PVS Officials

Minutes of PVS Officials Committee Meetings

Minutes of
PVS Officials Committee Meeting
January 8, 2009

Members present: Jim Van Erden, Boots Hall, Jack Neill, Tim Husson, Pam Starke-Reed, Jim Thompson, and Denice Wepasnick.

The meeting was called to order at 7:14pm at Jim Van Erden’s office in Arlington. The approval of the minutes of the November 2008 meeting was deferred until the next meeting.

Upcoming Officials Qualification Meets

Sectionals (March 26-19 at Germantown) - The application for this to be a N2/N3 Officials Qualification Meet has been submitted to USA Swimming. Peter Soderstrum (Southeastern Swimming) is the Meet Referee. We need an administrative referee and additional evaluators. Boots will check with Jamy Pfister to see if any applications have been received for the admin ref position. Several other candidates, both within and outside PVS were also mentioned.

Senior Champs (March 12-15 at GMU) - Application will be made soon for this to be an N2 (and possibly an N3 at some positions) Officials Qualification Meet. Jim Van Erden volunteered to be the Meet Referee. Denice and Jack volunteered to be evaluators. We will also ask Don Riedlinger and Steed Edwards to be evaluators. We need to find an administrative referee. Tim will post an Application to Officiate on the PVS website.

Junior Olympics (March 19-22 at PGS&LC) - We want to apply for this to be an N2 Officials Qualification Meet, like last year. Pam will check her schedule to see if she can be the Meet Referee. Jim VE will solicit the PVS referees to see if anyone is interested in the administrative referee position. . Tim will post an Application to Officiate on the PVS website.

Officials Tracking System (OTS)

The question is whether PVS should begin using this system for all meets. Jim Thompson and Tim (along with Jim Van Erden) now have administrative access. Tim presented some for the reports that can be extracted from the system. The system will meet our requirements for tracking the work histories of officials for recertification. An additional feature to be added soon is the capability to maintain the LSC certifications in the system.

Tim agreed to start setting up the January PVS meets in the OTS and load the data for two meets from last weekend (3-4 Jan). The meet referee, if one is designated for the meet, will have access to load the officials list into the system for the meet. We still need to deal with the issues of what to do with meets that don’t have a designated meet referee, and to insure 100% compliance by teams running meets.

Starter Training

There have been recent discussions among the committee members about changing the PVS recommended starting procedure for hearing impaired swimmers to come in line with the recommendations of Article 105 of the USA Swimming rules. Specifically, this deals with the procedure of dropping the outstretched arm while initiating the starting signal. The committee members present that we should do this to be consistent with other LSCs and to prepare swimmers and officials for meets in other jurisdictions that may include this procedure. Jack and Denice will take the lead on updating the PVS starter training material. We also need to make sure this is covered in all future starter clinics, and including a demonstration of this procedure in new starter checkouts (whether a hearing impaired swimmer is present or not).

New Swim Suit Rule

A question was raised by a committee member of whether PVS should include a statement about the new rule in meet announcements once the rule becomes effective in May. The members in attendance felt that the committee’s position would be neither for nor against including a statement in the meet announcements. The members present thought the rule was being well publicized by PVS on its website.

PVS Briefing Card

A question was raised by a committee member of whether a new, more conversational stroke briefing card was needed for PVS referees and chief judges. The members in attendance felt that current briefing materials are adequate and that the briefer always has the latitude to enhance the USA Swimming stroke briefing.

Make-Up Referees Clinic

Some PVS referees that could not make the Oct 2008 clinic are in need of a clinic for recertification. Jim Van Erden will get a list from Rita Page and attempt to schedule one or more of these clinics based on need.

Awards

A Maxwell Award nomination has been forwarded by Jim to USA Swimming. Boots said that USA Swimming is always asking for more nominations. The application is on the USA Swimming website, and must be forwarded through the LSC Officials Chair.

It was also agreed that last year’s PVS Officials Contribution Awards were well received and should be continued this year.

Bells, etc.

We are running low on the bells that we give to new starters. Boots has found a reasonable source for bells and will take the action to procure more of them. They need to be distributed out to those that do starter checkouts.

We are also running out of tchotchkes that we give out at clinics. The shirt supply that Dick Griffith and Denice have is adequate, except for sizes S and XS. Dick has been diligent in attending meets this fall distributing shirts to deserving officials.

Next Meeting

The next meeting is scheduled to be held on February 18, 2009 at 7:00pm at 736 Rockville Pike in Rockville (provided by Denice).

The meeting adjourned at 8:45pm

Respectfully submitted,
Tim Husson
Committee Member