Dartmouth Crusaders Swim Club

May 18^th 2012

Calendar of Events
Fri. May 18^th	Deadline for handing in cheques and documents related to Swim-a-thon
Mon. May 21^st	Deadline to submit sponsorships for Ken Dunn Invitational
Tues. May 22^nd	Deadline for submitting post-dated cheques for June Sobeys Gift Certificates
Fri. May 25^th	Scratch deadline for Ken Dunn Invitational
Sat. May 26^th	Pick-up Sobeys Gift Certificates
May 25-27	Nova Scotia Junior Provincial Championships
June 1-3	Ken Dunn Invitational
Sat. June 9^th	DCSC Annual General Meeting
Sun. June 10^th	DCSC Annual Awards Banquet
Fri. June 22^nd	Deadline for registering for Swim Nova Scotia NCCP Swimming 101 coaching course
June 29^th to July 1^st	Swim Nova Scotia NCCP Swimming 101 coaching course
July 9-13	Crusader Triathlon Camp
Aug. 27-31	Crusader Swim Camp

Upcoming Meet Information

Meet	Date & Location	Qualified Swimmers	Link to Meet Package
Nova Scotia Junior Provincial Championships	May 25-27 Wolfville	Age group swimmers who have not yet qualified for East Coast	Meet package here
Ken Dunn Invitational	June 1-3	Qualified Age Group swimmers	Meet package here

Meet Information

Nova Scotia Junior Provincial Championships

The scratch date for this meet was Monday, May 14^th. Please see the email sent by Coach Michelle on Tuesday, May 8. It contains the meet package and the entry list. This is how you know in which events your child is scheduled to swim.

Swimmers who graduate from NovaTech to age group at the Nova Explosion meet may compete at Junior Provincials if they wish. Email Coach Michelle if you want to do this as soon as you know that you’ve graduated.

Ken Dunn Invitational

The scratch date for this meet is Friday, May 25^th unless you qualify at Junior Provincial Champs. If you get a Ken Dunn qualifying time at Junior Provincials and you want to compete at Ken Dunn you must let Coach Michelle know by 9 am on Monday, May 28^th. If you cannot attend the meet OR if you qualified at Ken Dunn and need to let Coach Michelle know email dartcrusaders@eastlink.ca by the required time and date.

There are specific qualifying times for this meet. Swimmers who do NOT have these qualifying may also compete if they achieve one of the following:

· high-point winner at Junior Provincial Champs

· first place in 200 or 400 free at Junior Provincials

· first place 200 or 400 IM at Junior Provincial

Please see the email sent by Coach Michelle on Wednesday, May 16^th. It contains the entries and meet package so you can see the events you are scheduled to participate in.

The Ken Dunn Invitational is also a club fundraiser. We raise funds by having families, individuals, and local businesses sponsor events. In 2011 five events were sponsored. This sponsorship provides cash awards for the winners of the sponsored event and raises funds for the Crusaders. Cash awards are one way to attract higher-level performers to a meet, adding profile and raising the level of competition, which benefits local athletes. So far we have received sponsorship for the 11-12 girls 200 fly.

How does sponsorship work?

The sponsor chooses the race they would like to sponsor. It can be either gender and any event.

The sponsorship amount is $100 per event. This provides a cash award of $50 for the first place winner, $20 for second place and $10 for third place. The remaining $20 goes to the Crusaders. All sponsors receive a tax receipt from Swim Nova Scotia for the full amount. A sponsor may choose as many events as they like but there is only one sponsor per event. If someone else already sponsors the sponsor’s chosen event, Crusaders will contact them and offer another event in its place.

Anyone can sponsor, Crusader families, friends, and local businesses. The names of the sponsors will be listed in the meet program.

Cheques must be made payable to Swim Nova Scotia and must be received in the office of the Dartmouth Crusaders along with the events to be sponsored by May 21^st. You can see the event list by going to www.swimming.ca and clicking on meet results. From there use the drop down menus to narrow your search to Nova Scotia + 2010-2011 + Ken Dunn Invitational.

If you have questions please contact the Dartmouth Crusaders Swim Club office at 469-8610 or email dartcrusaders@eastlink.ca

	News from Deckside
With June around the corner we are entering a very busy period of the swim season. Two meets are scheduled over the next three weeks: · Junior Provincials, May 25-27 in Wolfville · Ken Dunn, June 1-3 at Dalplex (co-hosted by DCSC) Please consider officiating at one or both of these meets. Email York Friesen with your name, the meet(s) you want to officiate, your officiating level, your preferred sessions and your preferred position (eg. timer, stroke & turn, etc.)

	Swim-a-Thon Update
The waves have settled in the pool following Swim-a-Thon 2012! The challenge, of course, was to swim 200 lengths in 2 hours (Bronze swimmers swam for 1 hour with a target of 100 lengths) – 59 swimmers participated in the team fundraiser and even more swam in the event. Thanks to a great effort by everyone, this event raised over $3,600 so far! If you have not already done so, please return your pledges, pledge forms and tax receipt family affidavit by Friday, May 18^th. You can give it to either Jauna Garland or Fiona Gibb. Fiona can usually be found in the bleachers on Mondays between 6:30 pm and 7:30 pm, Wednesdays from 6 pm to 7:30 pm, and on Saturdays from 8 am to 9 am. You can also email Fiona to arrange pick-up/drop-off OR leave your pledges and forms at the office with a cheque for the appropriate amount made out to DCSC. No cash please. Once we have received all the pledges we’ll be able to determine the prize winners (there are top squad and individual prizes up for grabs) and know the total raised by this successful event! As well, two DCSC awards will be presented at the Annual Awards Banquet on Sunday, June 10^th – the Brad Boyd Trophy awarded to the youngest swimmer to complete 200 lengths in 2 hours and the Swim-a-Thon fastest finishers. Thanks again to all swimmers and their counters, donors, and coaches who made this a successful event.

Gift Certificates

Attention Sobeys Shoppers! The post-dated cheques for June 1^st should be in the office by 4 pm on Tuesday May 22^nd if you are ordering Sobeys gift certificates for the month of June. You can pick the certificates up on Saturday, May 26^th between 8:30 and 9 am from York Friesen. If you order certificates and will be at Junior Provincials in Wolfville, email Donna Gillespie so she can take your certificates to Wolfville and give them to you there.

	DCSC Annual General Meeting
Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 9^th and please plan to attend DCSC’s annual general meeting. The meeting will take place from 8:30 to 9:30 am in the Windmill Room of the Holiday Inn in Dartmouth. At the meeting we will discuss new branding for the team and revealing a new team logo. In addition, we will elect the new board of directors.

	DCSC awards banquet Tickets on Sale
The 2012 DCSC annual awards banquet will take place on Sunday, June 10^th at the Dartmouth Harbourview Holiday Inn on Wyse Road from 10 am until noon. This event includes a brunch, speeches and award presentations. All swimmers and their families are encouraged to attend. This new venue can accommodate up to 200 people as it is bigger than the venue we have used in the past so seating is NOT limited. You can either order your tickets by email or you can buy them directly from the following parents during practice:

Squad	Parent’s name	Email	Pool time
Bronze and Silver	Mario Rhuland	mario.rhuland@medaxio.com	Wednesdays 5:30-7 pm
Gold	Krista Brookes	krista.brookes@apcfnc.ca	Saturday mornings
TAG	Sheila Landry	landrys@gov.ns.ca	Mondays and Wednesdays 5:30-6 pm and Saturday mornings
National	Chris Carter	staggart@ns.sympatico.ca	Saturday mornings and Wednesdays during dryland

Tickets are $25 per person which includes a brunch of scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, beans, waffles, muffins, toast, bagels, fresh fruit, juice and coffee or tea.

Please pay with a cheque made payable to DCSC. No cash please. If you are ordering your tickets by email, please leave your payment in an envelope at the DCSC office marked to the attention of the ticket seller. We must receive all orders and payment before Tuesday June 5^th. Tickets will be distributed to each family after we receive payment.

Donations and volunteers needed

We are still accepting donations for small door prizes for the swimmers at the banquet. We particularly welcome gift cards for movies, restaurants, book stores, and sporting goods stores. Feel free to make your own donation or to solicit donations from local businesses.

Corporate donors can have an ad for their company published in Splash and on our team website.

We are still looking for volunteers for this event. We need people to do these things:

· buy decorations and set up on the morning of the banquet

· buy prizes

· clean up after the banquet

If you can volunteer, donate something or solicit donations for the door prizes OR if you have any questions, please email Krista Brookes or phone 452-4844.

Dunne/Hemphill Memorial Award

One of the awards given out at the awards banquet is in the Dunne/Hemphill Memorial award, which recognizes outstanding volunteer effort in support of the Dartmouth Crusaders Swim Club. Our team has had a long history of parents who have given their time willingly, sometimes for many years, and always with the aim of making the swimming experience better for all involved.

Any member of the Crusaders team may make a nomination to recognize a volunteer whose efforts should receive special recognition. Please send your nomination for this award by May 15^th. Include a few lines about what about this particular volunteer stood out for you. Put your nomination in an envelope marked Dunne/Hemphill and drop it off in the Crusaders office mail slot.

	VP Finance Update
We are approaching the end of the swimming year for many families and I would like to review the upcoming year-end financial processing for DCSC members. For those of you who have paid through direct deposit, I am happy to report that May 15^th was your final direct deposit payment for this year. YEAH!! For those ofyou who have used the fundraising option (3 post-dated cheques for December, March, and June), there is one payment left for June 15^th. You will be notified by June 8^th if we will process the June 15^th cheque. We will also be evaluating your volunteer points for the season. Again, we will notify you in advance if we need to process your volunteer points cheque. Family statements will be emailed by June 8^th. Should your account be in credit status, we will provide you with a refund cheque at the Awards Banquet on June 10^th. If you have any questions at any time regarding your Crusader fees of the financial position of the club, please do not hesitate to contact me. I would also like to invite you to the DCSC Annual General Meeting on Saturday, June 9^th where the budget for the 2012-2013 season will be presented. Sincerely, Susan Sparks VP Finance, Dartmouth Crusaders Swim Club Susan.sparks@gov.ns.ca 434-1717 (home) 456-5625 (cell)

	Crusader summer sport camp
DCSC is hosting two camps this summer, one for triathlon July 9-13 and one for swimming August 27-31. Click here for more information or go to the DCSC website. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for “NEW! Summer Sport Camp Registration now available” and click on the link. Please pass this information along to anyone you think might be interested. If you have any trouble getting the information from the website, please email dartcrusaders@eastlink.ca

	Crusader Playground
We are now registering participants for the third session of Crusader Playground. The session itself will begin during the first week of April. This is an after-school swim group for elementary school-aged children who are just learning to swim. Children only need to be able to put their faces in the water and blow bubbles to participate. Coach Ian and Mike Adams coach the program from the national squad. Please share this information with your friends and neighbours and anyone you think mat be interested in the program. Click here for a registration form Cliquez ici pour un formulaire d’inscription

London 2012: The Build-up Begins

Check out the Swimming Canada and Canadian Olympic Committee websites for 30 to 60 second video highlights on Canada’s Olympians. These short videos are also being shown on television during the hockey playoffs. Check out the article entitled Give your Everything and especially look for a short but excellent video featuring Ryan Cochran. This is a must-see video for all Crusaders.

Morning Swim Show: Canadian Olympic Team

If you’re interested in what’s going on in the world of swimming, check out the Morning Swim Show. Two recent episodes featured Canadian Olympic Head Coach Randy Bennett talking about the Canadian Olympic Swim Team from Phoenix, Arizona during their training camp. Day 1 features and overview of the men’s team and Day 2 features and overview of the women’s team.

How a Swimmer Makes the Olympic Team

Have you ever wondered how swimmers are chosen for Canada’s Olympic team? It’s a complicated process and, even after holding the Olympic trials in March we still don’t know for sure all the swimmers who will compete in London. That’s because FINA is limiting the size of the swim meet at the Olympics to 900 swimmers.

Information about the selection process is available on Swim Canada’s website.

The first part of the qualification process is straightforward—swimmers simply need to swim faster than the FINA Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT, formerly called the FINA A time) AND finish in the top two at the swim trials. If a swimmer comes in the top 4 in 100 or 200 free and swims faster than a certain time, they qualify to swim as a relay swimmer.

BUT remember that FINA wants an Olympic Swim Meet with 900 swimmers. Two per country who make the FINA OQT would be much smaller than that. However, if they allowed every swimmer who beats the FINA Olympic Selection Time (OST, formerly called the FINA B time) to compete at the Olympics would be much bigger than FINA wants at the Olympics.

So they have this in place:

“To enter one swimmer in an event, the competitor must have achieved at least an OQT OR the competitor must have achieved at least the FINA/Olympic Selection time (OST) and be approved by FINA to compete.” [emphasis added] Find out more by reading the FINA selection document.

FINA also sets aside 150 places for swimmers who qualify under the universality clause. This clause allows countries that have no swimmers who meet the FINA OST to enter one man and one woman.

If the number of swimmers who qualify for the Olympics, including those who qualify under the universality clause, falls short of 900—the number of swimmers wants to compete in the Olympic event—FINA can choose from among all the swimmers in the world who beat the FINA OST. Here’s how they choose:

“The highest ranked athlete with an OST in each of the 26 individual Olympic events will be invited to compete first. This process will continue (in groups of 26, one per each event) until the quota of 900 athletes is met. If adding 26 athletes exceeds the quota of 900, the highest ranked athletes according to the FINA Points Table of 1 January 2012 would be invited first (within that grouping of 26 athletes) until the quota of 900 is reached. For example: if there are 110 open spaces for OST athletes four (4) athletes in each event would be invited (104 athletes). The final six (6) places would be selected from those athletes with the highest rankings from the FINA Points Table in that event.”

This means that if a swimmer wins or places second and makes the FINA OQT, they make the Olympic team. If a swimmer wins at the Olympic trials but only makes the OST, it must be one of the fastest times in the world in their event during the qualifying period (March 1 2011 to June 18 2012) for them to make the Olympic team. These swimmers also have the opportunity to improve their times and their world ranking by competing in designated meets.

The process for selecting the Paralympic Team is different. There will be a total of 600 Paralympic swimmers. Each country is allocated a number of swimmers they can send based on the ratio of swimmers it has who have made the Paralympic standard to the number of swimmers worldwide who have made the standard. For example, if 1,000 swimmers worldwide make the Paralympic standard and Canada has 50 of those swimmers, then Canada would get to send 5 per cent of 600 or 30 swimmers to the Paralympics. Those 30 would be selected by Swimming Canada based on who has the highest world ranked swim in their class.

This explanation was provided by Swim BC.

Swim Nova Scotia NCCP Swimming 101 coaching course

Swimmers aged 16 and over who are interested in achieving coaching certification should consider taking this course. This is a starting point and a beneficial qualification to have when it comes to applying for summer jobs.

Where?

Canada Games Centre, 26 Thomas Raddall Ave., Halifax

When?

Friday June 29^th from 5 pm to 9 pm; Saturday, June 30^th from 8 am to 6:30 pm; and Sunday July 1^st from 9 am to 5:30 pm

What are the requirements for taking the course?

You must be 16 years old or older.

You must do the pre-course work and submit it when you register for the course.

You must pay the registration fee.

How much does it cost?

The cost is $325.00. Please write a cheque payable to Swim Nova Scotia and send it to:

Swim Nova Scotia

5516 Spring Garden Rd.

Halifax, NS, B3J 1G6

How do I register?

Go to www.nccpswimming.org and complete the pre-course workbook on the right hand side (Swimming 101)

Go to https://registration.swimming.ca/Courseslistspublic.aspx and click on the box labeled Register (for the Halifax Swimming 101 course)

Fill in all the required fields

Load your completed pre-course workbook

Click “Save”

Mail your payment to Swim Nova Scotia

When is the deadline for registering?

You must register by Friday, June 22^nd. This includes completing and submitting your pre-course workbook.

EPIC Dartmouth Triathlon

A new event is coming to Dartmouth on Sunday, July 1^st – Canada Day. It is the first ever Iron Distance triathlon east of Montreal. Already there have been commitments to compete from international athletes including one of the top finishers from the Kona Ironman in Hawaii. This is the race for which you may have seen television coverage. A great deal of promotion will be going into the EPIC Dartmouth race at the same time.

Dartmouth Crusaders will be looking after one of the water stations for the run portion of the race. Once the athletes reach the run stage they will be doing either a half or full marathon. It is a stage at which some noisy encouragement and refreshments are needed in order to continue to finish the race. Our water station will be in Shubie Park near the baseball diamond. We will see the runners either 2 or 4 times while they do their loops through Shubie. All ages of Crusaders may participate. We would like to set up shifts of swimmers and parents. The race organizers are looking forward to having some kids cheering for the athletes but ask that our station be supervised at all times by some adults. We would like to set up 90-minute shifts through the day beginning at 1 pm until 10 pm. We would like to have the younger swimmers participate earlier in the afternoon and the older ones during the late afternoon and evening. About 6-8 people are needed for a shift but we can have more than that. We can have team promotion all around our water station. Siblings and friends can help as long as they are willing to wear Crusader gear. All food and water for the athletes must be brought to the station for us, we just hand it out and encourage the runner to keep going.

We will have a sign up closer to the date but please mark the date on your calendar. It will be good fun and we can help inspire other athletes as well as promote the Crusaders at this very first iron distance triathlon in Nova Scotia. You can find out more about EPIC Dartmouth at www.epicdartmouth.com

Volunteer Points

Every time you volunteer with the club, you get volunteer points. At the end of the season, your points are converted into a dollar value; each point is worth $1. When you earn the number of volunteer points equal to the amount you wrote on your cheque at registration, that cheque will be returned to you. If you don’t earn the required number of points, you will be assessed a penalty of $1 per point against your cheque. That means you will not get your cheque back and will have to pay the balance of points that you owe. How many points do I need? If you’ve forgotten the amount you wrote on your volunteer commitment cheque at registration, here is a breakdown by squad:

Squad	Volunteer Points	Fee
National	200	$200
TAG	200	$200
Gold	100	$100
Silver	100	$100
Bronze	60	$60
Ist year Bronze	0	$0
Ist year in all other squads, summer, & non-competitive	½ the squad requirement	½ the squad fee

How do I earn points? The following is a list of some of the volunteer duties you can perform with the club and the number of points you can earn:
Volunteer Duty	Points
Attend the Annual General Meeting	10 points per family
Chaperone at non-billeted out-of-town swim meets	50 points per day
Coordinate the end-of-season banquet	75 points
Help the banquet coordinator	25 points
Coordinate the canteen at a swim meet	50 points
Work in the canteen at a swim meet	20 points per session
Coordinate the hospitality room at a swim meet	50 points
Work in the hospitality room at a swim meet	20 points per session
Work in the office during a swim meet	20 points per session
Stroke & Turn Judge at a swim meet	20 points per session
Chief Finish Judge at a swim meet	20 points per session
Timer at a swim meet	20 points per session
Attend an officials clinic	20 points per clinic

How do I make sure my points are recorded?

After you have volunteered, send an email to John MacDonnell and include the following information:

· the date and time you volunteered or, in the case of a swim meet, the session

· the duty you performed

· the number of points you expect to receive

Find out more

The above table lists only some of the ways you can earn volunteer points. You can find out more by reading Big Splash. Just go to www.dartmouthcrusaders.com, click Splash, then click Big Splash. Also, watch Splash for upcoming volunteer opportunities. Often volunteer coordinators will publish the amount of points you can earn during a particular event.