Minutes of the House of Delegates Meeting
Held on September 27 2003 at 1:00pm at Olathe KS
George Bruce, General Chair, called the meeting to order at 1:00 pm. The
following delegates were in attendance: Ken Bailey, Linda Bailey, Scott
Berry, Scott Bliss, Aaron Dean, Pete Hay, Tom Herder, Craig Ivancic,
Theresa Johnson, Harry Kaszycki, Andre Koop, Gary Ledford, Peter Malone,
Rich Maxfield, Sandy Miller, Kathy Musch, Tim Musch, Marlaine Nickelson,
Jason Petty, Dave Powers, Cindy Reed, and Dulcy Sellon.
George Bruce asked for corrections or additions to the minutes for the
August 2, 2003 Board of Directors meeting at the Division I championships.
There being none the motion to accept the minutes as published was made,
seconded, and approved.
REPORTS
Senior Vice Chair, Mike Lewellyn, reported that the checks for senior
travel had been distributed to the clubs with swimmers attending the Senior
National Meet. To be eligible for such reimbursement, swimmers who attend
the national meet must swim as MVS swimmers in the Region VIII meet or the
Division I meet unless the Division I meet coincides with the Senior
National Meet. If the conflict occurs swimmers must clear this with the
Senior Chair. This rule is based upon the Region VIII rule for determining
which swimmers are eligible to receive MVS travel funds. Mike also reported
that he had been elected the junior age group chair for the Central Zone.
Age Group Vice Chair, Craig Ivancic, reported that the Division I and II
championships had gone well. Missouri Valley is offering championship meet
opportunity to over 1000 swimmers. Missouri Valley had 139 swimmers attend
the Zone meet. Missouri Valley finished third at the meet, which had 1700
swimmers in attendance and lasted four days. Swimmers felt the meet was
lengthy and expensive but very fast. The 2004 Zone meet will be held in
Topeka, KS and Tom Herder has already blocked hotel rooms for the event.
Scott Bliss will be the MVS head Zone coach. More coaches are still needed
for the Zone team and for the All-Star meet. Craig reported that the 2003
Zone expenses had come in $3000 under budget. Craig also reported that the
Northern zone LSC wants to add the 200 events and the 400 IM, 800 free and
mile events to the 11-12 age group Zone events. To do this, some 10 & Under
or Senior events would need to be eliminated. Craig will advocate for
continuing the meet in its current format but would like input on this
issue. George Bruce pointed out that the Zone meet used to be a team travel
event for MVS swimmers. He sought input on whether, after the Topeka Zones,
MVS should return to a team travel meet for Zone swimmers.
Registration Chair, Dulcy Sellon, reported that Missouri Valley had just
begun the 2004 registration year. Currently 239 full-year swimmers are
registered, and 16 non-athletes. MVS finished the 2003 registration year
with 3726 full year swimmers, 20 season I swimmers and 4401 season 2
swimmers. There were 36 season 2 clubs and 45 full year clubs and 877
non-athletes. She reviewed the USA Swimming’s new online database for
registrations and times and pointed out that data entered for registering a
swimmer had to match that in the meet results file sent in to USA Swimming
in order for a swimmer to be matched to the times they had achieved. George
Bruce stated that MVS will not know for some time how munch the USA
Swimming dues increase will impact MVS’s registration numbers. He asked
that teams listen to their members for input on this.
Treasurer, Theresa Johnson, reported that MVS had finished the 2003 fiscal
year with a net income. The new timing system has been purchased and is
treated as a capital expense. Theresa stated that the fiscal year ended
August 31 and requested that Zone receipts and senior travel reimbursements
be given to her before that date so that the money could be paid out in the
fiscal year in which it was incurred. Delegates discussed moving the senior
travel reimbursements to the next fiscal year each budget cycle since the
amount is fixed and that would ease the timing for coaches submitting
reimbursement requests. Theresa stated that MVS has no way of projecting
the impact of the dues increase on the budget. George Bruce pointed out
that although registration fees had been raised by USA Swimming, MVS still
receives the same amount as it has in the past from each swimmer
registered. The current budget assumes no increase from the dues increase
and we might have fewer swimmers registering and thus less money. George
Bruce also stated that he wished to increase the secretary’s salary by 4%
in the budget. The motion was made to accept the budget as presented
including the increase in the MVS secretary’s salary, the motion was
seconded and the motion was approved.
Coaches Representative, Cindy Reed, stated that she wished to establish an
email list for coaches to enhance their communication. When asked about the
USAS Convention she stated that she had found that USA Swimming was a
valuable resource not just a governing body. Delegates then discussed a
panel discussion at the Convention, which had considered means to attract
and keep boys in swimming. Coaches suggested that a panel discussion on
this would not be something they wanted at the spring Swimposium. They
would prefer to talk about this among themselves.
Athletes’ Representative, Andre Koop, thanked MVS for sending him to the
Convention and stated that at the Convention athletes had discussed the
involvement of swimmers in the paraolympics, unattached swimmers at meets
and drug use. Further discussion on means to spread Convention information
to more MVS swimmers will be pursued under new business.
Sanctions Chair, George Bruce, reported for Jim Devine that sanctions had
been going out in a timely manner. Water depths have been increased to 4
feet, for starts from blocks and after discussion it was suggested that the
pool depth be stated on the meet flyer. The referee can reference this
information when deciding the start procedures to be followed at the meet.
Records Chair, Scott Berry, reported that 34 Citizen records and 20
District records had been broken in the 2003 long course season and that 30
swimmers and 30 relays had achieved National Top 16 consideration times. He
also distributed the MVS Top 8 swimmers for 2003 long course. Top 8
swimmers will receive a certificate at the MVS spring meeting.
Officials Chair, Linda Bailey, reported that new officials must now attend
a clinic, take the online test and achieve a score of 90% on the questions
and 80% on the references each year. Stroke & Turn Judges must take and
pass the Stroke & Turn and Timer tests; starters must take and pass the
Stroke & Turn test, Timer test and Starter tests. Referees must take all
seven tests, and if they are not a trainee, must attend a clinic every
other year. All officials’ cards will be mailed from the Missouri Valley
Office.
Safety Chair, Helen Luchow, reported through handouts that accidents are
down this year for MVS and USA Swimming as a whole. George Bruce pointed
out that insurance companies look for noncompliance of insurance
requirements to avoid paying claims. USA Swimming requires that meet hosts
have a safety marshal present who is a registered member of USA Swimming.
Teams may want to register the lifeguards present at the meet with USA
Swimming to cover this safety requirement. A lifeguard from the facility at
which a meet is held does not meet this safety requirement unless they are
USA Swimming registered.
Meet Procedures Chair, Jason Petty, had no report but Division I meet
information will be discussed in new business.
Outreach Chair, Joe Ogilvie, had reports from his convention attendance
available. George Bruce stated that Joe would increase his activity in the
seasonal clubs area. MVS has the most extensive seasonal club participation
of all USA Swimming LSC’s.
Scheduling Chair, Pete Malone, reported that Salina had changed their meet
date, Haysville will not be having their meet and the July Topeka meet has
been dropped since Topeka will be hosting the 2004 Zone meet. The 2004-2005
meet bid packets will be mailed to all clubs and posted on the website
after Thanksgiving. For the 2004-2005 season, The Level II meet will be
December 4-5, Level I will be December 10-11, the All-Star meet will be
January 14-16, 2005, Division II will be February 25-27, 2005, Sectionals
will be March 3-6, Division I, March 11-13. Our 2005 spring meeting will be
April 16. Summer Sectionals will be July 20-23, 2005, Division II on July
28-30, Juniors will be August 2-6 and Seniors on August 9, Division I will
be August 5-7 and Zones August 11-14. Peter also reported information from
the Convention. Starts from a block must have 4 feet of water. Our
Sectional meet will be closed but other Zone LSC’s have voted to open
theirs so some MVS teams might be attending other Sectional meets. Also new
ABC age group time charts and National top 16 cut-offs will be finalized
this year for the 2004-2008 time periods. The February 2004 National
Championships will use 2003 US Open time standards and will allow bonus
events as in spring 2003. The US Open time standards for 2003 will be the
same as for 2002 with no bonus events. The August National Championships
will be posted on the USA Swimming website.
Board of Review, George Bruce reported that no Boards had been held this
year. John Morse, a past MVS general Chair, is currently head of the USA
Swimming National Board of Review and has involved some MVS members on
national reviews.
District Delegates. Linda Bailey reported that MVS is seeking to hold a
Swimposium at the MVS spring meeting. This would bring staff from USA
Swimming to MVS (Wichita State Univ., April 17) for meetings for officials,
coaches, a swim clinic for athletes and management training for new and/or
summer clubs. Once the date has been confirmed, MVS will begin publicizing
the event.
Sandy Miller reported that there were no problems with using the Lawrence
pool.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Tom Herder stated that the meet information sheets will show clearly the
number of events a swimmer may swim at championship meets that offer time
trials. He and Jim Devine would work on this. Richard Maxfield stated that
since Lawrence would be hosting the Level II meet a team needed to be
assigned to the Newton Level II site. It was decided to have Tsunami be
assigned to the west site at Newton.
NEW BUSINESS
George Bruce stated that information from the Convention had shown that
other LSC’s use a variety of means to insure attendance at LSC meetings by
teams and athletes. He asked for volunteers from coaches and parents to
consider MVS’s By-laws for the spring meeting. Issues to consider will be
the role of our district delegates, attendance requirements, and athlete
representation from each club. Mike Lewellyn, David Schumacher and Tom
Kleiboecker volunteered as coaches for the committee.
Richard Maxfield raised the issue of adding consolation finals to the short
course Division II finals. Coaches endorsed this idea and this was turned
over to Jason Petty as Meet Procedures Chair to work on establishing this.
The meet will remain as is for the current year and changes will be
proposed by Jason and Craig Ivancic, Age Group Chair at the MVS Spring
meeting.
The possibility of putting a meet entry file on the website for teams
entering a meet was discussed. Scott Berry will discuss this and how best
to do it with Richard Winn, the MVS webmaster.
George Bruce stated that an issue for USA Swimming is the posting of meet
psyche sheets on LSC websites. They believed that this was an unsafe
practice and our LSC will not be publishing the psyche sheets.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Hank Enterline is hosting an adapted swimming workshop in January. Vicky
Perry and Theresa Johnson have volunteered to attend.
Peter Malone was recognized for his appointment as one of the head coaches
for the short course world team.
Adjournment was moved, seconded and duly approved at 3:20 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Dulcy Sellon, Secretary
Missouri Valley Swimming
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