Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting

Held on September 28 2002 at 8:00am at the Wichita Swim Club, Wichita KS

The meeting of the Board of Directors of Missouri Valley Swimming was held at the Wichita Swim Club, Wichita, Kansas. General Chair, George Bruce, called the meeting to order at 8:00 AM. The following Officers and Directors were in attendance: Linda Bailey, Bryan Beatty, John Brockway, Jim Devine, Tom Herder, Craig Ivancic, Mike Lewellyn, Pete Malone, Marlaine Nickelson, Joe Ogilvie, Dulcy Sellon, and Richard Winn. Also in attendance was Donna Ogilvie.

George Bruce began the meeting by discussing the Board’s agenda items.

The Board discussed the purchase of a second timing system for Missouri Valley.
The Board discussed the logistics needed for the 2003 Zone meet, which will be held at one site in Indianapolis. The meet will be a 5-day meet (6 days including the open water meet) and will not be a team travel meet. The event schedule will be different from previous years, the chaperones will be required to perform more work, and hotel space will be scarce at the time of the meet. Notice of these items is already on the MVS website.
Creation of the ad hoc committee with Joe Ogilvie as the Seasonal League Commissioner. Missouri Valley’s summer teams generate a great deal of revenue for the LSC. This position will study and encourage the participation of seasonal teams.
Missouri Valley has several new positions and officers. Theresa Johnson has taken over the Treasurer’s position. Jim Devine will be the Sanctioning Chair. The OVC work required in the past is now done through the STAR computer system and Scott Berry will be in charge of this.
Missouri Valley is also considering two by-law changes. Both proposals have been published. The first is Article 17.5 B (new language underlined) Notice by Fax, Internet, or E-Mail – Except for Board of Review matters, notice given and writings delivered by facsimile (or) electronic mail, or posted on the Missouri Valley web site shall be deemed given or delivered upon oral, telephonic, electronic or written confirmation of recipient or 10 days after posting on the web site by the Missouri Valley Swimming Webmaster, provided that electronic notice is also sent to each club’s representative and head coach. The second, Article 6.2 states, The House of Delegates, at its annual spring meeting, shall elect the General Chair, Secretary, and the Senior Vice Chair, in even numbered years, and the Age Group Vice Chair, The Administrative Vice Chair and The Treasurer, in odd numbered years. District Representatives will be elected every two years, or upon the creation of a vacant District Representative position. The provision in Article 17.5 to provide electronic notice to each club’s representative and coach was suggested as an amendment to the originally published By-Law proposal. With this amendment, Pete Malone made the motion to adopt the two By Law changes; Mike Lewellyn seconded the motion and all Board members voted aye.
Budget discussion. The Board discussed the need and cost for a new timing system. This system could cost $15,000 for the system and $5,000 for the trailer to haul it. George Bruce reported that John Malnar has agreed to take over management and scheduling responsibilities and to store the systems at his business. Bruce also reported that he believed it would be possible for MVS to find a sponsor, such as Pepsi or Gatorade, to buy the system for MVS in return for advertising on it at all MVS meets. The Board reviewed its financial assets, $48,000 in a contingency fund, $26,000 in a money market fund, and $69,500 in MVS’s Merrill Lynch account. The Board believed that funds would be available for the system and the motion was made and seconded to give George Bruce a free hand to find a sponsor for the MVS timing system and to bring the sponsor’s proposal back to the Board for their approval. This system would be compatible with MVS’s current system. Upon motion duly made and seconded, the motion was approved.
During further budget discussion, George Bruce explained that the proposed budget reflected a 6.5% increase for FY 2002-2003. MVS had approximately a 13% increase in swimmers and resulting registration revenues for FY 2001-2002, so 1/2 of this percentage was projected as the source for a likely increase in income from swimmer registration and participation fees for MVS. The MVS budget, as prepared by the Executive Committee at the USAS Swim Convention in Dallas, showed a deficit of $14,000. The Board discussed budget line items to determine where changes needed to be made in order to balance the budget. Discussion focused on increasing the participation fee from $2.50 to $3.00 and altering the enhancement funds provided for our championship meets. George Bruce offered a proposal to balance the budget by reducing the amount allotted to senior travel, and by making budget items for championship meet enhancements and officers' expenses contingent on fund availability at the end of the year. One-time expenses this year such as the new computer, the timing system and trailer were moved off the operating budget as capital expenses. The web site expenses were also discussed and the $5,000 budget line was left as before. Missouri Valley is paying Richard Winn, the Webmaster, for his work in maintaining the site. Supplying $2,500 for extra decking at the Division I Championship Short Course Meet in Wichita was also discussed. Rather than increase the participation fee to cover this meet expense, Pete Malone made the motion to delegate to the Facility Fee Committee the task of modifying its guidelines to allow the committee to authorize a $5 facility fee per swimmer for the Short Course Division I meet if held at the Wichita Swim Club. This motion was seconded and approved. Jim Devine made the motion to pass the budget with the above changes; Joe Ogilvie seconded the motion and it was duly approved.
Age Group Vice Chair, Tom Herder, reported on Missouri Valley’s victory at the 2002 Zone Meet. He complimented Wichita Swim Club on hosting an outstanding meet. He noted that the 2003 Central Zone meet will be held at one site, Indiana University Natatorium, and that due to the expanded format and length of the meet this would not be an MVS team trip for the meet. Tom also reported that he is reviewing and revising MVS’s championship meet information. He made a motion to standardize seeding for Division I and II so that entrants with qualifying times conforming to the championship course would be seeded first; non-conforming times would be seeded subsequently LCM/SCM in March and SCM/SCY in August; bonus swims would be seeded as No Time, behind any swimmer who had achieved a qualifying time in any course. This motion was seconded and duly approved. Tom pointed out that MVS has gotten away from requiring proof of times at championship meets. Tom proposed that the meet host be delegated as being responsible for providing an individual to verify times. The money collected would go to the meet hosts. Jim Devine made the motion that meet hosts have responsibility for proof of times and that fines collected from this would go to the meet hosts. The meet flyers will be changed to reflect this. John Brockway seconded the motion and it was duly approved.
Richard Winn, MVS’s Webmaster, discussed the possibility of providing password protection for pages on the site which lists information on individuals. The Board discussed this possibility and agreed that the web site served the reasonable purpose of providing information and that it did not wish to undertake a protection function on the site. MVS individuals can request that the Webmaster remove their personal information from the site.
Pete Malone reported from the Scheduling Committee that bid packets would be mailed in December to MVS clubs. He also noted that September 26-27, 2003, would be the date for the next Missouri Valley Board of Directors/House of Delegates meeting. For next year, Level II will be Dec. 6-7,2003; Level I Dec. 12-14, 2003; Division II Feb. 27-March 1, 2004; Division I March 12-14, 2004. MVS’s Spring Meeting will be April 16-17, 2004, Long Course Division II, July 23-25, 2004, and Division I, July 30-August 1, 2004.

The Board of Directors meeting adjourned at 10:58 AM.

Minutes of the House of Delegates Meeting

Held on September 28 2002 at 8:00am at the Wichita Swim Club, Wichita KS

George Bruce, Missouri Valley General Chair, called the meeting to order at 1:00 pm. In addition to the Officers and Board of Directors noted above, the following Missouri Valley members were in attendance; Scott Bliss, Jim Randall, Mike Soderling and Ben Westberg. Jim Devine was absent from the meeting.

No amendments being offered to the minutes of the Missouri Valley Executive Committee Meeting held August 4, 2002, the minutes were approved as posted.

Reports of Officers

Age Group Vice Chair – Tom Herder reported that Missouri Valley had won the Zone Meet this year and had stayed within its allotted budget. The 2003 Zone meet will have 15 teams and a longer format. The 2003 Zone meet will be a family trip not a team trip. He also reported that the changes to the championship meet seeding had been accepted by the Board of Directors. The Board also agreed that championship meet host would provide the individual to monitor proof of times and that the host team would keep any proof of time fines collected.

Senior Chair-- Eric Nelson reported that the past Zone meet in Wichita had included disabled swimmers and that this would probably continue. Spring Nationals 2003, will be a long course meet. Junior Nationals will be back 2005 and will be a long course meet held after Senior Nationals. From the United States Aquatic Sports convention, he reported that a fee increase had passed and that in 2004 the registration fee would be $45 per year with a $1 increase per year for the next 10 years. The money brought in from this would go to enhance facilities, provide more for clubs and for advertising and TV. USA Swimming also conducted a governance study which might lead to changes in the future. The Central Zone will continue with the same sectional meet format it had last year.

Officials Chair – Joe Ogilvie reported that USA Swimming can provide club management training and ideas for clubs in the LSC. He also reported that the Officials test is now online and can also be taken online. He will be working to develop a test for summer-only officials. There are about 500 officials registered in Missouri Valley. Any official not wishing to have his/her name listed on the MVS web site can call the Officials Chair about removing their information.

Membership Chair – Dulcy Sellon reported that the 2003 registration year had just gotten underway. Missouri Valley has increased in swimmer participation over the past year. At the close of the 2002 long course season Missouri Valley had 3864 full-year athletes, 19 Season 1 athletes, 4578 Season 2 athletes, and 856 non-athletes.

Treasurer –George Bruce in lieu of Theresa Johnson reported on the Board of Directors actions on the budget. He reported that the budget projected a profit of $2300 that could be applied against the contingent expenses or placed in liquid assets. Tom Herder made the motion to adopt the proposed budget, Joe Ogilvie seconded the motion and it was duly approved.

Coaches Representative – Mike Soderling reported that Cindy Reed from COOL would be the new coaches’ representative, and that Scott Bliss would be the assistant coaches’ representative The coaches have elected Ben Westberg from the Mid-Missouri Aquatic Club as the Age Group Coach of the Year, and Eric Nelson as the Senior Coach of the Year.

Scheduling Committee – Pete Malone reported that bid packets for meets would be sent out in December. Barb Holder will conduct the bid meeting at the MVS Spring Meeting because Pete will be out of town.

Electronic Timing - George Bruce reported that the Board of Directors had delegated authority to him to try and find a sponsor to buy a second timing system for MVS and to report back to the Board on offers made for it. He wanted clubs also to encourage members to become trained in operating the system. Meet host pay the expenses for the timing operators.

Webmaster – Richard Winn reviewed the discussion on password protection for web pages and noted the Board’s decision not to use passwords.

Unfinished Business

Changes to Missouri Valley Swimming By-Laws - George Bruce reviewed the Board’s action in favor of adopting the proposed changes. Mike Lewellyn made the motion to accept the Board’s adoption of the By-Law changes, Marlaine Nickolson seconded the motion and it was duly approved.

Officials Committee - George Bruce reported that he would appoint the members of the Officials Committee to encourage an LSC-wide distribution of members. The committee will elect its own chair, monitor LSC Officials work, and provide training clinics.

Summer League Registration - Dulcy Sellon reported that the summer leagues had had league contacts that monitored club and coach registrations this past summer. The process had gone smoothly and contacts will be encouraged next summer as well.

New Business

New Timing System - George Bruce reported that he would be searching for a sponsor to purchase a second MVS timing system.

Ad Hoc Seasonal Swim Commissioner - George reported that MVS enjoys a large summer swim team program. He has asked Joe Ogilvie to try to identify what encourages summer clubs to join USA Swimming and perhaps use this information to further enhance MVS’s programs and provide information to USA Swimming about this success.

Volunteer Recognition - Missouri Valley no longer holds a Fall Mini Convention and does not have a place to make volunteer and swimmers awards. George Bruce challenged members to submit ideas for providing these awards and recognition.

Other Matters - Coaches raised the issue of scoring the senior events at the Division I Long Course Meet. Discussion on this issue focused on the MVS rule stating that a Missouri Valley swimmer must participate in an MVS Championship Meet in order to be eligible for MVS travel reimbursement. Coaches felt senior participation at Division I Long Course Meet should not be required for senior swimmers eligible for Senior Nationals. The motion was made to modify the rule to state that the Senior Chair has the ability to determine what constitutes an MVS approved championship meet in order for a swimmer to be eligible for MVS travel funds. The motion was seconded and duly approved.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:15 pm

Respectfully submitted,

Dulcy Sellon, Secretary
Missouri Valley Swimming, Inc.