -- Two items came up under old business.

ASCA Age Group Coach of the Year Award -- Kerry Ellett inquired about the status of a PVS coach being selected to receive the ASCA Award as the outstanding age-group coach. He noted that the House of Delegates in May had endorsed that such an award be given and provided funding so that a coach could go to the annual ASCA convention to participate in the meeting and receive the award in person.

Bill Marlin responded that he and Todd Benedick (as coaches representatives) had been working on it and essentially finalized the process for selecting a winning coach. However, by the time this work was completed, the PVS LC season was over and there was concern that there would not be adequate time to publicize its availability (given many coaches would be on vacation) and allow coaches to be nominated to receive the award.

PVS Eastern Zone Long Course Team -- Mike Piluskaitis addressed how the PVS LC EZ Team is selected and supported. He stated he approved of recent actions by PVS conducting its LCM Age Group Championship meet in a prelim/finals format, and adding the 13-14 age bracket to this meet.

Piluskaitis then made a motion to have:

He stated he felt that the prime complaint he was hearing was that PVS was not treating the LC Zone meet as a team event. He felt responsibility for this meet - particularly given when it falls in summer and the distance the meet may be away from Washington makes it important that PVS take responsibility for getting its athletes to meet site as well as providing coaching staff.

It was observed that the relay teams that PVS had in the meet were very weak. They attributed this to fact the swimmers came with their parents - thus many left as soon as their individual events were over and/or were not bringing their children back to the evening final sessions in order to swim on relays and cheer for their teammates. They also observed that several other LSC's that came as a team - had considerable more team spirit on the deck and their swimmers seemed to be enjoying themselves much more.

They stated that parents were complaining that if PVS goes to the meet, they should go as a team.

Others stated that they disagreed, they felt that PVS does support LC swimming and they were not sure that spending more money on the LC team would be helpful. Also the perspective that athletes bring to the meet on how they should view the meet can be heavily influenced by the message that comes from the home club and their coaches.

The question was raised whether PVS funding support for the meet needs to be tied to making it a team meet, (as distinct from having the parents bring the swimmers.)

It was pointed out that the spring and summer Zone meets attract our best age group swimmers - those we are most interested in retaining in the sport. They noted the swimmers coming back from the Summer meet have a totally different impression of the meet than those attending the Spring meet - they felt this was primarily due to the PVS not taking its swimmers to the LC meet as a team.

A comment was made that having the current 6 coaches (or the 8 permitted by zone rules) would not be adequate to oversee 160 athletes.

Others noted that when the meet occurs is quite late in the summer and given when school opens, many families want to make this meet part of a family vacation rather than then send their children to the meet as part of a team and give up an opportunity to also have a family vacation..

A question was raised whether PVS can tell swimmers they cannot participate in the meet if they do not qualify as one of "Top x PVS swimmers in a given event." Most felt that since the entries come in thru the LSC (not a team), PVS can do so. It was agreed more research should be done to confirm this.

It was recommended that the LSC agree to go with such a team approach for 2-3 years and see how it works.

It was recognized that exact details of how the team would be formed (if this general approach were adopted) needs to be fleshed out.

A friendly amendment was made to take out the reference to a specific number of athletes in the original motion and to request stronger financial support from the LSC rather than specify a specific amount. The amendment was accepted.

The intent of the original motion was amended to read as follows:

The body voted on the amended motion. All voting were in favor of the proposal.

New Business - Several agenda items came up under new business.

Availability of Qualifying Times -- A question was asked as to when qualifying times for the PVS JO SCY Championship meet would be available. The Committee was informed they would be made available within the next few weeks.

Requirements for Sanction -- Cy again suggested that the Competition Committee direct the PVS Board to look into establishing a policy that a club must have so many officials etc before it may receive a sanction for a meet or bid to host a PVS sponsored meet. The Committee did not take action on this request.

Equipment Manager -- Victor inquired about the status of PVS meet officiating contract equipment and the status of the equipment support contract. Ron Whalen advised the Committee that PVS is advertising to find a replacement contractor. To date, no bids (or inquiries) to serve as the contractor have been received. It is quite possible that the equipment will be moved to a new location once PVS selects a new contractor.

Don Smith has indicated he does not plan to bid to continue to serve as contractor, but will continue to serve while PVS solicits new bids.

A suggestion was made if one pick-up site does not work, PVS should consider establishing two - one on each side of the river.

It was noted that one of the challenges in filling this position might be the requirement that the contractor have the capacity to be able to deliver and pick-up the equipment from up to three venues simultaneously - whenever PVS meets are being held in several locations on the same weekend.

The impact on PVS's programs due to the lack of volunteerism was raised. Bill Marlin emphasized that Club coaches need to push the need for volunteerism and that parents need to hear this message several times a year - also clubs need to thank them via T-shirts, banquets, public recognition, etc. Don Riedlinger noted that one of the major themes at the recently held special strategic planning meeting was discussion of the reduced level of volunteerism at many levels of the program -- and the impact this was having and how this might be addressed in the future.

Don Riedlinger advised that the concerns of the Competition Committee in this regard would be brought to the attention of the Board at its Wednesday evening meeting.

Next Meeting Dates - The Committee agreed to have a special meeting on Monday evening, November 8th exact time and location to be announced. The primary purpose will be to discuss the report being prepared by Peter Karl.

The Committee agreed to have it regular Winter meeting on Sunday afternoon/evening January 9th. It will be held late in the day to avoid conflicting with several PVS meets on the schedule for earlier that day.

Adjournment -- The meeting adjourned at approximately 3:50 pm.