Minutes approved at the January 12, 2009 meeting

Potomac Valley Swimming

Board of Director’s Meeting

Overlee

6030 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA

December 8, 2008

• Dinner – 6: 30
• Call to order – Greg York called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm
• Those in attendance were: Greg York, Jim Garner, John Ertter, Riley Eaton, Bill Stephens, John Hirschman, Bill Marlin, Dan Jacobs, Art Davis, Jim Thompson, Jim Van Erden, Tim Husson, Corey Wallace, Brian Pawlowicz, Paris Jacobs, Virginia Ratcliff, Tara Banks, CJ Fiala and Terri Marlin
• Items Requiring Board Action
• Approval of November 10, 2008 Meeting Minutes – Motion was made, seconded and approved
• PVS Equipment: John Ertter & Karl Hellmann
• Purchase of new equipment: 2 new Infinity starters, 10 lane harness (back order), 30 buttons were ordered and received. A new plate and tripod now have also been ordered because the mounting bracket is different on the new starters.
• The Starting Platform for Lee District: It was shipped Dec 4, arrived Friday Dec 5 too late for the first High School Meet, it is expected to be used for all subsequent meets.
• Scoreboards at Fairland; It has been determined that several things have to happen before the scoreboard can be installed at Fairland 1. Fairland has to agree, 2. A spot has to be chosen, 3. Electricial has to be run, 4. Daktronics has to be called and brought in. 5. We need to find out who’s approval we actually need;  It must be understood that there is more involved then simply installing it, and once it goes up on the wall is becomes “their” equipment.
• PVS Computers: Tim Husson reported that PVS had previously purchased new Vista Laptops. Last fall we couldn’t get them to network. They were worked on and seemed to be able to be networked, however at the 08 Dolan Invitational they again were unable to configure the computers to network. It has been suggested we look at them again; Tim’s opinion is that it is Vista Operating System that is causing the problem. We will certainly need them for the Spring Champ meet. Greg makes a motion that Tim takes them, works on them and bills PVS for his services, second and approved.
• Moving equipment: All equipment has been moved form the home of the new equipment manager to Overlee’s game room. It can be housed there for the  9 months of the off season. PVS will make other plans for May, June and July when the club needs the room for its membership. PVS has a rental agreement with Overlee for $250/month. Greg makes a motion to “officially move” this equipment to Overlee, it was seconded There was then discussion about the environment , access to power, work space and proximity to the equipment managers home. Jake and Karl will continue to  look into another facility. No formal vote was taken and the motion was tabled.

• Naming Conventions for Swim Meets: John Ertter reported to the board that he thought that the words “Championship” and “National” are used too freely when naming Club meets held within PVS. Some feel that this makes it confusing for those outside the swimming world. There is some thought that USA Swimming has specific policies about using the word “National”. This will be looked into.
• There was a considerable amount of discussion on this topic. The general consensus was that PVS may need to more strictly enforce what meets are allowed to have the words “Championship/National” in them. Others felt it was important for the Board to determine the views of clubs currently sponsoring meeting using these term and of the Competition Committee and how making these changes in meet terminology might impact athlete support and performance at meets. No final decision was made. Additional discussion is needed.
• Proposal for Meet Manager Seminar: Bill Stephens; see report submitted.  Bill Stephens suggests putting together a manual with input from all aspects of running a meet within PVS, so all meet managers have a reference to look at and learn from.
• The general consensus of the board is that this is a great idea to revive this publication. PVS has a number of knowledgeable meet managers who should be consulted in the assembly of this manual. Bill Stephen has said he will continue to work on this project.
• Programming for 8 & under Age Group: Bill Stephens; Several years ago we had quite a few discussions about the difficulty running 8 & under meets and surviving financially; it has been discussed in the past for PVS to make arrangements to run short, quick mini meets in which PVS would pay for the rental, and we would  just needed someone to collect the entries and run the meet. Nothing official was concluded by the Board, however there are some clubs that have stepped up and begun to run several short, quick Mini Meets for the 8 & unders. Discussion continued and the general consensus was that although PVS doesn’t do very much programming for 8 & unders many clubs do and there are many opportunities for our younger athletes to compete.
• Appointment of New Athlete Rep (CJ Fiala): Greg York – CJ introduced himself, swimmer from Machine, Westfield HS, 10^th grade; Greg makes a recommendation for CJ to fill the Athlete Rep vacancy, so moved, approved. He will be filling the vacancy created by Cassidy Wolfe’s resignation.
• Use of Trainee Officials at Meets with Tight Timelines: Bill Marlin was asked to bring this up as a concern raised by a meet manager at a recent meet; it will be referred to the Officials Committee for their consideration.
• The meet ref does have the authority to have them work or not work; and each trainee should be working directly with a certified official. It was noted that a trainee S & T cannot impact the timeline and trainee Starters and Referees need to work under direct supervision. The Meet Manager has a say in this practice as well.
• There should be a supervisory official to take over if there are issues with timelines.
• Time Standards for B/BB Championship Meet: Dan Jacobs; For the B/BB championships 15 and over were added to the meet format this year to give them another opportunity to swim. The name of the meet should probably change because the type of meet it is will be changing due to the addition of Junior Champs to the PVS schedule. One recommendation is to take out NST times and accept NT, make the meet a 2 session each day (12 & under and 13 & over). Many of these kids are developmental therefore getting more swimmers in the meet would be a good thing. Time Standards for the “open” are NFT the JR Champs, the 14 & under right up to the JO cuts. There are concerns that using this format the meet will quickly become too big, so it was suggested that wording be put into the meet announcement to limit the total number of entries or swimmers that will be accepted into the meet.
• These suggested changes will be taken to the Competition Committee Meeting in January then brought back to the board, with all considerations addressed.
• Planning for Black History Swim Meet: The DC government has hired Brendan McElroy as the new Aquatics Director for DC, he is the former coach of the Baltimore City Swim Club (BCSC) and he was also Age Group Chair from Maryland Swimming LSC. He is excited to be involved within PVS.
•  Paris Jacobs is now involved again and is working with Brendan and Sean Link from Takoma
• The Black History Meet is now an Approved Meet; this is a done deal. The PVS Board approved chanting its previous authorization of this meet from a sanctioned meet to an approved meet. It will be a 3 meet format, 2 courses, Friday night Distance, about 30 teams from all over the US. The Mayor is excited about this event, they are getting, a lot of press coverage and have been getting people excited about this event. They are working to get Cullen Jones, however DC will be happy to get any high profile athlete.
• They are requesting PVS support, for additional equipment and officials.
• This will not be a DC Wave meet, this is a DC Parks and Recreation meet along with USA Swimming and Potomac Valley Swimming
• A meeting will be set up with Brendan, Ertter, Greg and Paris
• Old Business: nothing to discuss
• New Business
• Athlete Representative: Virginia: thinks it would be nice that every athlete has an opportunity to get “outstanding athlete” as a single age group instead of by two year age brackets as is currently done.
• The Board was in favor of this idea, but had a few comments and suggestions; including wheter they wanted to add a provision to preclude an athlete from getting an award in multiple age brackets.
• Virginia will work on this and get all necessary information to Bill and Riley to take before the Competition Committee Meeting in January
• Suggestion to large, multiple site clubs: Bill Marlin asked that when these clubs (for example CUBU, RMSC) send a meet entries in to the meet manager that they include their site name in the zip file name. This will make it easier to process entries and keep track of funds owed.
• PVS Website Home Page Posting: Bill Marlin: The question was asked “What should get posted on the PVS home page in terms of announcements, results, etc. for Club sponsored meets?”
• Tim stated he doesn’t refuse anyone, he has restructured the home page to fit more information on it.
• Some discussion that it may appear that one club get preferential treatment over others and/or the website may get to over crowded with so much information. Ideas are being thought of to help relieve these potential problems
• Manga: passed out a flyer about a new portal “SWIM Club Management Portal”
• Brian: Tom Dolan Meet: see report submitted
• Greg: Thought if anyone went to the annual USAS Convention, PVS would pay for the registration fee if they are not on the board. Greg asked if we could pay the registration for a coach who attended the meetings. In lieu of this approach, they apply to be reimbursed under PVS “continuing education” program. In exchange they will bring us information from the meetings attended. The general consensus of the board is that this would be appropriate.
• Reports
• Athlete Representatives: Virginia Ratcliff, Tara Banks: see New business above.
• Executive Directors Report: John Ertter: see report submitted
• Administrative: Art Davis; no report submitted
• Webmaster Report: Tim Husson: Would like to continue to add pictures to the PVS Website, he just needs multiple people to send in pictures to him.
• Finance/Accounting: Bill Stephens, John Ertter
• Operations Division: Karl Hellmann; see report submitted. Proposal in report was tabled.
• Senior Division: Riley Eaton: A Meet Referee and Chief Starter for Sectionals at Germantown have been secured by Boots. See report submitted
• Age Group Division: Bill Marlin; see report submitted
• Coaches Representatives: Dan Jacobs, Manga Dalizu; no report submitted
• Officials: Jim VanErden;
• Insight into what meets get the N2/N3 certified meets; can we get others, requirements are that it is a prelims/finals, must find people who agree to be the observers, which can be difficult, the sooner the request is submitted the better chance of having meet approved.
• Strategic Planning: Jim Thompson; no report submitted
• Next Board Meeting: Monday January 12; Dinner 6:30, Meeting at 7:00
• Adjourn