Richfield Swim Club s1

Piranhas Swim Club January 12, 2015 Board Meeting

Board members present: Vanessa Glass, Tom Bose, Maureen Mook, Karen Backes, Laura Baxley, Frank Elsenbast

Apologies: Jessica McLawhorn, Fiona LeFebvre, Todd Lundgren, Jason Hahn

Coach present: Lucas Baarlaer

Parent present: Greg Moen

Meeting called to order at 6:34 p.m.

Coach’s Report:

Meets:  Foxjet meet went well  38 swimmers going to the West meet  Zoned to St. Catherine’s for C Finals and Minnetonka for MRC

Coaches:  Justin is no longer coaching for the club. Will finish the fall/winter season without a replacement for Justin.  Erin will end coaching for the club at the end of the season  Lucas has 2 prospective new coaches, one who swam with the University of North Dakota and the other who swam with the University of Minnesota. Lucas aims to replace Erin with a female coach, to maintain a balance of female and male coaches for the team

Swim lessons/recruiting:  The Community Ed lead person offered to provide pamphlets and an email to Richfield and Minneapolis swimmers completing Community Ed swimming lessons for each session of the lessons.  Marc Hamren is retiring from Olympic Style Swim Lessons. His long time assistant Aimy will take over the management.  Action items:

1 o Tom to work with Lucas on providing information to Community Ed lead and also to work with Aimy on possible coordinated activities for Olympic Style Swim Lessons. Vanessa has electronic copy of pamphlet o Tom to check with Chris Blumenfeld on related documents that she might have

Going forward Lucas wants high school girls to wait until December 1 before coming back to club swimming. The goal is to give the girls a break so that they do not experience burn out.

Treasurer’s Report:

Old Business:

January 22 meet:  Will setup the deck on Wednesday evening January 21, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

February 12 Novice meet:  Richfield High School boys’ team is at St. Louis Park  Action: Tom to check whether Terry can act as starter/referee

February 21-22 meet:  Action: Kari Skogg will send an email requesting review of the volunteer positions and time. Want input by January 19

Survey:  Will stay within the Survey Monkey no charge survey limits: maximum of 10 questions, no skip question logic  Frank’s input: Keep it simple. One survey is interesting, but the value comes with repeated surveys that show changes with time from a baseline.  Vanessa’s input: survey at the end of each season, short course and long course  Maureen provided printed copy of questions and input to date. About 20 minutes’ discussion during the meeting to shape questions.  Will distribute after March Board meeting  Maureen has put questions on Google docs  Action: Input as edits to Google doc needed from Board members prior to next meeting

College swimmers (from January meeting, still open):  Vanessa to post policy on Web site before spring/summer season begins.

Scholarships:

2  Action items (from January meeting, still open)for review in a winter Board meeting to be determined by Fiona: o Analysis with Jason to determined incremental cost and fully absorbed cost of a swimmer at the different group levels. o Draft proposal for the policies and major operating procedures for the scholarship program.

Discounts for families with a parent who serves in a major, time consuming position:  Karen obtained feedback from a Hopkins Swim Club parent. o Hopkins offers discounts for families with a parent who serves in a time consuming position. o Hopkins has three levels of discounts, depending on the demands of the position: full discount on dues, $500 discount on dues, $250 discount on dues o The discounts are by season. Hopkins Swim Club uses a 4-season approach.

 The discussion that followed supported discounts for high time positions. Those positions are hard to fill. The discussion approach was the following: o Keep it simple to begin with just two levels. o First level is a complete discount level for the President and Treasurer o Second level would be a partial level to be determined applicable to the handful of other positions that are distinctly high time, but at a lesser level than the President or Treasurer level. The issue is to identify the partial amount and the handful of positions. o Action: Karen to send an email requesting input on hours spent on positions that might be designated high time positions. o Action: Board members and others as necessary provide input to Karen. o Action: Tom send Vanessa the number of registered swimmers for Hopkins Swimmer Club

Leadership groups:  Karen also obtained feedback on how Hopkins Swim Club organizes their “leadership group”: o Composed of 3 girls and 3 boys from the club, each 13 or older o Swimmer must apply o Coaches make the selection o Term is a two year term  The leadership group: o Names the meets o Identifies and leads team building exercises o Leads in identifying and participating in community volunteer activity

3 o Run the Swim-a-thon - Hopkins Swim Club organizes the team into “lane groups” each composed of swimmers from the different age groups. The lane groups compete against each other to secure the largest contribution. Contributions have been several times what they were in the past before the lane groups approach.

Fund raising

“Touch the Wall” sold out

Vanessa added an end-of-the-year “Donate” button to the Web site.

Family events

No discussion

New business

Additional officials:  Action: Tom to send to Lucas to post on the Web site a brief statement asking parents to consider becoming an official

Annual meeting:  Annual meeting is Monday, February 9 at 6:30 pm in the Richfield Middle School cafeteria  Format will be as in past years with a report from the head coach, a report from the treasurer, introduction of the current Board members, voting for the slate of Board members going forward  Vanessa has already reserved the cafeteria  Action: Each Board member needs to notify Vanessa as to whether he or she wishes to continue to serve on the Board  Action: Vanessa to post a notice of the Annual Meeting on the Web site  Action: Lucas to make a distribution to the swimmer families announcing the Annual Meeting

Election of officers:  At March Board meeting  Vanessa’s term is expiring.  Jason’s term is also expiring.

Action Items:

Swim lessons/recruiting:

4  Tom to work with Lucas on providing information to Community Ed lead and also to work with Aimy on possible coordinated activities for Olympic Style Swim Lessons. Vanessa has electronic copy of pamphlet  Tom to check with Chris Blumenfeld on related documents that she might have

February 12 Novice meet:  Action: Tom to check whether Terry can act as starter/referee

February 21-22 meet:  Action: Kari Skogg will send an email requesting review of the volunteer positions and time. Want input by January 19

Survey:  Action: Input as edits to Google doc needed from Board members prior to next meeting

College swimmers (from January meeting, still open):  Vanessa to post policy on Web site before spring/summer season begins.

Scholarships:  Action items (from January meeting, still open)for review in a winter Board meeting to be determined by Fiona: o Analysis with Jason to determined incremental cost and fully absorbed cost of a swimmer at the different group levels. o Draft proposal for the policies and major operating procedures for the scholarship program.

Discounts for families with a parent who serves in a major, time consuming position:  Action: Karen to send an email requesting input on hours spent on positions that might be designated high time positions.  Action: Board members and others as necessary provide input to Karen.  Action: Tom send Vanessa the number of registered swimmers for Hopkins Swimmer Club

Additional officials:  Action: Tom to send to Lucas to post on the Web site a brief statement asking parents to consider becoming an official

Annual meeting:  Action: Each Board member needs to notify Vanessa as to whether he or she wishes to continue to serve on the Board  Action: Vanessa to post a notice of the Annual Meeting on the Web site

5  Action: Lucas to make a distribution to the swimmer families announcing the Annual Meeting

Meeting adjourned at 8:09 p.m.

Next Meeting: Monday, February 9 in Richfield Middle School cafeteria, a brief meeting following the Annual Meeting