GMAC Parent Orientation 15 September 2018 Schedule Kendra

GMAC Parent Orientation 15 September 2018

Schedule ● Kendra Papple – Director of Swim Development ● Mary Gerrard – General Manager ○ Mary is also the Director of Officials

GMAC ● Amateur athletic club ● Membership ○ Competitive ○ Swim School, Blue Marlins, Masters, Lifesaving ● How we work ○ Board of Directors; Director of Swim Development; General Manager ○ Group of key volunteers including Officials (John Gerrard, Level 4; the Luberti Family – meet setup; Janet Straker - Ebb & Flow – Logo design) and others ○ Parents’ commitment hours – hosting meets for GMAC

Board of Directors ● ● ● ● ● Ken Mark – President Katerina Jordan – Vice-President Diane Zadro – Director of Finance Kimberly Liska - Secretary Blair Conrad – Director of Coaching Andrew Pierce – Director of Sponsorship Erick Girouard – Director of Assets Mari Mac. Neil – Director of Recruitment/Retention Jim Gilmore – Director of Swim-A-Thon Tanya Holloway – Director of Grants ○ Note that the Director of Swim Development and the General Manager attend board meetings

2018 -19 GMAC Parent Orientation What we are doing and Why?

GMAC History This is GMAC’s 50 th Year. We have grown from a small club to a medium club. We have a history of great swimming Provincially and Nationally We have gone from all volunteer to all paid coaches and from 1 - over 20 coaches We added a Swim School in 1999 to increase number and level of swimmers entering the club We added Lifesaving in 2001 due to swimmer demand We have had athletes compete for Ontario and above in Triathlon, Pentathlon, Lifesaving, Masters and Swimming

GMAC Club Structure Senior Gold Senior Silver Int Gold Senior Bronze Marlin House league Junior Gold Marlin II (SA) Junior Silver (maybe Int Silver) Junior Bronze Blue Marlins

Pool Space/Coaching/Resources Allocation is based on need. People are cared for differently. We are building long term athletes and hope they will someday go to University and improve. Doing things wrong more doesn’t make them better. Working with broken mechanics leads to injuries. Maturation can slow this down.

Miscellaneous Group Parent Team Outfitting (it is your uniform be proud of it) Parents… Sit together, show your spirit. Be the kind of person people what to sit with. Team T shirts/parent shirts available from Mary Relays… why Daily active lifestyle… move/play Masters

What is New This Season? Senior Stroke workouts once a month A few changes in Meet schedule (year end meet, team travel etc) Lifesaving end to the season (lengthen season with a focus) Physio Julie Brandon (Defy Sports Performance and Physio) New Logo (thanks Janet!) Bronze is back this year

Why is Swimming Great? Swimming is a skill that can save your life Teaches hard work, accountability, time management Builds well rounded fitness Quick and clever sense of humour and friends for life It’s easy to see progress, improvement and hard work (not subjective, no one passed over for something they deserve) Having fun at working hard, rising early, striving for goals

Why is Swimming Hard? When you are doing it… your head is underwater making it taxing and often boring Need to develop out of the water as well as in, speed and endurance, strength and flexibility Everyone can see how you are doing compared to your best and others Swimming requires a lot of hours of practice and they are not always good hours It takes a lot of time for parents to drive and volunteer Technique is tough and requires constant pursuit of perfection

Athlete Development (formerly LTAD) Play other sport, do other activities, stay well rounded and happy 200/400 IM focus for all until after maturation (all events, strokes and distances) Improve as much as possible on as little as possible (swimming is long and expensive , parents don’t do more than your comfortable with financially. Create a plan with your swimmer’s coach) Everyone is on their own curve, don’t panic Internal vs external motivation (don’t bribe or reward for performance/attendance etc)

Swimmer’s Responsibility Age appropriate way to put swimming in the athlete’s hands Carry/pack your own bag/Dry and take care of your Swim Equipment Speak to the coach about issues Let coach know about conflicts/ needs/ questions Set Alarm to get up Failure to wear team uniform will result in scratch from race (no refund)

Parent Role Make Swimming an easy choice (scheduling, how/when you speak about swimming) Assist with time management and help swimmer see the value behind the commitment Acknowledge effort, dedication, perseverance instead of results Help swimmers get over disappointments and frustrations by focusing on process Learn to make the commitments, time work for you (workout/social etc) Web site and email communication (or add swimmer’s email/access)

Oh Oh, my baby is upset. . . Listen, stay calm and patient Ask them if there is anything you can do to help If there is a pattern or it seems serious contact the coach privately and patiently They are not improving… whose fault is it and what can we do about it? They are not being challenged/ in the right group/ with the right coach? How can the club not see that? I disagree with programming, meet entries (coach/club direction) Social Issues

How to make progress solving your issues Speak to your swimmers Coach To truly make a difference and impact the swimmer, your personal coach is the main source of solutions and actions. Starting with parents, board etc errodes trust and wastes time. Learn to work as a team. Learn to bring up small issues in a timely manner. Don’t stock pile for an ambush. Director of Swim Dev General Manager If you have addressed the issue with your coach and you do not feel it is resolved or moving in the right direction please contact Kendra. Remember that issues often take time to resolve, a cc to Kendra is fine but she will not jump in on first contact. Anonymous complaints will not be heard. Mary is first point of contact for registration, financial, orders etc. BUT if you have not got where you need with the coaches she is the official complaints department. She will bring the issues to the board meeting if needed.

Average Rate of Improvement Age (biological/emotional/Swimming) Technical issues/psych Number of workouts a year/content Age Female Male 12 -5. 92 -7. 47 13 -4. 35 -6. 19 14 -3. 05 -4. 28 15 -2. 01 -3. 65 16 -1. 25 -2. 66 17 -0. 76 -1. 84

Team Travel and Training Camps Why we do Team Travel… learning and experience, fun and social, keep cost down for average person, give parents a break Why I can’t make exceptions What will we change in the upcoming years and what that means to you Why we do Training Camps… volume of uninterrupted training, learning and experience, variety, warm weather factor Why do we come back for finals. . . privilege, learning, team

GMAC Team Culture Vision: The Guelph Marlin Aquatic Club instills a love of self improvement through our inclusive, high achieving swim community. Mission: Empower people to be champions in and out of the water. Values: Pride Integrity Personal Responsibility Excellence Team Identifiers: Uniform, streamline underwaters, technically sound, respectful, sportsmanship, spirit

Website Q&A

Adding multiple emails to account? • Coaches and GM use Team Unify to send out messages. This allows any email within that account to receive an email. Good opportunity to add your swimmer’s email so they start receiving messages. • If you think you aren’t receiving emails, reach out. There is a tracking system that shows us who has opened emails by master email. How? • Login into wwww. guelphmarlins. ca • Click on ‘My Account’ on left handside • Then Click on ‘My Account’ again • In the middle of your page account information – you can add up to three more emails. • **group parents do not have access to this system, so if you need a different email used, please contact them directly.

How to read my Officials Hours Completed? • Lose track in the year, how many hours you have completed. The system is all linked to the sign up thus important you sign up in order to get your hours. Sign up sheets are verified and then hours approved. **Note it can take up to a week before they are approved. How? • Login into wwww. guelphmarlins. ca • Click on ‘My Account’ on left handside • Then Click on ‘$ My Invoice/Payment” • In the middle of the page, click on the ‘Service Hours’ Tab, if you have been here for a few years, you will see your history by year. This shows how many hours you are responsible for and how many have been completed.

I don’t understand why there’s a credit on my account? • Credit on my account this month in September when I look online – ‘’ll just pay less next month, I must have overpaid’ FALSE *It is important that you pay exactly what is on your Account Agreement form for each instalment. As per the policy, in June we begin reconciling if you owe money or we owe you money.

Typical Account Agreement Form • • • Shows program fees and meet deposit Each month the system automatically charges the program fees for the month. You pay each month by instalment, the program fee + meet deposit. You will be charged on actual meets so as they begin to happen that meet fee deposit that you are paying each month begins to deplete. *if you pay by credit card, all charges are on actual for the month, you are not paying meet deposit

Looking for meet information, entries, sign up? • Login to your account • Go to Team Events/Swim Meets on the home page (to the left of the main photo) How? • If you are looking for a meet package or entries for your swimmer – you can click on the title of the meet – then within there, once a meet has entries or a meet package, there will be a PDF, simply click for the information • If you are looking to sign up for a meet – you will see below the title ‘Job Sign Up’ – same as you did for the parent meeting. Click on Job Sign up – view jobs, click beside Job and click sign up. In the pop up window, please enter the first and last name of official that will work’

THANK YOU! Please reach out if you have other website questions