Florida LMSC Meeting Minutes

July 12, 2003

St. Petersburg North Shore Pool

Present:

Tom Bliss (SPCO), Meegan Wilson (300), Victor Buehler (300), Doug Messineo (OVMS), Gertie Perry (DST), Margie Hutinger (FMM), Paul Hutinger (FMM), Pat Tullman (FMM), Joe Biondi (CATM), Harold Ferris (SPM), Joan Campbell (CATM), Sue Moucha (BLUE), Dick Brewer (SCMM), Frank Tillotson (FMM), Scott McMillen (IRCC), Marjorie Newman (IRCC), Bruce Meintjies (FLA), Cathy Shonkwiler (ORLM)

I. Meeting Called to Order, 3:14 pm

Tom Bliss handed out the meeting agenda. Minutes form April 5, 2003, Meeting reviewed and approved

II. Report of Officers

A. Treasurer (Meegan Wilson)

1. Midyear Financial Report for 2003: Meegan passed out her usual reference sheet. In summary, she stated that at the end of June, we had a balance of $32,406.37. Her assessment of our current standing on the budget is that we are doing "O.K."

2. Tom inquired if the banquet and awards number were one and the same, to which the reply was, "No."

3. Meegan also reported that the Income Tax Report was turned in and a copy was available at the meeting for any interested team reps to review. This report was accepted.

4. Convention Budge (revision & stipulations): Meegan provided a breakdown of costs for four delegates as follows: Registration: $440; Hotel: about $1000; Airfare: $1600; Food: $500 (everyone reminded to save receipts); TOTAL: $3,540, or about $860 per delegate. There was a motion to increase the budget for this year's convention to $4,500. The motion was seconded and passed.

 

B. Registrar (Pat Tullman)

Current membership: Pat provided a handout with listings of all current teams, locations, and number of registered members. Current membership is 1186 of which 67 are unattached and 107 are one-time event registrations. This number is down from last year at this time by six teams; however, we do have one additional new team: COLA in Lakeland. It has 12 members. The coach and team representative is Tom Schmelz and his email address is Dailybless2@cs.com. Overall we now have 33 teams in the LMSC. The St. Augustine team increased from one member to 13 this past year because of the change in the bylaws. Tom inquired about the total numbers comparison over the past three years to which Pat replied that we had around 1400 at last count last year and about 1200 at this time last year and that she anticipates we will register 200 more people as the year continues and events these folks are interested in attending come about. Pat will provide by email the actual number of new swimmers to anyone interested in that figure. Report accepted.

 

C. Top Ten (Margie Hutinger)

1. National Senior Games report provided by Joan Campbell. Joan handed out an attachment that summarized the games. She reported that the swim meet was very well organized but that the "games" overall were poorly organized. She informed all present that information for future senior games will be at FLAsports.com/page-seniorgames_localsites.shtml. Harold added that everyone there was properly registered.

2. Margie held up for viewing a file containing 2,700 recorded swims (it appeared to be about 2 inches thick. She also passed out for review a listing of Dixie Zone inaccurate records with her corrections. Margie requested that the LMSC support her in her battle to get these corrections into the official DZ records. Everyone present was in full support of her efforts, now and in the future. Dick Brewer suggested that this issue be addressed at the national convention during the DZ breakout meeting. Tom then requested of Margie and Paul to write down a list of specific changes that need to be made in the current procedure for records being collected and recorded at the DZ level and that it would be helpful to have these suggestions written in a "proposal" format in preparation for the national convention meeting. An inquiry along this line of thought might be "How to get Florida LMSC records accepted as DZ records when they are already accepted by the USMS as Top Ten times." This was made into a motion, seconded, and passed. Report accepted.

 

D. Web Page (Dick Brewer)

1. Regarding his survey of how best to get the newsletter out to chapter members and in what format is most preferred, Dick provided the following numbers: 75% want the newsletter in standard written form to arrive in their mailboxes, 23% are satisfied with reading it online, 2% don't want it one at all.

2. Dick also mentioned a problem people are reporting with having email bouncing back. If this occurs please inform people to report the incident to either Pat, Dick, or Meegan.

3. Anyone interested in doing the 5k or 10k postal swim must do it in a 50-meter pool. BLUE Wave has such a pool and is making it available to all LMSC members. They only request that you call Sue a week or two in advance. Dick handed out flyers. This pool is located in Brandon, Florida. Joe Biondi also offered the use of the Clearwater pool but only for Sundays, Report accepted.

 

E. Newsletter (Gertie Perry)

Gertie informed that the last newsletter is not done yet because there is no printer available to her; therefore, it is only available at this time online. Meegan offered to have this issue printed and sent out of Gainesville as she has access to a not-for-profit printer and mail service. The issues at hand here were discussed and broken down to problems with production and problems with mailing. For the time being, and only on a temporary basis, Gertie will mail the newsletter to Meegan who will then take care of getting it out provided she receives it in the month of July as she will not be available in August. Meegan also provided a verbal breakdown of the cost per copy of the newsletter and the point here was the ridiculous increase for Color Print. Gertie will be searching for a new printer company in her area. Pat stated that next year's registration form will notify everyone of the online copy availability. Report accepted.

III. Old Business

A. Florida Combined Team

The discussion started off with a detailed and well thought out handout of the options and advantages to both large and small teams provided by Dick and Joan. To save some meeting time, Tom suggested that anyone with concerns about going with the one team concept reserve that discussion for after the meeting. Dick Suggested that the "One Team" be started by initially seducing the small clubs within the LMSC because they have the most to gain with regard to participating on the national level in relays. Joe Biondi said he would help coordinate relay teams at national meets. The final vote on this issue will be at the annual LMSC meeting in October at Orlando. All team representatives are strongly encouraged to attend this meeting.

 

B. Audit of 2002 Records and Annual Audit Review

Meegan reported that the audit team will review the 2002 financial records for the October meeting and that everything was in good order. Thank you audit team for your efforts. She also mentioned that we still need to find a CPA within the LMSC who is willing to volunteer his/her time to do future audits. Another option would be to budget the cost of paying a CPA in our future annual budget.

 

C. 2003 Annual Convention Registration

Meegan reported that it has been sent in.

 

D. 2004 Convention

Because it will be in Orlando, our costs will not be as high as it is this year. We will be responsible for the social and need volunteers to help organize it. A committee was immediately put together including Pat, Meegan, Doug, and Kitty.

 

E. Swim Clinic Committee

Joe discussed some very specific ideas on how to go about conducting the first clinic. He stated that the swimmers will need to be divided by speed to get the fullest advantage or use of time. He also emphasized the importance of video taping and the logistics involved, specifically how much time is needed per taping of an individual and then review of the tape. Joe will provide a place, time, and price for a four-hour clinic and this information will be advertised in the newsletter. He is anticipating that the first clinic can be held in November and/or December of this year. There was considerable sidebar talking by the people present about wanting to attend.

IV. New Business

A. Bids for Nationals within our LMSC

Tom shared that there are two teams/clubs within the LMSC that are interested in sponsoring nationals in 2005: Orlando and Sarasota. We need to have each team inform us before the convention this year of which meet they are most interested in: short course yards or long course meters. We can then eliminate any concerns about competition between the two locations by having them list their options for these two meets.

 

B. Dixie Zone Championships

Meegan requested that any teams/clubs interested in sponsoring a zone meet in the year 2004 let the delegates know before this year's national convention so that their location can be submitted at the zone annual meeting.

V. Adjourn

Meeting adjourned at about 4:33 pm.