Minutes of PVS Officials Committee Meetings
Minutes of
PVS Officials Committee Meeting
April 24, 2008
Members present: Jim Van Erden Chair, Jim Garner, Bob Brofft, Jack Schaeffer, Tim Husson, Pam Starke Reed, Jim Thompson, Jack Neill, and Rita Page.
The meeting convened at 6:55 pm at Jim Van Erden's Office in Arlington, VA.
Miscellaneous Items: Jim Carey has asked for officials to help at the Masters Championship meet on June 19 – 22, 2008. A new Administrative Assistant has been hired, her name is Colleen D’Anna. An agreement has been reached between PVS and Virginia Swimming and Maryland Swimming for clinic reciprocity at the Stroke & Turn and Starter levels. Referee clinics will need to be pre-approved by the PVS Officials Chair. Bob Anderson has withdrawn from the Officials committee. DC is building a new pool to replace the one at Wilson HS.
Chase Starts: Fish has requested to use chase starts for the June 15-16 meet. Discussion was that the meet announcement would need to be changed, 50 meter event should all start at one end of the pool so chase starts should only be used for events over 100 meters. Any meet using the chase starts would need to have committee approval and sufficient officials and preparation of those officials. Minimum officials would mean 2 each referees and starters, 2 complete sets of table workers (Colorado and Hy-tek) as well as 2 complete sets of S&T judges (min of 8). Would also need 2 chief judges at each end of the pool? Both ends of the pool must be sufficient depth for starting off the blocks. Chase starts should only be used if the timeline requires it. It is suggested that girls start at one end and boys at the opposite end. If a sufficient number of officials do not show chase starts would not be allowed.
Clinic Materials: Ron Whalen has ordered 400 2008 USA Swimming mini rulebooks. We have enough pens, pins, magnets and lanyards to give out at clinics. Dick Griffith has ordered 180 shirts and is down to 4 boxes. He will need to order more. He is beginning to give Refs and Starters a second shirt. It was suggested that shirts be given to any S&T that will be working Zones and Sectionals. Pam indicated that she needs a S&T and Starter tape for clinics. Jim Van Erden has the projector.
Summer Clinics: All members should send their summer Stroke & Turn clinic schedules to Tim for posting on the website. Clinics must be taught by a PVS instructor to be accepted by PVS.
Awards: The Official’s Committee is holding a recognition reception on the April 26th to present Boots Hall with her Maxwell Awards from USA Swimming. We will also be presenting awards for various officials in PVS in recognition of their contributions to the LSA. Titles and names for the various awards that will be given at the reception were decided through email communications throughout the committee.
HOD Report: Jim Vane Erden will be compiling his report for the House of Delegates. He will need a clinic attendance report by May 6. Peter Nichols and Lionel Bejean attended the Officials workshop in Colorado last year.
Officials Tracking: USA Swimming has made tracking available online at the USA Swimming website. Referees can enter officials attendance for meets. It will not track trainees. Jim Van Erden will try to find a way to download the information for Jim Thompson to include in his database.
Committee Reorganization: Jim Van Erden, Jack Neill, Ron Whalen and Bob Brofft will look at our committee structure to see what may need to be done to better serve our officials. Some suggestions from the committee were to ask our officials what we can do improve, what they would like to see us do in the future. Bob Brofft stated that we need to get in touch with the club officials chairs and see what we can do to help them with retention and recruitment. VA Swimming has about the same number of officials but fewer swimmers. The committee agreed that recognition and rewards would be helpful some of which we currently do with the items we give to our officials when they attend clinics and the addition of the recognition reception. Need to schedule clinics more in the long term rather than just a few at the beginning of the season and adding more here and there. We should monitor meets for quality of officials. We should link with Clubs and neighboring LSC’s to help decide where we can improve. Our written materials have been great on the Dive-over starts and Timing Judge and we should continue that type of thing. Jim wants someone to spearhead the restructuring of the committee to divide up responsibilities. Jim Thompson will start a wiki for a place for discussion on committee structure and training materials.
Update on PVS Sign-off Officials: Jack Neill will be added to the Starter and Referee evaluation lists. Arvydas Barzdukas’ and Jim Carey’s names will be removed from the evaluators lists.
Update on Officials Website: Tim is in the process of revamping the officials web page and will add the award winners list. He will also add the timer briefing to the starters handout.
Meeting adjourned at 9:30 pm.
Next Meeting: September 7, 2008 at Boots Hall’s house time TBD
Respectfully submitted,
Rita Page
Committee Member