Minutes of Officials Committee Meetings
MINUTES OF
PVS OFFICIALS COMMITTEE MEETING
September 27, 2007
Members present: Jim Van Erden Chair, Jim Garner, Denice Wepasnick, Bob Brofft, Tim Husson, Dick Griffith, Pam Starke Reed, Jim Thompson, Jack Neill, Jack Schaeffer and Rita Page.
The meeting convened at 7:00 pm at Jim Van Erden's Office in Arlington, VA.
Minutes: Minutes from the January meeting were reviewed and approved.
Clinics: The Referee clinic is scheduled for October 27, 2007. There are currently several S&T and Starter clinics scheduled in Maryland and Virginia. Denice is trying to schedule clinics at Fairland and is having difficulty getting through to someone to reserve the space. Occoquan has indicated that they would like to have clinics at the Freedom Center again this year. Machine has also indicated the desire to host clinics.
Tim Husson and Linda Raab are currently working on updating the Hy-tek training materials. The one currently on the website are from 2002. Tim had updated the Colorado material last year.
Jim Van Erden asked all committee members to watch the new USA Swimming Starter video and make notes on any item that needed to be corrected or emphasized He had also suggested trying to get someone to tape several of our meets and perhaps make our own video. Jim also asked that clinic instructors keep a list of frequently asked questions.
New Referees: The Committee reviewed the list of potential referees from the list of starters and decided to invite the following to become referees. Bentley Andrews, Mac Frampton, Steve Green, Merle Kellerhals, Angie Kotonias Jack Moody, Ray Richardson and Steve Youngblood will be contacted by Jim Van Erden.
Travel Reimbursement: Jim Van Erden sent travel guidelines to the Board for approval. The form for pre-approval of travel reimbursement will be put on the website and officials requesting reimbursement will use that same form to apply for reimbursement once they have completed their travel. The Committee voted to keep the current guidelines and to make no changes at this time.
Newsletter: The committee has decided to revive the newsletter. It will be issued on a quarterly basis to begin with and several members of the committee will work together to compose it. Denice will still remain the editor. The email lists for referees and starters has been updated and a list of stroke & turn officials has been created by John Hirschmann and Rita Page and they will continue to work on keeping it updated with the help of Tim Husson.
Virginia High School Swimming: Jim Thompson informed the committee that VHSL will be accepting PVS certification as certifying for High School swim officials. Jim will sell high school rule books at the Swimposium, the high school clinics and at the October Open at Lee District pool. Regions will be a 3 day meet this year, being held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Swimposium: Jim mentioned that one of the topics to be covered at the official’s track of the Swimposium would be a detailed explanation of the N2 and N3 evaluation process. The Dolan meet has asked to be designated as an N2 & N3 Certifying meet. Jim asked for any other suggestions of items to be covered for the officials track.
Website: Tim gave us a tour through the website and showed the additions/changes he has made. He asked the committee to review pages and links and let him know if anything needs to be updated or changed. Tim also asked if we should put a search feature on the website and the response was an overwhelming yes. Tim asked for suggestions for new content or graphics. It was also suggested that we put pictures on the website. Jim will review all test results for the most frequently missed questions from the various official's tests for clinic and newsletter content.
National Meets: Jack Neill attended the National meet and reported that on deck cameras were in place and served as the backup timing system. When cameras are being used Officials must stand on an "X" to be out of the way. Several underwater cameras were also in place, being tested for possible use for "instant replay" reviews at other major meets. Apparently the decision was made later that these underwater cameras need further testing, and will not be used for the Beijing Olympics. Carol Zaleski, the Vice-Chair of the FINA Technical Committee said the cameras may be used for instant replay or review situations.
Denice went to Junior National meet and used the Omega system that records reaction time of the swimmer. It also had electronic take-off capability for relays.
Pam worked the Open Water Meet and reported that while there is an official uniform of white tops over khaki bottoms, once out on the course these may be removed down to swimsuit level. Organization is the key to running an open water meet. The Referees job is to count heads and keep track of the swimmers. Officials are only watching freestyle and watch for inappropriate physical contact between swimmers and that the swimmers stay on course. Chloe Sutton won the 5K, 10K and 25K. The Open Water Masters 5k has a time limit. They use photo finishes for these meets.
Shirts, etc.: Dick reported that he has plenty of PVS officials shirts and we should let him know if there is anyone we know that has not received there shirt. Jim Van Erden has many of the other items that we hand out to officials.
Other Items: Jim told us that the Board informed those teams that had not met the officials requirements for their team size and have given them until the end of the year to meet the requirements before sanctions are imposed.
Officials Tracking: USA Swimming now has the capability of tracking meets worked for officials on their website.
Meeting adjourned at 9:30 pm.
Next Meeting: Two dates were set for our next meetings, Thursday January 24, 2008 and Thursday April 24, 2008.
Respectfully submitted,
Rita Page
Committee Member