Minutes of the MVS Board of Directors Meeting

Held on September 29 2001 at 8:00am at Bell Hall, Ft Leavenworth KS

The meeting of the Board of Directors of Missouri Valley Swimming was held at Bell Hall, Fort Leavenworth, KS. General Chair, Jim Devine, called the meeting to order at 8:15 am. The following Directors were in attendance: Brian Barnes, George Bruce, Sue Courtney, Mark Hantla, Tom Herder, Theresa Johnson, Gary Ledford, Helen Lochow, John Malnar, Pete Malone, Richard Mayfield, Eric Nelson, Marlaine Nickelson, Joe Ogilvie, Billie Jo Parrack, George Schluter, Dulcy Sellon, Mike Soderling and Richard Winn. Also in attendance were Bryan Beatty, Justin Berry, John Brockway, Craig Ivancic, Tom Kleibocker, Shawn Klosterman, Thor Larson, Richard Marble, Richard Parrack, Jason Petty, David Schumacher, and Robert Struman.

Jim Devine asked for corrections or changes to the minutes of the August 4, 2001 meeting of the Missouri Valley Board of Directors. There being none the minutes were approved as distributed.

REPORT OF OFFICERS

General Chair: Jim Devine reported that the Curl-Burke Swim Club was leading a fund raising effort for victims of the September 11, attack. Information on the 206 mile swim challenge was distributed to Missouri Valley clubs interested in taking part.

Administrative Vice Chair: John Malnar reported that his information would be taken up under new business.

Age Group Vice Chair: Tom Herder reported that the championship meets had drawn the right number of competitors. Time standards for the meets will remain about the same. He distributed corrections to the current standards for the 13-14 Girls LC 50 free time and the 11-12 Boys LC 50 Breast time. The Division II SC meter times will be updated and all the corrected times will be posted on the website. He also reported that Jason Petty would serve as the All Star coach for this short course season and he endorsed the idea that will be presented in new business of compensating the Zone Coach. He stated that he would like to serve as the Zone Coach since Scott Berry had declined the position. The 2002 Zone meet will be held in Wichita and Missouri Valley plans to block rooms for the team but not to provide transportation or chaperones for the meet. The issue raised by Shawn Klosterman about scoring senior swimmers at the LC Division I meet will be discussed under new business.

Membership Chair: Dulcy Sellon reported that the 2002 registration year was underway. Missouri Valley currently has 500 year round swimmers, 10 non-athletes and 5 clubs registered She encouraged all Missouri Valley clubs to register via disk using the registration features found in Team Manager.

Treasurer: Billie Jo Parrack reported that Missouri Valley had enjoyed a good fiscal year. The Zone expenditures were slightly under budget. The funds expended for the USAS Convention for flights and hotel will be refunded. She also reported that there were three outstanding sanction application fees, for MV-01-93, Park Hill Swim Club; MV-01-97, Spirit of KC Swim Academy and MV-02-01, Lawrence Aquahawks. There are also three sanction fees due for MV-01-35, KC Blazers, MV-01-70, Wichita Swim Club and MV-01-59, Northland.

Coaches Representative: Mike Soderling, reported that the Zone meet went well. He also announced that the coaches had elected Craig Ivancic as the Age Group Coach of the Year and that Pete Malone had been selected as the Senior Coach of the Year.

Athlete Representative: George Bruce reported for Lizzie Bruce who was on a recruiting trip. She expressed the athlete’s regret at being unable to attend the USAS Convention. She also stated that the athletes wished to be involved in the Zone decisions more.

Records Chair: Brian Barnes reported that the Long Course Top 8 list is finished and will be circulated. He also reported that the Top 16 results had been sent to USA Swimming. Jim stated that Debbie Weaverling wished to continue working on the MVS Academic team. Jim will assist Brian and Debbie in merging information for this report.

Officials: Joe Ogilvie reported that MVS had officials working at the Sectional meet and will need to help staff the Zone meet, Sectional meet and Divisional meets for the next year. Referee training will be held in January. There are no certification meetings now being held.

Meet Procedures: Brian Barnes announced that he would be giving up this position and focusing on Records. Jim asked the coaches to suggest a new person for this position.

Swim-a-Thon Chair: Sue Courtney reported that Missouri Valley has another new team participating in Swim-a-Thon now.

Outreach: Joe Ogilvie reported that Mary Jo Kleir has a good program underway with the Kansas City Boys and Girls club.

Scheduling: Pete Malone reported that the master meet schedule would be mailed out in January. Level I will be at Wichita this year. The All Star meet will be held at Lawrence this year. The General Chairs from MVS and Midwestern LSC's will meet to decide if these meets will alternate at LSC sites. Pete also discussed the USAS Convention since he was the only Missouri Valley representative there. USA Swimming has adopted the rule that backstroke can be finished underwater. Teaching starts must be done in 5 feet of water after November 1, 2001. The Spring Nationals in 2002 will be long course and all other spring meets will also be long course. This decision will have no effect on our Sectional meets. The 2004 Olympic trials will be in a portable pool in Long Beach, CA and will use LC qualifying times. Missouri Valley needs to decide by next fall’s convention whether or not it wants the 2003 Zone meet to be held at a single site, Indianapolis, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the meet. Pete also mentioned that the Little Rock Dolphins have protested the 100 mile rule which is now before the National Board of Review. Jim Devine is legal counsel and MVS and the four other LSC’s are the respondents in the case.

Ad Hoc Webmaster: Richard Winn was introduced and reported that the Missouri Valley website had about 16,000 hits in August alone. He also stated that a discussion board will be available soon on the site and that pages from the site can now be down loaded onto palm PC’s. The cost for the website has been less than $4,000 since Jan.1, 2001 which compares favorably with the $15,000 Missouri Valley had been spending on publications.

Senior Vice Chair: Eric Nelson reported that Chad Ainsworth, Max Jaben, Scott Hanson, Travis Carver, Danielle Duncan, Erin Smith, Katie Yavek, Kelsey Smith, and Angela Goodson, Blazers; Jonathan Schmidt, Lawrence; and Elizabeth Bruce, Paige Nath, and Michael Bruce, Wichita; all participated in the Senior National meet. Katie Yevak also attended the World University Games. Max Jaben and Jonathan Schmidt are now on the National Junior team. He also reported that the MVS/Ozark Senior Dual meet has been cancelled for 2002. The US Open, Nov. 29-Dec. 1, 2001 will be in East Meadow, NY; the spring Nationals, March 19-23, 2002 will be in Minneapolis; and the summer nationals, August 12-17, 2002, will be in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Swimmer Recognition: Following the discussion and decisions of the MVS spring meeting, John Malnar stated that he would mail the Top 8 certificates and shirts to the teams for distribution. He would also include a letter seeking swimmers’ input on how they would like recognition to be handled. Additionally, Top 8 swimmers and Academic team members will be listed on posters that will be displayed at the Level 1 and Division 1 championship meets. The swimmer reps will be responsible for making these posters. Brian Barnes will furnish the list of Missouri Valley’s Top 8 swimmers.

College Recruiting Profiles: Jim announced that a site was available on the Missouri Valley site for junior and senior high school swimmers to list their resumes for college coaches. Richard Winn stated that this site would be available to coaches only by using a password. After discussion it was decided to make the resume available without a password but to allow a swimmer to password-protect certain segments of his/her resume such as standardized test scores and GPA.

Zone Meet: Eric Nelson proposed that in the fall the General Chair, Senior Chair, Admin Vice Chair, Age Group Chair and Coach’s Rep. nominate and select the Head Zone Coach. The Head coach then becomes the CEO of the Missouri Valley Zone team and may delegate responsibilities at his/her discretion. The Head coach will select a Head 12 and Under coach and a Head 13 and Over coach. The following will be under the authority of the Head Coach: hotel, uniforms (may delegate design to athlete reps), transportation, entry, chaperones, meals, relay lineups, discipline, staffing, and zone table at Division 1. The records chair will be responsible for compiling the entry with the Head Coach. The Head coach will be paid $1000, each assistant coach will receive $150 and the chaperones will receive free lodging and per diem money.

Summer League Registration: Jim reported that the ad hoc subcommittee of himself, Sellon, Parrack, and Schluter met and recommends that the summer leagues continue. In order to solve the registration problems incurred with summer leagues, Missouri Valley will provide greater educational opportunities for summer league officials by appointing an assistant officials chair in charge of education who will work with the leagues by offering a program at the MVS spring meeting for summer league officials, and by scheduling Safety Training for Swim Coaches regularly, and by publishing this schedule on the MV website. MVS will also send a letter to registered coaches about the ASCA test requirement. A letter will also be included with registration materials to leagues informing the league contact that they will be empowered to tell non-registered clubs that they cannot swim at meets.

NEW BUSINESS

The proposed budget for 2002 has removed $15,000 in the budget for the Swim Guides and added $5,000 for the MVS website. An increase of $1,500 in the secretary’s salary was suggested and additional line items to cover the proposed costs for Zone coaching.

The Board held a discussion on the establishment of an MVS policy establishing when to refund meet fees. The motion was made that if prior to a meet starting a meet is cancelled due to an act of God or due to a governmental emergency, no refunds will be sent. If a meet is cancelled for any other reason, refunds will be sent. In events limited to a certain number of swimmers, after the event is seeded refunds will be sent to swimmers who entered the event but did not get to swim. This is subject to the Missouri Valley cancellation of meets policy and the four-hour rule. The motion was seconded and all voted aye.

Meet Awards: The scheduling committee recommends that teams should not be able to give a meet to another team to run. If a team with a scheduled meet does not, or can not, hold a meet the meet returns to the scheduling committee.

The Level I meet this year has been awarded to Wichita. Lawrence will host the All Star meet. Both meets are open to other LSC’s. The LSC General Chairs will meet in the summer of 2002 to determine if these meets will rotate among the LSC’s. A proposal will be made to add $500 for Level I meet enhancement to the MVS budget.

Volunteer Recognition: The motion was made to make no volunteer awards this year. This motion was seconded and all voted aye. Jim suggested that he, Gary Ledford, Marlene Nickelson and Thor Larson who will all be in Springfield for Springfield’s October meet, devise a proposal for the Board of Director’s December meeting for recognizing MVS volunteers in 2002.

Pete Malone requested that MVS pickup the extraordinary expenses he incurred when traveling to and from the USAS Convention. This was moved, seconded and all voted aye.

The motion was made and seconded that senior swimmers score points for their teams at the LC Division I meet. After discussion on the merits of having seniors score points for their teams at Division I, a vote was held by show of hands. The majority favors having seniors score points.

George Schluter made the following motion to establish the 2002 MVS budget; on the income side, drop $100 for mailing labels and $10 for meet directors guide, and $1000 from the mini-convention; on the expense side, increase the Zone line by $2,500 for coaches salaries, decrease senior travel by $2,500, add $500 for Safety Training for Swim Coaches program, add $500 for Level I enhancement, increase the insurance/secretary line by $1,800. An amendment was made to add $500 for officials education. Discussion on the proposed budget revealed that most wanted to leave the senior travel line at $16,000. Pete offered the amendment to leave the $2,500 in Senior travel. The motion with amendments was seconded and all voted aye.

Pete proposed that MVS write checks to teams rather than swimmers for reimbursement of national meet expenses. This was seconded and all voted aye.

Eric Nelson proposed that the Zone entries chair, who will be the records chair, be paid $250 for the Zone entry work. This was seconded and all voted aye.

Since the 2002 Zone meet will be held in Wichita and MVS will not be paying for transportation to the meet for the team or for chaperones, it was proposed that if expenses do not meet the $12,000 budgeted for the meet, the left over money should be divided and returned to the teams to be given to the swimmers as determined by the Zone coach. This was seconded and all voted aye.

HOUSE OF DELEGATES MEETING

Missouri Valley began its House of Delegates meeting at 2:00 PM. The motion was on the floor for the House of Delegates to approve the actions taken by the Board of Directors.

The 2002 budget proposal was reviewed. Gary Ledford reviewed the Board’s decisions on swimmer recognition, John Malnar reviewed the Boards decisions on the Zone meet and Richard Winn reviewed his input on the Missouri Valley website. The motion to approve the Boards actions was seconded and all voted aye.

The meeting adjourned at 2:41 PM

Respectfully submitted,
Dulcy Sellon
Missouri Valley Swimming Secretary