APPROVED
Minnesota Swimming,
Incorporated Board of Directors
Minutes of the meeting of February 19, 2002
(Quorum equals 10 people)
Present at the Meeting
Executive Board Members: Sue Griffin, Dennis Dale, Cathy Thwing, Blair Buccicone, Paul Lunsten
Other Board Members: Tim Mann, Rocky O’Neil, Kathy Czuprynski,
Michael Bougie, Bob Pearson
Appointed Committee Members (Voting):
Marlene Goblish, David Shapley, Jack
Boder
Appointed Committee Members (Non-voting): Paul Windrath, John Witzel
MSI Staff: Cassy Shapley, Sheryl McGuire
Non-Board Members: Bob Peterson (HOP), Jeff Rodriguez (EDI),
Ellen Youngers (ROC), Jim Stewart (ROC), Jeff Chida (ROC), Rick Dunham (M3F),
Mark Davis (FOXJ), Linda Chida (ROC), Karen Stewart (ROC), Tom Kern (HUT),
Jerry Simpson (SEMS), Charlie Pietso (LKV), John Sfire (ROC)
The General Chair called meeting
to order at 7:55p.m. (Note, Board did
not have a quorum until 7:55. However,
the Board did hear reports from the General Chair and Admin Vice-Chair that did
not require action until a quorum was reached.)
Seconded, Passed -
Unanimous
Officer Reports
General Chair: Sue Griffin
1. Governance Study. National is
conducting a governance review to investigate:
a. The structure of staff and volunteers
b. Governance across the organization (clubs, LSC’s, Zones, House of
Delegates)
c. Organizational culture
The results from the focus group will be presented to the National Board
in May for discussion and possible implementation by the House of Delegates
meeting in September 2002. You may
record your own thoughts on the USA-Swimming website (www.usa-swimming.org).
The General Chair’s focus group consisted of 8 General Chairs. Their primary concerns were: Conflict between the “Build a Base”
initiative and the shortage of facilities (especially with the apparent drive
to implement the 5 foot depth proposal), Lack of focus on age group level
swimming and how this would be negatively
impacted by dissolution of LSC’s, and the proposal to increase fees.
2. Club Membership Proposal
Please
read the proposal included in the lastest FYI.
The proposal will be sent to the National board in May and will not
require action as it is considered a process, not a rule change.
3. The U of MN would like to remind the swimming community of the upcoming
aquatic events at the Aquatic
Center: the Go-Pher-It! Invite
on March 10th and the Phillips 66 National Swimming Championships on
March 19 – 23. There is also has also
been a contact from Edmonton regarding an open meet the last weekend in
April. Contact the MSI Office for
contact information or go to their website:
www.eksc.com
4. Minnesota Swimming and USA-Swimming have been named co-defendants in a civil lawsuit filed by the
Rochester Swim Club ORCAS alleging procedural misconduct and asking for damages in excess of $50,000. MSI may be responsible for up to $20,000, after which we are covered by insurance. Counsel has made MSI’s initial response denying the charges.
(At this point in the meeting, the General Chair read the Administrative Vice-Chair’s written report since her
remaining items required action by the Board.)
Administrative Vice Chair: Joel Shinofeld (Not Present,
written report submitted)
The
Admin Vice-chair is beginning work on creating a policy and procedure manual,
requests to various sources for materials have gone out (thank you to those who
have already responded, the rest-please provide information as soon as
possible), The goal is to have the
manual completed by the end of the summer season.
(At this point in the meeting, a quorum was reached and the meeting
called to order at 7:55pm)
General Chair: Sue
Griffin (continued report)
5. The Chair has asked Matt Brown to fill the
open seat on the Board of Review.
.
Motion: Made by Michael Bougie
to accept Matt Brown as the new BOR member.
Seconded, Passed - Unanimous
6. The Chair has asked Jack Boder to fill the
open Public Relations Chair position.
Motion: Made by Michael Bougie
to accept Jack Boder as the Public Relations Chair.
Seconded, Passed - Unanimous
Senior Vice Chair: Dennis Dale No Report
Age group Vice-Chair: Cathy Thwing
Meet Schedule: An open forum meeting was held at the Presidents’ Day meet. There will be proposed changes
to the meet bid process. The Age Group Chair’s feeling is that this will be a multi-stage process that is needed for three reasons: retention of athletes-especially B/C and novice swimmers, recruitment of new athletes, and proactive response-we know there is a problem, we need to deal with it before it becomes larger. There will be a meeting scheduled (possibly at the Age Group State meet or Senior State Meet) for which concrete proposal are requested so that they may be brought to the Board for the April meeting. The general concept is sanctioned “A” meets once a month with quad/tri/dual/invitational meets for the B- & below swimmers. Two major concerns are ensuring the ability for small teams to be included and supporting MSI’s budget (a large proportion of income is through meet entry fees).
Finance Vice-Chair: Dave Hulit Not Present / No Report
Senior Athlete Representative: Blair Buccicone No
Report
Junior Athlete Representative: Chad Krastins Not
Present / No Report
Senior Coach Representative: Paul Lundsten No Report
Junior Coach Representative: Jean Freeman Not Present
/ No Report
Ex officio General Chair: Bob Pearson
The Central Zone Committee Chair has no idea what
data the National Safety Committee is collecting as reported in a published
report. Best guess is that
USA-Swimming may follow suit with the High School league in minimum depth
requirement on starts for competition – which will impact virtually all swim
clubs and facilities
Technical Planning Chair: Rocky O’Neill No Report
Safety Coordinator: Kathy Czuprynski
1. The Coaches Safety Class
scheduled on April 14th has been moved to the Eisenhower Community
Center in Hopkins
2.
A Coaches Safety Class has been scheduled for March 24th
at the Rochester Recreation Center from 1:00 – 5:00pm.
Officials Committee Chair: Michael Bougie
1.
There are currently 134 total officials. Forty with Referee certification, 18 are
certified Starters, and 76 are certified Stroke & Turn officials.
2.
There are plenty of upcoming opportunities for
officials. There are three A/B/C Finals
meets, followed by Age Group State, followed by Senior State-which is a
prelim/finals meet. All officials are
strongly encouraged to work these meets, so that we can guarantee fair
competition.
Legislative Chair: Betsey Aby Not Present / No Report
Adapted Swimming Chair: Marlene Goblish No Report
NTV Chair: David Shapley Not
Present / No Report
Equipment Chair: Ron Murphy Not Present / No Report
Registration - Membership Chair/ Office: Cassy Shapley
1.
Athlete Count :
2.
Seasonal registrations start
March 8th, however, they are not valid beyond Long Course State so
any athlete who may participate in the Central Zone Championship should be
registered as a year-round athlete.
3.
Membership verifications for Nationals are due
ASAP!
4.
Reminder to college coaches to get their charter
application for summer clubs as well as athlete memberships turned in.
Swim Meet Sanction Coordinator: Sheryl McGuire
Sanction applications for summer meets are due soon. Clubs hosting summer meets are encouraged to submit them ASAP
Records Chair: Paul Windrath No
Report
(State Record Certificates were brought to
the meeting for distribution. Those not
taken will be mailed).
Top 16 Coordinator: Jim Teter Not
Present / No Report
Outreach Coordinator: Joel Shinofield Not Present / No Report
Board of Review: John Witzel
1.
There was one hearing on a complaint in January,
which has concluded.
2.
There is a complaint that has file that has a
hearing to be scheduled.
(Paul
Lundsten opened discussion on the matter of the January hearing results, which
were to be discussed at the Board’s work session that was scheduled to occur
after the regular Board meeting. The
offered opinion was that if the BOR results were to be explained in more detail
beyond what the BOR Chair has already given that it should be done during the
public meeting. The BOR and BOD are two
separate entities and the BOR is not answerable to the BOD and should not have
to explain its decisions. The point was
made that the only reason that the General Chair had scheduled this item for
the work session was in response to the many calls that she had taken on the
decision so that the BOD members could give specific answers to questions, if
necessary. Consensus opinion was that
to avoid the appearance of impropriety or collusion between the BOR and BOD
that no additional report should be requested or given beyond the BOR Chair’s
report in the open forum. Although, it
was suggested that unless a result of a BOR hearing is closed that the BOR
Chair’s report should include the nature of the complaint, complainants,
respondents, and the simple result or finding of the Board of Review).
State Meet Committee: Joel Shinofeld, Chair – Not Present
Committee member Rocky O’Neill
was not expecting to have to make a report, so he had nothing to pass out or
formally present. However, the final suggestion
of the committee for reducing the congestion and time crunch at the Long Course
state meet is expanding the 13 & over sessions to 4 full days of prelims
and finals, individual events for 11-12’s and 9-10’s on Thursday – Saturday, 8
& Under individual events on Friday and Saturday, and all 12 & Under
relay events (and only the relay events) on Sunday. The primary reason for the all relay session was to eliminate the
extra relay-only swimmers EVERY day and it was tried a few years ago with great
success and was very exciting. It also
gives the Zone coordinators an opportunity to work on the entries Sunday
afternoon. One main issue for
implementing this suggestion in 2002 is the support of Team Foxjet (the 2002
host) since they did not bid for the meet under these circumstances. The Team Foxjet representative present at
the meeting thought the idea was good because it allowed their club an
opportunity to spread things out and give them the ability to run a better
meet, but would like to hear the final proposal.
The committee will have a full
report and proposal for the Board’s consideration / action at the April
meeting.
Old Business:
1.
Orcas
Sanction Issue re: the December B/C Meet
No legislation was received from the Orcas in regard
to a proposed remedy. John Sfire spoke
on behalf of the Orcas and stated that he had put together a proposal
originally, but it was complicated by the awards reimbursement and other
factors. He requested another month to
finalize their request and submit it to the Age Group Chair and Admin-Vice
Chair for feedback before presenting it to the Board at the April Meeting.
New Business
1.
Charter Approval for “The Waves”. Have completed all paperwork, except waiting
on the State of Minnesota to act on Corporate Charter application.
Motion: Made by Dennis Dale to approve the charter
of the “The Waves” pending the completion of all of the proper paperwork.
Seconded,
passed - unanimous
Motion to adjourn at: 8:30pm
After the Open Meeting, the Board
of Directors met for a work session.
No business was conducted; no
motions were entertained, and no actions were taken.