In our last Voices I highlighted the key issues that we were bringing to the House of Delegates (HOD) and the resolutions we were seeking. I am pleased to report that the HOD endorsed the recommendations of the Board without exception. This will result in some significant changes to the way we have been doing things, which I will detail below. The Board has worked diligently to draft, debate, and decide on these policy and/or procedure changes that we believe will improve the way we execute our programs and we were certainly pleased with the outcome. However, it concerns us that only 9 of the 37 PVS member clubs were present at the HOD to adopt the program changes we put forth and those 9 represented less than 25% of our swimming membership. Since we provided ample information prior to the HOD about the changes we will be making, I have told the Board that the small representation at the HOD is in fact an endorsement of our policies and programs and I will continue to believe that until you, the membership, convince me otherwise! You are fortunate that you have a Board committed to representing every last member of PVS and I am operating on the premise that as long as we keep the channels of communication open and information about what we are doing flowing (open covenants arrived openly), then we should not worry about this lack of participation.

The state of the Corporation is healthy and strong; our membership, including seasonal members topped 6000 swimmers for the second year in a row and we still have the 6^th largest membership among the 59 LSCs. I believe overall the LSC is functioning more every day like it should with the Board providing general policy guidance and the program implementers implementing. However, for a multitude of reasons we have over the past several years been operating in the red and the Board believes it is time to stop operating at a deficit and in fact for the next few years I recommend that we seek to generate a slight surplus to replenish our reserves. We will accomplish this through a more equitable distribution of your costs. At the same time we will redistribute competition generated income so as to increase club revenue and encourage more club participation in the competition program. Also, we will take advantage of our entrance onto the Information Superhighway (the PVS Webpage) to reduce our "information processing" costs while actually increasing access to and availability of PVS information (See House of Delegates Decisions below). Over the past several years our "means of communication" have been spread among several "voices" and it is now time to place responsibility and authority for our information network in the hands of one position with execution authority. Therefore, during the coming year we will be transforming the Administrative Vice Chairman into the PVS Information Czar. In fact, next year the Board will take a look at the total PVS committee structure in order to more accurately align our committees along functional lines. For example, the Safety Committee is currently under the Administrative Vice Chairman but is clearly operational in nature and should be responsible to the Operations Chairman. This will most likely require a change to the By Laws and approval by next year’s House of Delegates.

PVS highlights for the year include:

• PVS swimming keeps getting faster; we are sending more swimmers to national meets.
• We entered the year with real concerns about our Short Course Zone Team program. As a result, we made several modifications to the selection process for swimmers and coaches and the outcome was most favorable: our swimmers performed better than in recent history, stayed focused and in general came away with a much more rewarding experience.
• We added new positions to the PVS management structure to extend our reach: Public Relations Coordinator; Outreach Coordinator; and Adapted Swimming Coordinator. We also revitalized and strengthened our Safety Committee in order to place more emphasis on all aspects of swimming safety.
• The success of the PVS webpage exceeded even our wildest expectations. The credit for this success goes to Dave Scibetta and his Strategic Planning Committee.
• We planned to hold an LSC Workshop with separate tracks for parents, officials, coaches and swimmers but due to a lack of participation all but the swimming track was cancelled. This was a great disappointment and we are currently attempting to determine the reasons.
• New swimming venues are coming on the scene that will greatly affect our competition program. The new University of Maryland Aquatic Center is now open and we are negotiating for its use. Other new facilities will be opening soon at George Mason University and the Prince Georges Jack Kent Cooke Stadium Complex.

• Competition will be divided into PVS-sponsored and Club-sponsored meets and increases in the number of Club-sponsored events will be encouraged. This will result in increased revenue for those clubs participating in the management of competition. The Competition Committee will continue to be charged with responsibility for ensuring adequate competition opportunities for all levels of swimmers. Next season PVS-sponsored meets will be limited to Championship Meets, Open Meets, and Distance Meets.
• Travel Assistance funds will remain fairly constant but eligibility will be tightened to reduce PVS support for "double-dipping" (attendance at both Junior and Senior Championship Meets in the same year) and for participation beyond four Junior Championship Meets.
• PVS subsidy of our Zone Teams will be reduced by approximately 30%. The difference will be made up from either reduced expenditures or increased shares by each participant.
• PVS will adopt a revised investment strategy based on the United States Swimming investment program in order to attain a better return on investment.
• The success of our Webpage allows us to make the following decisions regarding the future of communications in the LSC: 1) the internet will be the hub of our communications network; 2) everything in our PVS Aquatics Guide, Policy and Procedures Manual, and parts of our By Laws will be placed on the Webpage; the hard copy version of the Aquatics Guide will be eliminated; 3) "Flash Mail" to our Clubs and officials will continue in hard copy; 4) "Family Mail", received by subscribers to our Family Membership will be put on a "pay-as-you-go" basis. Starting in September there will be 6 Family Mailings annually and they will include everything in current mailings except meet results. The cost of a Family Membership will be reduced from $20 to $10. If someone wants to receive hard copy meet results, there will be an additional $30 charge per year.
• Registration fees will be increased to $45 for athlete members ($10 increase), $30 for Non-Athlete Members ($5 increase) and $100 for Club Members ($30 increase).
• In summary, all of our programs will be retained at basically current funding levels and we will operate in the black. For the past several years the Competition program has been a major source of funding for all of our programs. Now that contribution will be reduced and more of the competition-generated revenue will be returned to the clubs. And the cost of those programs will be more equitably distributed among the recipients.

This is a great opportunity for PVS swimmers to compete against the best in your age group in the East. It is also a chance to meet, get to know, and develop friendships with swimmers from other Potomac Valley clubs. This is really the first and easiest step in that long process of becoming an elite swimmer but it does expose our swimmers to a highly competitive team environment without the high pressures that go along with the next levels, such as the Short Course Zone Meet or Junior Championship Meet. In other words, it provides our swimmers with an opportunity to swim fast for a team but still have fun outside the pool. The coaching staff will apply some pressures on the swimmers who make it back for finals and/or are selected for a relay team in terms of getting rest and staying focused. By the way for those qualified it is an excellent opportunity for parents to get in some officiating outside the LSC so please support that aspect of the PVS team, if you can.

The next issue of Potomac Valley Voices will be coming out toward the end of August. That will be a very important issue for everyone because Dave Scibetta will outline the major plans we have for enhancing the webpage over the short- and mid-term period; we expect the web to be our communications lifeblood from this point forward. Secondly, there are some new procedures for registering USS members that will take effect this next year. All USS members will have to personally register next year and in the process provide some data for statistical analysis. Mary Ann Henderson, our Registrar, will explain the new process and the "why" in our next issue. Finally, Bob Fout, our Treasurer, will review our new investment strategy. This information should be interesting and important to all PVS members. Coaches and Athlete Representatives election results should also be available by the next issue and who knows what other liittle tidbits we might have for you. Don’t forget to check for supplemental articles that may be placed on our webpage from time-to-time as information we think useful and timely becomes available.

From everyone in PVS, we hope you all have a very good and safe summer.