Broadcasting Life

swim board meeting tonight

i haven't attended a swim board meeting in quite some time. i have so much to go over with them. in fact i should list them. you can see where all my concern comes from because THEY DON'T TELL ME ANYTHING. sometimes i don't feel like the coach. just someone who stands on deck and tells kids what to do. you have no idea what it feels like when parents and swimmers come to me to ask questions and i can't even answer them because i don't know what's going on. here's my list:

1. THE FACT THAT THE SWIMMERS KNOW MORE INFORMATION THAN I DO. i get to the pool on monday, after waiting for answers from the board as far as how practice is going to go. i didn't know that dev group is going to be m,w,f, for 2 hours and that they weren't offering novice. i didn't know that they were also thinking of a name change. n.a.s.a rockets anyone? i need to be on a mailing list and i need to know what's going on with the team!!

2. THE NAME CHANGE. the kids don't like it. i'm not fond of it. nasa rockets does not sound like a swim team. one kid thought it sounded like a rocket science club, another thought it sounded like bowling club (how, i don't know). they don't get why we need a name change if all we are doing is calling from a larger area. they like bass and i think are a little alarmed as they had no say in what their team should be named.

3. I JUST FOUND OUT THERE WAS GOING TO BE PRACTICE ON FRIDAYS. no problems at all, but again, i would have liked to know that i was working friday afternoons.

4. THE KIDS NEED TEAM APPAREL. they don't feel like a team, they need team suits. i was told not to order anything as there may be a name change. i would like to order the old team caps then for now, at least one per swimmer. i hate the old team caps but they need something. no one knows what team they are from when they are swimming. AND T-SHIRTS! but again, the name change. figures this would come up. grrrr.

6. I know there are meets coming up in Alex and DL. When we get meet
information for those, could someone please get them to me as soon as
possible? I have one weekend a month until I leave for Europe that I
will be in workshops (which means no meets on those weekends) so if I can
figure out meet information and be up to date on the meets that I can go
to and then can organize the team to attend that would be great.

7. Here's something that hopefully someone can help me out with: Tiara
Nelson made state and zones, state being a huge accomplishment for
someone on our team, zones being a huge accomplishment for swimmers
especially in our area of North Dakota/Minnesota. State short course I
believe falls on the weekend of March 18-20, when I will be gone. If she
can financially, I think it would be great for her to attend, and I know
she wants to. However, she will need a coach to be on deck. Any ideas
to this problem?

8. I am going to have an order form for pull buoys and flippers and grab bag suits for swimmers to order, especially since we don't have access to that equipment at the middle school. i guess i can let them order what ever they would like. maybe a generic team suit for now? just so we can look similar?

9. can we get another clock for the pool? the kids down at the far end of the pool cannot see the clock which is depressing since it's the dev kids and they are just learning the clock and i would still like them to keep learning. i wouldn't want them to forget.

10. my coaches book is not all put together correctly. chapters 6 and 7 repeats itself and i don't think chapter 9 is there. anyway i can get a new one so i can finish my test?

11. I also have a coaches expenses form to turn in for the Fargo meet in
November that I need to be paid for.
Thanks so much!

12. contract for this session so i can get paid? that would be nice....

grrr.... so much. i have plenty so to talk about so i will take up plenty of their time.

tonight. 6 pm.