Eastern Zone Swimming

AS APPROVED at the May 12, 2007 Eastern Zone Meeting
 

UNITED STATES SWIMMING
EASTERN ZONE MEETING
Dearborn, MI
September 14-15, 2006
MINUTES
 

The meeting was brought to order by our zone directors - Peter Gannon and Ed Dellert.

A moment of silence was held for former Eastern Zone Members that have passed on.

Candidates for the upcoming elections
These different candidates will be coming into the room through out our meeting. They will be introduced and will just say hello. For any information on them - please go to the Meet the Candidates Meeting tonight.
Frank Ching - New England formally withdrew from the race for Program Operations Vice President. He indicated since his "roots" were in the Eastern Zone that he wanted to notify the Zone first of his decision.
Within the Eastern Zone candidates running for offices:
Jim Wood - President (NJ)
Murray Stephens - Administrative Vice President (MD)
Ed Dellert - Eastern Zone Director (Coach) (NJ) (zone election)
Dave Ferris - Eastern Zone Director (Coach) (MR)

Those who were introduced to those in attendance from outside our zone were:
Jeff Gudman - running for President
Mike Saltzstein - running for President
Pat Lundsford - running for Program Operations Vice-President
Paul Jones Jr. - running for Program Development Vice President

The minutes of the May minutes were approved with the following corrections. Jim Woods to Jim Wood, and Lindsay Benko to Lindsay Benko Mintenko.

The Financial Report was approved. The treasurer recommended the dues remain at $125.00/LSC for 2007. The Zone approved this recommendation. The checks should be made out to USA Swimming Inc., and sent to M. B. Hall, 43924 Riverpoint Dr., Leesburg, VA 20176. (Our new secretary-treasurer). These are due now - make sure the checks are made out to USA Swimming Inc. They go to the Secretary-Treasurer first so she can record what comes in. She will send them on to the National Office.

Report of Officers
 

Background checks for coaches are ready to go. They will start this month. Coaches will be the first to have this done as they are the ones who have the most involvement with the children. It will probably progress to more people later on. TC logiQ, Inc. is the provider. Info about the company is available on their website at www.tclogiq.com

The Board approved the budget for 2007, and it will now go on to the House of Delegates for final approval. The USOC would like the USA Swimming Board of Directors to approve the budget, not the House of Delegates. This may happen in the future.

  • The YMCA has adopted our technical rules.

  • Renovations at Headquarters are under way. This is the building where the flume was originally. New office space will be available.

  • Golden Goggles Awards will be at the Beverly Hills Hilton on Nov. 19, 2006.

  • There will be a screening of the forthcoming movie about Jim Ellis, PDR head coach.

  • The USA Swimming Foundation made a presentation on the work that had been done over the past 8-9 months on the strategic plan and fundraising strategy.

  • New meet personnel at headquarters

  • Jamie Fabos - Media Coordinator, Heather Haas - Admin. Assistant to Matt Farrell, Peter Clark - Eastern Zone Sports Coordinator. The Olympic Coaches are: Ed Reese (Men), and Jack Bauerle (Women)

  • USA swimming representatives for nominations to the following:


  • IOC - Ron Van Pool, Fina - Dale Neuburger, Asua - Carol Zaleski, Asua Technical - Jim Wood

 

Report of Meet Coordination Committee-- John Ferrari - MD John stated that everything went well this year.

Report of Zone Officials Committee -- Jamy Pfister stated that she can identify officials that can help run zone and sectional meets. They can also help with the process to certify officials at the N2 and N3 level. Get in touch with her a few months before the meet to make arrangements.

Report of Eastern Zone Sport Development Consultant - Ira Klein -- Ira has moved on to the above job.

Peter Clark, from Lancaster, PA is our new Sport Development Eastern Zone Consultant. Ira introduced Peter. Ira will help Peter get started. Peter said he was looking forward to helping all of us.

Ira discussed a race analysis pilot project that will be done at the Sectional level. They would like to do the top three heats of prelims and finals. It will store all the data on each athlete. USA Swimming will provide the software and a staff person to train the operators and to interact and educate the coaches. Volunteers are needed - 8 operators for each final session. Every operator must train at one preliminary session before they can work at a final session. They must have their own laptop computer. They will be permitted to train by capturing race analysis data for their own program or LSC. He will need a list of volunteers by June 1, 2007.

Each LSC General Chairman was given a binder with lots of information specific to each LSC. This also had National information in it.

He stated that there are funds available for meets having swimmers with disabilities in them.

Technical Planning - John Hirschmann -- John said the committee met last night (13th).

Spring SC Sectionals - no action items - changes were addressed at the May 2006 Zone meeting.

Summer LC Sectionals - Technical recommended a revised order of events.

New order of events - 4 day format
Thursday - 200 IM., 100 free, 100 breast, 1500W/800M free
Friday - 200 free, 100 fly, 400 IM, 400 free relay
Saturday - 200 fly, 100 back, 400 free, 800 free relay
Sunday - 200 back, 50 free, 200 breast, 800W/1500M free, 400 medley relay
A motion was made, seconded and passed to adopt this.

Technical reaffirmed the goal previously established in May to have 50's and 100's with ten heats, 200's and 400's with eight heats, 800 and 1500 - six/seven heats. Goal will be to have approximately 70% of swims with conforming time (LCM) 30% from non-comforming (SCM-SCY) SCM QT's will be consistent with LCM after adjusting for additional turns.

Summer Long Course Zones - A motion was made, seconded and passed to rework the summer time standards so there are no more than seven heats in any event that had more in 2006. A limited number of events having very few entries (3 heats or less) will be reviewed to see if entry times should be relaxed modestly.

A motion was made, seconded and passed to flip the 200 medley relay (now day 2) and the 400 medley relay (now day 4) for 10 & Unders only. This is based on the actual Order of Events swum in 2006. The zone manual will reflect the order of events with this one amendment. Other possible changes to Order of Events were not endorsed by the Technical Committee.

Spring Short Course Zones

Technical recommended that the Zone return to prior practice of allowing each LSC to only enter two swimmers in an event. The alternative qualifying times adopted in May will not be used. A motion was made, seconded and passed that stated the following: Entry rules for conducting spring meets will be the same as the meet was conducted in April 2006.

At the spring meeting some of the events order were changed, as well as adding some relays to the program, This new order for events, including the added relays will be swum at the meet in 2007 - the zone manual for short course has the new order of events in it.

In order to make TP work easier to follow I am continuing with what went on Sept. 15th and the meet bids and the meets awarded.

Meets Awarded

March 6-9, 2008
EZ Northern Sectional (LC) Nassau County Aquatic Center, Eisenhower Park, East Meadow, LI., NY. Hosted by Metropolitan Swimming.

March 13-16, 2008
EZ Southern Sectional (LC) University of Maryland College Park, MD Hosted by Curl-Burke Swimming.

April 3-5, 2008 - EZ Short Course Championship Meet Location and Host - TBD
(dates for this meet were approved -bids will again be sought in May 2007)
The zone was informed that the zone manual required this meet to end no later than the first Sunday in April which is April 6. Also Easter is March 23 in 2008.


July 17-20, 2008
2 bidders
EZ Super Sectional (LC)
1. McCoy Natatorium, Penn. State University, State College, PA Hosted by CAT Aquatics and Penn State University - 50 M 8 lane outdoor facility and separate indoor pools (25Y and 25M) for warmup - tents for shade will be provided - there is ample deck space.
2. Niagara Star Swimming also bid - could hold it either 17-20, or 24 - 27th of July. It would be held at Erie Community College

The winning bid was Penn. State.

August 6-9, 2008
Eastern Zone Long Course Zone Meet
2 bidders
1. Potomac Valley and Virginia swimming together. At George Mason University pools - Fairfax & Manassas, VA.
2. Star Swimming - 2 pools. Erie Community College and UB - Amherst.

The winning bid was PV and VA - Manassas campus pool will be used for 11-12 prelims and 10/U Timed finals.
Jointly hosted by Potomac Valley Swimming and Virginia Swimming.

The Zone was informed that legislation was pending to allow dates for future sectional meets to be open so the meets can be run at anytime. This will be decided at the House of Delegate meeting on Saturday. (this passed).

Athlete Representative Report - Rob Fischetti -- The athletes had a meeting and all introduced each other. They are being given information on the upcoming election. They have an Outreach Clinic scheduled for today. Cullen Jones and Maritza Correia will be running the clinic.

Policy Manual Task Force - Cherita Gentilucci Cherita clarified some of the changes to the manual. A motion was made, seconded and passed to approve the changes to the manual to date. It will be on the website. This is a work in progress. Sectional info will be added. At the May meeting there will be more info.

Unfinished Business -- Code of Conduct - If a swimmer is removed from a meet, he or she must have the opportunity to have a hearing if they so want.

Sectional Monies - Ed Dellert said we still only get $30,000 of the $40,000 each Zone is allocated by USA Swimming for their Sectional Meets. This is because the EZ only conducts 3 meets (2 spring and 1 summer). ***Update: September 20, 2006. The USA Swimming Board authorized the Eastern Zone to have access to the additional sectional money ($10,000.) that had previously not been provided due to the EZ having less than 4 sectional meets a year. It will be allocated as follows: $2500. to each spring meet and $5000. to the summer meet

The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 a.m. and will be continued on Friday the 14th at 3:30 p.m.

 

 

The meeting was called to order on Friday afternoon by our Zone Directors Pete Gannon and Ed Dellert at 3:40 p.m.

Elections The following people are running for zone positions. Zone Director - Ed Dellert- NJ, Dave Ferris - MR Zone Secretary-Treasurer - Mary Fleckenstein - MR, Boots Hall - PV Athlete Representative - (Elected by the attending athletes only): Jake Fisher - NI Haley Smith - CT Ben Dauz-Haberle - NE Ben withdrew as in order to be elected an athlete must have been at convention for at least one year prior to running for office. Each candidate was given two minutes to say a few words about himself, and then the LSC's caucused for fifteen minutes. An elections committee was named to count the votes: Dave Carson - non coach - MA, Marci Callan - coach - NI, Rob Fischetti - athlete - VA & EZ athlete rep. The winners of the above elections were:

Ed Dellert - Zone Director
Boots Hall - Secretary-Treasurer
Haley Smith - Athlete Representative
 

Congratulations to you all!!

A motion to destroy the ballots was made, seconded and approved.

At this time we also voted on our future meets - this was reported on earlier in this Newsletter - Minutes.

Scholastic All-America Report -- Joyce Lanphere - chair of the Scholastic All-America Committee gave a brief report. Metropolitan and New Jersey had a high number of applicants. Kate Ziegler - PV - had a perfect score - one of only two swimmers this year. The other was Chip Peterson from NC. Male applicants increased this year by 23.3%, and female applicants increased by 13.5%. A perfect score is a win at a National Championships and over a 4.0 grade point average at school.

Reports from National Committees

Technical Committee - Jim Wood -- In 2007 Short Course Senior Nationals will take place the first week in December. Working on the elite level athlete having a shorter short course season and a longer long course season. The main long course meet will stay in the summer. Zones can pick any date for their sectional meets - this will be voted on in the House of Delegates meeting - vote for this. There will not be a spring championships in 2008.

Communications Committee - Ed Dellert -- This committee has been sunsetted. They held three meetings at convention. Seminars at convention for webmasters were held -- one best practice - 43 attended. - second one - advance webmaster seminar - 19 attended. Seminars will continue under the auspices of a new committee.

Age Group Development - Ward Foley & Patric Mills AG Development has been holding bi-monthly conference calls for the LSC AG Chairs. The next call, which is scheduled for Sunday evening, October 8th at 8:00 P.M. Eastern time. The topic will be Open Water. The Parent Education CD ("Successful Swim Parenting") that was used in the Convention Workshop on Friday morning (15th) is available for purchase on the USA-S website at the following link: http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/ECommerceUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TabId A single CD costs $40.00. Clubs and LSC's can also get large quantities at a substantial discount by contacting Sue Anderson at USA-S.

Club Development - Mike Seip -- Mike stated that the IMAX program, and the Virtual Club Championships will be tied to the Club Recognition Program. It will be an all inclusive program. He encouraged clubs to get into it.

Open Water Swimming - Bea Hartigan -- 2007 Open water schedule -
March 10 - team leaves for Melbourne, Australia
Mar. 18-25 - Team will compete in Melbourne, Australia
May 13-17 - Open Water Camp in Ft. Myers, Fl.
May 17-21 - Open Water Nationals - Ft. Myers, Fl (Pan Am Games trials, Seville World Cup trials)
June 4-10 - Seville World Club
June 30 - Long Beach Open Water Grand Prix (5K) - Long Beach, CA
July 14 - 10K Open Water Pan American Games - Rio de Janeiro, BRA
Aug 5 - Open Water Grand Prix - Indianapolis, IN
Aug 11 - Open Water 37K - Atlantic City, N.J.
Oct 20 - 10K Olympic Selection Meet - Bakersfield, CA
Oct 21 - 10K Olympic Selection Meet - Bakersfield, CA
Eastern Zone will be holding an open water festival June 30 - July 4th in Lake George in the Adirondacks. There will be three or four different races. Get info from Bea Hartigan.
 

Rules and Regulations Committee - Arvydas Barzdukas -- The zone was informed that legislation to accept the 400 free relay and the 400 medley relay into the 10 & under event program was being put forward. Many LSC's are already including these relays. (this failed)

Registration & Membership Committee - Cherita Gentilucci-- Cherita stated that registration is rolling out the pilot program to integrate the background checks into SWIMS.

NAG Records Report - Isabelle Fraser -- Gave the Times and Recognition Committee a report on this, but seeing it did not turn up in the Convention Report - I will include it here. Short Course - we had 20 new individual records, and 7 new relay records - 27 total. Long Course - we had 12 new individual records and 12 new relay records - 24 total. (Katie Hoff - NBAC - MD) - had 5 of the long course individual records).

New Business --John Hirschmann received this year's service award for the Eastern Zone. Jim Garner - PV made the presentation.

Spring Meeting -- Chris Branch said the dates for the spring meeting in Portland, Maine would be determined soon. A lobster lunch will be served. The meeting will be at the Embassy Suites - this is the same hotel as was used when the last two zone meetings were in Maine.

Subsequent News: The Spring Eastern Zone Meeting will be the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend - May 12th. The Technical Planning Meeting will be on Friday evening - May 11th. Details will be given out later.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 P.M..

Respectfully submitted:


Isabelle Fraser - Secretary-Treasurer
 

Many thanks for all the help received in the 26 years that I have been Zone Secretary-Treasurer. This includes all the party help from many people way back when we ran those fun parties. Many people have come and gone but they sure have not been forgotten over the years. Thanks to the different Zone Directors and in the past few years John Hirschmann, that have helped me compile the minutes after the meetings. It is not always easy to hear what is being said. I wish the Zone all the best. I will miss you all. I am not going away - will still be at convention for a few years, so will keep in touch.



Attendance - September 14th, 2006 - Total 117
AD - JoAnn Faucett, Kim Crounse, Jerry Adams, Mike Coley, Spencer Booth, Brendan Smith (6)
AM - Stan Stefanski, Jamy Pfister, Peter Barry, Todd Clark, Don Wagner, Sarah Dunleavy, Jack Zierenberg, Peter Gannon (8)
CT - Leanne Spletzer, Nan Cooper, Rick Lewis, Bill Krumm, Jen Lyman, Chris Hug, Christine Pelham, J. Paige, Haley Smith, Stuart Ainsworth, Dan Zeek, Margaret Donofrio, Ellen Johnston, Jeff Allen (14)
ME - Chris Branch (1)
MD - Donald Smith, Jamie Cahn, Andrew Barranco, Kim Easterday, Pat Kaplan, Sheryl Lepisto, John Ferrari, Danny Gray, Murray Stephens (9)
MR - Mary Fleckenstein, Monique Grayson, Bea Hartigan, George Rhein, Brian Brown, Mary Ann Senecal, Steffi Neissl, Kristen DeGrazia, Bob Vializ, Dave Ferris (10)
MA - Patric C. Mills, Dave Carson, Dale Petranech, Mike Seip, Fred Killian, Matt Sprang, John Carroll, Mike Gobrecht, Stephanie Rozick, Cherita Gentilucci, Erin Fischer, George Breen (12)
NE - Priscilla Davis, Mary Riddell, Matt Craven, Ben Daus-Haberle, Kathy Dacey, Laura Matuszak, Bob Gauvin, Sophia Slote, Tim Murphy, Frank Ching (10)
NJ - Roger Ridenour, Bud Rimbault, Stephanie Crofton, Jim Wood, Brian Ippolitto, Jim Sheehan, Jim O'Neill, Eric Fucito, Ali Russonellio, Becca James, Henry Fryczynski, Ed Dellert, Gregory Eggert (13)
NI - Barbara Paradis, Deborah Burke, Frances Klier, Marci Callan, Jake Fisher, Ricky Henahan, Jim Bowen (7)
PV - Jim Garner, Daniel Jacobs, Paris Jacobs, Boots Hall, Mark Faherty, Ronald Whalen, Bill Marlin, Carrie Tupper, Frani Hess, Ward Foley, Bill Stephens, Arvydas Barzdukas, Don Riedinger, John Ertter, John Hirschmann (15)
VA - Mary Turner, Terry Randolph, James Wolfe, Walter Smith, Jessica Simons, Lee Gibbs, Louise Limerick, Paige Endsley, Michael Downs, Dianne Limerick (10)
National Office - Ira Klein, Peter Clark (2)
Secretary-Treasurer - Isabelle Fraser (1)

Attendance - September 15th, 2006 - Total 116
AD - JoAnn Faucett, Kim Crounse, Jerry Adams, Mike Coley, Brennan Smith, Spencer Booth (6)
AM - Jam Pfister, Stan Stefanski, Peter Barry, Todd Clark, Jack Zierenberg, Sarah Dunleavy, Don Wagner, Peter Gannon (8)
CT - Jen Lyman, Dan Zeek, Christine Pelham, Chris Hug, Leanne Spletzer, Bill Krumm, Nan Cooper, Rick Lewis, Jeff Allen, Stuart Ainsworth, Haley Smith (11)
ME - Chris Branch (1)
MD - Sheryl Lepisto, Pat Kaplan, Don Smith, Kim Easterday, Andrew Barranco, John Ferrari, Jamie Cahn, Murray Stephens (8)
MA - Fred Killian, Patric Mills, Dale Petranech, Stephanie Rozick, Cherita Gentilucci, Matt Sprang, Mike Gobrecht, Dave Carson, George Breen, John Carroll, Mike Seip, Erin Fischer (12)
NE - Mary Riddell, Priscilla Davis, Bob Gauvin, Matt Craven, Laura Matuszak, Sophia Slote, Ben Daus-Haberle, Tim Murphy (8)
MR - Mary Fleckenstein, Monique Grayson, Bob Vializ, Mary Ann Senecal, Bea Hartigan, George Rhein, Steffi Neissl, Kristen DeGrazia, Dave Ferris (9)
NJ - Bud Rimbault, Jim O'Neill, Brian Ippolitto, Henry Fryczynski, Ed Miller, Eric Fucito, Jim Sheehan, Roger Ridenour, Stephanie Crofton, Jim Wood, Becca James, Ali Russonellio, Greg Eggert, Ed Dellert (14)
NI - Barbara Paradis, Jim Bowen, Eric Stimson, Deborah Burke, Marci Callan, Frances Klier, Jake Fisher, Ricky Henahan (8)
PV - Boots Hall, Don Riedlinger, Ronald Whalen, Jim Garner, Bill Marlin, Carrie Tupper, John Hirschmann, Ward Foley, Mark Faherty, Bill Stephens, Daniel Jacobs, Paris Jacobs, Sumie Emory, Aryvdas Barzdukas, Frani Hess, John Ertter, Linda Klopfenstein (17)
VA - James Wolfe, Lee Gibbs, Peter Maloney, Jessica Simons, David Strider, Michael Downs, Mary Turner, Terry Randolph, Bill Geiszler, Walter Smith, Paige Endsley (11)
National Office - Ira Klein, Peter Clark (2)
Secretary-Treasurer - Isabelle Fraser (1)