Operations Division
September 2001 Report



    Officials Committee
  • Referee's and separate Starter's clinic will be held at MAC September 29. Stroke and Turn clinics have been scheduled for September 29 at MAC and October 13/14 at Herndon. Hy-Tek and CTS training is scheduled for October 6. Link to Training Schedule
  • Bob Brofft (Virginia) and Bob Richardson (Maryland/DC) are planning additional Referee and Starter's clinics for this autumn.
  • New stroke rules (adopted by FINA in July and USA Swimming in Sept) were briefed to Competition Committee last Thursday and will be briefed at all officials clinics this fall. They have also been posted to the PVS website. Their effective date is September 20.
  • PVS Officials Committee met in late August. It invited 12 individuals to the First Time Referee's clinic held September 9. Seven individuals accepted the invitation: Janet Coxe, Art Davis, Tim Husson, Elizabeth Jester, Mike O'Brien, Rita Page, and Jared Wisor. Some declined for medical reasons or time commitment concerns.
  • A new form to evaluate new referees at their final session as a trainee was adopted for use. A similar form for evaluating new starters has been in use for several years.
  • The Officials Committee is concerned about meets being awarded to clubs that have minimal officials or few higher level (Starter/Referee) officials . The importance of having the Club Officials Chairman assume responsibility for staffing meets was also discussed.
  • The Committee also hopes that host/sponsoring clubs will be encouraged to provide timers in accordance with PVS policy. They also noted that host/sponsoring clubs should appoint marshals and that asking officials to perform collateral duty as marshals was no longer appropriate.

  • Meet Management
  • Responsibility for obtaining pools for PVS sponsored meets remains with the PVS Administrative Assistants. In light of the RMSC sponsored meets in October and November, only two pools for each meet have been rented. It was originally hoped that a 16 lane pool could be rented for each meet so that if meet was over subscribed, the meet could be rapidly expanded.
  • Teams assignments for the October Open assume those clubs being invited to the RMSC meet will submit no more than minimal entries into the October Open.
  • Team assignments for pending November Open MA was adjusted to anticipate about 50% more entries due to permitting athletes to enter 5 events/day. Team assignments were also made based on understanding RMSC sponsored November meet would be open to all clubs and would have qualifying times.

  • Equipment Manager
  • No report was received.

  • Safety Commitee
  • No new Reports of Occurrences have been received. FCPA is still considering conducting a Safety Training for Swim Coaches class in late September or early October. No final dates are known. Other parties interested in possibly conducting this class should contact the PVS Safety Chairman, John McDonald at tjamkmcd@erols.com
  • Safety Committee will be asked to assist in implementing three new safety related items coming out of this year's convention. There are (1) new restrictions on water depth for practicing starts, (2) requirements pertaining to marshals to wear "identifying attire" and (3) prohibitions on swimmers with bleeding or oozing wound from participating in competition.
  • The Officials Committee has requested the Safety Committee to update its safety survey which was last done several years ago. New pools are now being used by PVS and the situation at existing pools may have changed.