The meeting was called to order by Thirl Crudup at 7:02 pm.

Thirl Crudup, as General Chair opened the meeting and welcomed the delegates and guests. He asked that we stick to the agenda and keep the statements to the subject at hand. He stated his aim was to have a window of two hours or less for the total meeting.

John Hirschmann proposed that the minutes be amended under the portion pertaining to changes in PVS by-laws regarding how annual election of the Coach Representative to the PVS Board should be conducted.

Motion to approve the minutes as amended PASSED

Thirl circulated a proposed agenda. It was approved as presented.

Thirl Crudup made the presentation of the 2002 Phillips Outstanding Service Award to Linda Klopfenstein. He highlighted that she had served for numerous years in the association, served on local and national committees, held numerous and various positions both within PVS and with a local summer league association, She is also a USA Swimming Life Member. She is still actively involved in PVS and can always be counted on to lend a helping hand, and is one of the great institutional memories for PVS and USA Swimming.

Irene Millman provided the House with statistical information pertaining to PVS's registration activity to date in 2002. The information pertained to registration activity by club and by athletes age as of May 20, 2002. The information submitted is provided as an attachment to these minutes.

Irene also provided the attached written report regarding the activities of the PVS Registrar.

John Ertter reviewed the changes from the February to April data and stated that we have adequate financial reserves to cover our current operating expenses and that PVS continues to do well. He reported that revenue is down -- including registrations. We had budgeted for more revenue than will be actual revenue when the year comes to a close. Those revised revenues are reflected in the 2002-03 budget. Nevertheless a $15,000 surplus is expected for this year. We also still have approximately $20,000 in outstanding registration accounts for this year. The Board and the administrative office are addressing these accounts and asking clubs to get their registration payments into the office ASAP.

Ward Foley asked how these clubs got behind and what can be done to prevent this in the future. John Ertter and Irene Millman responded that clubs want to be billed and that they "better than anyone" should know how many athletes they have registered. PVS's accounting format is not such that we can bill clubs or have accounts payable. PVS is a cash accounting basis not accrual. Although the clubs have been requested to forward payment with their hard copies they have not been diligent in doing so and therefore we have had a "snowball effect" with registration payments not being forthcoming from the clubs. The board voted in January to not accept any registrations without payments. The office since then is not processing any email registration batches without a check in hand.

John Ertter stated that PVS has contracted with Sarfino and Wright a CPA firm that specializes in financial and management/practices audits for non-profits. Greg Stevenson recommended the firm. We are starting to put a package together for him for review and John Ertter, Thirl Crudup and Irene Millman will be meeting with him to set the plan for the audit in the next few weeks. We expect to come away with several things, audit of our financial records, review of our management practices, and recommendation of a new accounting software package. John Ertter further stated he was going to cover some of this in the budget section of the meeting but opted to do so now since we were discussing the audit and the projected costs. PVS currently has $10,000 budgeted, and another $10,000 for next year, but John stated it could take up to $30,000 to complete. John Ertter stated that he feels it is very necessary to undertake at this time to prove the business functions of the LSC since there is no record of an audit in the past.

Thirl Crudup has asked that John Ertter work diligently to hold the audit to originally planned $20,000.

Thirl Crudup made the attached presentation to the House.

In addition to his prepared comments, John E talked about the need for PVS to conduct a financial audit - he stated we need to do this -- PVS has not done it in over 20 years. He stated that he expected that out of this audit we will get some best practice models. you have al heard the comments but we need to have this best practices audit to assure we are doing this properly.

Thirl stated that based on what comes from the audit, the Administrative Office along with the Board will work together to implement those changes so we are most effective and strengthen the position of the LSC and the relationship of the member clubs.

Mark Eldridge asked how will the audit be affected by the governance study and possible changes on way from USA Swimming and how they conduct business. Thirl replied that he does not feel the USA Swimming governance study will substantially affect the business of the LSC.

Other comments from the floor included questions regarding USA Swimming fee increases and how this might further affect PVS membership. John Ertter responded stating he does not agree that the membership fee increase by PVS or a forthcoming possible USA Swimming increases had (or will) any direct impact with the decrease in PVS membership or the increase in PVS expenses.

Thirl supplemented this statement by stating that it is in the best interest of the LSC to have a total review of how we conduct our business. Similarly, he stated he felt it is also in the interest of the PVS member clubs. A full review of the USA Swimming Governance study will be conducted, including how it might impact on PVS's operations.

Kerry Ellett made the attached presentation to the House in his capacity as Eastern Zone Coach Representative to the United States Swimming Board of Directors.

Irene made the following two points in her presentation.

Mark Eldridge asked if the PVS Policies and Procedures Manual was going to be reviewed prior to the change in the Administrative Chair. Thirl Crudup assured Mark that the outgoing and incoming Administrative Chairs would work on this together to bring the manual up to date by the end of the fiscal year to conform with all policies as approved previously by the board.

Bob Lindberg indicated some interest in having a Swimposium and asked if PVS would consider sponsoring it. Thirl Crudup responded that the Board would take it under advisement and it would have to be tailored to the needs of the LSC.

John Hirschmann submitted the attached report in his capacity of PVS Webmaster.

Bob Walker presented the following written report to the House of Delegates pertaining to the Competition Division.

In addition, he supplemented his written report by expetending congratulations to George Massey and Dave Kraft. They were selected by the Competition Committee as the Head and Assistant Head coaches respectively for the Summer LC Zone Meet.

Greg York commented on the lack of participation in Competition Committee Meetings. He expressed view that non-coach run teams need to get greater involvement. Generally it is the same voices determining policy and the direction of the competitive program.

Mark Eldridge requested the House to direct the Age Group committee responsible for LC meets to include 13-14s in summer 2003 age group champs. Brief discussion followed and the following motion was made.

Motion - HoD directs the Age Group Chair to conduct the LC Age Group championships in 2003 and beyond to include 13-14 athletes. There was a brief discussion in support of the concept. Several suggestions/observations pertaining to Prelims/Finals vs timed finals, budget concerns, meet length and format of events were presented.

Motion Passes Unanimously

Jim Garner submitted the attached report pertaining to Senior swimming.

Jim Garner as Chair of the Senior Division also reported regarding PVS's travel reimbursement policy. He stated that the travel committee has met and that the Committee is not making recommendations for changes at this time.

Kerry Ellett agreed that adding 14 & Under events to the LC Championship meet would be a positive move for swimming.

Bob Walker discussed the addition of new stroke/distances for the indicated age groups at both the SC and LC Eastern Zone meets

Bob reported that the following changes to the Zone Meet format were proposed and approved at the recently held Spring Eastern zone meeting.

QT for LCM Zone meet for the 11-12 y/o Stroke will be the same % difference as used for the 13-14 y/o events of the same stroke from the 100 M to the 200 M event.            APPROVED

John Hirschmann submitted the attached report pertaining to activities of the Operations Division for the past year. There was no discussion pertaining the section of the report pertaining to meet management.

Boots Hall made the attached presentation on behalf of the Officials Committee.

No written report was submitted.

There were some questions about the purchase of the third timing system -- in particular regarding how much it was used over the past season. John Hirschmann responded that it had been bought in response to specific guidance received at the prior House of Delegates meeting. John Hirschmann acknowledged that it was not used as much as anticipated due to PVS renting facilities for competition with in house timing equipment but it was brought out when there was a failure. It was also pointed out we now have more equipment available for rental by PVS clubs as more clubs are hosting club meets.

A request was made for a more formal process to provide meet pass downs to the operations chairs and to encourage non meet personnel to communicate directly with the Operations chairman. Suggestions included Meet Managers submit pass down sheets directly to the Operations chair via mail or fax and include the original in the meet paperwork, and that comment sheets be available at the meet to the non-working parents to make suggestions to the Board of Directors about the running of a particular meet. The Operations Chair agreed to look into some of these suggestions.

John McDonald submitted the attached report regarding the activities of the Safety Committee.

Greg York submitted the attached report regarding the activities of the Strategic Planning Committee.

Mark Eldridge suggested that the Strategic Planning Chair work more closely with the Competition Chairs to do more long range planning and assist in budgetary concerns to eliminate being in a reactionary mode when the meets are being decided or changed so close to the season when they will be swum, but with the long term planning such as on the Zone level should help eliminate those last minute changes. Greg York agreed to work with the Competition Committee and the Competition Chairs to do more long range meet planning and scheduling in hope that with would assist in more secure venues and better availability.

Greg York further noted that when proposals are brought before the coaches at the CCM they are often disregarded sighting one such issue when the delegation returned from the zone meeting - he made a proposal regarding eligibility and age inclusion of certain groups in the PVS Championship meets due to the close proximity of the two Zone Level meets (SCY Zones and Speedo Championship Series - Spring) that we change the age format of our meets it was "promptly tossed out at the Competition Meeting the following day". This makes it very difficult to guide the committee when things on the zone level change and the committee is set in one particular mode. He hopes that with better long range planning and more open mindedness of the coaching community these types of situations can be avoided in the future.

Bill Marlin submitted a written report to the House of Delegates

John Blaschke noted that of the coaches that have given feed back to him, all of them were also in the room at this HOD meeting. He further stated that until more coaches participate and provide feedback, that it would be the same small group of coaches leading the directions of the LSC competitively.

It was noted that Matt Dugan attempted to increase athlete awareness by handing out flyers containing contact information for the athlete representatives at the spring championship meets. To date the response has been very limited.

It was reported that no petitions were submitted to the Board of Review during the past year.

John Ertter presented a revised proposed 2002-03 budget to the House for their consideration.

Ward Foley made the following motion:

Motion: Reduce Splash fees from $0.75 to $0.65 for club meets.

Brief discussion followed which included a question from Mark Eldridge regarding what PVS's goal was in regards to the reserve - to what level of reserve we are going toward John Ertter responded saying we are driving toward having a reserve equal to PVS's operating expense budget for one year.

Vote 11 for and 10 against Motion PASSES

Ward Foley made the following motion:

Motion: Reduce expense account x06 (Travel Reimbursement) currently at $42,000 to $35,000 and limit $10,000 to Spring Nationals and $10,000 for Summer Nationals and $5,000 for Open Water and $10,000 for US Open.

Discussion followed and it was noted that Adapted Swimming, training camps and grants should be included and there was a budget line item for that in the current budget and included in the above original amount, Ward accepted that as a friendly amendment.

Rick Curl reminded the committee that $10,000 for 2003 Summer Nationals might be high as the meet will be at UMD. It was further acknowledged that the Summer 2003 travel reimbursement is paid in the 2004 budget year and that should be taken into consideration during that year's budget planning process.

Further discussion followed and Ward subsequently withdrew his motion. He then made the following motion.

Motion: House will direct the board to define a total amount per meet and the Competition Committee will develop a formula for set numbers to assist the clubs in their budget planning process. PASSES 17 - 6

George Massy made the following motion:

Motion: Increase the medals and trophies line item to $4,500 to include ribbons/medals for the open meets. Brief discussion followed and Peter Verdin noted that he supports concept but this requires additional effort for the Meet Managers to include this additional task. PASSES 13 TO 7

Motion: John Ertter made a motion to adopt the budget as amended PASSES 21 TO 2

Bill Marlin reported on behalf of the Nominating Committee that consisted of himself, Bob Walker and John Buck. The Committee had announced the following nominations in advance of the meeting.

A call for nominations from the floor was made. Bill Marlin nominated Steve Ercolano for Age Group Chair. Nominations were closed and the positions of Operations Chair and Strategic Planning were elected by acclimation.

The House of Delegates voted by secret paper ballot for the remaining positions to be elected. The ballots were tallied and the following results were announced:

Nominations were then requested for Athletes to run as Athlete Representative to PVS House of Delegates. One person will be elected by the athletes during the PVS LC Championship meets in July. Amy Stark of the Potomac Marlins was nominated.

There was no old business to come before the House.

Ward Foley made a motion pertaining to a "Good Neighbor" policy The motion and his statement in support of the motion is attached.

Discussion of the motion followed.

Amend the motion to club meets from Virginia Swimming and Maryland Swimming to a flat $100/day splash fee all other events stay the same.

Motion Failed 2 for to 16 against.

A motion was made and the House voted to adjourn. Adjournment occurred at 9:49 pm