Board Meeting Minutes: December 9th, 2023

Jan 3

Board meeting

Date: December 9th, 2023

Time: 9:30

Location: 6153 N Glenwood Ave, apt 204, Chicago IL

Attendees: Mike Kerr (co-chair), Guido Moret (co-chair), Allison Kipphut (treasurer), Annika Ness (registrar), Allison Benton (co-social chair), Greg Claus (co-social chair)

Absent: none

Chair: Guido Moret

Minutes: Guido Moret

Agenda

Opening 9:40am

Call to order, approval of the agenda and approval of the minutes of the previous meeting

Reports & Updates:

From the coaches:

Research into Gold Star Team status with a Level 3 USMS coach.

We applied, we should follow up with US Master’s - we need to host a virtual workout

Lane Lines for Gill – Find a quote
Coming out to open water - swim meet - Status

Waiting to hear back on how permit works with Chicago Park District

Saturday split: positive feedback

Coaches have made a year/month/week plan to align practices, a pattern based on aerobic/sprint, IM/Free

The 5th lane has positively changed the dynamic

From the registrar:

attendance and registration (give treasurer access to attendance tracker)

Idea: milestones: ie. shout out or even special cap for 100th practice

Ask Andong to sort attendance tracker by First Name [DONE] And to give access to Allison to track coaching hours. (I.e. give ownership to the Smelts).

Make info the owner, access for all subs and treasurer.

Adding recurring payments to the quarterly registration as an option.

From the treasurer:

Budget 2024 - approve dues

Discussion on monthly payments, only if it is recurring. Annika: folks won’t sign up for Gill. Allison K: risk that member won’t pay for certain months. Guido: which problem do we solve with monthly? Discussion on how to increase payment to Gill. Allison K: the benefit of monthly is that it can align better with the swim season.

Decision: recurring quarterly, or annual. Lowering the administrative burden.

Decision: 75 euro, 53 reduced rate. Reduced rate based on the median income.

Re-certify us with Benevity so that employers can donate to us through this platform. (i.e. matched giving). - Allison Kipphut
Create a quick memo for Smelts to understand what this is.

From the social chairs:

Anniversary T-shirts - they have all arrived, remainder for sale $15.
Smeltsgiving - time in the afternoon worked well, financial result was a bit better.
New Years party - Chris is organizing with Thomas and Greg. No funding from the team, Byob, like the Halloween party.

Other business:

Website update, Kevin will help. Include the photos of the board that were taken. Annika and Guido. Kevin will design, we don’t need
Post approved board minutes from past meetings to password-protected page on our website.
“Welcome package” automated info for new swimmers
Marketing & Sponsorship initiatives: Replay/Hydrate/Elixir - once a month to one of the bar.

Question on pre-tax or flat fee on the promotional drink rate.

Merchandise for the winter season. Greg will take the initiative. Sponsor has expressed that they are not fond of the logo, we will start the conversation if they have alternative ideas.

Collaboration with IGLA, co-chair (Guido) to follow up on this to re-connect the Smelts with the (inter)national community.

Gay Games Guadalajara
We started promoting IGLA 2024 Buenos Aires, IGLA 2025 Washington DC and Gay Games Valencia 2026.
March 31 - April 7 , 2024: Swim Camp 2024 – Team New York Aquatics (tnya.org) - promoting the event, no scholarships
March 1-3 QUAC SKI-N-SWIM - Home - promoting the event, no scholarships

Other business (no-updates)

In Jan/Feb, renting a room at Gill to hold a “stakeholders” meeting for updates from the board for the rest of the Smelts team.
Google Calendar – Season 2023 - 2024 Season planning 2023 - 2024 (Draft).xlsx - Google Sheets
Broaden pool footprint - setup a small working group to help with this - TBD