The Midwestern Board of Directors was called to order at 1:05 PM at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska. Present were Scot Sorensen, Betty Kooy, Robin Lowe, Patrick Rowan, Mike Fenello, Kim Pappas, Lisa Ellis, Archie Heffernan, Gretchen Lindner, Gary Flury, Mike Jacobson, and Mike States.

Reading, Correction and Adoption of Minutes
None.

Officers Reports:
General Chairman:
1. B.O.R. Update:
There have been two protests filed regarding expired coaches’ certifications at the LC MW Championship Meet. There was one coach from the Long Course Championship that had a certificate that was past 90 days of expiration. This is before the Board of Review. There were four coaches at the MOST meet with expired certifications.

2. Water Depth Policy:
This is a USA policy. After January 1, 2003, meets will not be sanctioned if they do not meet the guidelines listed. Mike States could not get information regarding any accidents or number of accidents due to depth of pools. This will impact North Platte (both indoor and outdoor) and possibly Kearney swim teams for hosting meets. Ralston remodeled their pool to 4’9". There is the possibility of more injuries with off-the-deck starts. Data from all practice pools go directly to USA. Betty Kooy would like to have all the data (pool specifications) on all practice pools in Midwestern LSC. Mike States will gather information from all the clubs regarding pool specifications. Midwestern needs to notify all Clubs of these new rules. UNO pool is 4’. Wood’s pool is at least 4’.

3. "Duel in the Pool":
$30.00 for tickets for Nationals Championships, if purchased before December 31^st. There will be more information on the Midwestern website regarding this. The "Duel in the Pool" is scheduled for April 6, 2003 in Indianapolis, IN.

4. Additional Sanctioning Committee Members:

CNSL President: Mike Jacobson
Tri-State League: Deanne Gibson
There was a favorable response on both individuals.

5. General Chairman’s Meeting:
This is scheduled for February 2003 in Tampa. Scot Sorensen will not be able to attend, but would like someone else to go. Contact Scot immediately regarding this if you are interested.

Membership/Registration Coordinator:

Proposed Policy re: Expired Coach Certifications/Non-Registration:
Proposal was circulated with a new policy regarding non-registered coaches on deck and coaches with expired certifications on deck.
There was a motion to accept the proposed policy.
Lifeguard training is acceptable in lieu of Coaches Safety Training. Coaches need to submit forms/cards immediately. New coaches cards are mailed back with expiration date on them. Cards are mailed out every couple of weeks.
The previous year’s database is archived in September. Gary Flury may not be able to recreate a list since everything has gone to Nationals.
Coaches are required to have credentials/cards available at all meets. Coaches should be pro-active and carry credentials if they haven’t received their new coach’s cards, yet.
The Club that will get fined is the offending coach’s club.
This policy will make all fines uniform.
Lisa Ellis wants Gary Flury to notify each coach 90 days prior to expiration as a reminder . Scot Sorensen doesn’t believe Midwestern should police this. Each coach should be responsible for his or her own expiration.
Mike Jacobson suggests each Club know when their coach’s cards expire and they should police.
When the new USA Registration procedures go into effect, Gary Flury and Betty Kooy will have access to current registrations on line.
Lisa Ellis was concerned that this policy would create a negative environment on deck.
For a Championship meet, coaches will be pre-certified and registered early. Only the meet director and referee should police a coach regarding card/credentials.
It was suggested that everyone renew at the same time each year. Mike Jacobson suggests at daylight savings time change, similar to changing batteries-renew credentials. Another suggestion was to do this as a challenge at Midwestern Championship Meets if there is an afternoon off. This would allow coaches to challenge this within Midwestern.
A high school coach with only a Pool Operators’ License should not be allowed on deck.
Gary will notify all coaches and Club presidents of this policy.

Midwestern has been trying out TM On Line. With the Searchable Datebase things can’t be changed easily. The TM On-Line mirrors the MW database. The price is similar. Either one will work for Betty. Midwestern can’t afford to do both systems. The cost for TMOnline is $10.00 per month for a club and any club can put their own Team Manager data on line. Price for an LSC is $30.00 per month. You have to use Internet Explorer with this system.

MOTION: Gary Flury made a motion to continue using the Searchable Database for times online and get rid of the TM Online. A second was made my Mike Jacobson. Mike Jacobson questioned whether the previous season is currently on line to search? The answer is "yes"
Betty will send a letter requesting a bill.
The database will be on line. Betty is posting meets within 24 hours of receiving the information. She updates the website as she gets information The current registration database is where Betty gets current Club information. The meet director, Club, referee, and safety coordinator must all be registered before the meet is sanctioned.
All-Star applications are on the website and have been mailed out.
Central Zones and Sectionals will be posted when they are received.
Any USA swimming information Betty receives gets forwarded to others ASAP.
Betty mentioned that many colleges have been getting rid of swimming programs. Dartmouth is the latest

So far there is not good representation from coaches/Clubs, as many are not responding back to Robin with feedback. Families with 2 or more swimmers are the ones who end up going to more meets each month. Girls and Boys times vary. Boys have very little change in time standards. Girls have to be quite a bit faster. Girls aging up need to be AAA swimmers before aging up to swim in Division I meets.
Clubs with more swimmers can take more kids to meets and is more cost efficient. This is splitting up teams. There has been low attendance at both types of meets.
The number of swimmers is down. We are just short of 1,000 swimmers, but we are before December 31. High school swimmers are registered prior to the state HS Meet. Last year we were just over 2,000 swimmers. There are approximately 300 seasonal swimmers and 1792 full year swimmers.
A suggestion was made to have two Division II meets, one Division I meet and one Open meet each month with the Open Meet being rotated amongst Clubs.
Suggestion was made of a 3-Tier meet schedule where there is a mid-section with over lapping times.
CNSL has one day meets with no time standards. They are not having problems with meets. They also have enough meets for all kids.
Robin will present her ideas to the Sanctioning Committee by the end of January. Then the Sanctioning Committee will finalize their decision immediately as this will affect Long Course season and next years short course season.
We will keep Division I/Division II Championship meets as is.
Division II Championship is not locked in to Omaha. Anyone can place a bid.
CNSL could move their schedules around to open the weekend up to host the Division II Championship meet.
Missouri Valley Swimming has East/West Divisions for Championships. This could be a possibility for Nebraska. Archie Heffernan suggests setting a time to just discuss the meet schedules.
Division II Championship needs to be hosted by a Club, not Midwestern.
We need to revisit the number of events to swim in Championship meet and the over 400 events should be a timed final.

$1,000 donation to Maverick Booster Club at UNO:
This was tabled from May House Meeting because there was not a treasurer present at the meeting. There is not a treasurer present at this meeting either. Scot Sorensen wants to see 12-month data before agreeing upon this. Without the data we are not sure of our financial obligations. This is tabled until the next meeting.

Adjournment, seconded, approved – 2:55 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Kim Pappas, Acting Secretary