Date:  27 October 2024

Written by:  Tom Denes, Secretary

Participants:  Cathy Gainor, Dave Harmon, Nanci Sundel, Tom Denes, Martin Lespada, Kara Permisohn, Marci Goldberg, Julie Goldberg, Dottie Buchhagen, Chris McPhaul , Todd Moses, Jeff Dubin, John McCaffrey, Sangeeta Bhargava, Kay Coulter

Cathy Gainor and Tom Denes hosted the meeting.  The meeting was called to order by President Cathy Gainor at 1: 40 p.m.  

Ancient Mariner Service Award

  • First, Cathy presented the Ancient Mariner Service Award to Todd Moses for his four years of work as team registrar.  Thanks, Todd!

Minutes from Prior Meeting

  • A motion was made to accept last year’s minutes (held in October 2023).  It was expanded to include the following: Approval of amended bylaws on 14 Feb 2024 to change the minimum quorum from a percentage of team members to 10 members of the team.  Also, approval of Peter Johnson as registrar in summer 2024 and Martin Lespada as treasurer in October 2024.  

They were approved.

Officer Positions

We nominated officers for the 2024-2025 season.  They are:

  • President – Cathy Gainor
  • Vice President – John McCaffrey
  • Treasurer – Martin Lespada
  • Secretary – Kara Permisohn
  • Newsletter Editor – Julie Goldberg
  • Webmaster – Cathy Gainor
  • Registrar – Peter Johnson
  • Head Coach – Tom Denes
  • Record Keeper – Jeff Roddin
  • Albatross Open Meet Director – Kara Permisohn
  • Bulletin Board – Marci Goldberg 
  • Social Chair – Nanci Sundel 
  • At Large Board Members – Nominated to remain as at large board members were Jeff Dubin, Kara Permisohn, Dave Harmon, Dottie Buchhagen, Jody Gan, Sangeeta Bhargava, Chris McPhaul, Leon Wells, James Van de Griff , Leon Well, Sandy Kweder, and Joe Redmon.  

Registration Report (Todd Moses reported)

  • We have 225 registered Ancient Mariners (ANCM).  (At this time last year, we had 218 registered Ancient Mariners.)
  • The average age is 52.4 with a range between 22 and 89 years old.
  • 65 Ancient Mariners are registered for 10 consecutive years.
  • 55 Ancient Mariners did not reregister from last year to this year.
  • Cathy asked if the e-mail list serve could be culled.  Todd will look into it.
  • Sangeeta asked if we could figure out how many men and woman are on the team.  (Jeff Roddin provided this after the meeting:  The breakdown is 95 women and 130 men.)
  • Todd will hand off the caps and stamps he has to Cathy and Tom.

Financial Report (Martin Lespada reported)

  • At this time last year, we had approx. $31k and now we have $47k.
  • Martin needs to work with Dave on old transactions from the bank PayPal account.
  • Martin has the Albatross Open cash box with $100.
  • Our profits came from more paid registrations this year—about $7k more than budgeted.
  • For the Albatross Open, we had lower expenses and lower revenue as compared to the budget.
  • We budgeted $1k for insurance for directors / socials but never spent it.
  • We underspent the equipment/supplies budget by about $2k.
  • We underspent our social budget because we tend to hold socials at homes.  Plus, George Humbert is not charging for beer from his Pub Dog Brewery.  We should send him a thank you on behalf of the board.  
  • Coaching expenses were lower than the budgeted amount by about $2k.

Coaching Report (Tom Denes reported)

  • With the KSAC closing we are short about 15 swimmers as compared to last fall.  (We normally have about 130 swimmers in the fall, 150 swimmers in the winter/spring, and 100 swimmers in the summer.) 
  • We agreed to raise the coaching pay for the Silver Spring pool from $32/hr to $33/hr to cover parking.  
  • We also agreed to prorate the USMS registration fee for coaches starting in middle of year.
  • We agreed to partially reimburse coaches who attend a clinic.  Potomac Valley LMSC covers the first $750.  We included $2k in budget for this. 
  • All coaches got their CPR/first aid recertification in summer 2024 so we don’t need to do again until 2026.

Albatross Open (Kara Permisohn reported)

  • Kara has done much research of dates and locations.  
  • We’d like to keep it as a SC meters meet.  
  • No new SWAG needed is needed.  

Merchandise Committee (Kara Permisohn reported)

  • We didn’t buy t-shirts last year.  We discussed whether ANCMs should receive free shirts. We agreed to give free t-shirts to to those who ask for them–particularly those going to meets.  Cathy will buy 100 shirts for distribution.  She will get fewer S/M and more L/XL sizes.
  • The Merchandise Committee created a Swim Outlet store site for purchasing ANCM themed and non-themed products. Kara needs to test this out on the ANCM board. Swimmers who accept the invitation will get a free SwimOutlet Membership ($5 value).  There are many products.  We agreed that we don’t need to make money on this.  Every item can be purchased without a logo.  If a logo is added, there is a fee.  Kara will test it with the board before sending out to the team.
  • Marci Goldberg reported on temporary tattoos for team spirit.  These are custom tattoos to be used for meets. They cost $85 for 50 stickers.  These would be mostly for meets.  We added $200 in the budget.

Social Committee (Nanci Sundel reported)

  • The picnic last weekend at Kara’s went very well.  Thanks, Kara. 
  • The team saved a few hundred dollars by having parties at peoples’ homes. 
  • Nanci can host the winter party unless someone else wants to do.  
  • We increased the holiday party budget to $2k because catering costs have gone up.

Newsletters (Julie Goldberg reported)

  • With MailChimp, we need to pay $28/month to send out newsletter to more than 500 emails.  We agree to just make a pdf of the newsletter to send to team.  This is easier to post on our website.  

Website (Dottie Buchhagen reported)

  • Dottie has temporarily taken over as webmaster until Cathy picks it up.  
  • We pay $60/yr for HostGator. The next major expenses will be in 2026 — $288 for renewal of HostGator hosting for three years and $60 for renewal of ANCM domain name and private registration for two years (Network Solutions).
  • She is emphasizing use of the notification bar/banner and the news page.
  • Dottie requested that emails to the team provide a link to the information on the website as a means of driving traffic to the site.

Proposed Budget (Cathy Gainor reported)

  • We don’t need to charge for the clinics.  We don’t have to pay for pool time since it is in our contract.
  • We agreed to hold the post-Albatross pizza party again.
  • We discussed board of director’s insurance that was brought up at last year’s meeting.  We decided not to pursue.    The website is $60/yr for automatic backup.
  • The team will buy free t-shirts.
  • Todd thinks we have enough swim caps until next year.
  • We don’t need to buy another pace clock. 
  • Our proposed budget will be approx. negative $1k.
  • A motion was made to accept the budget and it was approved.  

Approval of Officers

  • A motion was made to approve the slate of officers for the 20240/025 season.  (Thanks for volunteering to be an officer!)

The meeting was adjourned at 3:15 p.m.