Hi Piranhas Families ---

Thanks to everyone who attended the parents meeting last week. I am providing the following as a summary of last week's parents meeting for those who could not attend, and including some additional important information on meet officials training.

HOA Plans for the Swimming Pool and Swim Team:

- The HOA plans to open the pool on schedule on Memorial Day weekend and will be following the counties COVID rules.

- The continue to support the swim team and will allow AM practices from 7am-11am.  No PM practices at this point which could present an issue for practicing prior to the end of the school year on June 16th.  Rep/Coach will work with the HOA.

- HOA agreed to meets at home for 6 consecutive weekends provided we continue to follow the county COVID guidelines

Montgomery County Swim League Plans:

- Practice with 6 swimmers per lane (spaced out) has been approved by the Montgomery County Department of Health

- Depending on the number of participants we may have to develop a unique practice schedule.

- Swim meet format has not yet been determined.  The league is working with the Dept. of Health to gain approval for a meet format that can be conducted safely.

- Almost certain there will be no concessions.

- Current plan would include no spectators.  Therefore, becoming an official or volunteering may be the only guaranteed way to see you kid swim.  We know this could be challenging for our younger swimmers.  Coach and Rep need to figure out how this will work.

- No formal B meets.  Coaches and Reps will create a weekly competition to ensure each swimmer has the opportunity to compete for time to map their improvement over the season and advance to A meets.

- I was asked a question on pre-team.  I certainly want to support pre-team activities if we can do so safely and meet the county and HOA guidelines.  I think this is a great program for both the younger and older swimmers.  More to come on this.

Head Coach:

- Ms. Julia Tomlinson will return as our head coach and we are putting together a staff of 4 coaches.  The number of coaches will somewhat be dictated by the accepted meet format and how we will handle the younger swimmers.

Officials:

- We need parents to be trained as officials and this would be a great year to do so.  The training will be online and there will be a lot of grace in what will be an interesting swim season.  

- Training (you only need to attend 1 session for each  discipline):

- First time Stroke and Turn: Sunday, Jun 6th and 13th at 8am

- Re-certifying Stroke and Turn: Sun, Jun 6th and Monday Jun 7th at 7pm

- Both groups: Tuesday June 15th at 6:30pm

- Starter: Wed. May 26th, Tues Jun 1st, Thurs. June 3rd at 7pm

- Referee: May 27th, June 8th, June 13th at 6:30pm

- Advanced Referee: May 24th, Jun 2nd at 7pm

- We only have 2 Referees, 2 Starters, and 4 stroke and turn and many of those our duplicate people and one of them is me, so we need at least 1 additional referee, 2 starters, and 4 stroke and turn judges.  Please contact me if you are interested.

Volunteers:

- We will need fewer volunteers because we won't be conducting concessions this season.  And ice cream and end of season banquet are probably up in the air too.  That being said, volunteering may be the only way to see a meet.  I will send out as separate e-mail this week for volunteer coordination.

Budget:

- Thanks to Chris Tomlinson we are on firm financial footing, but we will need help finding sponsors, and with any unique fundraising ideas.  I do not plan to raise registration fees to cover the losses created be lack of concessions at this time, but we need to find alternative ways of raising funds to pay for our coaching staff, league membership, supplies, etc.

My next league meeting is scheduled for this Thursday at 8pm.  I will schedule on a second parents meeting to share the results of that meeting.

Go Piranhas!

Mike