SWAC Parents’ Meeting –10/6/2015MINUTES with added notes:

There is a lot of information to learn. Please don’t worry…if you read the information as it comes out, become familiar with the website, and ask questions when you have them you’ll be up-to-speed. Please respect people with organizational responsibilities by taking responsibility to keep yourself informed…by reading all provided information and observing policies/procedures/deadlines. Do you part to make the team a success by keeping informed and volunteering whenever possible. The information below will get you off to a good start.

1 – Parent board organizes the meets and other team events. Board members and assistants are all volunteers. See a list of the board members and assistants on the website.

2 – Communications –Keep informed:

  • Website - Become familiar with the website and check frequently.
  • The current handbook is available on the SWAC website ( Read the handbook and refer to it when you have questions.
  • Roberta and the parents’ board will use email to communicate. Jen will send weekly email announcements and update the blog. Updates will be more frequent during the first couple weeks as there are many policies/procedures and other info to get out. Please read and save everything. Only contact Jen/Roberta with questions after you’ve read all communications – reviewed complete blog history and checked the handbook and website. If you’re looking for something in the blog you can search on a particular word.
  • Check your family folder and review the bulletin board each time you attend practice at CB South. Do not put “outgoing mail” in your own family folder – nobody checks your folder but you. If you have a payment or other communication to turn in, be sure to know which folder it goes in and put it there.
  • Questions about your child’s progress or coaching should be directed to the head coaches. Questions about administrative and facilities issues should be directed to Roberta Lichter. Questions about invitationals, ribbons, website, volunteering should be directed to the board.
  • For more info on our league visit
  • Be sure to check e-mail, the website- especially the blog, and the bulletin board frequently to be up-to-date. If you have any questions ask… a friend, a board member, someone you see in the stands at practice.
  • Snow/Emergency cancellations will be announced by website ( – follow the community school and aquatics programs links then scroll down to the bottom of the list and choose “Weather Cancellations”). We will also try to send emails and have the information posted on the SWAC site, however, cancellations are on the Central Bucks site immediately and the volunteers sending emails and posting items to the SWAC site are not always available immediately. See the handbook for general rules about when practice will be held when the district buildings are closed or have a modified schedule. Further, it is recommended that you always check email and the websites before going to practice as unexpected cancellations do happen.
  • Coaches and other CB employees can only communicate with parents via their CBSD email addresses – they cannot call or text swimmers directly but must communicate with parents instead. Parents should not attempt to communicate remotely with coaches by any other means than the CBSD email addresses provided on the SWAC website.
  • Each family has a swimmer’s portal to accomplish volunteer acceptance, meet sign-in/out, invitational registration, and more. You can also track your swimmer’s times in the portal.

3 –Building/Practice Etiquette - When at CB South, please remember to stay in the pool area of the building and ensure that your children behave as they would at school during regular school hours (no running, wheeled-shoes, etc.). It’s a long season – if your child is particularly tired or out of sorts one night, keep them home from practice. Our entry doors are the doors by the pool…if they are locked please use the doors by the gym/cafeteria. No doors are to be propped open at any time for any reason.

4 - Time trials will be held on Saturday, October 17th. SWAC time trials will be at CB South with an arrival time of 1pm. Make every effort to attend time trials and do your best. The coaches will use these times to help with line-ups for the first few meets. A flyer with time trials details will be circulated soon via email. See FYI note in welcome message for description of time trials.

5 - Our (optional) team suits are available to order at D&J Sports in Quakertown. The order deadline is this Friday, October 9th.

6 – Watch for future communications about SWAC apparel.

7 - Coaches like to see swimmers a minimum of 2-3 times per week at practice, however, everyone understands busy schedules!The more often you attend practice, the better you will swim and the better the coaches will know you. The coaches will also consider practice attendance when writing line-ups. The coaches focus on time improvement and stroke technique for all swimmers - they’d rather see time improvement across the board than win every meet. With time improvement, winning often follows.

8 - Conflict dates are dates on which the normal SWAC practice schedule is interrupted by other events being held at the schools or league coaches’ meetings. There is no SWAC practice on these dates. The list of dates is on the website and bulletin board and will have additions as the high school swim team schedules are finalized.

9 - Our dual meets (held on Saturdays) are part of the regular season, are a competition between two teams, do not cost an extra fee, and swimmers swim coach-chosen events. Dual meet sign-IN and OUT procedures will be communicated closer to the time of our first dual meet. Basically, you go to our website (your swimmer’s portal) to sign-in to or out of a meet. The deadline to sign-in/out of any given Saturday’s meet is 9PM on the preceding Wednesday. You can sign-in/out of meets any time before the deadline. Please be sure to go in and resubmit your sign-in/out if your plans change prior to the Wednesday deadline. It is imperative that this deadline is met as the coaches need to know who will be in attendance to write a line-up and writing a line-up is time consuming (cannot be done last-minute). If you do have a last minute emergency, be sure to let the coach know using the team track hotline mentioned below.It is strongly preferred that you sign-in or out either way, however, if you fail to do so your swimmer will be assumed NOT to be swimming and will not be put in the line-up. If your swimmer shows up at a meet and has not signed in, s/he will NOT be put into the meet.

During the sign-in process there is an opportunity to write the coaches a note about your swimmer’s meet attendance (example: will be late – arriving at 1pm, wants to swim breast if possible, injured shoulder so no fly). Be brief and include specific times (if relevant) here. The character limit is 50 – if you have a longer message for a coach please send an email. The coaches’ email addresses are on the Coaches page of the website.

Team Track is a voicemail system used to communicate with the coaches “last minute” before meets. If you have signed in to a meet and have a last minute emergency that causes you to be unable to attend the meet, you should call this number (posted on the SWAC site, upper right corner) and state which coach the message is for, your swimmer’s full name, age, gender, and message. The system is available for meet call-outs from Friday at 5pm until 2 hours prior to meet start on Saturday.

At dual meets the maximum number of races per swimmer per league rules is 4 – either 3 individual races and one relay or 2 individual races and 2 relays. (See minimum swims to be expected per swimmer below in coaches’ comments.)

Given the size of our teams, swimmers should not expect to routinely swim the maximum (league allowed) number of events at each meet. Girls should expect a minimum of 1 relay and 1 individual swim per meet and boys should expect a minimum of 1 relay and 2 individual swims per meet. These minimums apply only for swimmers who attend the full meet (i.e., not arriving late or leaving early). The coaches will try to vary the events that each swimmer gets to swim from meet to meet. If there is a particular event your swimmer would like to swim, it is fine to let the coach know that. Just understand that it is not possible to accommodate all requests. Invitationals (described below) are a great way to get to swim events of your own choice. Further, understand that some of our age groups (particularly on the girls’ team) are very large. Coaches must work within negotiated numbers of extra heats. There may be a meet when your child seems to have less swims than everyone else in the age group (or less than a sibling) – rest assured that the coaches are careful to be fair so that no swimmer will have to have the least swims every time. When it’s your child’s turn to have fewer swims than others, please help them accept it graciously – it’s part of being on a team.

Be prompt – that means on deck 15 minutes before warm-ups for boys and 15-30 minutes before warm-ups for girls. Upon arrival all swimmers should check in with a coach and a deck parent. All swimmers need to stay until the end of each dual meet – on deck cheering on our final swimmers (not changing in the locker room). The high school swimmers swim last and need to know how much the younger swimmers appreciate them taking time out of their busy schedules to help the team at meets.

Meet times for all the November and December home meets will be posted on the calendar on the team website shortly. The January 9th meet time/location will not be known until early January and the January 16th meet details will not be known until mid-week between the 9th and 16th. The reason we don’t know this information until those times is that the meets are dependent on the outcomes of prior meets.

In order to be eligible to swim in the dual championship meets in January as well as League (A) champs, swimmers must swim at least two of the November and December dual meets. It is also team policy that swimmers must swim at least three of these five meets to retain their place on the team. If your swimmer does not swim at least two of the November/December dual meets, s/he cannot compete on January 9th, January 16th, or in league champs and if s/he does not swim in at least 3 of the Nov/Dec meets, s/he will have to try-out for the team again in future seasons should s/he want to participate – keep in mind that sometimes age groups are closed so no try-outs occur. If your swimmer is sick or injured, team and league policy allow for exceptions so contact Roberta Lichter or Jennifer Steinberg.

Look for more details about dual meets and champs in the dual meet and champs primer document posted on the website.

10 - Volunteering and Meet Etiquette –Please help out for your kids. The volunteering guidelines are on the bulletin board and website. Please read and follow these guidelines. Reps will use the information in the registration file that each family provided to assign meet jobs. If you cannot work a meet (whether your child is attending or not) contact your rep BEFORE the volunteer list is posted. If you have specific meets you’d like to work, again, contact your rep. Generally we ask each boy family to provide a worker at 4 or more meets and each girl family to provide a worker at 3 or more meets. Families with multiple swimmers on the team and boys and girls on the team should expect to help at more meets. The boys’ requirement is higher given the smaller team with the same volunteer requirements and we often find that boy swimmers’ parents need to help at most (if not all) meets they attend. The volunteer lists will be posted on the website during the week before any Saturday dual meet (usually Thursday). Volunteers need to check the listing and confirm that they will fill their assignment. Once the volunteer list is posted, it’s the volunteer’s responsibility to get a replacement if they cannot work.

Volunteering at a meet is often more interesting than sitting in the stands…the time seems to pass faster. You can always see your child swim (even if you work at the snack bar you can take a moment to go watch your swimmer’s races.) Most jobs are simple and we’ll teach you what needs to be done. You will never be assigned a job you are not capable of performing. Again, refer to the volunteering guidelines for detailed information about volunteering. There is also a list of the various volunteer jobs and their requirements on the website. Please refer to that if you are unsure of what a position entails. If you still have questions, feel free to ask.

Remember to attend training clinics as necessary (Stroke & Turn Judge, Starter/Referee).We will have one at CB South onThursday October 22nd at 7:00 pm.

We have detailed deck-parent guidelines for anyone filling that job. Everyone should review these guidelines (even if they will not work as a deck parent) because it’s important to know what’s expected of parents, coaches, deck parents, and swimmers as it regards getting to races.

Please review the parents’ meet etiquette policy posted on the bulletin board and website. In a nutshell: parents who are not working as a volunteer at the meet need to be off the deck. Parents should NEVER address the coaches with disrespect in any way (including yelling at them).

Everyone’s help is greatly appreciated. The club’s ability to work together well has made this a great place to attend meets in past seasons and we hope to continue this tradition this season.

Girls’ Rep = Cyndi Zglenski; Boys’ Rep = Karen Wallace

Remember that volunteering is completely independent of swimmer meet sign-in/out. If you sign your swimmer out of a meet you also need to let the rep know you won’t be there to volunteer.

11- Invitationals are optional meets in which swimmers choose their own events and pay an additional fee per event. Everyone on SWAC is invited to all league invitationals. Our invitational coordinator is Heather Yim (email on website). Invitational Registration procedures are on the bulletin board and website. Please read and follow them carefully. There is a list of our league’s invitational meets available on our website (via a link on the invitationals page). Online registration for invitationals is available through your swimmer’s portal. Please plan to attend our SWAC invitational (our big fund-raiser) on Sunday, November 8th. There are 3 invitationals currently available to register for in the portal, Pennridge, PVAC and North Penn Trophy Meet. Please register and place payment in the red invitationals folder in front of the “A-K” family folder box on time. As details about other invitationals are circulated by the host teams, they will be posted on the blog and placed on the bulletin board. There are usually SWAC coaches at invitationals if there are 10 or more SWAC swimmers in attendance. There will NOT be SWAC coaches at the Council Rock Meet this year regardless of how many SWAC swimmers plan to attend. Sometimes SWAC swimmers will be coached by a CBAC coach at an invitational meet.

12 – There are lots of deadlines and policies/procedures to be observed.Please be sure to keep yourself informed so the season runs smoothly for everyone. Our deadlines are firm and need to be met (refer to deadline policy posted on the website and bulletin board). Be sure to plan to meet them. Our deadlines are set based on when the volunteer or coach doing the related organizational work needs the information to meet outside deadlines, not on the SWAC (or your personal) practice schedule. Deadlines may fall on nights when practice is at CB East or when there is not practice (in such circumstances plan to meet the deadline early so you don’t have to make a special trip). The family folder boxes will be available (in the equipment room behind the blocks) on nights when any swim practice is held at CB South. Feel free to stop by and drop off items on those nights. On nights with no practice, we are not to be at the building related to swimming and the boxes are not accessible.

13 – There is a lot of information – don’t panic! Just ask if you have questions (but be sure to read provided information, including blog, emails, handbook, bulletin board, and website first).