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Midwestern Board of Directors
March 21, 2007
Teleconference Meeting
The meeting was called to
order at 8:02 p.m. Via conference call. Those present were Paul Kemp, Mary Losee,
Holly Beeman, Jack Jackson, Bruce Schomburg, Tom Beck, Brian Jensen, Lynn
Weaver, Mary Kocsis, David Nelson, Kelly Kunkel, Al Johnson, Mike Jacobson,
Betty Kooy, and Patrick Rowan joined late.
Additional Agenda Items:
Request for discussion of Zone and All Star team travel.
Minutes: Motion
was made to accept the minutes as distributed. Seconded. Approved.
Treasurer's Report:
Mary Kocsis gave a summary statement. Mary Losee will send complete statement to
BOD. To date $20,170 of splash fees have been deposited. All Star Expense to
date is $19,065.68 with income of $15,509. There have been three requests filed
for Sectional reimbursement. No check has been received from Action Accents yet
for the short course meet sales. The checking account is healthy and there is
money in savings. Mike Jacobson suggested that some of the funds in the checking
account be put in laddered CDs. Motion was made to leave the amount
budgeted for the quarter plus $10,000 in the checking account and put the rest
in laddered CDs. Seconded. There was a question on what those amounts
should be. Mike will look at the Quarterly Budgets and make that determination.
Motion passed.
Committee Reports:
Officials: Paul Kemp
reported that the new officials' shirts have been distributed. The name tags
have arrived. There will be a clinic in Kearney this weekend and he will
distribute some more stuff. There will be another clinic in Omaha in a couple of
weeks. Right now there are 91 officials on the rolls. There is also a clinic in
San Antonio the 2nd weekend in June for the officials' chairs.
Motion was made to send the newly elected officials chair (elected in April)
or designate to the San Antonio clinic. Seconded. Passed. (USA
Swimming picks up hotel and food – MW is responsible for travel.)
Technical: Bruce
Schomburg reported on the request for change of dates for the spring Sectional
meet. Docker Hartfield presented the recommendation to the coaches at the
Sectional meet. No motion was made. No action was taken. (Snow caused many teams
to not make the trip to Sectionals.) It was recommended that the coaches in the
Section be surveyed again and that MW look at other ideas and options, and
perhaps bring it back at the summer meet. Suggestions were made regarding the
timeline of the MW short course season – DII before the state HS meet, DI on top
of sectionals, 14 & U meet...all ideas and comments.
Bruce also discussed the
recent DI survey. Some insight was gained. 26 coaches and 75 athletes (11 and
over) participated. Qualifying times particularly for the distance events need
to be looked at. The change to DST during the meet seemed to be a problem to
some. Swimmers were critical of the officiating. Re awards, medals won out by a
slight edge. There were no 'strong disagrees'. The issues that did arise can be
dealt with by the Sanction Committee.
Senior: Brian Jensen
proposed changes in reimbursement for swimmers attending National level meets.
Because of the change in the National meet format, Brian proposed that Juniors,
US Open, Long and Short course Nationals be reimbursed at $500 per athlete for
those meets, with ¼ of that amount for a swimmer qualifying as part of a relay.
Motion was made to accept proposal. Seconded. Approved. New
amounts will take effect September 1, 2007. Betty will make the necessary
changes to the reimbursement form and the Redbook.
Safety: David Nelson
reported that 11 incidents in MW had been reported in the last year. Most were
'little' things.
Executive Secretary Report:
Betty reported a successful short course championship. Al Johnson set the meet
up (training exercise) and there were no major glitches. Extra awards have been
ordered. Al has proved most of the non-qualifying swims. The Pre-sanction
committee has the summer meets and will meet shortly.
Registration/Times: Al
is going to Tucson April 20-22 for a joint Registration/Times workshop so that
he will be more familiar with all of the operations. (Betty will be gone April
5-10 to San Francisco and April 19-24 to Chicago.) Packets for the summer only
clubs were mailed on Monday. Mini packets were sent to the rest of the clubs.
Registration numbers are as follows: 1693 athletes, 94 coaches, 92 officials, 68
other, 24 clubs. Free background check time continues until March 23. MW coaches
MUST complete background checks between April 2 and 13. There are still 55 who
need to complete the check. Cost is $20 done online with a credit card. Betty
will send reminders.
Old Business:
The proposal for election of
head All Star and Zone coaches needed more criteria. Lynn Weaver proposed that
candidates for head coaches for these teams have traveled on at least one MW
team trip as an assistant. He also recommended that the nominated senior Coach
of the Year be primarily a coach of 'seniors' at the LSC, Zone, Sectional, and
National levels. The nominated Age Group Coach should be predominantly a 14 &
Under coach at the LSC and Zone level. Each club will get two votes – one for
Age Group Coach, one for Senior Coach. The policy concept was approved at the
January BOD meeting awaiting these specifics. Question was asked as to how far
back we go for 'travel experience'. Motion was made to accept the
election procedures as proposed and amended. Seconded. Approved.
New Business:
A recommendation by
the Executive Secretary (in capacity as Times person) was put forward for
dealing with times from Y meets.
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Hard copy of Request for Approval must be
received 6 weeks prior to the meet.
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Request for Approval must be accompanied by a
$25 fee.
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The Referee and at least 2 Stroke and Turn
officials must be USA officials.
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The meet file must include correct USA ID
numbers for all USA registered swimmers.
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MW will load results into SWIMS for those with
USA ID numbers.
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The $4.00 'splash fee' will be required if the
swimmers wants to use the times for MW Top 8 etc.
Motion was made to
accept the above. Seconded. Approved. (With caveat that suspect
times would be thrown out.)
A recommendation from
the Registration Chair was put forward regarding MW and how it deals with
'satellite' clubs. SWIMS has the capability of including 'satellites' which will
allow for a Club Search on the USA Swimming site to find a particular club in a
particular city, even if the main club is not located in that city.
Motion was made to
accept this proposal, to take effect at the beginning of the 2008 registration
year. Seconded. Approved.
Recommendation was
made that Zone and All Star travel become the responsibility of the individual
rather than MW. Discussion of libility issues followed. Funding etc were
discussed. Motion was made that Zone and All Star travel become an
individual responsibility. Seconded. Passed. The particulars of
the policy will be dealt with by a committee of Patrick, Brian, Mary, Betty, and
Kelly and a proposal will be drawn up to be presented at the April HOD.
General Chair: Board of
Review change recommendations were brought forth by Mary Losee. These
recommendations are the result of meetings that Mary and Peggy attended at the
National Convention. The following are the recommendations:
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The Board of Review procedure shall include an
investigative panel that is totally separate from the Board of Review panel.
The investigative panel would be charged with investigating any charges or
allegations leveled against a USA member coach, athlete, or non-athlete
member.
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The investigative panel would be charged with
investigating and making recommendations as to the validity of said
allegations and make the recommendation to the Board of Review as to whether
these allegations need to be addressed by a BOR or whether there is no
foundation to the allegations.
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If the panel determines that there is sufficient
evidence to call a BOR, then the charges will be passed on the the Chair of
the BOR.
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It is recommended that the BOR should include
the following: Past General Chair(s), Officials Chair, an Attorney. The
remainder of the BOR would be comprised of former MW Board members to make a
total panel of five with two alternates.
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The terms would be indefinite.
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Athlete representation, although highly
recommended, is not part of this proposal due to the fact that not many
athletes understand the complexity of a BOR and usually have very little
input.
Motion was made to
accept this proposal with changes to the distributed copy (incorporated above).
Seconded. Approved. The recommendation will be forwarded to the
House of Delegates at their April meeting.
Nominating Committee:
Paul put forth the slate as he has it. Nominations include: Age Group Vice Chair
– Dave Baird, Lisa Ellis; Registration Chair – Betty Kooy; Technical Chair –
Patrick Rowan; Officials Chair – Candy Hemmer, Scot Sorensen; Safety Chair –
David Nelson; Delegates at Large (3 to be elected) – Bruce Schomburg, Jackie
Rowe, Jeanie Neal, Greg Gulcher, Stefanie LaBombard, Randy Goldenstein with
alternates Steve Marchitelli, Marsha Ketcham, Karly Hamersky, Pat Griffin.
General Chairs Meeting:
Meeting is May 20-22 at the Hilton in Omaha. Mary will attend.
Update on Trials: Jack
reported that tickets will go on sale – early to alumni, athletes, etc. He is
requesting that the MW BOD have a hospitality suite at the Hilton for both the
Grand Prix and Trials meets. He also is recommending that MW purchase a Box of
seats to possibly be used as a fund raiser. Discussion ensured. Motion
was made to purchase a box for Trials. Seconded. Mike J recommended a second
box. Motion to accept amendment. Seconded. Approved as amended.
Motion to purchase two boxes approved. Motion was made to
obtain a suite for both Grand Prix and Trials. Seconded. Approved.
Question was asked regarding
a committee for the Hall of Fame. Mary will appoint.
Motion to adjourn at
10:11 p.m. Seconded. Meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Betty Kooy, secretary pro tem
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