Minutes approved at the May 19, 2010 HOD Meeting
Potomac Valley Swimming
House of Delegates
Meeting
Fairland Community Center
3308 S. Stafford
St.
Arlington, VA 22206
May 20, 2009
- Dinner: 6:30 pm
- Attendance:
- Board of Directors: Greg York, Art Davis, Bill Stephens,
Riley Eaton, Bill Marlin, Dan Jacobs, Manga Dalizu, Dave DiNardo, Boot
Hall, Jim Thompson, Virginia Ratcliff (athlete), Tara Banks (athlete) and
CJ Fiala (athlete).
- House of Delegates (voting members); Evan Stiles, AAC;
Bob Walker, ASA; Mike Kreauter, BWST; Tim Kelly, CUBU; Norm Wright, FISH;
Bruce Anderson, HACC; Christian Doud, MACH; Heather Coulson, MAKO; David
Mengering, MCSL; Chris Houtt, MSSC; Jack Schaeffer, NVSL; Aaron Dean,
OCCS; Tim Husson, PMSL; Mark Eldridge, RMSC; David Essig, SDS; Shelley
Gesker, YORK
- At-Large
Delegates: Kerry Ellett, Paris Jacobs, John Hirschmann, Arthur Lopez,
Linda Klopfenstein, Brian Pawlowicz and Mark Faherty
- Athlete Representatives: Danielle Schulkin, SDS; Abby
Pasztor, BWST; Logan Moore, MAKO; Catie O’Brien, YORK; Robin Brazier,
HACC
- Non-Voting Members in attendance: Denise Adams, ASA; John
Ertter, PVS, Sumie Emory, PVS and Terri Marlin, PVS.
- House
of Delegates Representatives were provided access prior to the meeting
to information to prepare for the meeting which was posted.
- Call to Order: The General Chair Greg York called the
meeting to order at 7:30
- General thanks to everyone for coming and to Paris for arranging the food.
- Approval of May 21, 2008 HOD Minutes: Motion made to
approve May 21, 2008 minutes, seconded and approved.
- Approval of May 20, 2009 HOD Agenda: Motion made to
approve May 20, 2009 agenda, seconded and approved.
- Report on General State of the Corporation
- Board Member introduction: All PVS Board Members were
introduced and thanked for their service over the past year. Additional
introductions and thanks also went to: John Hirschmann, Brian Pawlowicz,
Tim Husson, Linda Klopfenstein, John Ertter, Paris Jacobs, Terri Marlin
and Sumie Emory, all of whom serve and support PVS throughout the year
either as contractors or volunteers.
- Thanks to Dan Jacobs: This is Dan’s final HOD meeting as
a PVS board member. His term as Coaches Representative expires in August.
Dan was thanked for his four years of service. A new Coaches Rep will be
voted on at the 2009 PVS LC Championship Meets.
- Welcome to Dave DiNardo: Dave has agreed to serve as the
interim Operations Chair position on the Board, due to the resignation of
Karl Hellmann. The Board in April approved his appointment to the Board
until elections could be held at the next House meeting, where somebody
would be elected to complete the remainder of Karl Hellman’s term.
- Thanks to Virginia Ratcliff, for doing a great job as
Athlete Rep. Virginia’s term also expires at the end of August. Virginia has been a very active member of the PVS Board.
- Congrats to both Short Course and Long Course Zone teams
on their wins.
- Thanks to Paris Jacobs for running a great Junior Olympic
meet and to Brian Pawlowicz for a great Senior Champs.
- Thanks to all of the PVS Contractors for all of their
hard work over the year; John Ertter, Sumie Emory, Tim Husson, Terri
Marlin and Jake McGrail.
- Eastern Zone Meeting in Ft. Lauderdale; PVS is now being
recognized as one of the leaders in the Eastern Zone, both in running
meets and being active. We are helping to run LC Eastern Zone, the IMX
meet and Sectionals in the next year
- PVS is now the 5th largest LSC in USA
Swimming, and as a result will have 3 additional Delegate votes at the
USAS Convention.
- Our finances are in great shape, thanks to John Ertter and
Bill Stephens for all of their hard work.
- Paris Jacobs was given a “Volunteer of the Year” Award,
for always being willing to help PVS with whatever is needed.
- Nomination Committee Report
- John Hirschmann presented a report on behalf of the
Nominating Committee. Their report had been made available to the House
prior to the meeting. He advised that the House has 4 positions on the
Board of Directors to elect this year. They are for General Chairman,
Treasurer, Senior Chair and Operations Chair. He advised that the current
incumbents (all of whom previously stated that they wished to seek
reelection are eligible to run.
- Greg York as General Chair; Bill Stephens as Finance;
Riley Eaton as Sr. Chair. If elected, all will fill a full two year term
until 8/31/11
- Dave DiNardo as Operations Chair. If elected will fill
an unexpired term and would serve until 8/31/10.
- Additional nominations for all of the above positions
were sought from the floor. There were none.
- Accordingly a motion made to close the nominations, the
motion seconded and approved.
- Motion made to elect them in by acclimation. Motion
seconded and approved
- Hirschmann announced that 4 more positions to PVS Board
of Directors are to be voted on this summer, two athlete representatives
and an Officials Representative. 1. Athlete Rep-Virginia Ratcliff (not
seeking re-election), 2. CJ Fiala (seeking reelection) 3. Danielle Schulkin
(SDS) announced she is interested in running for Athlete Rep and will be
seeking election.
- Officials Rep to the Board of Directors, Boots Hall can
run again and she has indicated she plans to do so.
- Dan Jacobs will step down for Coaches Rep after
completed two 2-yer terms. Yuri Suguiyama has announced he is interested
in running.
- Board of Review Elections: Hirschmann announced
there are four vacancies on the Board of Review to elect this year. Two
current members cannot seek reelection due to term limits-Steed Edwards
and Boots Hall. Virginia Ratcliff has indicated she does not wish to
seek reelection and Brian Pawlowicz is seeking reelection. In addition Ward
Foley, Jim Garner and Kate Zeigler (as athlete) are also being nominated
(one must be an athlete).
- Additional nominations for all positions were sought
from the floor. There were none.
- Accordingly, a motion was made to close the
nominations, the motion was seconded and approved
- Motion was made to elect them in by acclimation. Motion
seconded and approved
- Greg York extended a special thanks to John Hirschmann for his help as “Special Assistant to the General Chair”, John is also
spearheading the LEAP program; a program set up by USA Swimming similar to
their Club Recognition program. PVS will be one of the first 15 LSC’s to
participate.
- Committee Reports
- Administration & Registration Report; Art Davis:
Art thanked Sumie, the PVS registrar (for athletes, non athletes and clubs)
for all of her hard work through out the year.
- Registration numbers are not expected to grow this
summer, we had an unusual influx this past year, but the expectation is
for this year’s registration numbers to level off. See Year to Date Stats.
- Racing Start requirement; is just a “tightening up the
screws” to make sure that everyone is safe. John Ertter will be
attending the USA Swimming Risk Management Conference at the end of the
month and will receive additional information for teams.
- All teams are now complying in the minimum number of
certified officials.
- At USA Convention the several by-laws were put into the
USA Swimming Rule book, therefore we do not need to update our by-laws
- In the past we have received reports on the size of the
LSC by club. PVS is now able to produce this report ourselves.
- By-Laws Change: Term Limits on Official’s Committee
Chair & Committee Members
- A Motion was presented to the HOD: For the Officials
Committee to limit each Officials Committee member to one term of
office and no more than a 2 two year term, the motion was seconded.
- Art Davis advised the House that the previous
Operations Vice Chair, Karl Hellmann looked at all the positions
within the Officials Committee and thought there should be a term
limit similar to all other committees
- Art suggested that between now and September 1, the
Official’s Committee should elect a new committee Chair and decide what
changes if any to make in the Committee membership.
- Many of the officials feel that it is important to
start to incorporate new younger people into the officiating program.
- In PVS you can be invited to be one the Officials
Committee (USA Swimming, Officials apply based upon their requirements
- experience)
- The Motion to amend PVS’s by-laws was called and
the motion to all passed. The motion to amend our by-laws was then
approved.
- Webmaster Report: See
report submitted
- Tim was very helpful in implementing the Scholar Athlete
application
- Operations Chair Report:
No report submitted
- The new Operations Chair will be involved in looking at
all equipment to ensure we will have 3 solid sets of equipment and will
become more involved on the Officials Committee.
- One of our priorities is getting a 4th set of
equipment, to be a great back up set (according to our by-laws, PVS
announced practice to have prudent spares). We will be spending some of
the budgeted equipment money to do this.
- Official’s Chair Report:
see report submitted:
- When PVS hold meets with National Certification it is
not just to train Officials but also the coaches and athletes in how to
act National level meets.
- Please continue to encourage your young parents to be
officials, we have a lot of unattached Officials, who are still very
active within the association, however new Officials are needed to help
fill the spots as the veteran Officials begin to step back and retire.
- Safety Committee Report; no report submitted
- Senior Chair Report: See
report submitted
- The swimming community is glad to have reestablished the
SC Junior Champs. Although establishing the cuts were a little
difficult, we now have a better understanding of what the cuts needs to
be. The time standards for SC Junior and Senior Champs as well as the 18
& Under Champ meet will all be reviewed for the 2009-2010 season.
- FBST did a great job with 18 & under Champs, largest
meet in PVS this year.
- Age Group Chair Report:
see report submitted
- Went to the Disability Workshop in Colorado Spring in
early April, additional information will be available after the next BOD
meeting and posted to the PVS website.
- The question, “Is there a financial report on the Summer
08 LC Zone meet? was raised. Historically these reports have never been
published and released publicly, however we will provide it upon request.
- Coaches Representatives Report:
see report submitted
- “We are the voice for the coaches” if you ever have
questions/concerns please contact one of the Coach’s Reps.
- 40 NAG records broken this year, nation wide. It is
believed that this is due in part to the “speed suits” – therefore the
rules were changes for 12 & under swimmers as of May 15, 2009. FINA
recently released a list of suits that are now approved or rejected,
check out the FINA website. The new rulings from FINA will be evolving
for sometime.
- 18 & Under Champs a huge success! Some modification
may be made for next year, but PVS plans to continue with the meet.
- Senior Champs felt more like a “true Championship” meet
this year due to the fact that we added Jr. Champs back onto the
schedule and tightened the time standards for Sr. Champs. The feedback
received indicated that coaches and athletes were both happy with the
meet format.
- A task force was established to decide if 8 & under
swimmers could be included in Open meets to get their 200 freestyle and
100 stroke times. It was determined that adding 8 & under swimmers
would not be in the best interest of the association; however there are
several meets within the LSC that are available if, coaches, pay
attention and look into “other meets” within the LSC they should find
the opportunities they need.
- Manga has proposed a new meet, for 10 & under swimmers
to include all 100s and 200s in all strokes, in April. Currently this
meet is being considered we are still waiting to see if there will be
enough interest to make running the meet worthwhile.
- A reminder: An additional boy and girl for the 10 &
under and 11-12 age groups will be added to the Eastern Zone Short
Course meet beginning in 2010.
- Open Water getting a lot of attention in USA Swimming. PVS
is encouraging its members to become more involved as opportunities
become more available.
- Look at the USA-S website, has a lot of great into,
doping control (medication), college swimming, nutrition tracker, etc.
It is a great resource. All swimmers, coaches and parents should take
advantage of it.
- Coaches Rep elections will be held this summer during
Age Group, Junior and Senior Champs. If anyone is interested in running
as Coaches Rep, please contact Manga ASAP.
- Athlete Representative Report: The athletes reps
were responsible for changing the Athlete of the Year age ranges to have
athletes selected in each single age from 9-18, created polls, “asked
Kate,” etc. Our Current Athlete Reps have been very active member on the
board.
- Strategic Planning Report:
see report submitted
- Looking at long term and registration, where our
swimmers are. The majority are in Fairfax and Montgomery Counties
- Projections in growth for ages 5-19 (98% of our
athletes), the most growth should be in the Virginia Counties.
- We will begin mapping the membership and how they are
traveling to the meets
- PVS and VSI continue discussing the boundary issues with
USA Swimming. USA-S has said that our two LSC will have to work this
out.
- The question “How are we using this information within
our LSC?” was asked. This information is important so we can work with
the counties and their governments to understand the data and
how/when/where to rent pools for meets.
- We also need to work on tracking some Outreach swimmers.
According to USA Swimming PVS has among the fewest registered “Outreach”
swimmers, however we don’t tend to count them separately, so it is hard
to tell exactly how many we really have.
- Board of Review Report: Kerry
Ellet—no action this past year.
- Finance & Treasurer’s
Report on 2008-2009
- Boundary
issue: it was proposed by USA Swimming to resolve this issue
(Governance Committee), but it is not going to go anywhere, there are
at least 2 other issues within the US, because of this there are more
swimmers in the water which is more money for USA Swimming. In our case
we have increased the number of swimmers in Loudoun County to nearly
800, VSI never had more than a dozen registered athletes in the same
county.
- John Ertter has assisted USA Swimming setup procedures
on how teams can better handle their finances. Ertter does a tremendous
job tracking and controlling our money.
- We received a clean audit report from an outside Audit company.
See Audit Report
- Financial strength and planning. We have fund to support
a full year of operations in reserve.
- We also make projections, some years we right on and
others we are off. PVS tends to take a fairly conservative approach to
our finances.
- Revenue in PVS per swimmers: This has been increasing
until the last year or so. It is almost down 10%, swimmers entering
fewer meets, fewer PVS meets. The splash fees have been reduced in past
years; however we will keep an eye on this trend and will begin to
increase the splash fee if needed in the future.
- The desirability to form a Capital Fund…this is
happening in more and more sports (Soccer, McLean Youth Sports, as
example). There is a thought that swimming should take a good hard look
at a system similar to this to acquire pool space.
- Old Business: none
- New Business
- Proposed 2009-2010 Budget
- Motion to accept the proposed budget was made and
seconded. As shown in the following bullets, various questions
regarding the budget were raised and answers provided.
- The question, “Why are we projecting no increase of
athletes for next year”. Answer: Ertter looked at the last 5 years
between April 1 and Sept. and average them. It is about 300. This past
year the big growth came in the early months due to the 800 athletes
that came in late last year, many from another LSC.
- Is the projection that there will be no growth based
upon Strategic Planning? No, we have always had growth, however we are
not seeing any new pools in the LSC and many teams are maxed out with
the number of swimmers they can manage and places we can compete.
Therefore the growth is projected to be minimal.
- In the short term, we are currently experiencing the
worst recession since the 30s. Being conservative we are not projecting
growth due to the current economy (don’t see many new athletes in our
sport).
- Swimposium info will be published as soon as the
facility is secured. It will be posted on the PVS website, in addition a
mailing will be sent out late summer.
- Diversity: PVS is trying to put together a more
comprehensive program; however will not release the money until there is
a definitive program in place. DC, MD and VA are all very different in
their diversity needs. The Diversity Chair and committee has not yet
been able to get the programs together but are working on it. PVS just wants
to make sure there is money in the budget, for when the plans come in.
- Ward Foley expressed that he feels that the diversity
program is under budgeted. This is what “they” asked for. Ward feels
that with Strategic Chair’s planning’s help we should to come up with a
plan for a Grant program for diversity.
- Mark Eldridge feels that PVS should not only support new
diversity programs, but support programs that are already being offered
within PVS programs as well.
- Art Lopez agrees that we need to support what is already
within PVS first.
- A motion is called to vote on the 2009-2010 budget,
seconded and approved.
- A motion to then approve the Budget fro 2009-2010 as
submitted to the House is then approved.
- Other New Business
- Several Delegates questioned the status of the Policies
& Procedures. The Board of Directors stated they are aware of the
situation and putting together a plan to get all the Policies and
Procedures updated and posted on the PVS Website. It is a long process
and there are currently people working on this.
- Would it be possible to see the results of 07-08 budget
(actual)? This information will be provided upon request.
- Adjourn: A motion to adjourn was
made, seconded, approved at 9:28 pm