AS APPROVED  at the PVS Board Meeting --February 8, 2006

POTOMAC VALLEY SWIMMING
MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2006
River Falls Community Center
Potomac, Maryland

 

Attendance - Jim Garner, Chair. Board Members: John Hirschmann, Dan Jacobs, Bill Marlin, Don Riedlinger, Jim Van Erden, and Greg York. Non-voting Board Members: Janet Auger, John Ertter, Boots Hall.and Linda Klopfenstein. Guest: Arthur Lopez.

Call to Order - The meeting was called to order at approximately 6:50 pm, by the General Chair, Jim Garner.

Outreach Program -- Arthur Lopez was welcomed to the Board meeting and updated the Board on the Outreach Program, “Nadar Por Vida – Swimming for Life,” he has been running in conjunction with Curl-Burke to do outreach to primarily Hispanic, socially disadvantaged, and at risk youngsters. Highlights of his presentation included the fact that, on an average night, anywhere from 25 to 60 children participate and that, as a direct result of his program, fifty-seven swimmers have joined USA Swimming. Despite the many donations and contributions by various members of the community, in order to continue and expand the program, the need for additional assistance remains. The purpose of his presentation was to thank PVS for its prior support and to request that funding of a grant be considered once again.

Agenda – Jim provided the Board with a proposed agenda for the meeting.

Approval of MinutesThe minutes of the December 14, 2005 minutes were approved as submitted.

General Chairman Items
Janet Auger was welcomed and introduced as the new PVS Administrative Assistant.

Subsequent to Arthur Lopez’s departure, the Board discussed how best to continue it’s support of Nadar Por Vida. The idea of waiving meet fees for those in his program was raised, but dismissed since John Ertter felt that it would complicate his ability to determine the correct amount of meet fees to collect from clubs. A proposal was made to increase the Outreach grant money for Nadar Por Vida from $1000 to $1500 to be used for equipment purchases. The proposal passed unanimously.

Garner informed the Board regarding the status of matter pertaining to a situation where an athlete may need to be barred from participation in PVS’s and its member club’s program due to a Final Court Judgment having been obtained for failure to pay fees. This is occurring under Section 3.7 of PVS’s by-laws. PVS’s attorney has been reviewing the steps being taken to assure we are operating in accordance with out by-laws, etc.

Jim reported that USA Swimming has approved BWST’s application to be a member of PVS. Board members had received copies of USA-S’s decision letter.

The status of the Dale City Jets’ (DCJT) application to join PVS Swimming remains undecided by USA Swimming. It is understood DCJT has now been asked to complete the "3 question test."

Volunteer Position – Club Liaison – Jim circulated the resume of an individual who has expressed an interest in serving in the position of Club Liaison and assisting clubs with their business aspects of club management. The Board agreed that these services should be offered to clubs on a purely voluntary basis. Greg suggested having him come and appear in front of the board. In the interim, Jim G will offer to put him in contact with USA-S (Sue Anderson) so that he can become familiar with USA-S Business Management program for clubs.

Competition Division – Don Riedlinger presented to the Board for their review and approval various recommendations from the Competition Committee meeting on January 15.

Riedlinger first presented that the Competition Committee had endorsed his proposal to revise the PVS Open and Resident Records policy. He had previously presented this proposal to the Board at two earlier meetings and to the recent Competition Committee meeting and had explained the rationale for the proposal there. Some questions as to how the rule would apply to athletes who have just moved into our territory and how soon they should be eligible to receive such recognition were raised and discussed. A motion to modify the policy passed unanimously.

He then reported that Competition had voted to endorse the request from Sandy Cohen as Meet Director for the 2006 Mini Championships that the meet be made one week earlier so that the meet would now be March 11-12, 2006 rather than March 18-19, 2006. Her stated reason for making the request was that it should be easier to recruit officials on that weekend. The meet would now be on the same weekend as PVS Senior Championships. There was discussion whether it would be better to have this meet on another weekend – March 4-5 and March 25-26 were mentioned. Others spoke against it on the basis we should not be moving the meet to a weekend that had not been requested or without having input from Sandy whether these alternative dates would be acceptable. The motion to sanction this change was approved by a vote of 4-1-2.

The Board next addressed the requests for sanctions for club sponsored meets during the 2006 LC season. The Board was advised that three requests had been received:

        • Early Bird LC – MSSC, May 6-7, 2006 at Fairland
        • Age Group LC Meet – PM, May 19-21, 2006 at GMU
        • Maryland State LC Meet – RMSC, June 2-4, 2006 at Rockville


The Age Group LC Meet is a new meet – the other two meets had been on PVS’s 2005 calendar. The Board approved the sanctioning of these meets.

Riedlinger reported CUBU is submitting a bid for the Bunkey Lewis Mini Meet and that Competition had agreed to endorse placing this meet on the May 2006 schedule. The Board passed a motion to authorize the sanction to be issued once the request with dates in May was received from CUBU.

The Board next reviewed Competition’s request to sanction FISH’s request for an Age Group LC meet for June 17-18. The meet would be by invitation with only some (unspecified by FISH) PVS clubs invited and would include 1500M Freestyle. Don pointed out that this meet would fall on the same weekend as the PVS LC Distance Meet and would be sandwiched between PVS Age/Sr 1 and PVS Age/Sr II. While it was agreed that the Board was in favor of offering additional competition opportunities to its swimmers, sanctioning this meet would go against policy and might reduce participation in the PVS-sponsored meets on the adjoining weekends. A motion to sanction the meet without the distance event (1500M Freestyle) was unanimously defeated.

Riedlinger then presented Competition’s request for the sanctioning of meets for the 2006-07 Short Course season. He expressed his concern that in voting now, without benefit of knowing the NFL schedule and how it might impact the dates of the November Open and pool availability at PGS&LC scheduling conflicts might later arise. Hirschmann and Greg York both stated that while they understood this concern, deciding to defer sanctioning might affect the bidding clubs’ ability to reserve and/or retain pools. It was also a departure from practice for the past several years and was being proposed relatively late in the process. Riedlinger withdrew his objection and the motion to sanction the following meets passed by a vote of 5-0-2.

        • Harvest Moon Invitational – October 7-8, 2006 by HACC
        • Fall Gator Mini – October 21-22, 2006 by AAC
        • 9/U Friendship I Meet, October 22, 2006 by YORK
        • Speedo Senior Circuit #1, October 28-29, 2006 by MSSC
        • Fall LC Invitational, November 4-5, 2006 by MSSC
        • Swim and Rock – November 17-19, 2006 by VSC
        • Pilgrim Pentathlon – November 19, 2006 by CUBU
        • Christmas Champs, December 2-3, 2006 by MSSC
        • Tom Dolan Invitational – December 7-10, 2006 by CUBU
        • Reindeer Mini – December 9-10, 2006 by YORK
        • Cassel Winter Classic, December 14-17, 2006 by PM
        • Speedo Senior Circuit #3, January 6-7, 2007 by AAC
        • 9/U Friendship II Meet, January 7, 2007 by YORK
        • Snowball Splash Mini – January 14, 2007 by CUBU
        • February Qualifier, February 2-4, 2007 by VSC
        • 14/U Winter Qualifier Meet, February 10-11, 2007 by PM
        • Winter Gator Mini Meet, February 17-18, 2007 by AAC
        • President’s Day Classic, February 17-19, 2007 by OCCS
        • February Qualifier, February 24-25, 2007 by YORK
        • March Madness, March 23-25, 2007 by YORK
        • Spring Championships, March 24-25, 2007 by MSSC

The Board was also advised that ten meets on the 2005-06 SC schedule had so far not been bid for the 2006-07 season. (2005-06 meet dates are shown for reference.)

        • Oct 7/9 RMSC Kickoff by RMSC
        • Oct 8/9 VSC Invitational I by VSC (this meet was not held in 2005 due to South Run closure)
        • Nov 5/6 RMSC Nov Invite by RMSC
        • Dec 3/4 Blizzard Meet by MAKO
        • Dec 10/11 VSC Mini Invite by VSC
        • Jan 8 Snowball 9/U Mini by VSC
        • Jan 14/15 VSC Invite III by VSC
        • Feb 4/5 February Challenge Meet by MSSC (Chris Huott indicated he wished to still consider on which date to bid this meet.)
        • Mar 4/5 VSC 10/U Invite by VSC
        • Mar 18/19 Mini Champs by RMSC

Riedlinger then presented requests that PVS had received to host PVS sponsored meets during the 2006 Long Course season. The following bids were presented:

        • PVS Senior/Age I – June 11 at Lee District – MACH
        • PVS Senior/Age I – June 11 at Fairland – TBD
        • PVS LC Distance – June 17-18 at Takoma Park – MACH
        • PVS Senior/Age II – June 25 at Lee District – PM
        • PVS Senior/Age II – June 25 at Fairland – FAST
        • PVS Senior LC Champs – July 13-16 at UMD – CUBU
        • PVS Junior LC Champs – July 13-16 at UMD – MACH
        • PVS Age Group Champs – July 20-23 at GMU – PM

The Board voted to approve all the awards.

It was noted that no formal bid had been received for PVS Senior/Age I at Fairland. Jim Garner said he would approach Maryland based clubs to see if they were interested. PM indicated it would host the meet for PVS if no other bidder were available. The Board authorized this award to be made to either the Maryland based club or PM without further action on its part.

Competition’s selection of Mark Faherty as Head Coach and Mike Kraeuter as Assistant Head Coach for 2006 SC Zone Team was unanimously approved by the Board.

Riedlinger presented Competition’s request to the Board that it endorse a policy of having PVS cap the cost to Zone swimmers at $350 for SC and $400 for LC starting in 2006. There was an added proviso that an athlete’s contribution must always be at least 25% of the expected cost up to the cap. A motion to request the Treasurer use these caps in preparing the budget for the year 2007 and beyond passed unanimously. A second motion to notify the House of Delegates that a proposal would be on its February 8th agenda to also place these caps for the fees to be changed for participation on the 2006 zone teams also passed unanimously. The House must be advised since such action by the Board would likely impact the budget previously approved by the House.

US Open Travel Reimbursement – The Board was advised that requests had been received to provide travel assistance support to 5 PVS clubs on behalf of 13 athletes. The Board was advised that all the athletes had satisfied the requirements in order to be eligible for reimbursement. None were submitted on an “appeal” basis. It was noted that $5000 had been budgeted so there was no need to reduce payments below $250. The Board approved payment of $250 per athlete to the appropriate clubs for these athletes. It was also observed some additional PVS athletes attended this meet who appear to be qualified but had not submitted a request to be reimbursed.

US Paralympics Open Championship Travel Reimbursement – John Ertter reported that he had received a reimbursement application form for the PVS athlete who attended the US Paralympics Open Championship and had forwarded it to the appropriate party. Based on this additional information, the Board agreed to reimburse the club.

ATHLETE REP to the PVS Board – Marlin informed the Board that Frani Hess was unable to attend the meeting due to her academic workload.

Garner informed the Board that Breanne Smith would no longer be serving as Athlete Representative to the PVS Board and has submitted her resignation. No nominations for her replacement were discussed.

Meet Banner -- Bill Marlin raised a question about the permissibility of hanging a sponsor’s banner at PVS sponsored meets. As manager of the PVS January Open this weekend, he wished approval to display a sponsor’s banner. Hirschman stated that the question might be addressed in each pool’s rental agreement and agreed to contact PGS&LC the following day. No discussion was held as to PVS’ position independent of a pool’s position. [Subsequent to the meeting, Bryan Anthony of PGS&LC communicated to Hirschman that sponsor’s banners may be hung within the pool area with the stipulation that the complex could not perform the actual hanging nor supply equipment to do so. Said response was forwarded to Marlin.]

Administrative Division – A written report was submitted by Bill Stephens in advance of the meeting, since he could not be in attendance. A copy is attached to these minutes.

Finance Division – There was limited discussion of the December 31, 2005 financial statements that had been distributed to the Board prior to the meeting. John Hirschmann had advised the Board prior to the meeting that (1) the Dave Davis fund has been closed and funds used to underwrite the officials portion of the Swimposium, (2) the Form 990 for last fiscal year has been filed with the IRS and (3) our auditor has advised they expect to complete the audit of last year's financials by January 31 -- we do not expect any material concerns to be raised. John Ertter advised that our accountant had informed him of the necessity to issue 1099’s to our accounting and law firm. Additionally, Form 1099 must be issued to report payments made by PVS to meet clubs that are not corporate legal entities. The Board acknowledged there was a need for him to issue 1099’s to comply with IRS regulations.

New Business --

Selection Process for Age Group Athletes of the Year - Bill Marlin reported that he has been gathering information from other LSC’s as to their selection procedure. Many of those surveyed use a point system. Hirschmann suggested that USA Swimming’s new Age Group Power Points program be investigated as well to see how those scores compare with the athletes selected for the past year.

Next Board Meeting – The Board agreed to have its next meeting Wednesday, February 8th at Oak Marr. [Subsequent to the meeting the location was changed to River Falls Community Center.]

Adjournment – The Board meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:08 pm