As approved at the May 2003 Eastern Zone Meeting
 

MINUTES
2002 AUTUMN EASTERN ZONE MEETING
Dallas/Ft Worth Airport Hyatt
Dallas, TX
SEPTEMBER 12-13, 2002

The meeting was called to order at 8:00 a.m. by Dave Carson and Kerry Ellett - Zone Directors

The minutes of the Spring Meeting on May 11, 2002 were approved.

The financial report was approved. We have $1303.91 in the bank. No new dues at this time.

Leanne Spletzer stated that the funds that have been available at National for printing and mailing would be discontinued next year.

The Agenda was approved with a few revisions.

Candidates for Office - It had been previously decided to only have our own zone candidates speak in our zone meeting. There is a Meet the Candidates session set up, and any body wanting information from them can ask it there. Greg Eggert spoke for a few minutes. He is running for the Administrative Vice-President position. He said how much he had enjoyed being the Special Assistant to the President over the last four years. He suggested everyone attend the Town Meeting about the Governance study.

Meet Coordination Report - Jim Wood gave this for Ellen Mace. He thanked Buffalo - Star Swimming for a great meet. All teams need to turn in their proof of times. There was no update on Short Course 2003 at GCIT at this time.

Zone Directors report
Financial - USA Swimming will be asking for a deficit budget this year. The quadrennial will come in with a balanced budget. Our own investments are down. The staff have a done a good job at managing their own programs.

Club Membership - This will be presented at the HOD meeting. The board has adopted it. Has a few changes from what was originally presented. Before the 2nd year of Club Membership, the club must take a club management school course. There will be lots of opportunities available for this. USA Swimming will have two business management courses. These will be held at hub airports.

Dues Proposal - 2004 year - Individual dues up $15.00, then the next 10 years would go up $1.00 a year. Non-athlete up $15.00, families up $25.00, seasonal up $7.50 25% of the increase will go to services for member clubs, 25% to increase resources to help clubs' get into facilities, fix up facilities, etc., and 25% to enhance promotion of swimming media etc., with 25% for budget or any areas needed. We need to reduce our dependency on the USOC. The HOD meeting will have three speakers in favor of the increase and three speakers against it. Then it will be open to the floor. There was an extensive discussion on the budget issues at this time. Some statements made:

• Could do a better job of servicing our clubs.
• Think we will be 10% under budget but do not know.
• Maybe should have a chief financial officer at Headquarters.
• Need more info on all this.
• Lots of LSC's can buy cheaper insurance.
• Assumption of 10% increase in membership - may not happen.
• What happens in 2005? Borrowing from 2003 & 2004?
• The 2004 budget was prepared at the beginning of the quad. Old numbers at this time. Kept there until grant from USOC.
• Don't capitulate to the USOC.
• USA Swimming does help a lot.
• All issues cannot be explained - not everyone reached - not all equals. Provide education, information, and inspiration for coaches etc.. There are lots of things on the website for everyone - i.e. stoke technique, stretching, education etc.. One has to use them.
• Swimming is an invaluable experience.
• Last dues increase was 1996.
• If you want to change something, then have your amendment ready for the House of Delegates Meeting.

Site Selection - 2004 -

Spring Nationals to be decided
Summer Nationals Aug. 3 -7 Stanford Univ. - California
Disability Champs. June 10 - 12 Minneapolis, Minn.
U.S. Open Dec. 2-4 San Antonio, Texas
Open Water 10K TBD Hilton Head, S.C.
Open Water 5K Aug. 8 Stanford, California<

Athlete - Justin Lynch (not in attendance)
Julie Gorman stated that to run for election an athlete should be attending a 2nd convention. This year that requirement will be waived due to the events of Sept. 11th the previous year. They also made the decision to have a four-year term to fall in line with the OIO.

Officials - Joann Faucett - to take the online officials test one must be registered with USA Swimming. The backstroke start has been clarified. Application to officiate at Sectionals was on line.

Sports Development Coordinator - Sue Anderson - What can we do for you? It is difficult to service everyone, but she feels the position has been worthwhile. She feels communication is better. We also have a good voice at Board Meetings. What do you all want? Don't say USA Swimming does nothing for you? Take advantage of the opportunities available!!! She has spent some time in each LSC. The first time around it was with the bigger clubs and anyone who asked for help. She feels the Eastern Zone is progressive. She would like to see the zone a little stronger. Also competition could be better.

Elections -Kerry Ellett was unanimously reelected to the position of Eastern Zone Director - Coach. Patric Mills was unanimously elected to the position of non-coach member to Age Group Planning.

Technical Issues - Ed Dellert
We now have a website. It is: http://www.pvswim.org/eastzone/index.html
All pertinent information for the zone will eventually be on this site. Minutes, results, meet information etc.. John Hirschman will post anything needed on this site.
Ed scheduled a meeting immediately after this session to go over some of the issues. 11-12 events, time standards for Long Course, combined sectionals for a long course meet. (time standards would have to be harder). Flip flop an A - B system to give LSC's a chance to swim other people.
Look at a site for this for 2004.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 a.m. until tomorrow - September 13th at 3:30 p.m.

The 2nd Eastern Zone meeting was called to order at 3:40 p.m.

Ruth Whelehan had a fall here at convention and is in the hospital. The Eastern Zone sent flowers to her. Our thoughts and best wishes are with her and we hope she has a speedy recovery.

Athlete's election - Jason Prince vice-chair of the Athletes Committee conducted the election for the zone athlete representative. Our new representative is: Diana Marie Hurst from Virginia Swimming. Diana is a junior in high school and said she would like to be involved in all aspects of swimming.

Technical Planning Report-Ed Dellert
It was decided that the spring 2004 Sectional meets would be run long course.
Eastern Zone Meet - the new order of events for short course were approved with the added distance events. The order of events for long course will be rearranged and the time standards will both be ready by October 1st, 2002.
Super Sectional - or A-B system - it was decided to stay with the same format for 2003. Go open with Section 1 and then reevaluate

Leanne Spletzer made a suggestion to include disability swimmers at both meets. This was sent to Technical Planning and will be brought up at our Spring Meeting.

Site Selection
Zone Meet

Bids for long course 2003. 1. Allegheny Mountain - University of Pittsburgh - 8 lanes - 6 lane warm up pool. 2. University of Buffalo and Erie Community College, Buffalo - bid for 2003 & 2004.

The zone meet will be in Pittsburgh - Aug. 6,7,8, & 9, 2003 Open Water meet - Aug. 10th, 2003

In 2004 - the zone meet will be in Buffalo - August 11,12,13 & 14, 2004 Open Water Meet - Aug. 15, 2004

The only bid for the zone meet in short course 2004 was Virginia (tentative). The meet will be held at George Mason - Prince William Co. - there are two courses. The dates will be April 1,2, & 3, 2004. This is about 15-20 miles from D.C. on rt. 66. There would be plenty of places to stay in and around the city of Manassas.

Sectional Meets

Section 1 - Long course 2003 - Buffalo - July 24,25,26 & 27, 2003
Spring - 2004 - long course - Long Island - March 11,12, 13 & 14, 2002
Summer long course 2004 - Buffalo - July 22,23,24 & 25, 2004

 

Numbers are a major concern. If we do plan a super sectional in 2004 then the meet should be rebid. A motion was made and seconded to table the site selection for summer 2004 until Convention 2003. This was defeated.

The Section 1 meet for short course 2003 has been moved from March 6,7,8,& 9 to the next weekend - March 13,14,15 & 16, 2003 in Long Island. New England, Maine and Connecticut have conflicts with this new date. It is hoped they can change their LSC meets. A motion was made to open the meet somehow. This will go back to Technical Planning and the information will be available by October 15, 2002. The thoughts were not to open it completely but to invite some other teams.

Section 2 - Long Course 2003 UMBC - July 24,25,26 & 27, 2003.
Spring long course 2004 - CUBU - March 25,26,27 & 28, 2004 - two possible sites were identified
Summer long course 2004 - to be selected May, 2003

At this time, Chuck Wielgus dropped into the meeting to see if anyone had any questions for him. No one spoke up, so he moved on to other meetings.

Open Water - Selecting camp swimmers off of 1500 swims from summer 2002. Any age may be selected. Fastest 8 men and fastest 8 women will go to San Antonio on Memorial Day weekend for a training camp. The participants will be required to go to either the 5k or 10k selection meets. Some sites for 2003 - June 14th 5K National Team Qualifying, San Antonio, TX, June 15th, USA - 25K Nationals Team qualifier in Clemson, S.C., July 1st - 10K - in Ft. Myers, Fla, and a 5k Open water Nationals in Maryland in August - date to be announced. (following Nationals). All meets, with the exception of the USA Swimming Open Water Championships following Nationals are qualifiers for the National Team to the World championships in Barcelona, Spain.

Safety - New manual - recommend that all clubs get it. Call Cathy Durance at National Office. New coaches requirements - lifeguard instructor is now acceptable as well as coach's safety training. The committee held a workshop at this convention. There will be an LSC's adapted chairs workshop in Colorado the first weekend in February. Delegates will only receive airfare to Colorado Springs.

Site Selection - pick up the sheet on the way into the House of Delegates meeting.

Pan Pac's - Jim Wood -- This was a great meet - the last five days were awesome Won the team score and had some great swims. Transportation was a problem. The "Mutual of Omaha Dual in the Pool" will be held in Indianapolis April 4-6, 2003 - Australia vs. USA. This will be televised on NBC for 90 minutes the weekend after - April 12 & 13th. Jim stated we should thank Jerry Olsen for all his help - the Pan Am's were changed to two weeks later - so no headaches - and they are allowing four swimmers to swim prelims.

World University Games will be Aug. 21-26 in South Korea. Staff for the meets will be picked by conference call this fall.

Education - John Weitz - Are working on revamping the Parent Education - want input. E-mail John with any ideas - [email protected]

Dan Taylor - Allegheny Mountain - they were thinking of offering a long course senior type meet in 2003. If anyone would be interested please see Dan.

Adapted Swimming - Open Water zone Coordinator - Bea Hartigan - Feels there is a lot of information available but no one is using it. Sent out a questionnaire via e-mail and had only one response. She will help anyone who needs help but will not run the meet for them.

Outreach - Thirl Crudup - USA Swimming has $20,000 for the program. 10 awards up to $2000. each. All clubs are eligible. The money should be used for it will disappear. If anyone has a proposal for their club - submit it by Sept. 24 - it will be reviewed around Oct. 18th and awards will be made by Nov. 1, 2002. Get the info you need on the USA Swimming web site.

Club Development - Mike Seip - having a facility information forum. Quite excited about this. They want to expand on this.

Camps - Amy Parratto - Catch the spirit camps - encourage people to run them. There is money in the budget for these and the service is not being utilized.

Rules - Arvydas Barzdukas - We have the shortest packet in history. Look it over. If you have an issue, be prepared to propose something properly.

A motion was made to adjourn.

Respectfully submitted,

Isabelle Fraser - Secretary

Attendance
Thursday - Sept. 12 & 13th
Adirondack - JoAnn Faucett & Courtney Arduini
Allegheny Mountain - Pete Gannon, John Lynch, Dan Taylor, Tom Burchill, Carlyn Donley, and Amanda Gannon.
Connecticut - Leanne Spletzer, Steve Carroll, Clark Cooper, Pam Libertiny, George Miles, Bonnie Fisher, Nan Cooper, Sue Lecza, Hayley Wolfgruber, Haley Ottenbreit, Bill Krumm, Jeff Allen, Ellen Johnston, Margaret Donofrio
Maine - 12th - Bonnie Alcaide, Steven Alcaide, Anne Marie Rand, Sharon Power, Jim Willis
13th - Anne Marie Rand, Sharon Power, Jim Willis
Maryland - Megan Riley, Adnanne Glasgow, Chad Cradock, Pat Kaplan, Chuck Jacobs, Sheryl Lepisto, John Ferrari, Jamie Cahn, Kim Easterday
Metro - Ray D'Annolfo, Gil Smith, Bea Hartigan, Dave Ferris, John McIlargy, Chris Robledo, Brittney Bohme
Mid-Atlantic - Mike Seip, Jon Larson, Dave Carson, Patric Mills, Cherita Gentilucci, Fred Killian, George Breen, Dick Shoulberg, Doug Copper, Mike Gobrecht, Dale Petranech, Sid Cassidy, John Carroll
New England - Mary Riddell, Caitlin Grant, Priscilla Davis, Kathy Oates-Dacey, Mike Parratto, Dan Mascolo, Ray Grant, Pam Warner, Joanne Gallahue, Dottie Daniels, Amy Parratto, Frank Ching, Isabelle Fraser
New Jersey - Ed Dellert, Jim Wood, Eric Fucito, Jim Sheehan, Rob Kirsch Brown, Kevin Devine, Luke Fitzpatrick, Stephanie Crofton, John Siegal, Gregg Eggert
Niagara - Barbara Paradis, Frances Klier, Marci Callan, Steve Root, David Finger, Tom Nowakowski, Zach Grobengieser, Andy Lehner, Julie O'Neill
Potomac Valley - Thirl Crudup, Bill Stephens, Jim Garner, Boots Hall, John Hirschmann, Arvydas Barzdukas, Greg York, Amy Stark, Bob Lindberg, Bill Marlin, Ward Foley, Rick Curl
Virginia - Jerry Hayes, Chuck Swanson, Terry Randolph, Diana Hurst, Walter Smith, Robbie Fishetti, Diane Cayce, Dave Henderson, Pete Maloney, Louise Limerick
National Office - Sue Pitt Anderson