Potomac Valley Voices

Potomac Valley Swimming is governed by the House of Delegates (HOD); the Board of Directors are essentially trustees for the HOD and provide management of the corporation between HOD sessions. The House consists of one member from each registered, active club in the association. Traditionally, the HOD has met annually in Potomac Valley, generally in May, and its major functions are to receive reports from the Board on the state of the corporation, enact major legislation affecting broad areas of the association, approve an operating budget for the coming year (which begins on September 1), and elect members to the Boards of Directors and Review.

This year’s HOD will be held on May 17^th. For the past several years the HOD has not been confronted with many major policies issues. It has, however, over the past couple years approved our new By-Laws and accepted our Policy and Procedures Manual, which certainly are important and key actions. But it has not really had to make major, hard policy decisions. That will not be the case this year!

The stated goals of my administration have remained the same from the first day; they are to improve communication, push responsibility and authority for day-to-day operations down into the organization of the LSC, and, thereby, give the management team (Board of Directors) the opportunity to focus on strategic issues. Unstated but self-evident have been the objectives to retain all programs, give our swimmers the opportunities to perform to their potential, and ensure fiscal responsibility.

With these goals at the forefront of our thought process, the Board will be bringing to the House some watershed actions for decision that signal the start of real change in the way we do business. Foremost among these will be a recommended shift in the way we manage competition. Until this past season PVS was one of the only LSCs to essentially manage all competition. We arranged and paid for the use of pools; there was really little incentive for member clubs to get involved in that process because the return was not worth the effort. Several clubs did get involved and we could not have had a program without them but the percentage of clubs was small. This was a problem that was well recognized by the Board, such that the Strategic Planning Committee took a look at ways to promote more participation on the part of our member clubs; it reported back to the House with several good recommendations but it did not address the one area that would make a difference and that is moving revenue from the LSC pot to the individual clubs’ treasuries. Thus for the next season we are proposing to take two steps to reverse this situation. First, PVS will reduce the number of meets that it will run (secure and pay for the pool) to Open meets, Distance Meets, and Championship Meets. And PVS will return a larger share of the income generated at those meets to the clubs that manage them. Secondly, other meets will be put on the schedule and run solely by member clubs. PVS will not get involved in securing or paying for the pool and the clubs will return to PVS only a very small fee while retaining all other income. These kinds of meets include, for example: JO’s, Spring Classic, Mini Meets, and meets like those held last December prior to JO’s, which were very successful and a proof of concept for this approach. The impact on the swimmers and your pocketbooks should be unnoticeable. We plan no change to the entry fees for PVS run meets and entry fees for club meets, while not prescribed by PVS, will by the law of supply and demand have to stay in line with existing rates in order to generate sufficient participation. On the other hand, we are dealing with a very significant redistribution of income in favor of those clubs willing to invest the time and effort to manage meets. This clearly responds to our second goal of getting more people involved in the day-to-day operation of our programs and reap major increases in income. At the same time there will be a net loss of income to PVS. While our expenses will decline under this new competition management system from approximately $153 thousand to $122 thousand our income will decline even more dramatically from $254 thousand to $170 thousand. This will reduce net operating income generated by the competition program from $100 to $50 thousand.

The second major watershed will be in the area of communications. Besides the quality of competition opportunity, communications has been the major focus of my administration since Day One. The cornerstone of our communication today is the webpage; like it or not, PVS has entered the electronic information age with one of the best and one of the most active webpages in the swimming community. I wish I could claim credit for the success of this but I can’t because that belongs to Dave Scibetta and his committee of very forward thinking people and to John Hirschmann who is basically a full time webmaster. Nevertheless, the immediate success of the webpage, based on the thousands of "hits" (people who have viewed it) allows us to make some decisions about the future means of communication for the LSC. Of the nearly 6000 swimmers in the LSC, less than 1000 families are PVS Family Members who, as a result, receive paper copies of all meet announcements, meet results, a copy of the PVS Aquatics Guide, and other assorted papers like this newsletter. Family members can also buy meet programs for half price. In the recent past family memberships generated approximately $13,000 of income while the cost to the LSC of providing this information in hard copy to less than 25% of the families was in the neighborhood of $26,000. We are proposing to transition over a 2-year period toward the elimination of all paper-based information except that going directly to the clubs. For next season we are proposing a 50% reduction in price for a family membership that would provide members with meet announcements, other assorted paper information and half-price meet programs. The current Aquatics Guide information will be transferred to the webpage, if not already there. If someone wants paper copies of meet results, we will make those available on a cost reimbursable basis, which we calculate will be $30 a year. We anticipate this will cut our income to $10,000 and our expenses to $11,000. I firmly believe that the level and range of our communication today is far superior to ever before. I am not backing off from my prior commitment to provide paper-based products for those people that want it, but I feel it is necessary to put that on a "pay-as-you-go" basis so that the membership-at-large is not charged for a service to a small segment of the LSC.

The Board is proposing to retain all other programs, including our travel assistance to national qualifiers, camp participation, equipment support, zone team subsidies, and clinics and workshops. For most of these our support is at or near the top of all LSCs. In the past the competition surplus was a major source of revenue to support these programs. The Board has decided that the most equitable means of ensuring adequate revenue to retain our programs plus open a whole new window on information, and redistribute income to our clubs is to increase the registration fees to all members. Thus we are proposing a $10 increase to our swimmers, $5 increase to our parent volunteers, and a $30 increase to our clubs. The $10 increase to our swimmers will put our association at the top of all the LSCs but also is the most equitable way to redistribute revenue that funds programs that are available to and effects all swimmers. The $5 increase in volunteer registration places PVS at the exact USS median; 14 LSCs charge more and 15 charge less while the other 29 charge the same. Our fee to clubs will remain the lowest overall in USS because we have the smallest number of clubs of any LSC per capita and there would have to be a huge increase in club fees before the increased income would be significant. That would not be equitable for the small clubs, for which such an increase would be a burden.

In an effort to preserve and enhance our reserves, which we have been eating into because of our annual deficit spending for at least the past 4 years, we have completed a review of our investment strategy that funds our reserve. As a result of that review, Bob Fout, our Financial Chairman, will introduce a new investment strategy for the HOD’s consideration that we believe will over time generate a more favorable return on investment and ultimately be applied toward payment of our many programs. We are hopeful that the adoption of this strategy will shield us from future fee increases for the foreseeable future.

Finally, the House of Delegates will also be called upon to elect certain members of the Board. We are fortunate this year in that all the Board positions that are up for election are held by incumbents who can succeed themselves and who have agreed to do so. Thus the slate of candidates this year include: Sue Gosline for Administrative Vice Chairman; Ward Foley for Age Group Vice Chairman; Thirl Crudup for Operations Chairman; and Dave Scibetta for Strategic Planning Chairman. Two positions on the Board of Review will also be elected this year. All positions are for 2-year terms and Board members may serve no more than 2 consecutive terms.

We are back from Eastern Zone Championships (recently held at Gloucester, NJ) with lots of exciting news to share with you. Potomac Valley came away with one of its best overall finishes in some time!

The team received outstanding leadership from Head Coach Evan Stiles, his equally good Assistant Head Coach Shawn Fisher (12 & U) and Assistants Ted Person (10 & U), Blair Cameron (11-12), Eric Waananan (13-14), and Bob Lindberg (15-18). This coaching staff challenged, motivated and sent the 78 swimmers representing Potomac Valley on a mission to succeed. Age group and team meetings really served to get the adrenaline flowing high and the focus established!

Overall, the swimmers performed very well and some notable performances stood out. Joey Piekarski (RMSC) achieved junior championship qualifying times in the boys 200 and 400 IM, and100 Breast; Joey brought home a 1^st place finish in this event for PVS. Amanda VanHorn (OCCS) also swam to a junior cut and a 1^st place finish in girls 15-18 200 Back. Reportable Top 16 times came from Kassandra Kugler (2), Erica Suguiyama (1), Daniel Mengering (6), Chris Poole (1), Jason Blanken (5), Eric Wellington (1), and Chris Gibson (1). Additionally, the girls (15-18) 400 Medley Relay took home first place honors.

Team spirit and support was running at an all time high throughout the three days of the meet. It was really evident on the last day at finals with the 10 & Unders (who swim timed finals in the afternoon) showing up wearing face paint and glitter in their hair to cheer on their older teammates. Not to be outdone, the coaches showed their true team spirit with the letters "P V S" painted boldly and colorfully on the back of their shaved heads!

Parent support was equally wonderful, especially the 10 & U chaperones, Vicky Poole and Patty Constantino, who did an outstanding job. Many thanks for a task well done to the parents who volunteered as timers and officials. Also, many thanks to John Hirschmann for getting results posted daily on the PVS webpage.

Did I mention that PVS finished 4^th overall – our highest finish in years – with 736,5 points, only 16 points out of 3^rd. The points were fairly evenly spread between boys (391.5) and girls (345).

Before experiencing the Speedo Junior Championships, I was not quite sure what to expect. It was my first taste of upper level swimming and I was nervous! There seemed to be a thousand plus swimmers on the deck with me and the vast majority were strangers to me.

On the first day of competition I was pleasantly surprised because the meet format was very similar to Potomac Valley championship meets I competed in routinely. Even the level of competition was similar. For example, at this year’s J.O. meet, in any given final heat, most of the swimmers either had or were very close to Junior cuts. I found that many swimmers at PVS meets were actually faster than those at Charlotte.

By the second day I had begun to settle in. The meet ran very efficiently and smoothly. Surprisingly, little time was actually spent at the pool. I had gotten a feel for my environment! My nervousness was pretty much over and I was beginning to have fun. By the 3^rd and 4^th days of the meet I felt like a veteran. I knew what to expect! By the end of the meet I had met tons of swimmers from all over the Southeast USA. The swimming was over and I could breathe a sigh of relief. I had time to hang out and party. In the end regardless of my performance in the pool, I had had a great experience. It was fun and I learned a lot about myself, my goals, and our sport.

Seasonal athlete memberships are available for the time period May thru August for $15. Please Note: A seasonal athlete may swim only in Potomac Valley meets and may not be a member of any travel team. If a seasonal athlete makes a travel team, the $15 membership is not transferable. An additional $35 regular membership would be required.

The PVS Workshop, which had been scheduled for April 26th, was cancelled with the exception of the Gold Medal Clinic. It is a shame because Sue Gosline and Jan Wolff put a great deal of effort into producing a top notch program. However, for reasons that are not clear at the moment we could not generate the interest necessary to make this project a success. The same is not true for the Gold Medal Clinic, which was successfully held and for which we had a full house. I want to compliment Kerry Ellett, the PVS Camps Coordinator. I have asked Wayne White, the PVS Public Relations Coordinator, to look into the reasons why we couldn’t seem to get sufficient interest in the Workshop overall. I want to provide the association with lessons learned so that when we decide to try this again we will have the benefit of knowing what pitfalls we should avoid or must overcome.