Potomac Valley Swimming
Board of Director’s Meeting
Army Navy Country Club
July 20, 2010
· Dinner
· Call to order – The meeting discussion began at 7:04 pm.
· Attendance – Several Board Members were absent from the meeting, therefore no official votes could be taken because there was not a quorum present. Discussions were held and straw votes were taken when appropriate. Attendance; Voting Board Members; Greg York, Jim Thompson, Riley Easton, Bill Marlin, Manga Dalizu and Yuri Suguiyama. Non-voting Board Members and attendees; John Hirschmann, Linda Klopfenstein, Miriam Lynch, Tim Husson, Brian Pawlowicz, Jim Garner, Bob Vincent, John Ertter and Terri Marlin.
· Approval of April 12, 2010 Meeting Minutes – Motion made to approve the Minutes from the April 12, 2010 Board Meeting; no vote taken, but an E-vote was sent out. [Motion passed through E-vote.]
· Approval of April 26, 2010 Meeting Minutes – Motion made to approve the Minutes from the April 26, 2010 Board Meeting; no vote taken, but an E-vote was sent out. [Motion passed through E-vote.]
· Approval of June 14, 2010 Unofficial Meeting Minutes – Motion made to approve the Minutes from the June 14, 2010 Board Meeting; no vote taken, but an E-vote was sent out. [Motion passed through E-vote.]
· Requests for Athlete Travel Assistance Grants – Paralympic Nationals; Linda Klopfenstein reported that she received 2 requests for athlete travel assistance for the Spring Can-Am Paralympic Swimming Nationals. One request was submitted prior to deadline, the second request arrived more than 2 weeks late, in addition the second request was incomplete and not signed by the coach. Linda recommended approving the first request, but feels the second request should be denied because it was late and incomplete.
o Greg also recommends the approval of the first request and the denial of the second, but informing the club that there is an appeal process they can explore, because no one wants to see the swimmer punished because the coach didn’t follow the application process correctly.
o Motion to approve one Junior share of travel assistance to the first applicant and deny the second. No vote was taken, but an E-vote was sent out. [Motion passed through E-vote.]
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· Requests for Athlete Travel Assistance Grants – Open Water Nationals; Linda also reported that she has received one request for travel assistance for the Open Water Nationals held this past spring. This meet is not on our current list of meets which travel assistance is granted; however historically PVS has approved travel assistance for other National Championship Open Water meets. The swimmer participated in both the 10K and 5K races. Linda recommends that we approve the request for this one Open Water Meet. There was also discussion whether to pay $250 or $450. Historically, $250 was paid when the Open Water meets for the 5K, 10K, and 25K were held at different times and venues. However, now the Open Water National Championship events (5K, 10K, 25K) are now swum as part of one meet at the same venue over a 5 day period.
o Motion to approve a senior share of $450 for Open Water Nationals. No vote was taken, but an E-vote was sent out. [Motion passed through E-vote.]
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· Water Safety Day & Zone Diversity Camp – Miriam Lynch reported that on Saturday July 24 the DC Parks and Rec will be host an event at the Deanwood Community Center. Potomac Valley Swimming as well as several other organizations have been invited to participate. The idea is to promote safety in swimming and the new Deanwood Community Center facility in DC. Miriam has secured several PVS swimmers and coaches to go down and help work at the various stations planned. Miriam feels this is a great opportunity to help promote both PVS and USA Swimming. USA-S has donated Make a Splash promotional items to give out to the participants. Greg expressed his apologies for PVS not being able to fully support this event, however given this weekend is the PVS Long Course Age Group Championships, as well as many summer league meets through the area, it is a very busy weekend for coaches, officials and swimmers; however PVS will do what they can and will continue to support Diversity Swimming.
o Diversity Zone Camp: Miriam reported that USA Swimming is giving each zone $4000 to run this camp in the coming year (2011). Miriam is interested in organizing a similar camp for PVS. The target athletes will be those just below the Diversity Select Camp level. She has talked to Sean Link from DC and he has expressed interest and has given preliminary permission for use of the Wilson Pool in the spring of 2011 to help promote the pool.
o Black History Meet – February 2011 will mark the 25th anniversary of the Black History Meet. The DC Government and USA Swimming are heavily promoting this event. Both organizations are working hard to make this a premier event, and will be looking towards PVS for continued support.
o Art Lopez has requested a grant to help to continue to support his “Nada por Vida” program which has continued to grow and improve. Ertter has asked him to send in a formal request so that the board can officially vote. Jim Garner and Miriam Lynch with both follow up with Art about his request.
· HyTek Team Manager Version 6.0 Purchase – Team Manager 6.0 is being released in the next month, version 5 support will end at the end of the year. Jim Garner received permission from the Board to purchase TM6.0 to distribute to the appropriate PVS Contractors and others who need it for PVS business.
· Proposed Action Against a PVS Team with a History of Writing Bad Checks – There is a small PVS Team with a history of bouncing checks for meet entry fees as well as registration checks. John Ertter has written them a letter requesting that they place a deposit of $1000 with PVS, once their “account” falls below $500 they will be asked to replenish. In reality John feels that they will only be able to afford $500 deposit and then will be asked to replenish at $250.
o It was suggested that this club be required to only send in certified checks or money orders for all PVS meet entries and registrations.
o Although, several clubs have also received bad checks for meet entries from this club, Ertter states he feels PVS cannot tell the clubs how to handle these issues.
o One possibility is that we tell the team that PVS will not accept any athlete’s registrations or club registration for the 2010-2011 season until all past checks are paid in full.
o Bob Vincent recommends that there be a policy written pertaining to this matter so there is a policy to follow and the rules are the rules. Bob was asked to work on a policy regarding bounced check for meet entries and registrations by end of August.
· Summer LC Zone Athlete Fee – John Ertter recommended at HOD to make the fee $140, however several others pointed out that the 2010 LC Zone Team information has already been posted with the fee of $160 and many have already paid this fee. Therefore, refunding the $20 difference would be impractical. It was recommended that Bill Marlin talk with Shelley and Dave about adding a $20 item to the athletes goodies bag, to offset the difference.
· Proposal to Engage Sarfino & Rhodes LLP to Perform 2009-2010 PVS Financial Audit – The Audit Committee is now overseeing the firm who will perform the annual audit of PVS’s financial statements. The Audit Committee has received a proposed Engagement Letter from Sarfino and Rhodes LLP, the Audit company, which we have previously used. The proposed fee is similar previous years. Therefore John Hirschmann, the Chair of the Audit Committee, informed the Board that after he reviewed the engagement letter he will be recommending to the Audit Committee accept their proposal. In addition John informed the Board that he has asked Ed Dona, a certified CPA, to join John, Manga Dalizu and Bob Vincent on the Audit Committee. Greg and the rest of the Board in attendance all agreed that Ed would be a great addition to the Audit Committee.
· USAS Convention – Currently, 19 PVS members are expected to attend the USAS Convention this September in Dallas, Texas, with at least 12 expected to have votes as the USAS HoD. If there is anyone who has not sent in their information to Linda please do so by Aug. 1 or you will not be registered by Linda, therefore you will be responsible to register yourself and pay your own fees. All attendees should have a white, navy, royal and denim PVS shirt, if you do not have any one of them, send a note to Bill Stephens. In addition Linda needs to know the day you are arriving and departing days by Aug 1. Remember that reimbursement for travel and lodging will only given for those who stay for the HOD meeting, Saturday morning.
o Bob Vincent informed the Board that he was interested in attending this year’s convention as well. He will get all of his information to Linda by the deadline.
o May 2010 Competition Committee Report & Proposal – Bill Marlin reported the final two assistant Zone coaches have been chosen. Yuri Suguiyama, CUBU and Tony Murray, FAST will join Denise Adams, Rebecca Brofft, Anthony Pedersen and Scott Bryant who were endorsed by the Competition Committee in May as the assistant coaches. Motion to accept the previously named coaches as assistant coaches for the 2010 LC Age Group Zone meet. No vote taken, an E-vote will be sent out. [Motion passed through E-vote.]
o A letter was recently sent out to the PVS community through FLASH Mail with clarification of the policies regarding sanctioning of club meets and requirements to have club meets placed on the schedule and therefore sanctioned. In addition to this letter and separate letter and phone call was supposed to be going out to the clubs, who have already placed meets on the schedule explaining policies and expressing the expectations of the sanction requests.
o It has been suggested to leave the information as it is for now and then between now and September clarify and firm up the policies with the aid of the Executive Director, in coming Administrative Chair and the in-coming Operations Chair. Calls will be made by the Executive Director to clubs currently on the schedule.
· Planning for September 2010 Sexual Harassment Workshop – A proposed agenda was sent out prior to the June BOD meeting, he has not received any comments so he is going to go with what was proposed. It was agreed that John Ertter continue with planning for the Seminar for the weekend of Sept 25-26. CCM is currently scheduled for Sunday, which will be moved if necessary. It was also announced that the Official’s Committee has a Referee’s clinic also scheduled for this weekend. As John continues with the planning for the seminar he will attempt to not conflict with the Referee’s clinic. The seminar will focus on what clubs/businesses need to do to protect themselves from these types of behaviors, including hiring and other business practices.
· Reports
o Executive Director – John recently sent an email to the Board stating that he will be at AG Champs, this weekend, escorting Amy Shipley from the Washington Post.
o Athlete Representatives – no report submitted
o Administrative – no report submitted
o Webmaster – Tim Husson will be switching web hosting companies in August. It will provide a significant cost saving for PVS over the current hosting company.
o Finance/Accounting – see report/information submitted by the Treasurer on the Financial Workshop presented by USA Swimming.
o Operations – The incoming Operation Chair, Brian Pawlowicz reported that the air at UMD, this past weekend for Junior and Senior Champs, was different because in the past several weeks UMD changed their system from Bromine to Chlorine. Thursday evening the air was not too bad, but it became was worse Friday morning. The staff at UMD quickly figured out the problem and fixed it by the Friday evening session. Additionally this year is the last year for Y Nationals being held at UMD and discussions have begun about the possibility running LC AG Champs there next year, in addition to Junior and Senior Champs. As planning for the 2011 LC Schedule continues, the CCM will keep the possibility of UMD for LC AG Champs in mind.
o Senior Swimming – Bill and Riley continued the discussion the restructuring of SC Championships this past weekend at Senior Champs and will continue to work on setting the date for the meeting with the coaches.
o Age Group Swimming – no report submitted
o Coaches Representatives – A big thanks to the Officials for stepping up again to support and work Junior and Senior Championships this past weekend.
o Officials – The Officials Committees is urging the coach members of the board to continue to encourage your parents to help with the upcoming LC Age Group Championships as an Official or timer. A Flash mail will be sent out with this request.
o Strategic Planning – no report submitted
· Date for the Next BOD Meeting: October 11, 2010
· Items to be deferred to a later meeting:
o Study to develop appropriate target for LSC financial reserves
o Potential treatment of future budget surpluses (to be discussed in conjunction with item above)
· Adjourn at 9:39 pm