Call to Order
Chairman Marie-Beth "Boots" Hall called the meeting to order at 7:12 p.m. in the offices of Arthur Anderson in Washington, DC. Present were Ms. Hall, Bob Brofft, Sumie Emory, Jim Garner, John Hirschmann, Lynee Phelps, Jack Schaeffer, and Ron Whalen.

Lynee and Ron reported about the National Officials clinic held in Salt Lake City. They shared their findings with the committee members. The findings are:

• Masters rules and USA Swimming rules will become completely interchangeable,
• High school rules are becoming closer to USA Swimming rules to provide consistency for swimmers,
• Five LSCs do not conform to LSC minimum requirements,
• PVS is one of six LSCs that conform closely to USA Swimming requirements, and PVS was praised for the website and PVS procedure manual,
• A lot of discussion and ideas about recruiting, training and retaining officials,
• Sierra Nevada requires one official per 25 swimmers,
• Ideas to encourage parents to work at meet like providing breakfast, food, etc.,
• To retain officials, promote them, like mentors to step aside for new ones, recognizing monthly outstanding officials, etc. (note that PVS is getting more new people),
• We need to investigate more about "Club Tool Boxes"-USA Swimming produced a toolbox that is chock full of resource information and materials that will be helpful to our member clubs.
• "Philosophy of swimming" is very good, especially for new referees, and is downloadable -- see http://fig.cox.miami.edu/~cmallery/otc/USS_OTC_sound_files/frame.htm,
• Videos for Referee (2001 update) is out,
• Use of more videos is recommended, and we will do starting with fall clinics,
• Provide professional handouts, and cultivate professionalism among officials,
• Some discussion about de-certification procedure,
• The reminders to starters are that they shouldn't talk to coaches nor worry about timeline,
• FINA rule changes are expected at the July 20th meeting. Recommended changes are: at the finish of Backstroke, a part of body is not required to break the surface; and during the butterfly stroke, shoulders do not have to be in line (but arms must) like breaststroke. Changes proposed, but not recommended are: dolphin kicks off wall during breaststroke, and no requirements for backstroke turn after backstroke flags. These proposals will be brought back to USA Swimming by August 1, and will be voted on at the September 15th meeting,
• Some administrative proposals are discussed: Practicing start are not allowed less in than 5 feet depth; restricting body suits for age group meets; changing 120 days "UNATTACHED" status, eliminate indoor Spring Nationals, and add Nationals for Juniors and/or Age Group,
• Each LSC was requested to nominate a Maxwell Award recipient candidate by July 1. Maxwell Awards are for outstanding national officials, given to six officials each year.
• Sectional meets are not included as National Certification meets,
• Make sure that rule interpretation is correct,
• NCAA wants to call DQ like USS does in their meets,
• Try to balance officials within sessions,
• Referee can call DQ if it is obvious,
• It is good idea to have mixed age and mixed sex events in a long distance meet,
• During High school and NCAA meets, inform coaches about USA Swimming DQs, and
• Useful websites are www.usa-swimming.org, www.pvswim.org, www.fina.org, and www.tas-cas.org.

Review of Dick Griffith's proposed Referee Final "Check Ride" Form
Ms. Hall requested that we carefully review the new referee's check out list prepared by Dick Griffith. If we have any comments on the list, we should get back to Ms. Hall or Frank before the next meeting. Ms. Hall wants to squeeze down to one page. Lynee agreed to review the current checklist for starters.

Review of List of Experienced Starters for possible invitations to New Referee Clinic The list presented separately. We went through the list of starters and identified individuals that should be invited to become referee candidates. We decided to invite the following starters to the new referee clinic:Karl Berberich(RMSC), Janet Coxe(OCCS), Arthur Davis (CUBU), David Diehl(UNAT), Tim Husson(MSSC), Elizabeth Jester(TCSD), Mark Nelson(FISH), Michael O'Brian(CUBU), Rita Page(VSC), Paul Siebach, Robert Windrow(RMSC), and Jared Wisor(RMSC). Christopher Lewis(FBST), Thomas Mason(AVST), Gary McNeill(FISH), David Mengering(RMSC), and Bill Stephenson(TCSD) are already in the pipeline.

Fall clinic locations and dates
Ms. Hall reminded Bob Brofft and Bob Richardson to start planning fall clinics including Referee Clinic for old referees. We contemplated whether we should purchase videos for Starter and Referee. We will look into available fund, and then decide how many videos we should purchase.

New Business

John Hirschmann wants to publish our minutes of officials committee meeting on the PVS website. Sumie Emory will write the minutes and forward them to John.

Lynee reported that name tags are on hold due to the teardrop USA Swimming pins being on backorder.

The committee will meet on July 9, 2001, 7:00pm at the same place. Ms. Hall will be out of town for next meeting. Frank Persico will act on behalf of Ms. Hall. The meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m. [Special Note: That meeting was subsequently canceled. Frank Persico and Bob Richardson met to make assignments for PVS Senior LC Championship Meet held July 12-15, 2001]