September 12, 2012

  To:   All Green Bay YMCA Swimmers & Parents

  From:         Coach Dave - voice mail-436-9624

Email- [email protected]   team unify website - www.teamunify.com/wigbymca

 Re:    1) Stroke Clinics  2) All-parent meeting/Registration Forms/Concussion Information  3)  Meet Schedule  4)  Escrow Balances  5) Assorted Notes

1. Stroke Clinics continue this evening.  Please look at the team calendar for the dates and locations.  All clinics run from 7-8:30pm.  Stroke Clinics ---  Sept 12-Backstroke,       Sept 17-Butterfly,     Sept 19-Starts,     Sept 20-Flip Turns,     Sept 24-Breaststroke,      Sept 26-200 Race Strategy,  Sept 27 - IM Exchanges

Clinics are opened to all Gold swimmers and approved Silver Swimmers. Cost is $5.00 per session attended.  All swimmers will be charged for clinics in late September through their escrow accounts.  Those swimmers who registered to include stroke clinics may attend all clinics for no cost.  I did make a couple minor changes in the schedule.  There will be no clinic tomorrow, September 13. But a clinic date has been added for September 27.

1. The all-parent meeting is Tuesday evening, September 25, 6:30-8:30pm.  All information regarding the meeting is on the web site.  We again will have this at St. Mary’s Roller rink so that the kids may skate while we are having the meeting.  All registration packets will be distributed at the meeting. There is already some information regarding registration under the “about GBY/registration” tab on the website. I do expect a parent from all families to attend the meeting.  As always there will be a lot of important information gone over at the meeting including some changes in the program.  I also would also ask that all families take a look at the concussion information on the web site. This information is under the documents tab.  Wisconsin now has a law that all participants in Youth Sports programs must read all the information and in our registration packet the parents will have to sign off on this information.  Concussions I know are very rare in a sport like swimming but if something did occur families have information regarding concussions and will also understand why we may not allow a child to participate until cleared by a doctor.
2. I have posted the meet schedule on the website for the 2012-2013 Fall/Winter Season.  We did change a few meets.  First change is that we will be attending the Marinette-Menominee Pentathlon on Saturday, October 27. That meet entry is already open.  FCY was posted but they had last year’s meet info and file on their website and I inadvertently uploaded it but people caught this very quickly.  The meet has been reposted and when the proper meet info and file are available and posted I will e-mail the team.  Today is the last day to commit to attend the WGLO meet.
3. Thank you to those few families who took care of their escrow balances. But many families still need to take care of their balances immediately.  I will not allow any family to enter a swimmer in any fall swim meets or any meet until they have taken care of this balance as well as put money in their account to cover the cost of any meet you’re going to enter prior to that meet happening.  With the team unify website all families have full time access to their escrow account information.  Beginning this season I will not enter swimmers into swim meets with balances in their escrow accounts. (To include the WGLO meet – and I have a number of swimmers committed to this meet that have not taken care of their balances.)  Thank you to the many GBY families that keep up with their escrow accounts and put monies in their accounts prior to the meets happening.  This is what is going to be expected now of all GBY families.  Please take care of these balances ASAP.  You can pay the balance by phone or drop off the payment at the DT Y front desk.  Charges for August workouts were put in last week.  September Stroke Clinics and workout charges will be charged at the end of September.

Please note that you balance appear as either positive which means you owe or as a negative which is what you have in your escrow account.  So please check your account and take care of you balance immediately if necessary.  Again, if a swimmer enters into a meet with a negative balance I will just remove them from the meet.  And again as stated above a family should have ample monies in their account to cover all meet entries before the meet is swam. Thank you for understanding and taking care of this.

1. Assorted Notes

·        The practice schedule should be up to date on the website.  Practices begin the week of October 8.  Those swimmers that would like to move from Bronze to Silver or Silver to Gold II will be placed after the first week of practices. The first week of practices these swimmers wanting to move up groups will try-out.  All are welcome to try-out but if you not able to handle the group you will be placed back in the appropriate group. Decisions on Gold III swimmers will also be made after the first week of practice but additional swimmers may be moved to this Gold III during the season.  Please check under the “Team/Classes” tab for group requirements. Due to some swimmers not knowing their group placement registration forms are not due until the week of October 15.  All swimmers not registered by the end of this week will lose access to the website so please get your forms in that week.  This includes any high school girls who will be joining our team after their season.  Please note that because of the numbers expected on our team that Wednesday night practices may be adjusted.  If Bronze numbers warrant all the pool then I will move the Silver practice to the later time with Gold from 7:30-8:45pm. Silver swimmers experience will fit better with the Gold team. I am also pursuing additional Pool time at SWHS on Wednesday beginning November 7 to free up the Downtown Pool at 7:30pm for the Silver Team.  Thanks for your patience and understanding on these issues.

·        Practices for those who registered for year-round swimming will continue on Tuesdays and Fridays until the season begins.  Except October 4&5 when we will not have practices.  I will also run practices for these swimmers on Tuesday, October 9,16 & 23.  We cannot get into SWHS until October 30 because the pool is scheduled for High School meets on these days.

·        I am expecting a very large team this season.  I have almost 50 swimmers signed up for my Fall Silver Shark Class.  So we are probably looking at 40-50 swimmers in each practice group.

·        The First Parent Group Committee for this season are being moved to the first Monday of the month. All Parent Group Committees are held from 5:30-7:00pm, in the 2^nd floor lobby area of the DT Y.  Exception being November where the committee will meet both November 5 & 26, and not meet in December due to our home meet on December 1.  We have a full committee of 9 parents.  We will introduce the Parent Group Committee at the All-Parent Meeting.