Christian Dowd suggest moving the PVS Open Meets to two venues in stead of three, citing that often there are too many swimmers form his team in the same heats and even with three coaches at the session they can not give relevant / meaningful feedback to the swimmers because they have to turn around and get splits on someone else in the next heat. He feels that it's great that meets move faster but at times they are moving too fast. Christian also brought up the possibility of having HS Districts an observed meet for USA swimming purposes. This stems from the heavy meet schedule HS swimmers face with HS meets and USS meets. He also asked about PVS setting up Red cross CPR and First Aid Challenge classes during swim meets so coaches can get them out of they way since they have to be there anyway. His final suggestion was to rent or find a class in a computer school to run Hy-Tek classes for coaches and team managers to learn the program.

NOTE: (PVS also mentioned this earlier…holding registration seminars for team registars)

1. How can dates set by the BOD be changed by individuals and they are not held to those dates? ie…the 14 & Under Qualifier meet. How could this meet be placed on the schedule, cancelled, then reinstated 10 days before meet entry due date?
2. Ward also still feels that PVS should not run any meets except the Championship meets?

Keith McGough stated that PVS officiating is top notch with a real focus on the kids. He also likes the three venue format of the PVS Open meets (from a parents perspective) times lines are manageable. He also feels PVS does a great job of communicating to it's members via e-mail and the web site and they do a good job of reaching out to small up and coming programs. His only suggestion was for PVS to expand their meet options. He offered two suggestions on this:

1. Hold a B/C level championship meet with prelims and finals to allow this calibur of athlete the opportunity to experience a prelims / final meet. Citing that some of these swimmers will go off to college and swim for division 2 and 3 universities having never had the experience of a trials,finals meet. PVS is excluding the largest population of swimmers in their membership. Perhaps a good time frame for this meet would be early April. (After all the March meets are over).
2. PVS host a relay meet to add some "FUN" meets to the schedule

Chris Houtt wants LC time standards to be included in the 14 & Under JO meet announcement; if not this year, for next year. This would have a positive impact on his LC meets held during the SC season AND be a good thing for the JO meet.

NOTE: (Coaches Comp. Committee meetings have had discussions on ways to promote LC swimming…perhaps this is a good start)

Pete Morgan was not aware that March Meet dates were up for dicussion but he would support the change in dates proposed at CC meeting for 2004. Pete also cited that he feels we will need two courses in the morning sessions to accommodate the number of swimmers in the meet since we are swimming a combination of the old Junior and Senior Champs meets combined. He supports a move to GMU for the meets.

Victor Abrahamian would like to see the following happen to clubs delinquent in their PVS payments:

1) any team that owes money to PVS and the payment has been delayed over the grace period:

PV should take the following steps:

Any travel fund issue brought up by the athlete(s) should be directed to the club and not to the PV. This matter is between the club and their athletes.

2) PV should not award any team to host PV meets if the team does not have a certain required number of officials to begin with.

In the January Open Meet at PGS&LCone of my officials was moved to the other course (hosted by Ft Belvoir) to officiate while her child swam in the Potomac Marlins course.

Eric Collins would like to see PVS host one or two LC meets during the SC season.

Pete Sczupak would like to see PGS & LC utilized more during the LC season for more than one day meets if the demand is there. He feels it is the most under utilized facitity we use.

Steve Ercolano would like for PVS to publish on the web site the names of the SC Zone Coaching Staff who have been selected so far. It is not there currently. Steve went on to cite the zone coaching staff selection process currently written in the P&P manual and wants to know why P&P is not being followed. His excert follows:

Selection of Coaches
The Competition Committee at its Fall meeting will select a staff of six coaches. A head coach and two assistants for the 13 & Over athletes, and an Assistant Head Coach and two assistants for the 12 & Under athletes. Staff selection will be based on the following criteria and procedures:
·

• Competition Committee will make job descriptions for each position available to all coaching members of PVS so that they fully understand the Zone Team coaching responsibilities.
·
• Coaches must submit resumes to the PVS Administrative Office prior to September 15. No floor nominations will be accepted. To be eligible, a coach must be a current coach member of USA Swimming.
·
• To be selected as the Head or Assistant Head, a nominee must have prior Zone Championship Meet coaching experience.
·
• At the Fall meeting an election will be held, first for the Head Coach, than the Assistant Head Coach, and finally the other Assistants. Non-selected nominees for Head Coach will be placed on the ballot for Assistant Head Coach and then for the Assistant positions as long as they agree to serve.
·
• The election will be held using one ballot per club. Ballots for the Assistant positions will be valid only if they contain votes for four positions.
·
• If insufficient nominations are received, the Age Group Chairman, Senior Chairman and Senior Coaches Representative will select additonal coaches and submit those names to the PVS Board for approval.
·
• The coaching staff selected by the Competition Committee will be approved by the PVS Board.
·
• Stipends for the coaching staff will include: Head Coach - $500 and Continuing Education Grant; Assistant Head Coach - $400 and Continuing Education Grant; and Assistants - $200.
·
• The coaching staff will begin immediately to prepare for the Short Course Championship Meet

Steve asks: "Have the coaches not been selected"? He goes on to state…
· The web site shows that policy and procedure has been updated as of Sept. 2002 and I see no mention of Board action that changes policy and procedure, so where is our Zone staff?
· The September Competition Commitee Minutes reflect that coaches will be chosen at swim meets in March. How is this possible? Does Competition have the ability to rewrite Policy and Procedures? How can this decision have been allowed to happen? Policy and Procedure states a process for selecting coaches, if no nominees are available. Why wasn't this process followed?
· Why is the fact that we do not have a Zone staff public knowledge?
· There are financial stipends attached to Zone staff positions (at least there are according to Policy and Procedures). Coaches work for zones was supposed to start in September ( according to P&P). Since this has not been accomplished, will the stipends not be paid?
The bigger issue is that a lot of time and effort went into producing a "Policy and Procedures" Manual for PVS. Why is it not being followed? This Zone selection process is a prime example. If I am interested in being a Zone Coach, where do I go to find out the process? If I refer to P&P, which is supposed to be the "bible" of PVS, it tells me one thing. I have to read through the minutes of every meeting to find out what is the "current" procedure, even though that procedure isn't really the one that is supposed to be in place.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill Marlin
PVS Sr. Coaches Rep.