Potomac Valley Swimming

Competition Committee Meeting

Overlee Community Center

May 18, 2016

· Attendance – Bruce Andersen-HACC, Mark Faherty-PVS, Yvonne Taylor-UMAC, Natalie Taylor-UMAC, Greg York-PVS, Heather Haddock-MAKO, Tim Husson-PVS, Bill Marlin-PVS, Brian Pawlowicz-NCAP, Aaron Dean-OCCS, Matt Pelletier-FISH, Heather Purk-PVS, Heather Holmes-NCAP, Mark Eldridge-RMSC, Evan Stiles-PVS, Jocelyn Sowa-LMAC, Ian Handerhan-SDS, Erik Collins-SNOW, Lynne Gerlach-MSSC, Corey Wallace-NCAP, Joe Flaherty-JFD, Robbie Robins-NCAP, Magna Dalizu-FAST, Jorge Silva-TIBU, Kent Williams-RMSC, Dan Jacobs – MACH, LynnAnn Nickly - MACH

· Call to Order – The Meeting was called to order at 7:03 pm by Mark Faherty, Senior Chair

· Approval of Minutes – Motion to approve the minutes from the Winter Competition Committee Meeting, seconded and approved.

· Eastern Zone Meeting Report – The EZ meeting was the first weekend in May in New Jersey

o There has been a lot of talk between the 4 Zones and USA Swimming. USA-S understands each zone is very unique and communication is going well between the various zones and USA Swimming. Previously Going forward, our voices will be heard.

o The USA Swimming had previously stated that their website was being updated and more user friendly. The goal was to have it ready by Trials, however; the updates will not be ready until the fall.

o 10 & U numbers are down across the country. Each LSC should start looking at their own. PVS will discuss.

o Online membership – Starting next spring the online system should be ready and it will be easier for teams to register their athletes online.

o Women’s leadership – There will be 2 more Women’s Leadership Conferences this year Ft. Lauderdale in Sept, Arizona in November

o There will be a survey to all LSC/members regarding the LGBT community and the acceptance of this community.

o Trials – all tickets sold out (14,500 seats) for all sessions! There will be a website where you can buy and sell tickets; www.primesport.com. There will be lots of great productions to engage kids in swimming.

o Olympics – The athlete village is coming along, While there are some concerns with the virus, experts feel it should be at a minimum, due to the fact it is winter down there.

o For 2016 there is no LC Super Sectional meet due to the fact there was no host. (Senior Zone 4-7 August and AG Zone 3-6 August)

o Technical Planning –

§ There will be a Sunday am distance option at Winter Sectionals for relays and distance (not really an a.m. option, just an earlier option)

§ Thursday night time trials, distance free events have been added, there could be other events added at the Meet Referee discretion.

o Scholastic All-American – June 4 applications will open through August 15, 2016 (time period from August 15, 2015 to August 15, 2016). The time standards have been made faster, they are now, 2015 Winter Junior Time Standards (came from the Athletes on the committee). No more special recognition for 4.0…there are too many. Online application which will pull the times right out of SWIMS.

· Board Reports

o General Chair –

§ At USA Swimming there is a lot of talk about Diversity/Inclusion. They want clubs and LSC to focus on D/I.

§ There are some clubs who still PVS money/fee (sanctioning fees, splash fees, etc). Bill will be sending out emails to these clubs/accounts to inform them. Starting with LC Open meets, these clubs will not be able to enter any athletes until these bill are paid.

§ Bids – If you want to host a meet in 2016=2017 please submit bids to Terri.

§ Board Positions – There are several open board positions and nomination information is on the PVS website. Elections are in July (Admin, Strategic Planning, Operations, Safe Sport and AG Chair).

§ Reminder: Athletes are invited to HOD. Each club is allowed to bring 2 athletes. Athletes should make 20% of the attendance.

o Admin Chair – not submitted

o Safe Sport –

§ There was a Meeting in April in Colorado Springs.

§ The Transgender issue is a hot topic. They are very hesitant is making any firm guidelines because of the different state lines and laws. They are allowing these athletes choose how they want to be viewed. They can swim as a male or a female, but they must be registered as that gender. The athlete may wear the uniform of the gender they identify with. As far as USA Swimming is concerned trans-gender athletes can use which ever locker room they want. You can ask them to use uni-sex, but can’t require.

§ Marshals – At the USA Swimming Convention in September there will be legislation regarding marshals. Each club will have to have one that is certified. There will be a certification course for this lead Marshal position and that individual will have to be registered. They will train other marshals at the meets. Each club will have to have that person, but they could also be an Official, Coach, etc.

§ Safe sport Coordinator on each club – USA Swimming is really pushing to have a Safe Sport representative on each club.

o Athlete Reps – not submitted

o AG Chair – not submitted

o SR Chair -

§ At HOD there will be a proposal to increase the amount of travel assistance PVS gives to the clubs for their athletes. Travel assistance in our LSC has been underwhelming. Previously Juniors was $250, National has been $450. The proposal will be for $600 for all meets as long as they fulfill all the requirements (4 swims in PVS in the year).

· What is the budget impact of this increase? In the budget, we added $10,000 to the previous amount. However, we have never used the full amount and feels this will get us to use the full budget.

§ As we go forward we will also look at increasing Olympic Trials reimbursement from $800 to $1000 for the 2020 trials.

o Coaches Rep –

§ Continuing with the newsletters monthly. Still doing a meet survey each month. Mostly athletes and officials are responding. It is only a 10 question survey, but very few coaches are responding, please make an effort to respond.

§ Sending monthly emails with the coaches who are invalid. If they need a cert, please send to Terri. If they are no longer with your club please let Terri know so they can be made un-attached.

§ There will be a lifeguarding re-cert course, Greg is offering on at Overlee ($150) on Sunday, May 22.

§ What do we do on deck to enforce coaches on deck since we are not have cards anymore?

· There were several ideas tossed around as how to better enforce as we go forward. All coaches should be diligent on keeping up their certifications. If they are not up to date you will be asked to leave the pool deck.

§ Evan Stiles is our newest Coaches Rep. He was voted in this past spring. Congratulations and thank you.

o Diversity – Thanks to Merari who ran the most successful Diversity Summit in history. June 22-25 in New Jersey. More information will be coming soon. We would like to send 4 athletes.

§ They thanked Miriam for her time as the zone coordinator. The new diversity is Pete Maloney from Tsumini.

§ This past weekend there was a Catch the Spirit Camp. It went very well with athletes from numerous teams in PVS.

o Officials/Operations –

§ Our new equipment manager is Chris Whipple at UMD.

§ Tim is our resource for rules and Official questions. The new rule book just went into effect at the start of this month.

· 102.8 – Swim suits – suits need to meet the specifications of FINA. No fasteners allowed (no zippers, external ties) for competition.

· Tape – tape is not allowed unless approved by the referee. If they have tape on a part of their body, they must check in with the referee and get approved prior to the start of competition.

· If for medical or religious reason they need to wear a swim suit that doesn’t not conform, they can get a letter of approval from USA Swimming R & R.

· Changing from a racing suit to a bikini top? According to USA S- that is considered a deck change…if a female suit is taken past the shoulders it is considered a deck change.

· Meet Schedule for 16-17 – Any date changes? New Meets?

o Date changes – SNOW Qualifiers from Feb 4 to 11. Motion to allow the February SNOW Qualifier to move from February 4 to February 11, seconded and approved.

o New Meets – NCAP would like to add the following meets to the 2016-2017 schedule

§ Feb 17-19 at WARF – NCAP Winter Qualifier

§ May 26-28 at Jeff Rouse in Stafford – NCAP Spring Invite (trials/finals format)

§ Motion to add the two NCAP meets to the 2016-2017 season, Seconded and approved.

§ Will the February meet take swimmers out of the PVS 18 & U Qualifier? Yes possibly. To clarify, the body and bod have approved that club meets can conflict with PVS meets, except for Champ meets.

· Selection of LC Zone Assistant Coaches – Heather Purk head coach, Jeremy Schneier assistant head coach.

o Chris Schlegal (ASA), Liz Badley (HACC), Jocelyn Sowa (LMAC), Nicole Harmon (FISH), Gian Polignano (TOLL) are all on the ballot to be assistant coaches for the 2016 LC AG Zone Team.

o Motion to vote Chris Schlegal (ASA), Liz Badley (HACC), Jocelyn Sowa (LMAC), Nicole Harmon (FISH), Gian Polignano (TOLL) as Summer LC Zone coaches in by acclimation, seconded and approved.

o Motion to allow the 2 head coaches to find 3 additional coaches and bring them to BOD for final approval, second and approved.

· Old Business –

o Short Course (spring) Junior & Senior Champs

§ Scratch policy (?) – At the last meeting, (for Senior Champs) we approved to move from the National Scratch Policy and go back to the “regular” positive check in for the summer meet, but wanted to see if they wanted to stick with it or change based upon how spring Champs went. For Junior Champs, they continued to do positive check in.

§ Brian Pawlowicz indicated he doesn’t have a strong opinion either way.

§ Motion to move away from the National rules starting Spring 2017 Senior Champs from National Scratch policy to a scratch policy with a morning deadline, seconded and approved.

· Will it be rolling check in or done all at the beginning? Tim Husson suggested to modify positive check in to a scratch only policy with a deadline of the morning. This would be roughly the same things, but only those scratching have to check in, not all 300 athletes will have to check in.

o New motion: Motion to make Spring 2017 Senior Champs to use a Scratch policy with a morning deadline, seconded and approved.

§ Would there still be a penalty? Yes, there would still be a no-show penalty.

§ Format of the Meet – The format of doing Senior Champs in am, Junior Champs mid-day, then finals. Brian reported that some liked it and some didn’t. But everyone seemed to like the longer breaks between events in the morning. GMU is very strict regarding numbers on deck and in the stands. With this new format, the numbers were better, there was only one session where there were number issues in the stands, ultimately it wasn’t a huge deal, it is likely a matter of conditioning the families and the clubs.

· Mark seems to think a majority of the people were happy as to how the meet went. The question is more was this a quality way and at the benefit of all athletes. If we were to go back to both meets running at the same time, we would have to change facilities.

o Potomac Marlins - The kids that were strictly Sr or Jr Champs it was awesome. But if they had to do some of both, it was much tougher, especially if they made finals.

o TIBU – for small clubs with limited staff, it was tough to be there all day. Liked combined meets in the past, the energy was better.

o MACH – It is tough on the staff, it is a long day for the coaches. Same facility would be great.

o RMSC – Would support the concept of going back to the old format.

o MAKO – Small team, would like to have the meets at the same time.

o FISH – like the meet better together

o HACC – mixed feelings, just one meet, has a great time. Hard for those trying to balance the two meets it was hard. For the coaches, we are getting paid to be there.

o FAST – the different format makes you change the way you enter the kids. We have always done this format, similarly, in the summer. It is just sitting down with the athletes, explain and decide which is in their best interest. The facility may ultimately be the deciding factor

o NCAP – They feel either way is fine

o OCCS – We tend to write off March as to a month of swim meets. The bonus structure, if we open it, then some of those kids wouldn’t have to do Juniors. Would be fine either way. At GMU-

o AAC – 95% of the kids, most of them did one of the other and it was great.

o MSSC – worked fine, could go either way

o SDS – worked fine – would be ok if it was at the same time.

o UMAC – Ultimately like it at the same time, but ok with how it is.

o YORK – wants consistence, so once decided, would like it to stay that way.

o LMAC – agrees with YORK

o SNOW – pro and cons to both – same weekend is best. More practical in a combined format

o JFD – Liked it as separate meets. Likes consistency, but understands a lot of this is driven by fire marshals and facility requirements.

o Athletes – they also commented that if they were doing both Jr and Sr. it was hard.

o Officials – it was hard to get officials for junior champs. The meet referee was asking Sr. Champs officials to stay.

· Would UMD be able to host both JR/SR one weekend and JOs the next weekend. Yvonne and Natalie said they would be open to that idea.

· Brian commented that several years ago we discussed with GMU about setting dates multiple of years in advance, but they are unable to do that. Will UMD book the pool for a number of years as well? UMD commented (Yvonne) that they would be interested in entertaining a multiple year agreement to schedule ahead of time.

· Motion to move Junior and Senior Champs to University of Maryland starting in March 2017, seconded and approved.

· Motion to make Short Course Junior & Senior Champs at the same time for prelims and finals, seconded and approved.

§ Summer LC Age Group Champs timelines – In the past we do not know the timelines for Summer AG Champs until a few days prior. This is not enough time to make changes. Chris Natoli (NCAP) sent in some ideas/proposals.

· Manga, suggests we have the entries due after LC Open 1 & 2 end in June, we can make entries due earlier in July since the meet towards the end of July, which will give more time to get the timelines out.

· For the 10 & U parents they feel a 2-hour timeline is too short for the kids swimming 3 events.

o This is an issue, but coaches should be able to monitor which events and the order the kids swim.

o There will always be concerns regardless of what the format is.

· Historically the we allowed the meet director to decide if there needs to be 2 or 3 sessions when we were at Fairland.

· What was the issue in 2015, why didn’t the meet director and meet referee make the change? This was due to the timelines coming out too late to make any changes.

· We can make the entries due July 5 to allow for a little more time for the time adjustments to the timeline be made. Because AG Champs is a PVS meet, PVS will make the final decision as to the timeline change with input from the Meet Director.

· Chase starts could be used to save roughly 45 meets, if needed.

· Will take all these notes back to the board and let the board come to a decision.

o Participation in SC Zones – a proposal from Dave Greene.

§ AT the EZ meeting, it was noted that there are a number of LSCs that no longer plan to participate in the SC AG Zone meet. Does PVS want to make a change as well? At the EZ meeting, we discovered that Mid-Atlantic and Maine have decided to pull out. There is a thought that maybe the Zone has out grown the purpose of this meet. There is a EZ Task force to discuss this and will vote in the fall on how to move forward with the meet.

§ There have been a number of different options for our athletes, so, while we are supposed to be sending our top 2/3 athletes in each event, we are instead sending swimmers that are way down on top times chart.

§ Some feel that PVS needs to go in 2017, as it will be too short of notice for some families/clubs if we were to decide not to go this season.

§ Bill, General Chair, said the Board will support whatever this body (LSC) decides to do, if they want to continue to go to the meet then PVS will continue to fund it.

§ There is a VSI proposal to run a AG Sectional in the spring and to keep swimmers in the LSC, and not have to go to Florida.

§ Motion for PVS to longer support the EZ Meet in the current format, seconded and

§ Amendment (MEL): Motion to discontinue the attendance in going to the 2017 SC AG Zone meet and to remove the amount from the budget and then off set the savings by decreasing the athlete registration fee by $2, seconded (saving $2 per athlete)

· There was a lengthy discussion regarding the pros and cons on PVS participation in the meet in 2017.

· Motion to have PVS no longer participate in the SC Zone Champ meet in the current format, seconded and defeated (13 no, 8 yes). We will stick it out one more year and see what the Zone task form does

· New Business

o UMD Closed summer 2017 – point of information.

o PVS & VSI Relations – Relationships are at an all-time high. There are still a few minor complaints from smaller VSI teams. The current GC at VSI is also a coach and he understands the PVS expansion into VSI territory.

§ Sharing territory in Prince William and Loudoun Counties – There are no VSI teams in Loudoun and only one in Prince William Co. The VSI Gen Chair is asking to make those “common zones” and would like for clubs who runs in those counties, also invite some VSI team.

§ Bill would like to propose that at the October Open at the Freedom Center we allow a few VSI teams in. Maybe about 10%

§ Motion to allow VSI swimmers from the Northern District to be allowed to participate in the Freedom Center facility of the October Open, seconded and approved.

· Can we specifically name the Northern District teams?

· Could be a good experience for swimmers to swim other swimmers from other VSI teams.

· The request would go to the AG Chair, then discuss with the Meet Director to ensure there are not too many entries.

§ Combined Senior Champs – something to discuss and look at going forward.

· VSI, just like PVS, have also noticed a drop off of quality and number of swimmers. There is an idea to combine SC Senior Champs and alternate years as to where it is hosted. There would be 5 heats of finals (top 8 combined, top 16 PVS, top 16 VSI). Maybe look at doing this at the end of January or beginning of February. We can discuss this in the fall.

o Coaches Award Proposals – PVS has received their LEAP 2 status and looking towards LEAP 3 and there are ways to recognize Coaches in PVS. There are multiple proposals; Senior Coach Award, Coaching Legacy Award, Future Championship Coaches Award, Rising Star Club Award. These awards are funded in the 1617 budget, but the forms are not finalized. This is just an opportunity to absorb this information. We will bring back in the fall to vote on.

o 10 & Under registration numbers in USAS & PVS – mentioned earlier. We will revisit this in the fall. Please look at your own numbers of 10 & U on your club. PVS is down a bit, about 100. What do 8 & Under look like and 9-10 look like. USA Swimming is looking at how they are being registered, or insurance.

o Diversity Grant Program – There is an Outreach Grant Program, it has been in the policies, but not an actual program. In the 1617 budget we have added money to support this program. If you have an idea or want to have athletes (outreach diversity) participate on your club but need funding. There will be two opportunities to apply for some grant money. If your club doesn’t’ have the money, you will be able to apply it will be review and then voted on and provide funding.

· Fall Date (convention Sept 19-24) Saturday Oct 1? Wed Sept 28 will be the date of the Fall 2016 CCM.

· Motion to adjourn.