Minutes approved at the 2011 HOD Meeting
Potomac Valley Swimming
House of Delegates Meeting
May 19, 2010; 6:30 pm
River Falls
7915 Horseshoe Lane
Potomac, MD
Minutes
· Dinner
· Attendance: Board of Directors: Greg York, Art Davis, Bill Stephens, Riley Eaton, Bill Marlin, Dave DiNardo, Manga Dalizu, Yuri Suguiyama, Boots Hall, Jim Thompson, Tara Banks, CJ Fiala and Danielle Schulkin. HOD Representatives: Bob Walker – ASA, Mike Kraeuter – BWST, Rick Curl – CUBU, Tony Murray – FAST, Josh Morgan – FISH, Bruce Andersen – HACC, Christian Doud – MACH, Heather Coulson Haddock – MAKO, Chris Huott – MSSC, Patty Friedman – TANK, Mark Eldridge – RMSC, David Deitch – YORK, Chris Loeser – NVSL, Lu Ryan – SNOW. Athlete Representatives: Brandon Fiala – MACH, Laura Schwartz – PM, Robin Brazier – HACC, Katie O’Brien – YORK, Jessica Layne – YORK, Logan Coulson Moore – MAKO, Eric Ruggieri – RMSC, Sarah Timreck – FISH, Kelsey Ryan – SNOW, Sarah Lynch – CUBU, Alex Spina – CUBU. At-Large Members: Kerry Ellett, Paris Jacobs, Ward Foley, John Hirschmann, Miriam Lynch, Linda Klopfenstein, Brian Pawlowicz, Jim Garner, Jack Neill. Non-Voting Attendees: John Ertter – PVS Executive Director, Terri Marlin – PVS Administrator, Sumie Emory – PVS Registrar, Tim Husson – PVS Webmaster, Tim Kelly – CUBU, Lance Page – TANK.
· The meeting was called to order at 7:13, by Greg York, PVS General Chair.
· Approval of the May 20, 2009 HOD Minutes; A Motion was made to approve the minutes from the May 20, 2009 House of Delegates meeting. The motion was seconded and approved.
· Approval of the May 19, 2010 HOD Agenda; A motion was made to approve the 2010 House of Delegates Meeting Agenda. The motion was seconded and approved.
· Report on the General State of the Cooperation – General Chair
o Greg York thanked all of the PVS Contractors who work all year to help keep PVS running. Thanks to Sumie Emory the PVS Registrar, Terri Marlin the PVS Administrator, John Ertter the PVS Executive Director, Tim Husson the PVS Webmaster and computer tech, and to Jake McGrail the PVS Equipment Manager.
o Greg York also expressed this appreciation to all of the PVS Officials, especially the Official’s Chair, Jack Neill and Official’s Representative , Boots Hall. All of the PVS Officials do a great job meet after meet and their dedication is appreciated by all.
o Special thanks to Art Davis, PVS Administrative Chair, for his years of service as the Admin Vice-Chair. Bill Marlin, was also thanked for his years on the Board of Directors, as his term is also up this year. Bill has expressed interest in continuing on the board in the future. Both Art and Bill were presented with a token of gratitude and they both expressed his gratitude to PVS, the coaches, officials and athletes.
o Introduction of the Board Members; All PVS Board members were introduced and thanked for their service to Potomac Valley Swimming.
o Kerry Ellet was presented with a special award as he is retiring from coaching this year. Kerry has been with the Curl Burke swim club for many years. In addition, he has served on PVS Board, has served on numerous committees both in PVS and with USA Swimming and most recently served as the Chairman of the PVS Board of review. Kerry was thanked for his years of service to PVS and the swimming community as a whole.
o Greg also thanked our athlete reps for being so active on the board.
o For the 2nd year in a row, PVS is the 5th largest LSC in USA-S. In being one of the 5 largest LSC, PVS is granted an additional 3 votes at the USA-Swimming House of Delegate Meeting to be held in September. Along with this honor, comes the responsibility of continuing to be a leader in USA Swimming. Many PVS members are very active outside of Potomac Valley by serving on committees within the Eastern Zone and USA Swimming. In addition PVS has continued to be well represented at the various workshops and seminars conducted by USA Swimming throughout the year. Several members of PVS have also been presenters at some of these workshops.
o The Diversity Position – PVS is striving to become more active within the Diversity/Inclusion programs within USA Swimming. The proposed budget will show that additional money is being set aside for additional Diversity/Inclusion programs.
o Sexual Harassment and Misconduct – Several weeks ago PVS held a special meeting to discuss the recent events in the news regarding Sexual Misconduct in swimming. The PVS Board of Directors will be putting together a task force made up of coaches, officials, parents, athletes and PVS officers to continue to work on these issues. Art Davis has agreed to head this special task force. In addition John Ertter will be organizing a seminar aimed at coaches and club owners regarding sexual misconduct issues. More information to follow. Finally several members of the Board also feel that all non-athletes should be subject to background screening in order to be registered with USA Swimming, as opposed to only coaches as is the current practice.
o Evaluation on John Ertter – Senior Chair Riley Eaton has submitted a report.
o There is a concern that PVS has been spending too much money on championship meets. It was noted that this past year’s PVS JO’s was the largest meet in our history. If the PVS enrollment and pool rental continues to increase then everyone should expect our meets to be large and carry an expense as well. A small task force has been established to work on proposals for some possible changes to the PVS Championship meets with the goal to keep timelines and the number of splashes more manageable.
· Proposal to Add Inclusion/Diversity Chair as a Voting Member of the PVS Board of Directors-
o Motion to establish an Inclusion/Diversity Chair position to the Board of Directors as a voting member, seconded.
§ Since the mid 1990, PVS has had an Outreach Coordinator with the task to work on developing Diversity programs within PVS. For the past year Greg York, PVS General Chair, had been trying to get the Inclusion/Diversity position involved and included as a voting position on the Board. Recently he has been work with Miriam Lynch who has shown a great interest in and done work on Inclusion/Diversity related issues here in PVS. Miriam along with 4 other member from PVS participated in the recent Diversity Summit held in Colorado Springs. Even though we may not see what we are doing, in the large scope, PVS is a leader in Diversity/Inclusion.
§ The PVS Board of Directors can add a voting position in two way, the Chairs and Vice –Chairs are voted on by the House of Delegates, while the Representatives are voted on by their constituents. Because there is no good way to come up with a group of constituents for the Inclusion/Diversity position it is suggested that the Inclusion/Diversity position become a Chair position to be voted on by the HOD.
· Amendment – HOD will vote for an Inclusion/Diversity Chair for a one year term (Sept 1, 2010 to Aug 31, 2011) then at the 2010 HOD meeting vote for the Inclusion/Diversity Chair for a 2 year team, seconded and approved.
· Amendment –Establish the Inclusion/Diversity Chair position as a 2 two year term limit starting Sept. 1, 2001, seconded and approved.
· Motion to add Miriam Lynch to the Nominating Committee report to be voted on later this evening. Seconded and approved.
§ Motion to establish an (Inclusion) Outreach Committee made up of 5 people including the General Chair, Inclusion/Diversity Chair and 3 other individuals, one being an athlete to work on various projects within PVS regarding the Diversity population, seconded and approved.
§ A group like this typically would fall under AG Chair
§ A committee cannot exists on their own they must support the provision.
§ One thought is to not have a line item on the budget, make it freestanding but rather and committee that is lead by the ID Chair and reports to the GC
§ Amendment – to put the committee under Administrative Division, seconded, approved .
o Miriam Lynch is excited to get Inclusion/Diversity programs started. She stated that Washington DC is getting ready to open another new pool. She has met with members from DC Aquatics and discussed ideas and possible programs such as; a DC summer league which would potentially feed swimmers into PVS. She is excited to have the support of PVS and USA Swimming and believes we can do a lot good within swimming and in PVS.
· Nominating Committee Report –Thanks to our Nominating Committee; John Hirschmann, Linda Klopfenstien and Jim Garner.
o John Hirschmann reported that the process began back in the fall with notices sent out as to which positions were to be voted on and gave all nominees the opportunity to publish a personal statement.
§ Administrative Chair – Paris Jacobs is currently the only one on the ballot. The body was asked if there was anyone else interested in running for the position. Seeing that no one was interested, the ballot for Administrative Chair is closed.
§ Operations Chair – Dave DiNardo, the incumbent is being challenged by Brian Pawlowic z. The body was asked if there was anyone else interested in running for the position. Seeing that no one was interested, the ballot for Administrative Chair is closed.
§ Age Group Chair - Manga Dalizu and Mark Faherty have both submitted their names as nominees for the Age Group Chair. The body was asked if there was anyone else interested in running for the position. Seeing that no one was interested, the ballot for Age Group Chair is closed.
§ Strategic Planning – Jim Thompson, the incumbent, is on the ballot to continue as the Strategic Planning Chair. The body was asked if there was anyone else interested in running for the position. Seeing that no one was interested, the ballot for Strategic Planning is closed.
§ Inclusion/Diversity – As the newly created Board of Director position, Miriam Lynch has indicated she is interested in running for the position.The body was asked if there was anyone else interested in running for the position. Seeing that no one was interested, the ballot for Inclusion/Diversity Chair is closed.
§ Board of Review – There are 5 open positions on the Board of review. Manga Dalizu, Janet Auger and Wally Dicks all indicated that they would like to run for a second term. Mark Eldridge and Peter Karl both indicated they were interested in the final two available positions. The body was asked if there was anyone else interested in running for a position on the Board of Review. Seeing that no one was interested, the ballot for Board of Review is closed.
· It was then confirmed that a current member of the Board of Directors can also serve on the Board of Review.
§ Motion made to accept the Administrative Chair, Strategic Planning Chair, Inclusion/Diversity Chair and the 5 Board of Review by acclimation. The motion was seconded and approved by the body. Ballots were then distributed for Operations Chair and Age Group Chair elections.
§ Athlete Representatives – There openings for new two athlete representatives due to the end of term for the Senior Athlete Representative and another Athlete Representative leaving for college. The body was asked if there were any athletes interested in running for Athlete Rep. Elections will take place during the PVS LC Junior and Senior Champs and for the 13-14 swimmers at the PVS Age Group Champs all being held in July. No interested was expressed at this time, so Board Members will continue to look for candidates.
§ Coaches Representatives – The ballot for the Junior Coaches Rep will also open this summer and will be voted on by the Coaches during the PVS LC Championship meets in July. At this time Bill Marlin has expressed interest in running for the Junior Coaches Rep. Additional nominations will be taken.
o For Athlete Reps – It was suggested that the elections for Athlete Representative be moved from the Summer LC Championship meets, as currently stated in the PVS By-Laws, be moved to the Spring Short Course Championships beginning in the Spring 2011 because of the historically low number of voters during the LC meets.
§ Motion to change the elections for Athlete Representative from the summer LC Championships to the Spring SC Championship Meets beginning in the Spring of 2011 in the PVS By-laws. The motion was seconded and approved.
o Third By-law amendment – Staffing a meet properly is often a problem for sanctioned club meets in PVS. As the population of PVS continues to grow, the number of meets continues to increase. Many of the Officials are concerned about the number of club meets on the schedule and being able to staff them adequately. There are roughly 310 Officials in PVS and clinics are continually being held, but it is important to encourage the parents to become officials as many of the current officials are starting to burn out.
§ A motion was made that in order to have a meet sanction issued, the certified Referee, Starter, 2 Stroke & Turns and sufficient table worker’ s names be submitted to the sanctioning chair, seconded
· It was then discussed that in order to have all names multiple months prior to the meet may be difficult, although all agree it is important that all meets are well staffed to ensure that meets are run correctly and that all times count for all swimmers. In was noted that thanks to the hard work of Tim Husson and John Hirschmann all time get entered into the SWIMS database correctly.
§ Amended Proposal: Motion for all PVS meets, except distance meets, in order to receive a sanction a Meet Referee must be secured then in order to maintain the sanction the meet must have a certified starter, referee, 2 S&T and adequate table workers recorded. The motion was seconded and approved.
· Elections – The ballots for Operations and Age Group Chair were collected and counted. Brian Pawlowicz and Manga Dalizu were introduced as the new Operation and Age Group Chair respectively.
o Motion to destroy the ballots, seconded and approved.
· REPORTS
o Executive Director – see report submitted; John Ertter, is the acting Safety Chair (a safety report is included in your packet). This past season there were 18 repors of occurrence submitted to the PVS Safety Chair. Ertter indicated that it is possible that some reports may have possibly gone directly to USA Swimming; however he requested that all reports are also sent to him. The insurance policy is only in effect only if the incident report is submitted to USAS and you have 1 year to submit it. Injuries are not the only items that can be submitted, for example incident report can also be submitted about things such as poor air quality.
o LEAP Project Status – see report submitted; LEAP is a program initiated by USA Swimming to allow the LSC to self evaluate. PVS is currently seeking Level 1 (out of 3). Currently we have completed 40 out of 45 required items. USA Swimming recently reported that only 10 LSC have completed Level 1.
o Administrative & Registration –Art David submitted a report. In addition he thanked Sumie for all her hard work with Registration, Terri Marlin for her help with awards and to John Hirschmann who worked hard and did a great job on the PVS Records. All of which has made his job easier, thanks.
o Webmaster – see report submitted; In addition to being the PVS webmaster Tim Husson is also the webmaster for the Eastern Zone and does a great job on both web sites.
§ Tim reported that roughly 11 months ago the Washington Post launched a website specifically targeting swimming called “reachforthewall .com”. They are still developing it and trying to establish their nitch. If anyone has suggestions for them or comments send them an email.
§ USA Swimming launched their new website today. They have assured us that if we currently have any links on our website that they will not be broken in during this transition time. Tim will be working on double checking all the links.
§ Tim also serves as the SWIMS officer for PVS. He reported that over 200,000 times have been entered into database.
o Operations – Dave DiNardo submitted a report.
Dave also stated that this has been a challenging year regarding equipment and equipment rentals. Some new equipment rental program ideas will be shared by John Ertter.
§ From an official perspectives, it is his opinion that each team that hosts meets should have someone either on their team or someone they can call who knows how to use and set up all meet equipment correctly.
o Officials – Boots Hall submitted a report.
§ In addition she also wanted to add that Jack Neill has done a such a great job on the newsletter and that it has not only gone out to all Officials in Potomac Valley, but to all Teams in the in the Eastern Zone as an example as well.
§ Tim Husson was the Admin Referee at this spring’s Sectionals held in Germantown and did a terrific job. Jamie Pfister, the Eastern Zone Official’s Chair sent her “kudos” to Tim. Paul Maker, the Meet Referee from Sectionals also commented how great all of the local PVS Officials were.
§ Boots announced that PVS is still in need more officials! Please consider running an Officials Clinic. She asked that if you are interested to send Jack Neill an email and he will assist you in setting one up at your practice facility.
§ We have 72 N2N3 Nationally certified officials.
§ Finally Boots wanted to personally thank all of the PVS Officials, and noted that many have continued to work as Officials even long after they children have left the sport.
o Senior Chair – Riley Eaton submitted a report.
§ At the recent Competition Committee Meeting discussions were started regarding the Spring Championship Season. A group of coaches will be getting together to discuss how to best to continue to support all levels of Championship meets in PVS.
o Age Group Chair –Bill Marlin submitted a report.
§ Bill reported that many of the cuts for the 2010 Junior Olympic Meet were tightened, some significantly. Yet more swimmers than ever qualified and participated in the meet. Even with tightening the cuts the kids are getting faster. The cuts will be looked at again. It was also noted that for the first time ever, there were more boys than girls that participated in the meet.
§ Bill also congratulated the 2010 PVS Eastern Zone Team staff, led by Head Coach Mark Faherty, Assistant Head Coach Emily Felker and Team Managers Dave Greene and Shelley Geskar on being the Eastern Zone Age Group Champions.
§ Steve Menard and Emily Felker will be the Head and Assistant Head coaches at 2010 LC Zones meet this summer in Rockville.
§ Back in October, Dave Kraft was the PVS recipient of the ASCA Age Group Coach of the Year.
o Coaches Representatives – Manga Dalizu submitted a report.
§ Special thanks to Paris Jacobs, Meet Manager for the JO meet, for doing such a great job at JOs, especially given the large number of athletes and long timelines.
§ The zone meet managers commented how great the PVS coaches were to work with while at attending the Spring Zone meet in Rochester. Although the Zone meet is a large budget item, try to remember that all the money spent benefits the LSC.
o Coaches Representative - Yuri Suguiyama submitted a report.
§ Yuri commented that this was his first year on the board and appreciates the opportunity he has had to learn more about the inner working of PVS and has enjoyed being a member of the Board of Directors.
o Athlete Representatives – No report submitted. Greg announced that both Tara Banks and Danielle Schulkin will be leaving the Board at the end of this year. Tara’s term is up and she will not be running for reelections because she will be heading off to college in the fall. Danielle will also be leaving for college and will not be finishing out her term. We thank both of them for their service and wish them well. We will be in need of two new Athlete Representative, which will be voted on at the LC Championship meets. Please talk to your athletes as this is a great opportunity for them to learn more about the sport and it’s organization.
o Strategic Planning – Jim Thompson submitted a report.
§ The vision statement was done and posted to the home page of the web site. It also fulfilled one of the tasks on the LEAP project
o Board of Review – No action reported, no actions taken.
o Finance & Budget- defers to the proposed budget.
o Records – SWIMS just recently added a new capability to aid in the upkeep of records in a more timely manner. John Hirschmann has done an outstanding job working on this project. Since March 1 2010 there have been 81 records set in PVS.
§ There is a question as to how best to recognize Resident records.
· A Resident record is set by an athlete who is both registered with Potomac Valley on the date of the swim and has represented Potomac Valley Swimming within the last 365. The question is; are college or high school athletes who are at the time registered PVS swimmers, but swimming in a meet representing their school eligible for resident records. This circumstance falls within the rules; however clubs and the coaches need to decided it this is what they want or not. (Honestly I do not remember what was decided if anything at all.)
o National Club Development Committee – Paris Jacobs reported that USA Swimming’s Club Recognition program is about to become more and more important and more emphasis will be placed on encouraging teams to complete the program (see stats).
§ Currently there are proposals within the USAS Club Development Committee that are going to significantly change how teams and coaches will be required to establish themselves as a team in good standing and a coach in good standing.
§ In today’s climate it is an even more important need to protect your club. Across the country relatively few teams in USA S are coach owned, unlike here in PVS, where a majority of the clubs are coached owned. It is advised that if you don’t have an attorney, you should get one, in order to be proactive and to protect yourself, your club and your athletes.
§ IMX meet: Congratulations and Thank you to Bill Marlin for running a successful meet.
· At Eastern Zone Meeting – A meeting was held between Virginia Swimming and PVS regarding the ongoing border issues between the two LSCs. The issue of Potomac Valley teams moving and growing into Prince William and Loudon counties continues to be a concern. At this time neither VSI nor PVS has the authority to stop this growth or movement. Talks will continue and the matters are being taken back to USA Swimming for a final resolution. For the teams who host meets at a pool in VSI territory, please remember you have to request a sanction from VSI in addition to a sanction from PVS. VSI has the right to issue or deny your sanction. In addition VSI authorities have the right to check coach’s credentials on deck while at the meet. Please send any sanction requests to the Administrator for submission to VSI.
· Old Business - none
· New Business
o PVS Policies on Sexual Harassment
§ At a recent special meeting of the PVS Board of Directors, it was agreed upon to hold a series of informational meetings for clubs, coaches and officials regarding sexual harassment and misconduct. John Ertter is currently working to put together a Sexual Misconduct Seminar/Workshop with a local attorney who specializes in sexual harassment cases. In addition this attorney is also a Masters swimmer and the mother of two young swimmers. See handout. The goal is to provide the clubs with information regarding how best to manage coaches, the pool deck, the locker room, etc. The question is when is it best to hold this type of meeting where we can get the most coaches available. The board proposed to do this “as soon as possible. It appear by straw vote that for a few summer is best but that most feel early fall would be better. We will attempt to hold this before USA S Convention.
o Establishing a Conflict of Interest Statement - All Board Members (Chairs and Representatives have agreed to read and sign a Compliance Conflict of Interest Statement, and will continue to do so annually. In addition each of the contractors will also be asked to sign the same document. The establishment of this document is due to IRS regulation regarding how corporations are run. The statement being used closely resembles the one that USA Swimming uses. It was noted that if you serve on a USA Swimming Committee or are asked to sign one with them, you will still have to sign a PVS statement as well.
o Meet Entry Fees – Embedded in the number of the proposed budget is a proposed $.50 increase for meet entry fees for all PVS meet that was announced at previous Competition Committee meetings and board meetings. The additional meet entry fee will generate about $30,000 of increased revenue.
§ Equipment Rental – There is a draft of new equipment rental policies and prices for all clubs who intend to rent PVS equipment to run club meets. The new policies will also include instructions for the club who host PVS meets such as the Opens and Championship meets. It is intended to establish written rules that all clubs will have to follow and that the LSC will have to follow as well. John Ertter has conducted a detailed analysis of how often equipment is rented and the cost, this information was used to produce the draft policies and fee structure.
· PVS would like to get out of the business of renting out equipment and have asked Strategic Planning to assist in the process; however in general the board feels that there are additional issues that will have to be discussed and resolved before this could actually happen. Another idea presented is for PVS not to own any equipment itself, but rather rent it from the clubs and/or facilities. Again more discussion is needed to work out all of the details before this idea could become a proposal.
o Proposed 2010-2011 Budget – John Ertter has done a tremendous job on working with the PVS budget. A number of years ago we were really having some issues; however Ertter has worked hard to “clean it up” and in now considered a leader across USA Swimming on how to handle all financial matters. Thanks John for all of your hard work. PVS has activated an Audit Committee as a control measure to look “over the shoulder” of the controller, this began after USA Swimming established their own Audit committee. Currently the PVS Audit Committee consists of John Hirschmann, Manga Dalizu and Bob Vincent. They work alongside the contracted Auditor to ensure that all financial matters are handled appropriately and in the best interest of PVS as an organization.
o One amendment – for the Sexual Harassment Seminar please add a $3000 expense to line number 55125.
o Motion to accept Budget as proposed, seconded
§ PVS operates on a Fiscal Year, running Sept 1-Aug 31, there are still 4 more months left in the current fiscal year. In looking ahead to the end of the fiscal year it is projected that PVS will have a deficit of $47,217 and a proposed deficit for the 10-11 FY of $27,273.
§ As a clarification and in answer to several questions, there are several places where John Ertter has renumbered and reallocated some funds; for example in line 51180 meet supplies, it appeared we didn’t spend any money in 08-09, and it appeared not to be budgeted for in 09-10; however there is an amount of $1216 listed, that is because of the reallocation.
· A big question is Why do we continue to have hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting and gaining interest with no plan and while we are projecting a deficit. What is the plan for all of that money?
o A lengthy discussion followed regarding what could and should be done with the money in reserve. While the body did not agree as a whole on the final outcome it was clear that this was more of a philosophical discussion that can be further discussed off line.
· Motion to close debate, seconded, approved (4 no).
· Motion to accept the budget as presented with the amendment. Approved.
· John Ertter did note that the HOD can dictate that the reserve cannot exceed XX amount, and decide what to do with the extra money.
o A final question was raised regarding the salaries for the individual contractors. However under law the contractor’s salaries are confidential.
o Anyone going to convention please pick up a form from Linda Klopfenstein. It needs to be returned to her by July 12.
o Other New Business - none
· Motion to Adjourn, seconded and approved.
· The 2010 PVS House of Delegates meeting was adjourned at 10:24 pm.