Don't forget to order your team's ribbons!

This is an ideal time of year to take stock of your team’s ribbon inventory so that you can replenish it in time for the upcoming season. Now that the meet schedules are settled, you will have a good idea of approximately how many swimmers each visiting team will bring to your three home meets (though remember to add in some slack in case any of those teams have grown since last year).

Remember, the home team provides all the ribbons awarded in a meet. This includes first-place through sixth-place ribbons for all main event swimmers (including each individual member of a relay team), as well as heat-winner ribbons for the first finisher in every other heat, and participant ribbons for all other competitors in those heats. (If your pool has only 4 or 5 lanes, you can omit the fifth-place and sixth-place ribbons because main events will never use more than 4 lanes.)

If you aren’t already familiar with the meet materials page on the TSA web site, I urge you to acquaint yourself with it. Of particular help is the ribbon calculator spreadsheet, which allows you to plug in a few basic parameters (number of lanes, number of swimmers on each team) and quickly generate your requirements for each of the eight ribbon types. (Prepare to be shocked and appalled at how many ribbons you will award over the course of the season.)

The colors of the place ribbons are specified in Article 102.5 of the Rules, but otherwise you are free to design your team’s ribbons. There are no color requirements for the heat-winner or participant ribbons, though you will probably want to make sure they are easily distinguishable from the place ribbons in order to avoid earning the undying enmity of the volunteers working the ribbon table at your meets. Another way to keep those folks happy is to pre-print ribbon labels which can be affixed to the little cardboard tag on the back of each ribbon. This time-saver allows the ribbon table volunteers to avoid having to write dates, team names, strokes, etc. on the back of each ribbon; all they need to write is the swimmer name. The meet materials page also has a ribbon label document template which can be customized for this purpose (pools with 4 or 5 lanes should use this template instead).

Pool Professionals Partnership Scholarship awarded to Denver Davis of Highcroft

At the TSA Board meeting on March 17, Pool Professionals founder and president David Harvey awarded the Pool Professionals Partnership Scholarship to Denver Davis of the Highcroft Hurricanes. Mr. Harvey praised Denver's leadership qualities as exhibited both at Highcroft and at Panther Creek High School, as well as Denver's contributions to the local community through the North Carolina Food Bank and the Special Olympics.

Denver receives the ceremonial $1000 check from Pool Professionals Staff Director Sean Hare and Regional Aquatics Supervisor Allison Huggins.

Denver Davis poses with his parents. Denver will use the scholarship when he matriculates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in August.

Insurance Question

As a new team we have not yet wrangled with the issues of insurance. I KNOW that our homeowner's association carries adequate coverage but this year and that this would cover residents and guests. Do any of the TSA teams carry separate coverage? If you would like to reply privately with detailed advice.....please email cristine.clarke@abromitisonlinelearning.com
thanks
Cris

MOR/Speedo to offer Katie Hoff Olympic Clinic April 18

The Marlins Of Raleigh Swim Team and Speedo are offering an Olympic Swim Clinic with 2-time Olympian, Katie Hoff on Saturday April 18th from 9-11am at NC State University's Willis Casey Natatorium. This clinic is open to TSA swimmers for just $10 and includes a Speedo Goody Bag. Bring a suit/goggles and you must be able to swim 25 yards of all 4 strokes. Hoff will demonstrate the techniques that helped her break the world record and will be available to sign autographs. Parents of swimmers registered with the clinic are free to observe in the stands.
Hoff was the youngest member of the 2004 US Olympic Swim Team and finished in the top 8 of the 200 IM. At the 2008 US Olympic Trials she broke the world record in the 400 IM. In Bejing at the Olympic Games Hoff won a Silver medal in the 400 Free and Bronze in the 400 IM and 800 Free Relay.
Registration forms are available at MOR's website at www.marlinsofraleigh.com or contact MOR at coachcara45@aol.com or call 851-3000.

Head Coach wanted

Banbury Woods Swim Team is looking for a head coach for the 2009 summer season. Experienced, mature coach candidates need to contact Mindy McGinnis at mindyLmcg@aol.com.

March Board of Directors meeting

This is the usual reminder of the upcoming TSA Board of Directors meeting, which will be held Tuesday night (St. Patrick’s Day) at 7:00. This month, we will be meeting at Northbrook Country Club at 4905 North Hills Drive in North Raleigh. Northbrook has been gracious enough to let us use their clubhouse for free. However, everyone attending must complete this release form. If possible, please print out a copy and fill it out in advance to bring with you to the meeting. Otherwise, you will have to fill out a form at the door before entering the clubhouse.

As always, I also encourage you to print out your own copies of the meeting agenda and the previous meeting’s minutes to bring along with you. Our meeting will also feature a PowerPoint presentation on one club’s experience using WinSwim; those slides are not included in the agenda handout, but can be viewed here if you later want to review them at your own leisure.

If your club hasn’t paid its 2009 dues, please remember that you have until the end of April to do so. All the dues statements (in alphabetical order) can be found here.

February 2009 Meeting Minutes Now Posted

TSA Board Members,

The minutes for the February 2009 TSA Board of Directors meeting have now been posted. You can access them at the following weblink:

http://www.tsanc.googlepages.com/Minutes2009-02-17.pdf

Please review these minutes in preparation for next Tuesday's March Board of Directors meeting and let me know if you have any questions about any of the content.

Thank you!

Rick

2009 Dues

Thank you to the teams who have paid their TSA dues. Clubs, when paying the dues please make the check payable to TSA or Tarheel Swimming Association and please identify your club on the check. Thank you for your help.

Cathy Brunk

The Reserve Stingrays need Assistant Coach

The Reserve Stingrays are looking for an Assistant Coach. We are located off Hwy 55 in Cary with 120+ swimmers. Practices are twice daily with actual schedule to be coordinated with existing Head Coach and other Assistants. If interested, please contact Jill at jdecandio@gmail.com by March 30th.

WinSwim update

Every team's TSA Reps and Alternates should have received an email from me last night containing their team's license number and key code to use the fully functional version of WinSwim. Please contact me if you didn't get yours.

I'm looking for someone to volunteer to be the "single point of contact" for TSA to request WinSwim enhancements. That person need not be a TSA rep. Please contact me if you are interested in this role or if you have someone in mind.

TSA Dues Sent by E-Mail

The TSA dues statements were e-mailed to all TSA reps earlier this week. Please remit payment by the April deadline. If you have any questions please contact me at clbrunk729@aol.com. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Cathy Brunk
TSA Treasurer

Park Village Porpoises need an Assistant Coach

The Park Village swim team is looking to hire an Assistant Coach for the summer swim season. Our pool is located in Cary off of Davis Drive. We offer practices twice a day during the week with no practices on the weekends. Anyone interested in being considered for this position please e-mail Tracey at twasbill@nc.rr.com.

S.W.I.M To Be Held July 12 at Sunset Ridge

SWIM to be Held July 12 at Sunset Ridge

The South Wake Invitational Meet (SWIM) will be held at Sunset Ridge Swim Club on July 12, 2009. This is the 3rd year MOR has hosted this meet and we look forward to providing an opportunity for TSA swimmers to have a championship meet to compete in with their whole team that is fun and geared towards the enjoyment of the swimmers and parents.

For more information, contact Cindie Lawton at bill@lawton.net

MOR IN MAY

The Marlins Of Raleigh Swim Team will again offer its "MOR IN MAY" pre-summer swim clinic April 27-May 16, 2009 at 3 convenient locations including just minutes from Cary at Peace College in Raleigh, Ravenscroft School in North Raleigh, and Riverwood Athletic Club in Clayton.
MOR IN MAY is a pre-summer swim clinic for summer league swimmers offering instruction in all 4 competitive strokes in a fun learning environment by MOR's nationally known professional swim staff. Directed by Coach Jonathan Watson and Coach Cara Cameron who have over 40 years coaching experience between them. Get a head start on the summer season in our heated indoor pools. MOR IN MAY will teach your swimmer technical skills that will establish good habits that will last all summer.
MOR IN MAY gives the best instruction in the Triangle at a better price. Just $80 for nine 1 hour classes. Space at each location is limited so sign up right away by filling out the registration and send in with a check for just $80!
For Registration forms, go to www.marlinsofraleigh.com or call 851-3000 or email coachcara45@aol.com

Swim Coach needed in Apex

Hollands Crossing a growing TSA team with 2 strong volunteer assistant coaches seeks a Head Coach for the 09 season. We have a generous stipend and reasonable schedule. Please forward any and all leads to cristine.clarke@abromitisonlinelearning.com and thanks!

February Board of Directors meeting

This is the usual reminder that our next Board meeting is coming up on Tuesday evening at 7:00. Please note that we will meet at a new location: the University Room at University Club. For those of you whose teams have not swum a meet there, the NC State University Club is located on Hillsborough Street just west of the Beltline.

As always, a limited number of printouts of the meeting agenda and of the previous meeting’s minutes will be provided at the meeting. However, at last month’s meeting, all those hard copies were quickly claimed and some attendees had to do without. You can avoid this problem by printing and bringing your own copy to the meeting with you (hint, hint).

See you then!

January 2009 Meeting Minutes Now Posted

Board Members,

The meeting minutes from last week's January TSA Board of Directors meeting are now posted at the following location:

http://www.tsanc.googlepages.com/Minutes2009-01-27.pdf

Please let me know if you have any questions about this information.

Rick Rudd
Secretary, TSA

Crown Trophy

Crown Trophy (2431 Spring Forest Rd. , Raleigh, phone: 878-6565) and Awards visited the TSA January meeting to express our interest in earning the TSA trophy/medals/plaques/ribbons business. We offer the best prices in the triangle, a wide variety of products (including swim specific items and custom options), FREE engraving, FREE delivery and a FREE perpetual plaque for each TSA team that uses our services. Our store is open M-F (9:30am to 5:30pm) and Sat (9am-12pm). We are open to meeting before store hours or after store hours by appointment. Our belief is that customer service is of the utmost importance and we value our customers everyday. Feel free to visit our website (http://www.crowntrophy.com/) or email us at crownraleigh@gmail.com. We look forward to serving your sports, corporate or religious awards needs.

Rules - Checks and Balances

It seems we have checks and balances across all aspects of the meet officiating: alternating judges from both teams, 2 scorekeepers - 1 from each team, 2 clerk of course - 1 from each team...EXCEPT recorder. There were 2 seperate meets last year which involved the recorder writing down the wrong lanes for the various places. In what such meet, the lanes were not clearly numbered, the other was just a mistake. I'm not sure there's an easy solution, but it seems it would be wise to consider someway to balance the recorder. I'm posting here to solicit ideas and/or alert the rules committee to discuss.

Some followup from last week's Board of Directors meeting

I want to thank everyone for making Tuesday’s Board meeting a success. Even with the last-minute rescheduling caused by the prior week’s snowstorm, turnout was still over 90 percent (68 of our now-74 member teams were able to attend), and we resolved all the business that we set out to cover.

As mentioned during the meeting, all teams have been assigned to a committee except in cases where last year’s Rep indicated in the post-season survey that they would not be returning. Those teams were listed as “exempt” in the committee assignments on the last page of the meeting agenda. However, as we discussed Tuesday, there are other teams who have introduced brand-new TSA Reps since the time of the survey, and all of these Reps are also eligible for the “rookie exemption” should they wish to exercise it. (Remember, rookies may choose to serve as members of their assigned committees even though they are not required to do so.) However, if you do wish to exercise your exemption, you must send me email to that effect! So far, only a single team has done so. Unless I hear from you by next Sunday, I will assume that no more exemptions are needed.

On the subject of new Reps, I wanted to make everyone aware of how you can use the features of the TSA web site to manage the Reps and Alternates for your club. I’ve written a short document that walks through (with screenshots) all the tasks that you might ever need to perform on behalf of your club:

• Adding a new TSA Rep or Alternate
• Changing your contact information and/or password
• Deactivating (Retiring) a TSA Rep or Alternate
• Switching a TSA Rep to an Alternate and vice versa

A link to this document is now also available under the “Information for Clubs’ TSA Representatives” section of the TSA home page for general reference.