Attendance:  Jim Garner, General Chairman; Austin Auger, Art Davis, Mark Faherty, John Hirschmann, Dan Jacobs, Bill Marlin, Bill Stephens, Ron Whalen, Board Members;  Mike Kraeuter, FISH; Bruce Anderson, HACC; Christian Doud, MACH; Chris Huott, MSSC; Arvydas Barzdukas, NVSL; Mark Eldridge, RMSC;  Riley Eaton, Kerry Ellett, John Ertter, Ward Foley, Tim Husson, Paris Jacobs, Jim Thompson, Jim Van Erden, At-Large Delegates; Janet Auger, Greg York, non-voting delegates.

Call to Order:  The meeting was called to order by the PVS General Chairman, Jim Garner, at 6:35 PM.

Garner yielded the floor to Greg York, incoming General Chair, who presented his rationale for the hiring of a Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Potomac Valley Swimming.  Acknowledging the three outgoing Board members (Garner, Riedlinger and Hirschmann), York stated that these individuals had been performing a large portion of the work for PVS and that he did not believe it realistic to assume the that incoming Board members replacing them would have the time to absorb anywhere near the amount of work they had been doing for PVS.  Stressing that PVS is now approaching a million dollar enterprise, he wondered aloud, “Who is the face of PVS?” and expressed his concern about the opportunities that would be lost without someone available to represent PVS. 

York stated that, while the Board had the power to hire employees or contractors (which included a COO); the meeting had been called to ensure that all members of the association had the opportunity to provide their input and to voice their views regarding the issue.  He asked that this opportunity be granted.

Following York’s comments, Garner opened the meeting for discussion.

Bill Stephens, Strategic Planning Chair, summarized the actions he had undertaken since the 2007 Annual House of Delegates meeting and referred the delegates to the two documents that had been provided prior to the meeting.  (See:  Potomac Valley Swimming:  New Staff Position Study and Potomac Valley Swimming:  Chief Operating Officer Position Description)  Noting that funding for the position was included in the FY 2008 budget, which was approved at the 2007 HoD meeting, he explained that the Board of Directors would be meeting immediately following this meeting and that an agenda item was approval of a proposal to hire John Ertter as the part-time COO for PVS.

Following Stephens’ comments, numerous questions were posed and opinions were offered on the matter.  Opinions expressed in support of the creation of the position included that:

• Many Board members were gainfully employed and thus unable to devote daily attention to PVS matters.

• So much time is spent on day-to-day operations issues at the monthly Board meetings that little time is left to discuss strategic issues.

• PVS’s membership growth in recent years has resulted in higher expectations, increased workload, and that PVS’s historical reliance on volunteer leadership has resulted in many proposed and funded programs not being implemented.

In response to a question asking if the tabled motion from the May House meeting could be acted upon, it was explained that the motion had died at the adjournment of that meeting, but that the same motion could be made as a new motion.  No motion was made.

In response to questions, the following items were clarified:

• Market salary ranges for similar positions were stated to range from $90,000 to $135,000, with a midpoint of $113,000, exclusive of employee benefits.
• Approximately four LSC’s currently staff a similarly proposed position, a couple of which have been recently established.
• By-Law changes would likely not be required as long as the COO was an employee of the corporation and the duties outlined in the employment contract were cognizant of the authorities allowed.
• The title of the proposed position had been changed from Executive Director to COO in order to clearly denote and recognize the existence of a higher level of authority, namely the General Chair.
• Presently, the current contractors report to assigned Board of Directors.  This relationship would remain; however, on day-to-day matters, the contractors’ initial contact would be with the COO, reducing the “day to day” necessity of involvement by individual Board of Directors.
• Initially, the position would be one of part-time employment.  Noting that perhaps there had been some misunderstanding that it was to be full-time, it was explained that the leading candidate, John Ertter, was currently under contract to provide Controller services.  It was expected that he would also continue with his duties as Controller and that the combination of his Controller and COO responsibilities would be full time.
• Some of the duties of Controller might require modification to assure there would be “separation of duties” regarding control of PVS’s assets, should the leading candidate be employed.

A motion was made and seconded stating that the House of Delegates supported the concept of hiring a Chief Operating Officer.  Further discussion occurred during which time a recommendation was made that benchmarks and/or a review process be developed to assess the effectiveness of the position holder. The Board was also encouraged to include these in the contract. On a vote of 22 to1, the question was called and the motion was re-read.  The motion passed on a vote of 17 to 2, with 4 abstentions.

Adjournment:  The meeting was adjourned at 7:50PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Janet Auger

PVS Administrative Assistant

Link to Announcement of Special Meeting