Oct. 8, 2008
7:00 PM

Members Present:  Rob Scheuer, Linda Dalton, Kevin Milak, John Swank, Bill Conroy, Karie Sommers, John Hazle, Rick Alspaugh

Rob: said that Joan Friderichs has agreed to run for the BTA Board. He said that a ninth board member is necessary to have an odd number for voting purposes. It would be an at-large position. The board will interview her, send an email out to the membership asking for them to electronically vote (Rob will handle), and, if approved by the membership, confirm with appointing her to the board.

After interviewing Joan, Bill moved to put her on the ballot for the membership to ratify a vote for a BTA Board position for a two year term to replace Melissa Sturgis’ seat. Karie seconded the motion which passed unanimously.

The group reviewed the September board meeting minutes and approved them with some slight revisions.

Kevin: noted that a master calendar including the high school schedules. has been added to the website under Meet Schedule and Practice Schedule. He said he’d like more room on the website for announcements and will work with Ann and Linda. He said that he has four new Senior One members who are from the KHS JV swim team.

Karie: asked Kevin what to do with the Typhoon registrations. Rob suggested that Joan be assigned the registrations as the at-large board member.

Linda: asked for an update on the new Senior Elite practice group and how practices are working out with the new segmentation into Senior 1, 2 and Elite.

Kevin: said that the Elite program allows him more time to complete sets and better ability to differentiate swimming levels.

Linda: asked who is responsible for reporting Gulf Swimming news to the membership. She sited the September Gulf Banquet and swim clinic which was not communicated to the Blue Tide membership.

Kevin: said that he represents Blue Tide on the Gulf Board.

Rob: asked him to include Gulf Swimming news in his weekly update email in the future.

John Swank: said that he attended the Gulf Swimming console training seminar on Oct. 4 – which had been re-scheduled due to the hurricane. He said that he bought four new banquet tables for the home swim meets. He said that the first BTA home meet of the season would be Oct. 18-19 at KHS with 400 kids expected to attend. He said that he has volunteers lined up from National Honor Society and a new vendor who sells stuffed animals with swim team t-shirts.

Rick: said that he was planning to only serve breakfast at the meet. He then discussed the BTA Boosters plans. Swim Shops will sell BTA ball caps, beanies, parent shirts and swim caps. He told Swim Shops to keep the inventory investment to under $1,000.

Rob: suggested that a Merchandise List be added to the Website. He said that he will handle the BTA yard signs.

Karie: said that she will sell signs and swim caps at the meets’ information booth.

Rob: reported that all the facility leases have been finalized. A BTA bulletin board has been installed at the KHS pool to promote the team.

Bill: acknowledged that the team is meeting its payroll commitments with the coaches including a bonus paid at the end of each year as per the Head Coach and Head Age Group Coach coaches 3 year contracts. He said he received a $1,500 check from
the Vitarius Foundation with a stipulation that it was to fund out of town travel., esp those at the national level. He asked Kevin to track the number of days that the ACC pool is heated so that he can get a better handle on electricity charges from the country club. He noted that meet entry checks are now being cashed earlier which will help the club’s cash flow.

John Hazle: noted that he has no fundraising activities planned until the spring.

Karie: proposed that the board accept eleven new swimmers to the team. Rob seconded the motion and all approved it. She noted that she has 27 Typhoon registrations to process. Rob suggested that Joan work with Karie on the registrations. The team has
162 members registered with the Gulf plus the Typhoon members. She has had nine Gulf Swimming transfers to another team.

Kevin: added that there are about 40 kids in Splash learn to swim program. Linda was asked to work with Katie Stibrich to update the Splash marketing materials and run advertising if necessary.

Linda: gave an update on publicity. She sent in a photo and caption from the Gulf Banquet. The team got publicity in the Observer, KingwoodNow.com and the Houston Chronicle.  She will take photos at the 10 & under meet of the missing board members and coaches for the Website. She asked the board if the team wanted to participate in the City of Humble holiday parade on Dec. 2. As it was on a week night, the board decided against it.

Rob: said that Socorro Umrysh is planning a Fall Festival for the team in conjunction with a Long Course awards delayed by the hurricane. He said that he would like to see the Website password protected eventually and offered to go through each page of
the site to see what needed updating, then provide a laundry list to Ann Wehrman. The Parent Business Meeting was a success with more than 100 in attendance. The new bylaws approved at the meeting will be put on the website.

Bill: said that the insurance contract for the coaches was up for renewal – with a $12 decrease in cost per month. The board unanimously approved the renewal of the insurance contract.

Next Board Meeting: Wed.., Oct. 29 at 6:30 p.m. at ACC