Vol 1 No. 4
August, 1997
General Chairperson's Corner Dick Rankin
I hope all PVS'ers have had a great summer in the water, on vacation or in whatever endeavor! I trust you will come back from this summer renewed and ready to get engaged with PVS during what I think will be a very exciting year.
Every club on the LSC now has a copy of our new comprehensive PVS By-laws, which are to take effect on September 1. The clubs should have also received the new PVS Policies and Procedures manual, that govern our daily activities. We hope to get a critical review, by the membership, so we can fine tune the documents to better meet today's needs. The Strategic Planning Committee will be reviewing all of our policies over the next several months.
The House of Delegates (HOD) also approved a very proactive budget. Bob Fout was elected Treasurer to oversee the execution of that budget for the coming season. I look forward to working with Bob, I also want to thank Charlie Rimkus for his 4 years of service to PVS as Treasurer. I was very fortunate to have his counsel since I joined the Board. The HOD endorsed a Competition Committee proposal to reduce PVS involvement in the competition program. PVS will continue to guarantee ample competitive opportunities for our swimmers at all levels but we are getting out of providing some kind of competition nearly every week of the season, in favor of more direct club sponsorship. Our Competition Co-Chairman, Steve Ercolano and Ward Foley, will look to you for feedback. This will help push the responsibilities and authorities of our program back to the grass roots. You should also be aware that the HOD reelected Steve Ercolano and myself to our current positions for another two years, as well as a new independent Board of Review.
The 1997-98 season will be an exciting one for PVS. Most of the excitement will be in our pools, but we hope to generate some other exciting events as well. Key will be the introduction and growth of our PVS Home Page. I have decided that the advent of our Home Page will allow us to make some changes to the Family Mailing system. Next season we will have eight mailings set at a 45 day interval, starting about mid-October. There will be a news letter with each mailing. Under the strong guidance of our Administrative Vice Chairwoman, Sue Gosline, PVS will conduct an LSC workshop next Spring that will knock your socks off! It will have something for everyone: swimmer, coach, and volunteers.
Soon, this region will have several new swimming venues with national level swimming capabilities. One of those is part of the Jack Kent Cook Stadium complex. Thirl Crudup has agreed to be the PVS representative to the planning process, please read his article in this newsletter. Lastly, US Swimming has just elected a new Executive Director, Chuck Wielgus. He is only the second Executive Director USS has ever had. While we owe much to our retiring Director, Ray Essick, we are eagerly awaiting Mr. Wielgus' arrival. He knows Olympic sports! He was director of US Canoe and Kayak, but more importantly he created a marketing miracle in his current position as Director of the PGA Senior Tour Sponsors. He managed to get as much prize money and television coverage for some old golfers (just kidding) as for the regular tour. This is exciting because he will develop and execute a national marketing plan for our sport. I wish I could promise you a plethora of results in this area, but I can't. What I do promise is to spend time with the Board and Strategic Planning Committee, thinking about the future marketing directions and activities.
Strategic Planning Committee Dave Scibetta
The Strategic planning committee is moving quickly toward full implementation of the PVS Homepage, We are very confident that this method of information will provide each PVS swimmer and family with comprehensive and timely meet results, meet announcements, general information, records, and links to other swimming web sites, We have operated the PVS web site as a prototype for several months and are confident that you will find the site to be one of the most exciting sources of swimming information.
The official web address is expected to be accessible in August and will be 'http://www.pvs.org". As of this time, all meet results for the 96-97 short course season are accessible on the site and the summer results have been entered within 5 days following the meet. An exciting feature is to be able to review all swims for any individual swimmer, compare the top times for any event by stroke, distance, club, age or combination. We recognize that the electronic age presents us with many unique opportunities, such as the PVS Homepage information, but we also are aware that there are learning experiences as we proceed. Your patience is appreciated on those occasions when errors may occur. There will be processes for you to provide input when you find errors, or have ideas that can help continue to improve the Homepage.
Thank you for your help, and good luck surfing the web.
Jack Kent Cooke Complex Thirl Crudup
Having received approval from the County Council, Prince George's County will soon have a state-of-the-art Sports and Learning Complex, located in Landover, adjacent to the new Redskins stadium,
This Sports and Learning Complex will be the first of its kind in the region. The 80 acre facility will house an Aquatic Center that will have a 50 meter x 25 yard competition pool, a 25 yard 5 lane warm-up, warm-down pool, diving tank, adjustable flooring, spectator seating for 1,000 and numerous other top-of-line amenities.
Potomac Valley Swimming now gains accessibility to this most unique and first class Aquatic Center to bring in local, regional, and national level swim meets. In addition, the Sports Complex will have a 200 meter indoor track, fitness center, upper level jogging track, spectator seating, locker room facilities and a multi-use area for tennis, volleyball and basketball.
The outdoor features of the Sports Complex include; a 400 meter track, soccer field, and tennis center. Completing the Sports Complex will be a Gymnastics Center having a regulation size floor, spectator seating, locker room facilities and other high quality features. The entire Sports Complex is scheduled to be completed by 10/99.
Meet Manager Committee Jack Mechler
The Meet Management Committee is a new committee under the Operation's Division, made up of coaches, involved parents, and seasoned Meet Directors. The purpose of this committee is to ensure the correct information is passed to the team that is running a meet, the parents, the swimmers, and coaches, in a timely fashion. Our first big job is to write Meet Announcements. This information is very important to everyone. We will basically have two types of Meet Announcements, "Open" and "Closed". The first committee meeting will be held in July, then the water should start churning as this committee gets off the deck and starts paddling in the right direction.
Editors Notes Becca Peck
Potomac Valley was devastated by the sudden loss of Dave Davis, a long time, vital member. His contributions over the past years have added greatly to the organization, as well as to US Swimming. He will be greatly missed.