Hi Piranha Families ---

The following is a summary of our first Parents Meeting held on 1 Mar 22:

1. Coaching staff:  All four coaches (Julia, Sara, Nic, and AJ) have agreed to return this season.  That is a huge win for our swimmers, parents, and team representatives.  In my opinion, our coaching staff did an outstanding job last season, and I am very excited to have all of them back this season!! 

2. Registration:  Opens online on the team website on 1 May 22.

3. Registration Fees:  We have been fortunate to keep our registration fees unchanged for almost a decade.  The fees typically cover our coach's salaries for the season.  With an experienced staff returning I will increase salaries a little and after the losses we took last year I will be raising the registration fees a little bit.  I will be meeting with the Treasurers this week to determine the new registration fees.  We will again have a family maximum.  If for some reason you cannot handle the increase in fees, please let me know.  We don't want the registration fees to preclude you from joining the team.  For 6-8 weeks of swimming each summer I feel you will still find our fees extremely reasonable.

4. Volunteer Opportunities:

a. Katie Smith (Molly and Connor Smith's mom) has agreed to join the Team Representative Staff this season to help myself and Cindy Ajamian.  This is great news!  I would still like to have one more parent from our younger swimmers' families join our team.

b. Ashley Johnson (Ryan and Luke Johnson's mom) has volunteered to serve as the Spirit Wear Coordinator, which is a big relief for Cyndi!!!  She has developed a survey for the team to take, which she posted in the meeting last week.  We will have it posted on the website, or I will send it out to you shortly.  Ashley is getting started on spirit wear this month, so please take the survey as soon as you can once I post it.

c. Kevin has posted the key volunteer positions on the website and who is currently leading each group, or which areas currently need a volunteer.  IMPORTANT:  If you see an area with a current lead, but you are interested, please let us know.  Many of the key volunteers (Lynch's, Tomlinson's, Gregory's, Stroot's, Ajamian's) have swimmer's who will be graduating from the Piranhas in the next 2-4 years, so their replacements need to start training for taking over.  Kevin will post the job descriptions for each of these positions over the next week.  Please consider training in one of these areas.  Contact Cyndi Gregory and Shannon Dietrich as indicated on the website to volunteer!!!

d. Important Vacancies:

i. Social Events Coordinator

ii. SSL Coordinator

iii. Banquet Coordinator

e. Ice Cream Sales:  I need someone who is savvy in Paypal, Venmo, etc. to set up a Team payment site for Ice Cream Sales.  We need to try and eliminate the need for the guards to handle money if we are to support the team selling ice cream.  This is an important fundraising activity for the team, so it would be great if we can negotiate to do this again with the HOA.  See Mike Gregory or Melissa Howell if you have any ideas.

5. Officials:  All officials need to be re-certified this season.  All of the training is once again online.  The training dates are on the MCSL website (www.mscl.org), and are listed here, you must sign up on the web-site:

New Stroke and Turn: June 5th - 8am and June 6th at 7pm

Recertifying Stroke and Turn: May 24th at 7pm; June 5th at 7pm; June 12th at 8am; and June 14th at 7pm

Starter: May 25th at 7pm; May 31st at 7pm; June 6th at 7pm

Referee: May 26th at 7pm; June 8th at 7pm; June 12th at 7pm

Advanced Referee/Starter: May 23rd at 7pm; June 1st at 7pm

See Rob Klein if you have questions about officiating,

6. MCSL Season:  The League plans to conduct a normal summer swim season with no COVID restrictions.  This is subject to changes in the pandemic of course.

7. Piranha Calendar: Kevin has posted the preliminary schedule online and I will provide him with an update.  Key things to note:

a. Because of a normal season, we will have many additional team activities including ice cream social, pasta pig-out, and frenzies.  Many of these events involve foods.  If you have children or parents with food restrictions for any reason, please contact Cyndi Gregory so we can assure a safe and fun experience for all.

b. Additional swimming events including Relay Carnivals and All-Star Meets for both Individuals and Relays.  If one of our teams wins a A-Meet Relay Carnival event against the teams in our Division, they will swim against the other Division winners at the All-Star meet at the end of the year.  Make note that the A-Relay Carnival is early in the schedule.  Therefore, to help the coaches it is very important that your swimmers make time trials on Saturday June 11th.

c. Practice times are still being negotiated with the HOA, but please note we plan to have practice the weekend of June 4th and 5th and maybe June 12th.  We are going to maximize our opportunities to get in the pool early in the season.

d. We have 6 home meets this summer, plus time trials, and hopefully a Piranha Mini Meet.  So, we will be at the pool even more often together than last year!

e. Our Division M teams all seem to have very experienced Reps this year, and North Creek has agreed to host Relay Carnival and West Hillendale has agreed to host Divisionals.  I have also heard from our B-league representatives, so everything seems to be rounding into shape for a great season.  My next league meeting is 10 March.  I will probably host one more parent's meeting prior to the start of registration.

Looking forward to seeing all of you very soon!  If you have any questions please reach out to me at any time.

Stay safe!

Mike, Cindy A., and Katie