As APPROVED at Spring 2004 Competition Committee Meeting
All motions passed by the Competition Committee are recommendations to the PVS Board of Directors.




PVS WINTER 2004 COMPETITION COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
January 11, 2004 - 10:00 am
River Falls
Potomac, MD

Attendees: -- Greg York, PVS Chair; Don Riedlinger, PVS Vice-Chair; Michael Kraeuter, FISH; James Van Erden, PVS, Ginger Cyganiewicz, OCCS; Cy Cyganiewicz, OCCS; Rick Curl, CUBU; John Ertter, PVS; Jim Garner, PVS; John Hirschmann, PVS; Mark Faherty, CUBU; Duane Davis, FBST; Peter Karl, SDS; Robert Davis, FAST; Manga Dalizu, FAST; Kent Williams, RMSC; Bill Stephens, PVS; Kerstin Severin, HACC; Ward Foley, AAC; Bob Walker, SDS; Victor Abrahamain, SDS; Mike Piluskaitis, SNOW; Eric Adams, SNOW; Chris Huott, MSSC;

Call to Order -- The meeting was called to order by Competition Committee Chairman, Greg York at 10:12 am at River Falls.

Approval of Minutes -- The minutes of the September 21, 2003 Competition Committee meeting were approved after making a correction to the attendance list. [It was subsequently also agreed to also clarify how some material was presented in the minutes.]

Agenda Don Riedlinger had provided an agenda for use at the meeting.

Board Actions on Prior Committee Recommendations -- Don reviewed with the Committee, the actions taken by the Board on the recommendations made by Competition at its September Meeting. These are also reflected in the minutes of the September 24, 2003 Board of Director minutes.

A few items were highlighted in particular. One pertained to how zone coaches would be selected. He noted the Board took an additional initiative to assure coaches from both sexes would be part of any PVS EZ coaching staff. If the all the coaches elected are all of the same sex, the head coach (with the concurrence of the Board) would make an appropriate selection. That person would be added to the coaching staff as a seventh coach.

A question was raised whether if there were only one female on the ballot, would she automatically be elected in order to assure that there would be a female on the coaching squad. The chair advised that was not the case, rather if no female were elected, a female coach would be added as the seventh coach

Riedlinger noted the Board also added language to PVS's P&P on how the long course zone coaches should be elected. This was previously not included in the PVS's P&P. In brief, he explained the process is very similar to how the SC coaches are selected, other than the specific dates are different.

Don advised the meet announcements for the both the PVS Spring Senior SCY/LCM Championship Meet and the PVS 14/U JO Championship Meet have been released. He advised that as requested in September, LCM QT's have been added to the PVS 14/U JO Champs. The meet will be swum in SCY and they will be conforming times for all events.

Also as requested, the PVS Senior Champs meet in March will be swum in a SCY/LCM format - generally prelims in SCY and finals in LCM. Riedlinger explained in more detail how the meet will be conducted, including in particular how the distance events would be conducted. He also noted that the 200 relays would only be conducted in SCY on a non-scoring basis. The 400 and 800 relays would only be conducted in LCM as part of the finals sessions. Therefore, any team seeking an official time for a 400 or 800 relay in SCY should do so by competing in a time trial.

It was confirmed that only one time trial per day would be permitted.

The Board endorsed the concept of selecting an outstanding PVS 14/U coach who would be recognized at the annual ASCA convention. (Greg reported that Bill Marlin and Todd Benedick as the PVS coaches reps to the Board are working on developing a recommendation.)

Don reported in determining which disabled athletes to send to the Eastern Zone meet (if more than 2 12/U or 2 13-18 athletes apply), the selection criteria would concentrate on the athletes participation in PVS meets rather than their level of meet performance. It was felt it was important for other PVS athletes to know of their participation in the swimming by seeing them compete in meets.

Election of LC Zone Head Coaches -- Greg reported he had received one nomination to be Head Coach - Chris Huott. The Committee agreed to select Chris by acclamation.

Greg further reported he had received no nominations to be Assistant Head Coach. Eric Adams was nominated at the meeting to be EZ LC Assistant Head Coach. The Committee agreed to accept the nomination since none had been submitted prior to the meeting. The Committee then agreed to select Eric by acclamation.

The Competition Committee also agreed to establish how the assistant PVS EZ LC assistant coaches for 2004 would be selected. They agreed that they would be elected in a manner similar to how the SC coaches are now selected. The election will take place at the May Competition Committee meeting. Greg would accept nominations until a date shortly before that meeting - which will be announced. This method for selecting the assistant coaches was agreed to.

Election of SC Zone Assistant Coaches -- Greg advised he had received six nominations to be Assistant SC EZ coaches. He indicated four were to be elected. He passed out paper ballots and indicated each PVS club present was entitled to one vote.

Subsequently the results of the balloting were announced. The four winners were Mark Faherty, Chris Huott, Susie Hutchinson and James Taschek.

A motion to destroy the ballots was then made, seconded and adopted..

2004 Long Course Season Meets. -- Hirschmann then presented to the Committee for their endorsement bids that had been received for club sponsored meets during the 2004 LC season. The presentation included how they related to other PVS sponsored meets and other major USA Swimming sponsored meets.

Three meets were proposed: FISH proposed a Age Group LC meet on April 30-May 2 at GMU/Fairfax and MSSC bid the Early Bird LC Invitational on May 1-2. The Maryland State LC Meet was bid for June 4-6. There was some discussion about the desirability of having two LC meets on the same weekend. FISH was present and did not indicate a desire to change the dates they had bid. MSSC arrived subsequently and also advised they did not wish to change the dates they had bid.

Some in attendance expressed the hope that the Board would have the ability to regulate when clubs have meets, in part to avoid direct competition. Others stated that PVS had made a conscious decision to permit such competition, either with the expectation that the better conducted meet (or the meet which better satisfies the needs of the athletes) would survive, or with the expectation there was sufficient demand to allow multiple meets to be successfully held.

Riedlinger acknowledged that the Board needs to address the issue of allowing "head to head" meets - he thought the Board would probably want to get input from the House on how it should proceed in the future before finalizing its decision.

The Committee voted to endorse to the Board for sanctioning the three meets that had been bid.

Hirschmann noted that no bid to have the Bunkey Lewis SC 9/U Meet had been received. Rick indicated one would be forthcoming. The Committee agreed to support its addition to the schedule.

A question was also raised whether it was possible to move the PVS LC Distance Meet now scheduled for May 29-30 to later in the summer. It was explained that this schedule had been adopted quite some time ago and pool commitments and identifying club hosts was essentially complete. It was pointed at the May 2004 Competition Committee meeting, the 2005 LC schedule would be addressed.

It was also noted that the Zone Long Course Meet will be late in 2004 based on the dates specified in the Eastern Zone manual. In part, this is because Labor Day will be late (September 6) in 2004.

Because of the late date, there was interest in finding out how much interest there would be by PVS athletes in participating in this meet. The club head coaches were asked to find out how much interest there would be.

2004-05 Short Course Season Meets -- Hirschmann then presented to the Committee for their endorsement bids that had been received for club sponsored meets during the 2004-05 SC season. The presentation included how they related to other PVS sponsored meets and other major USA Swimming sponsored meets.

In summarizing the bids that had been received, Hirschmann reported the bids received included all the meets that were on the 2003-04 schedule, except for three meets that were historically hosted by RMSC and the 14/U Qualifier hosted by CUBU. In addition, three mini meets had been proposed as new meets in conjunction with Swim and Rock, February Challenge and March Madness. These meets would be held on separate weekends and therefore need separate sanctions.

It was clarified the Winter Gator Mini Meet on February 19-20 had been inadvertently left off the list of submitted bids. It was also agreed to allow MSSC to amend its requested date for Spring Championships to March 19-20 to avoid having the meet on Easter weekend.

It was also noted that the Eastern States Senior Circuit meet was on the same weekend as the PVS January Distance Meet and had historically received a waiver to be on the same weekend as a PVS sponsored meet. The Committee also agreed to support waivers to allow the Snowball Splash Mini Meet to be on the same weekend as the PVS January Distance Meet, the Winter Gator Mini Meet on the same weekend as the PVS February Distance Meet and the March Madness Mini Meet on the same weekend as the PVS 14/U Age Group Champs. It was felt in all three cases, the mini meets were athletes not likely to be able to compete in the other meets, therefore having these meets on the same weekend as the PVS sponsored meet was not expected to impact attendance at the PVS sponsored meet.

Requests to Host PVS Sponsored Meets - LC 2004 -- Hirschmann announced that bids to host several PVS sponsored meets during the LC 2004 season had been received. He announced that bids were still needed for the Senior/Age Group I Meet at PGS&LC and the Senior/Age Group II Meet at Fairland as well as PVS LC Junior Champs. Two PVS clubs offered to host Senior/Age Group II at Fairland and PVS LC Junior Champs at the meeting.

PVS Support of LC Zone Team -- A question was raised as to the status of developing a plan to have PVS support its LC EZ team in a manner similar to its SC team. The response was that nobody has made a specific proposal for Competition to consider, therefore the matter has not proceeded. It was suggested that it would be best if a proponent were to develop a specific proposal that could be considered by Competition at a subsequent meeting.

Mike Pliuskaitis said he would take the lead in developing such a proposal.

It was confirmed that when the FY04 budget was prepared, $15,000 was included for possible support to the PVS EZ LC team.

A motion was made that this amount be divided amongst all the athletes participating in this meet. The desirability of only providing this assistance to those who remain for the entire meet and participate on any relays for which they were selected was mentioned. It was noted that the money budgeted by PVS also includes the financial support provides in terms of meeting the other direct costs of PVS support of the team, including the expenses of coaches, team manager, etc. in attending the meet. Others pointed out that assistance in the spring is not paid to either the participating athletes or their club, but is rather the level of LSC support available is used to determine how much additional each athlete must pay in order to be on the team.

The motion to provide financial support directly to the participating athletes was withdrawn.

Financial Assistance for 2004 Olympic Trials and 2004 Summer USA Swimming Nationals -- Riedlinger advised the Committee that $18000 had been provided in PVS budget for travel assistance for the Olympic Trials. It was based on paying $600/athlete for up to 30 swimmers. Don also reported on the amount that was budgeted for financial assistance for the 2004 Summer USA Swimming Nationals. [In actuality this was the amount for travel to 2003 Summer USA Swimming Nationals since it was paid in FY2004. Assistance for travel to 2004 Summer USA Swimming Nationals will be paid in FY 2005 and an amount has not yet been budgeted.]

Don advised the Committee that in 2000, the requirement to receive financial assistance for participation in Olympic Trials, was 4 events during the 2000 LC season, at least 2 of which were in PVS sponsored meets. He noted that this year the Trials are in early July, whereas in 2000, they were in mid-August.

A motion was made to establish the requirement for Olympic Trial travel assistance be participation in 6 PVS sanctioned events between January 1, 2004 and July 6, 2004 (the day prior to the first day of trials.) Others noted that there would be limited opportunity for some swimmers to still participate in these meets, given other training considerations. It was also noted that having PVS's OT qualifiers participate in PVS meets can be very meaningful to the younger swimmers participating in our meets. The Committee was reminded that the college exemption rule remains and that there are also appeal options for situations where people feel there are extenuating circumstances.

A amendment to the motion was made to change the qualifying period for financial assistance to September 15, 2003 to July 6, 2004. The amendment was accepted. The amended motion was then adopted.

A motion was then made to have the requirement to receive financial assistance for the 2004 Summer National Championships be the same as it has been in the recent past - 4 swims during the LC season - at least two of which have to be in PVS sponsored meets. It was pointed out that for those swimmers who also qualify for OT's, their ability to satisfy this requirement might be difficult, particularly given the Senior I and Senior II meets would be just prior to the trials and the PVS Senior LC Champs would be immediately following trials. Therefore, an amendment was offered and accepted that any athlete who qualifies for and participates in the OT's, would also satisfy the requirement for travel assistance for summer nationals. It was felt only some PVS athletes would actually compete in both meets. The amended motion was then agreed to by the Committee.

Qualifying Times for PVS LCM Senior Championship Meet -- Don Riedlinger circulated to the Committee a proposal related to setting the QT's for the 2004 PVS LC Senior Championship. His analysis showed what the QT's had been in 2003, the number of swimmers who entered and competed in the event and how those times compared on a percentage basis with the the QT's for the 2004 EZ Super Sectional.

He recommended to the Committee that the QT's be lowered for those events were PVS LC QT's were within 5% of the Sectional QT by lowering them so they would be 105% of the Sectional QT.

The variation in number of entries in various events was also discussed. Don noted that the policy for setting time standards for national championship meets is to aim for the same number of entries in all events (now clarified to be only individual events.) Others noted that PVS in the past has aimed to have more heats of the shorter events. It was also pointed out that in setting the Super Sectional QT's, the faster of the times from Region 1 and Region 2 was taken, except that for the 400 IM and 800/1500 Freestyle where a conscious decision was made to use the slower time in order to encourage more athletes to attempt these events. The chart showed that the 2003 PVS Senior QT's would range between being 2 to 9% slower than the 2004 Super Sectional QT's

Mike P moved that the QT's for PVS 2004 Senior LC QT's be set at 105% of the Super Sectional QT. There was further discussion of this proposal. The advantages and disadvantages of doing so were discussed at some length. Several suggested that by making the QT's tougher, athletes will do what they need to do to make the tougher standard. Others observed that the new standards might be perceived by some as too challenging and therefore they might get discouraged. This might not be supportive of encouraging males to remain in the sport.

It was clarified that USA Swimming rules had been amended to allow only one sectional per zone - therefore waivers are no longer needed and the Eastern Zone will likely have one sectional for the foreseeable future.

It was also noted that the PVS Junior LC Championship Meet occurs between prelim and finals of the PVS Senior LC Championship meet, therefore its impact on that meet needs to be addressed. Others noted that to the extent the the QT for the Senior meet are changed, it will simply move swimmers between the two meets - therefore the overall time required to conduct PVS Senior Champ prelims and PVS Junior Champs should not change materially.

The motion to set the QT's for PVS Senior 2004 LC Champ at 105% of the LCM QT's the 2004 EZ Super Sectional passed 6-4.

It was agreed that the impact of these changes on both the PVS Senior and Junior LC Championships in terms of the likely number of entries and expected session lengths should be analyzed further and presented as information at the May Competition Committee meeting.

Strategic Planning -- Jim Van Erden gave a report on the activities of Strategic Planning. He indicated one of the primary issues they are addressing is what role PVS should be taking in terms of sanctioning meets, the role of PVS sponsored vs club sponsored, whether the appropriate number and type of meets are on PVS's schedule, etc.

He noted that in some cases, the ability to hold competition may be constrained by the availability of water in which to hold competition, and/or the availability of officials.

In order to better understand the desires of the PVS coaching community, Jim indicated he had distributed many questionnaires at both the Dolan and PM Holiday invitational meet. He stated of the 40 questionnaires handed out, about 12 had been returned to him.

Jim indicated they are still looking for additional feedback and would take steps to make the form available on the PVS website.

It was suggested that club Head Coaches and club Boards should be working together to encourage more of their parents to become officials. It was also suggested the PVS might add a requirement that clubs have a certain number of officials to get approval to host or sponsor a meet or perhaps higher level meets.

Some suggested that Board does not currently feel it has much leeway with regard to the circumstance under which he may issue a sanction.

New Business -- Greg announced that the Mini Camp scheduled for January 25 has not yet been posted to the website. Announcements of the camp were provided at the meeting and coaches were encouraged to help get the word out. [Note: A format suitable for posting was subsequently provided to the Webmaster and the information was posted to the website on January 15.] Greg said he was also taking suggestions for coaches to help with camp and would welcome additional volunteers.

Hirschmann reported to the Committee that in general clubs are doing a very good job in getting kids entered into meets using both the correct name (that which they are registered with USA Swimming) and the correct USA Swimming ID number. The problems that are occurring tend to come from a few specific clubs or training sites and are being addressed.

He noted for the forthcoming high school meets that are approved for observation, times will get loaded into the new USA Swimming SWIM data base if they are entered using the same name as they are registered with USA Swimming and provide the correct registration number. He noted PVS is encouraging (but cannot require) those hosting the high school meets to attempt to provide this information. He asked the PVS coaches to do what they can to assist this process and encourage when they can their athletes and the high school coaches to support this effort.

Bill Stephens reported that the PVS coaches are also doing a much better job of keeping their certifications current. Therefore, PVS will not necessarily be giving the matter the same degree of emphasis as it has in the recent past. Some coaches however urged PVS to be careful in this regard since they felt that awareness that PVS would be checking was important part of the process of encouraging PVS coaches to make sure they do in fact keep their certifications and registration status current.

Ward Foley announced that as the Eastern Zone Coaches Age Grp Rep, he is on the national Age Group Planning Committee. He indicted that they are planning to issue another set of time standards in addition to the ones that already exist. They were also planning to share meet formats for LSC's and clubs to consider as alternatives or additions to the meets they are already having.

Since PVS will be conducting a Swimposium in the Autumn of 2004, Ward indicated he was planning to have a workshop for coaches of younger age swimmers in the fall of 2005.

Greg York announced that NV Pools would be assuming a new role in providing the classes needed by coaches to maintain their certifications in late Aug-early September and again in late December - early January. They have established procedures to allow the certifications to be quickly issued and gotten to the PVS registrar, once the requirements have been met.

The dates for the classes once established would be announced on the PVS website. Others would continue to still be able to conduct these classes and PVS would publicize those classes as well on the website.

It had been presented to the PVS Board at its December meeting and endorsed by them.

Greg York in response to a question reported that there has been no activity to date at the zone level in regard to discussing how to restructure the Eastern Zone spring short course championship meet. He indicated that he now anticipated that there would be a discussion of the matter at the zone meet in Manassas, VA -- April 1-3, 2004. Two EZ LSC's have indicated they will not be participating in this spring's meet.

Next Meeting Date -- The Committee tentatively agreed to have its Spring meeting on Wednesday, May 19, 2004 at 7PM at River Falls. This date was subsequently confirmed. This will allow it be after the spring Eastern Zone meeting and before the annual House of Delegates meeting. (The House of Delegates meeting was subsequently scheduled by the Board for Wednesday, May 26 - also at River Falls.)

Adjournment -- The meeting adjourned at approximately 12:30pm