MINUTES OF
PVS OFFICIALS COMMITTEE MEETING
JULY 7, 1999


Attendees

The meeting was called to order at 7:15 p.m. at the Catholic University Law School. Present were: John Hirschmann, Chairman; Arvydas Barzdukas, Bob Brofft, Jim Carey, Marty Cohen, Tyanna Ertter, Jim Garner, Dick Griffith, Frank Persico, and Jack Schaeffer.

Minutes

Minutes of the February 23 and May 25 meetings were distributed.

Committee Reports

Jim Carey reported that the volume of officials tests being submitted for grading has slowed to a trickle during the summer. The 1998 test will only be graded through the end of August, 1999. All tests received for grading subsequent to that date must be the 1999 test.

USA Swimming National Rules Committee Arvydas Barzdukas and John Hirschmann reported on several issues being considered by the National Rules Committee. These include:

• Use of whistle protocol for starts. For National meets, USA Swimming has already implemented the FINA whistle protocol in lieu of the traditional commands to "step up" on the blocks. LSCs may already seek a waiver if they wish to use the whistle sequence in lieu of the prescribed spoken commands.

• No recall of false starts. The new protocol, which will be used at Speedo Juniors and Phillips 66 Nationals, will NOT recall false starts. Swimmers will be disqualified for false starts similar to the manner in which DQs for stroke violations are charged – at the completion of the heat. PVS will wait and consider whether to implement this protocol until further experience has been gathered.

• USA Swimming will recommend adding longer distance events for the younger age groups, and may also add shorter distances for the older swimmers..

• There are many less significant rule changes proposed, mostly of the nature of perfecting the language in the rule book, or clarifying administrative rules. There are also extensive changes proposed for open water swimming. These can be viewed on the USA Swimming web site.

• USA Swimming is about to add an Officials Page to their web site this summer. It will display information concerning rules, interpretations, and other matters of general interest to the swimming officiating community.

• Hirschmann advised the Committee that the USA Swimming Officials Chairman would be coordinating staffing for the World Cup to be held at UMD in November.

Fall Officials Clinics

Sites and dates for clinics are being secured. It is the intent to distribute clinics at sites in Maryland, DC and Virginia, and on weekday evenings as well as weekends. Some of the clinics will be planned at some of the newly opened competition facilities, such as the University of Maryland, and George Mason University. The schedule will be posted on the PVS web site when it is finalized.

Hirschmann advised the Committee of a request he had received to present a special Stroke & Turn clinic specifically for officials from one of the PVS teams. The Committee agreed that the request should be denied, particularly since a clinic is already planned for one of the pools at which the requesting team trains.

The schedule will need to be coordinated with those planned for Hy-Tek, CTS, and Meet Directors. The date of the Fall Competition Committee meeting is already known.

No major changes in the schedule will be made. A third Stroke and Turn clinic for the fall was added.

Invitations to First Time Referees

The committee reviewed the roster for active Starters who have been certified for at least one year. After discussion, several Starters were selected for invitation to train as Referees. Since input from club officials chairman had not been sought prior to this meeting (which is normal practice) their input will still be sought in some cases. Hirschmann will contact those officials to invite them to attend the First Time Referee's clinic in September.

Officials for Senior Champs LC Meet

John Hirschmann will serve as Meet Referee for the 1999 Senior Long Course Meet. Bob Brofft will serve as Admin Referee. The Committee proceeded to assign other officiating positions to all sessions from the nominations submitted by Club Officials Chairs. The normal practice of giving first priority to assigning Starters and then Referees was followed to ensure adequate staffing of all sessions. Hirschmann was authorized to make adjustments based on input received following the meeting and complete the assignment of Stroke and Turns to individual sessions.

This meet has been approved for National Certification for officials who work at least three sessions, and also officiate at a minimum of one other qualifying PVS meet this summer.

George Mason Pool

Hirschmann and Garner discussed with the Committee their experiences to date in using the new George Mason pool. The PVS Senior Championship will be the first major PVS meet to be competed in this pool. They discussed use of the GMU-provided timing equipment, the absence of the second bulkhead (which is still on order), special parking arrangements, the likely locations for hospitality and officials meetings, how to display competitors names on the scoreboard, etc.

OVCs at Senior Champs Meet

John Hirschmann indicated that arrangements have been made for the results from PVS Senior Champs to be sent in electronic form to USA Swimming. Times fast enough to qualify for Speedo Juniors or Phillips 66 Nationals will be extracted and automatically entered into the OVC data base. These times will only be recorded for "normal" swims, meaning swimmers competing in individual events at the full event distance. This does NOT include lead-off legs from relays, or splits at initial distances in longer events. Linda Klopfenstein, PVS OVC Officer, will still provide paper OVCs for those swims whose times will not be automatically entered into the data base.

Personnel Matter

The Committee discussed the intent of a former official to become recertified. This individual voluntarily removed himself from officiating over two years ago as a result of an incident of inappropriate behavior on deck. In the interim, this individual has timed at all PVS meets he attended and has been observed as an official in other forums (summer league and high school) without any known reoccurrence of inappropriate behavior. The Committee agreed that that individual should not be prohibited from recertifying and working as an official at PVS meets. Should there be any recurrence of inappropriate behavior, this individual will be subject to existing PVS procedures that permit revocation of certification.

Future Meeting Location and Date

The Committee agreed to meet again in September, with date and time to be announced.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.