Midwestern Swimming
Board of Directors Meeting
September 23, 2007

The meeting was called to order at 7:03 p.m.. Present were Bruce Schomburg, Jeanie Neal, Mary Losee, Holly Beeman, Mary Kocsis, Gretchen Lindner, Peter Slawinski, Scot Sorensen, Greg Guelcher, David Nelson, Betty Kooy, Peggy Speer, Al Johnson and Lynn Weaver.

Minutes: Motion to accept the minutes as corrected. Seconded. Approved.

Treasurer’s Report: Mary K. reported that the splash fees are on target. Zone income and expenses were discussed. Twenty-six swimmers attended. The fee per swimmer was $50. Mary K. said that she still had some money from Corey to turn in and will bring cash for Convention travel on Tuesday. Long course income and expenses were also discussed. Motion accept the report. Seconded. Accepted.

Committee Reports:

Administrative Vice Chair: No report.

Officials’ Chair: Defer until New Business.

Safety Chair: No report. Gretchen asked David to review exactly which incidences and occurrences should be reported. All teams don’t follow the same standard for reporting/ Mary L. said that at Convention they had talked about instances or occurrences. David will put a policy together.

Registration Chair: Betty reported that sanctions were out for fall. Awards corrections have all been done. The March ’09 Sectional is set for March 22-25. Al has done a great job of cleaning up the Team Manager data bases. Numbers: 2007 – 1797 athletes, 276 seasonal, 281 non-athletes & coaches registered. Compare with 2006 numbers - 1803 athletes, 232 seasonal, 286 non-athletes & coaches. So far for 2008 we have 26 athletes, 19 other, 24 officials, 8 coaches and 2 clubs for 2008. Travel to Anaheim is set for Wednesday a.m. to Saturday night. Lynn & Brian will stay until Sunday night. Cheap travel tickets were purchases. Registration chair and general chair have had requests for data from SWIMS to be disseminated to the clubs. SWIMS database can be accessed by two people who are bound by USAS rules of confidentiality. Information in SWIMS cannot be released.

New Business:

Awards Banquet 2008: That is under Admin Vice Chair duties. Jeanie will help. Anyone else may contact Peggy to help. At final count 150 people paid for the banquet which was about double from last year. Mary L requested that the committee get going on this right away so we can get a keynote speaker for next year and a bigger room. Bruce noted that Field Club may renovate with seating by the pool. The adjoining room can also be opened up a with seating for 300-350 people total.

Swimposium 2008: Because of the Grand Prix meet and the Trials, USAS will allow us to have a Swimposium sooner than usual. Discussion regarding whether we can do one in the spring. Could the officials’ committee do this on their own rather than in conjunction with  a Swimposium? MW has a lot on the calendar for next year and it would take a lot to get this together. Motion made to forego the Swimposium and get together with USAS for a separate officials’ clinic. Seconded. Passed.

Club Leadership: Mary L. reported that there is a big push from the Zones representative to come and do club development. Are we interested in this? October 17th is the only time Randy Julian has. Betty thought this would be too short notice. Possible November or December dates were discussed with the third weekend in November being the best possibility. A blanket announcement can be sent out as for the awards. It was mentioned that there is a Tri State meet on the 17th so the 18th would be better. Mary L. will e-mail Randy and work something out from there.

Golden Goggles: Mary L. - The Golden Goggles awards are given out every year at black tie affair; it’s $1000 per person. MW would have to absorb the airfare, hotel and $1000 per person. It is in Beverly Hills this year. Motion was made for MW to send someone to Golden Goggles. Seconded. Discussion followed about MW visibility before the Trials, the fact that we haven’t gone before, it’s important and how the representative would be chosen. Question of tabling this until after Convention? Motion tabled. Comment was made that this should be brought up for next year at Budget time.

House of Delegates: Mary L. asked if it were possible to pull off a meeting between sessions on the weekend of Swim Fest, October 19-21. Concensis was the evening of the 21st - Sunday at 5 p.m. Issues to be discussed include getting a new Age Group chair. Al will check into getting a room at UNO.

Budget: The committee of Lynn, Peggy, Mary K. an Mary L. will schedule a meeting.

NSAA: All meets that Brian requested were approved including the NA December meet and All Stars.

Officials: Scot moved that we change the officials’ shirts to a new brand with the proper MW logo. Seconded. Discussion followed about the current logo on the shirts not being the official one and the qualities of the new shirts. Officials who already have received one shirt would have to buy the new one. Motion carried. Scot moved that as of January 1, 2008 MW’s official dress be changed to a white collared and sleeved shirt over khaki bottom, with shoes not yet determined. Seconded. Motion carried.

Points for Midwestern Awards: Lynn stated that the way the score is kept and the award given does not truly reflect who the swimmer of the year should be. It does not take into account the placement at Zones or whether a swimmer has a AAAA time. Lynn can bring a proposal to the Board. Betty stated that a committee did previously make the current proposal. Discussion followed. Lynn will make a proposal and forward to the awards committee.

Olympic Trials Tickets: Bruce - Jack, Tom, Mary K. and Gretchen got together to come up with a plan to disseminate the tickets purchased by MW. Teams should apply to MW with their money for a set of 21 one session tickets. This would be $650. If 15 teams do not apply, then it could be opened up for individuals. Their requests and money would be sent in by a certain date and then drawn out of a hat: first draw gets session 1, second draw gets session 2, etc. Discussion followed including the deadlines, how to notify teams and when to draw. Mary L. - Shall we make a late December cut off date and teams drawn in early January? Bruce - OK. Betty & Mary L. will put his together and send out to the teams.

Motion to adjourn. Seconded. Meeting was adjourned at 8:35 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Gretchen Lindner, Secretary