Msabc Board of Directors Meeting

MSABC BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2007

Nanaimo Aquatic Center, NANAIMO, BC

CALL TO ORDER: 4:35 pm

PRESENT Glen Mehus, Diane Ruffell, Stephen Ricketts, Leon Politano, Steve Wallace, Gilles Beaudin

REGRETS Tony Zezza, Claudia Sperling, Keith Kendall

GUESTS

QUORUM Declared

A. AGENDA

No changes

APPROVED

B. MINUTES

Motion (Steve R): Amend the minutes to read:

Leon reported that there were no changes to this year's meet schedule. Leon reported all dates are confirmed and the UBC meet was the only meet sanctioned. Leon sent out requests to Cowichan and Nanaimo to send in their sanction applications and meet packages before the deadline for the next Bulletin.

Motion (Steve W) to adopt the minutes as amended.

APPROVED

C. BUSINESS

1. Financial Report

(a) 07/08 budget adoption (Keith)

Glen read Keith’s report provided by e-mail.

I have added $2,000 for the officials attending Worlds, to what I presented earlier. So I have a budget surplus of $4,825.

Currentincome statement. I have not attached the spreadsheet, but we have currently have received over 1,100 registrations to date. (last years final totals were over 1600 registrants.) Deducting what will be owed to SWIM BC and MSC, we havenet revenue of $17,000 YTD, and very little in the way of costs YTD: about $1,600.

Motion (Diane) Adopt the budget as amended by Keith’s report.

APPROVED

2. MSABC Registration

(a) 2007-2008 Registration status and Swim Direct Update (Tony)

Tony provided the following report by e-mail:

As of today, we have 1184 swimmers registered within 36 clubs. Please note that these are the numbers as outlined on Swim Direct and many clubs are still in process of completing their registrations. One major delay with this year’s registrations was with our Lower Mainland Clubs due to the civil strike that caused many community pools to remain closed.

Notwithstanding this delay, between the summer emails of confirming/changing our Club Registrars and with the September initial registration package, the process has gone extremely well. I anticipate that we will be able to repeat last year’s registrations of 50 clubs with 1600+ swimmers.

There were two major changes that were applied this year to Swim Direct as per our request:

- The $25 Club Fee was included in our initial re-registration process; and

- Swimmer transfers were approved without a 30-day “pending” status.

These two changes have really assisted in our registration efficiency and ease.

As normal, there are a few issues that remain a challenge. Keith has worked extremely hard to serve our unattached swimmers via the on-line registration process. Although this year has gone better than last, I believe it will take another year or two before we fully have it right.

Another challenge are some of the smaller clubs that administer “partial” entries within the registration process and either do not complete the process or are late with their payments.

Although Keith has worked very hard to action/update our club accounts, it has become clear to both of us that some clubs are taking advantage of our registration system and I would go as far as to question if indeed some of these clubs are “official” or not. This observation is based on registering their 1-2 swimmers on a swim meet to swim meet basis while the bulk of their swimmers remain un-registered. This issue was dealt with very clearly on the Registrar Instructions that I provided to all the clubs in September and I have worked very hard to end this practice.

It is important to note that we are only talking about a few small clubs which totals about a dozen or so swimmers. In all case, I have identified to these clubs that their swimmers are most welcome to register themselves within MSABC as “unattached”.

On a more positive note, some clubs have agreed to fully register all their swimmers in accordance with our policies and I continue to work toward this cause.

Lastly, and this is purely for the Board’s information at this point, but I have been informed that some Provinces have stopped using Swim Direct for their swim meet results. Although I do not have all the facts, it would seem that SNC has stepped back from enforcing the use of Swim Direct for their meets. However, it’s important to note that the Swim Direct registration process seems to be operating quite well and continues to provide excellent service to MSABC.

Any further questions or discussion points, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Motion (Diane) to receive Tony’s report

APPROVED

(b) On line registration issues (Keith)

Keith provided the following report to the Board by e-mail:

· Do not know who engineered this process or why.

· Application is unpaid.

· Application often intends to register with a MSABC club.

· Application is routed to Registrar first?

· Application is sometimes routed to Unattached Registrar?

· Name bops up on my email as either from Tony or from the person – difficult for me to know if I have an on line registration or not.

· Spam registrations are part of this process; so do not know whether to take the application seriously or not. No contact information included.

· Have only responded to registrar unattached swimmers if they have followed up by contacting Tony. Tony then contacts me to deal with it.

· UBC meet, 4 unattached swimmers, of which one was actually a UBC registrant, 3 were not registered, two I went and contacted and have since registered, One I am still waiting to get the necessary data to register.

· Have indicated to Tony that I am not willing to participate as the unattached registrar under this process.

· I have indicated last year my misgivings with this on line registration process

What I would like:

The ability to view a PDF/word file of a registration form at he MSABC website, the potential registrant then prints it out, fills it out and mails it to the unattached registrar, with attached cheque. That registrar then completes the registration process.

This would make this process the same as every other club registrar within MSABC.

This existing process utilizes far to much time, involves too many false unattached registration applications, and too much spam registrations.

Tabled for next meeting.

3. Competition Reports

(a) 2007 Provincials Report (Glen)

Glen advised he does not expect we will receive a report.

(b) 2008 Provincials Status (Leon)

Copies of the draft meet package, previously e-mailed to the Board, were distributed.

Leon reported it would appear that the meet will be sanctioned by early January. The social following the AGM will be a wine and cheese. The wine and cheese and souvenir Ts will be an added cost above the $60 registration fee. Chris Whyte is the person responsible for the social and gathering officials and is seeking out sponsorship for the meet. Chris asked for some seed money, which I said MSABC would provide. I have asked for a budget but they haven’t prepared a comprehensive one yet.

Leon has also encouraged the Prince George masters group, in partnership with the local age group club, to consider hosting Provincials in April 2009. If the Kamloops Classics Swimming does well financially, there may be more age group/masters partnerships willing to host MSABC meets.

Motion (Diane) to receive Leon’s report

APPROVED

ACTION (ALL) Board members to review and provide comments to Leon.

Leon reported the meet schedule remains unchanged with only EBSC without a sanction. The application should be this coming week as they want their package to be in the next bulletin. Leon feels that PNA should also be listed on our web site along with our meets. We should also encourage our members to consider the US LC Nationals to be in held at Mt Hood Community College in the Portland OR area in mid August. Leon has asked for a brief write up/ promo from the host committee for the MSABC web site.

Motion (Steve W) to receive Leon’s report.

APPROVED

(d) Meet Managers Guide (Steve R)

Steve R reported he was unable to make the changes to the Meet Managers Guide. The Guide is currently in Publisher and he doesn’t have the necessary software to edit it.

ACTION: Steve R to hand edit and give to Diane to update in Publisher.

4. Communications

(a) Board Members Manuals (Steve R)

All Board members have a manual except one. Keith and Claudia are currently sharing one. Steve R will bring the manual for the next Board meeting.

(b) MSABC Bulletin (Claudia)

Tabled for next meeting. Diane encouraged Board members to send in photos for future bulletins.

Diane and John keeping the information current and removing dated information. They are not maintaining archives of out dated articles.

(d) Videos (Claudia)

Tabled for next meeting.

(e) Application for BC Records (Diane)

Diane circulated draft form to allow swimmers to apply for BC records when swimming in out of province swim meets.

ACTION: Board members to review and forward any comments to Diane within the next week.

5. Administrative

(a) Insurance for Coaches (Diane)

Diane circulated her report providing clarification on insurance requirements for coaches. Report concludes coaches need to registered with MSABC or FINA affiliate for our insurance to be valid. Need to get this information out so our members are aware of this requirement.

ACTION: Diane will post information on the web site. Tony to get this information to the club registers and, if they haven’t already, ask them to register their coaches.

(b) Awards and Nominations

1. Masters Athlete of the Year (Keith)

With the Board’s concurrence, Keith submitted Bonnie Pronk as MSABC nomination. In Keith’s e-mail he asked this nomination be on the agenda for the September board meeting so the Board can discuss and agree to the nomination prior to the November submission deadline.

ACTION: (Steve R and future secretaries) to add this item to future Fall meeting agendas.

2. MSABC Awards (Gilles)

General discussion on the idea to have a Coach of the Year award. Youth clubs score their meets so there is a measurable to compare coaches by the performance of the swim teams. MSABC doesn’t score meets, so how do you measure performance. Board felt nominations should come from the coaches. More work and thought is required should the Board decide to implement this award.

Gilles suggested MSABC should score meets and provide an award at year end. General discussion on the pros and cons. Steve R suggested to balance out the large vs. small team, you could award based on total team score divided by number of swimmers in the club. Board agreed to try scoring this years Provincial meet, and pending the feedback, consider implementing scoring for next season’s meets.

Motion (Steve W) to unofficially score the Provincials with MSABC providing the award.

APPROVED

ACTION: Steve W and Gilles to work out the details to implement scoring provincials. They will advise Leon, so he can advise the host club.

3. Provincial Awards Format (Gilles)

Board feels we need to get the awards criteria out earlier to our members to give them more time to consider nominations. Gilles is tasked to review nominations and make the final decision.

ACTION: Steve R will send award nomination criteria to Diane for posting on the web site and copy Gilles for his information.

4. Sports BC MSABC swimmer of the year (Keith)

Tabled for next meeting.

Information is out there. Up to the swimmers on whether to get on board.

(d) Call for MSABC Board Nominations (Keith)

The following positions are up for election:

· Vice President

· Treasurer

· Registrar

· 2 Members at Large

ACTION: Steve R to send 2008 Notice of Election for Diane to post on the website and Claudia to include in the Bulletin. Steve R will receive all nominations.

(e) Underwater Camera (Glen)

Glen advised the Board usage of the camera is increasing; currently have a waiting list. We may need to limit borrowing time to two weeks per club. Glen will get prices for a new camera for consideration by the Board to help meet the increased demand.

(f) Issues from Annual General Meeting

1. Coaches Seminar (Gilles)

Gilles wasn’t able to get the seminar organized for the UBC meet. Gilles is now considering having the clinic at Provincials. Gilles will continue to work with Danielle and some of the other coaches to find a suitable time and location.

ACTION: Steve R to get Gilles copy of Danielle ideas.

2. Long Course Meet Surveys (Keith)

Tabled for next meeting.

(g) Policy Updates (Steve R)

Steve R reported no progress to date. Steve committed to the Board to have the updates for the Board to review prior to the AGM. Most of the changes will be housekeeping and will not impact how we do business.

6. MSC and Swim BC Reports

(a) MSC Update (Glen)

Glen gave the following report:

MSC fees are going up starting Sept 1, 2008 Fees will go from $10 to $15 per member. Board discussed the need to breakout our fees so members understand where their fees are going. MSC has advised they need the increase to be able to provide more programs to their members. MSC also proposed a club fee of $25, but it was turned down. Steve R advised the Board in order raise MSABC fees to absorb MSC fee increase we have present a fee increase to our members at the AGM to approve.

MSC is changing the registration process from Swim Direct to the SNC process. SNC, MSC and NCCP are looking to get the coaching training on line for masters coaches.

Nationals registration is Feb 1, 2008. Registration is limited to 900, so recommends to all MSABC members to register quickly. Glen noted most of the hotels are already booked.

ACTION: Claudia to include the existing fees breakdown in next Bulletin and Diane will post on the website. Glen will provide info on why MSC has increased their fees for Diane to post on the website.

(b) Council of Provinces (Glen)

Glen reported funding is limited, so not much is getting accomplished. Glen feels the CoP could be a very effective organization given proper funding.