Dick introduced Bob Liddell of Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Inc., and extended PVS’s thanks for assistance in hosting this meeting. Bob welcomed PVS.

Presentation of Phillips Outstanding Service Award:

Dick Rankin announced that it was with great pleasure that PVS was able to present this very prestigious award to both the Taylor’s – Evelyn and Ron – and the Henderson’s – Mary Ann and Marty. Each LSC gets to present this award to only recipient per year. PVS received special permission to present this award to both families who have been cornerstones in the organization. PVS also presented them with a certificate of Distinguished Service from USA Swimming signed by the Executive Director. Additionally, PVS presented both families with letters of thanks from Carol Burch of the USA Swimming staff with her gratitude for the efforts they have given to USA.

Mary Ann stated that her time with PVS was wonderful and while she was leaving the position, she was not saying goodbye to swimming or to her friendships.

Evelyn Taylor stated that it’s been great working with all the people in PVS and thanked everyone for their support and what they’ve done for PVS. She said she will remain in contact through email.

MOTION PASSED to approve minutes of the May 17, 1998, House of Delegates.

Mary Ann Henderson reported that over 5900 athletes, 541 non-athletes and 37 clubs (an additional 1 club is pending) are registered. Due to the new coaches’ certification requirements, coaches will be required to send forms a copy of the front and back of their certifications with their 2000 registration. They will then be issued their membership card clearly marked with the date of expiration of the first expiring certification. The new USA registration forms will be in a full page format, the use of these forms is most successful when answered completely. Mary Ann stated that she had 1999 USA registration forms for seasonal, transfer, athlete and non-athlete available at this meeting. There was discussion regarding the extra work that would be a result of the expiration dates of certifications. Although, this will cause additional work, it is not PVS policy, it is USA policy. Dick commented that while we are the 6^th largest LSC in terms of number of swimmers, we are not among the leaders on the number of volunteers and that the teams need to encourage volunteers.

The new administrative assistants were introduced to the House of Delegates.

Bob Fout reported that PVS had at mid-year aggregate assets of $211,722.02 and $7,982.80 in the Dave Davis fund.

• General State of Corporation is strong and healthy; we continue to grow and mature in the way we do business. We remain the 6^th largest LSC in numbers of swimmers and the number of clubs continues to climb, albeit we still have the largest average # of swimmers per club of all the LSCs. One area that causes some concern is that our number of volunteers is only holding steady and in fact this year has declined slightly while our number of swimmers increase.
• There has been no change to the key policy directions that have been the cornerstone of my tenure as General Chairman. They remain:
• Improved Communication
• Empowerment of those responsible for execution of programs
• Retention of programs either improved or more cost effective
• Ensure swimming opportunities allow our #1 product to perform to their potential, and
• Fiscal responsibility.
• Our tactical goals this past year were somewhat modest; essentially
• We wanted to implement the changes we adopted the past couple years
• Review and tidy up our Policy and Procedures Manual
• Ensure our PVS structure was organized to best meet our program goals and efficiently run the LSC
• March aggressively down the Information Superhighway to improve upon our electronic communications apparatus
• Refine our move toward more Club Sponsored Meets as a way to enhance the revenue base for our member clubs
• And begin to take advantage of the new facilities that have either opened or are nearing completion in the LSC
• We believe that we are meeting our short range goals and objectives as well as the key policy directions for the LSC. Are we there? No, not in every case but we are working to get there.
• You will receive a major revision to the Policy and Procedures Manual tonight. This codifies the way we do business as of today. In refining this manual we have recognized that there are several policies and procedures that need adjusting and one goal of next year’s Board will be to address those changes in an orderly fashion.
• Kit will present a recommended restructuring to the LSC organization that we believe will more efficiently and more effectively manage our programs. If you adopt our recommendation, then we will modify the By Laws this summer to reflect this change.
• Our #1 communications medium is clearly our web page. It is recognized by many as one of the best swimming home pages out there. I congratulate Kit Mathews, Dave Scibetta and John Hirschmann for their tireless efforts to give you a #1 product. I know we are reaching a far broader cross-section of our membership today than 4 years ago when we started this.
• There are still bugs to be worked out in club vs PVS sponsored meet program but everything is pointed in the right direction thanks primarily to the aggressive management of this program by Steve and Ward.
• Finally, we have worked very hard to try to incorporate the new facilities at UMD, GMU and soon the PGS&L Complex into our competition environment. It is not an easy proposition because both UMD and GMU are seeking significant returns for the use of their facilities. We have been in serious negotiations with them and while there has been some compromise, it is clear that for PVS to use these facilities it will cost us additional $s in pool rental. On the other side of the ledger, our swimmers deserve the opportunity to use these 1^st class facilities so we must bite the bullet and add them to our competition venue where and when we can. In order to pay for this opportunity and this increased cost we will present a budget tonight that adds 25 cents to our existing splash fees. We believe that assessing our competitors that will have the opportunity to use these facilities is the fairest way to achieve the added revenue. Also, our LSC delegation went to the Zone Meeting earlier this month with the intention of bringing the 2000 Eastern Zone Short Course Championship to PVS and we were successful. Next year’s meet will be at the PGS&LC.
• In addition to these actions, we also faced the major trauma of replacing a couple institutions in our LSC, Evelyn Taylor and the Henderson’s. As I reported to you earlier, I think we were very successful in our efforts and we are taking advantage of this necessity to consolidate all of our administrative functions into one office so that you – the membership – will be able to do "one stop shopping" for our your administrative and registration needs. This should simplify your life and it will present some cost savings to us as well.
• I want to close with a brief description of the changes in the ways we communicate. As I said, the Web page will be our main vehicle for communicating with the membership. A casualty of this is our Family Membership. The Budget for 99-2000 eliminates the Family Membership as we know it. We are proposing to make the distribution of hard copy information pay for itself completely. Thus, instead of a Family Membership program, we will offer the following forms of hard copy information, if you approve the budget:
• We will bring back an abbreviated version of the Aquatics Guide, which we will sell for $6.
• We will continue a 2-tier mailing arrangement just as we did this year; the basic material, primarily meet announcements, for $10 for the season (Sep to Aug) and expanded version to include meet results for an additional $30 for the season. The only change is that our number of mailings will be reduced to 3 but everything you received this year will be available next as well and for the most part you will receive it earlier in the season.
• You may pick and choose what you want to purchase.
• The Board made a commitment not to leave behind those who can’t get to the web page and I believe this proposal meets that goal while significantly reducing our overall outlay of funding for informing the membership.
• Finally, I want to make it publicly clear that I have been blessed with a great, enthusiastic and hard working group of volunteers and staff – athletes, coaches, and non-athletes – over the past 4 years. And the success that the LSC has enjoyed is in very large measure because of them. Without exception I owe them all so much; I want to single out those that are leaving the Board or have left the Board while I have been General Chair. Ron Taylor, Arvydas, Charlie Rimkus, Sue Gosline were all superb in what they did. Bob Fout has been a great Treasurer who has headed us in a totally new venture in terms of our investment strategy and I thank him for that. Steve Ercolano has been my friend ever since 1981 and I have valued his wisdom and insights ever since. He is a sound thinker and many of the actions we have taken have emanated from his vision; I will ever be indebted to him.
• The best part of all this is that I firmly believe I am leaving this organization in the very best possible hands. It was a great organization that I received from Dave Scibetta 4 years ago and it is a great organization that I am turning over. Like in any successful venture success is a function of the people manning the helm and there are no finer than what you have here.

Administration:

As Administrative Chairman, Kit Mathews was tasked to oversee a revision of the PVS Policy and Procedures Manual to ensure that the manual reflects current policies and procedures. The results of this year long effort was distributed to the clubs present at this meeting and will be mailed to the other PVS clubs by the Administrative Office. Now that our current policies and procedures are clearly delineated it is clear to the Board that there is need to review some of these to reflect the changing environment. One particular area where this is the case is the PVS web page; presently there is no policy or procedure that deals with the issues of the web page. Kit acknowledged that there are no doubt other areas that need review, addition, or deletion and that the Board will take on this task in the next year. He welcomed any suggestions, recommendations, and actual language from the membership at any time.

Another task for Administration this year was to review our Board organizational structure and recommend any changes to reflect more accurately the way we do business. The Board has approved a revised organizational structure, which realigns several committees and staff positions. That organizational chart is attached.

MOTION PASSED to accept the revised organizational structure.

There was discussion regarding the changes in the financial arrangements for the meets.

Safety Report: Kit Matthews reported for John McDonald. (Report attached.)

Communications Committee Report: Dave Scibetta reported that the web page was working well and they are open to any suggestions/corrections. The web page has had over 1.5 million hits through April, as compared to 1998 when there were 1.8 million hits for the entire calendar year. Both swimmers and families are accessing the page which has received many kudos. The committee is working hard to judge which information is in the best interest of the LSC and include it on the web page.

Steve Ercolano reported that the number of splashes is consistent with last year, but the swimmers are getting faster. Over 450 OVC’s have been issued. Over the summer, the committee will be examining the order of events and the length of the meets. There are several new, large excellent but costly facilities. George Mason University and the University of Maryland are two of these facilities. To cover the cost of using these facilities, there needs to be an increase in the competition budget and the Board has approved an increased splash fee.

Travel assistance - New travel assistance rules were put into affect last year which limit the number of times a swimmer qualifies because the cost of this assistance is increasing. A discussion followed regarding the disbursement of the assistance funds.

Zone Team-Ward Foley reported that a good staff and team had participated with good success. The training camp prior to the Zone Meet was a good tool used to bring the team together. He thanked Linda and Thirl Crudup for their great job as Team Manager and John Hirschmann and Mark Eldridge for getting the Top 10 listing per event posted to the web so quickly.

Age Group Planning - Kerry Ellett reported on the meetings held by the National committee on Sports Psychology and Age Group Forum. Both of these provided wonderful information to assist the coaches. He further reported that USA will make available for coaches registering for the second year, a handbook and tests; he felt this would be a good investment for a team library. There was discussion of the definition of "age group". Kerry said they were encouraged to look at athletes in the scope of total development and look at the lifetime of the athlete.

Thirl Crudup presented a report on meet management and Equipment(See Attached). Additionally, he stated that with the new facilities in our LSC, we should expect people to want to come here and that we should find creative ways to use and finance our use of the facilities.

Officials -John Hirschmann reported that the quality of PVS officiating is good and the officials have become more involved. However, we do need to get more people involved with officiating; it is in the best interest of the swimmers and coaches to have more people involved.

Bob Fout reported that the investment strategy being used which mirrors USA’s strategy has been successful and as of 30 April 1999 has earned PVS $4926.

Eric Moore expressed his desire to have an open forum on the internet for coaches with specific concerns. A discussion followed regarding this concept and the pros and cons. Dave Scibetta indicated that this issue will be reviewed by the Communications Committee at its next meeting and into the future.

Dick Rankin reported in the absence of the Athlete Reps. that they have been active in trying to generate communication among swimmers and pass this information to management.

Carol Nickel reported that there was nothing to report.

Bob Fout reported on changes made from the 1998-1999 budget due to increase of travel assistance and pool costs. There were discussions about how funds can be increased and about the expense of Zone team. The Board has the authority to revise the Budget during the year, should there be changes.

Motion PASSED to reduce zone team expenses from $45,000 to $40,000, in effect reducing the PVS subsidy from $15,000 to $10,000, and increase the travel assistance budget from $66,200 to $71,200. The motion reflected the fact that the Zone Meet would be in Potomac Valley next year and therefore it was felt that we could accommodate this one time reduction in expenses and at the same time we continue to run a deficit in our Travel Assistance and that this change would better reflect financial realities.

Motion PASSED to approve the 1999-2000 budget as revised at this meeting.

Board of Directors/Review: Dave Scibetta reported that the following positions were open for nominations:

Vice Chairman of the Finance Division - John Ertter will run.

Vice Chairman of the Senior Division - Jim Garner will run.

General Chairman - Thirl Crudup will run.

As there were no new nominations from the floor, nominations were closed.

Motion PASSED to elect the Nomination Committee slate by acclamation.

Nominations for Coach and Athlete Representative to the Board of Directors: These positions will be elected by their peers during the summer. Dave Scibetta opened the floor for nominations. Greg York and Steve Ercolano were nominated as Coaches’ Representatives. Amanda Sovik will remain as Sr. Athlete Rep; Kelly Burke was nominated to fill the open position.

Dick Rankin thanked Dave Scibetta for serving as Nominating Chairman.

There was no Old Business to report.

There was a discussion about the USA Club Membership proposal. Mark Eldridge will prepare a presentation to be presented to the Board by the Competition Committee. Dick Rankin charged all the PVS clubs to review the existing literature from USA Swimming on this issue and provide any input they choose to him by July 1 so that the Board can be prepared to represent the views of the LSC on this issue at the USAS Convention in September.

Dick Rankin congratulated the new electees and thanked them and the remaining chairs for their work, he concluded that it has been his pleasure to serve Potomac Valley.

Motion PASSED to adjourn meeting.