[PacMasterUpdate] Pacific Masters Update, The eve of All Hallows

[pacmasterupdate at PacificMasters.org]

RESULTS Tuolumne County Aquatic Masters meet
The results for the Tuolumne County Aquatic Masters
meet are posted. Thanks to The Tuolumne County County
Aquatic Masters for putting on the meet. After the
meet, the team provided a great brunch for all the
athletes. It was a great fall day for the meet.
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2004 PACIFIC MASTERS FITNESS CLINIC
Sunday, November 21
Fitness Clinic At the Olympic Club
This day will be designed to provide tools to the
“fitness minded” swimmers within Pacific Masters to
help make their swimming more enjoyable and productive
through lecture, demonstration, practice, video, and
video analysis. The clinic will emphasize freestyle
and the backstroke.
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CHANGE TO BYLAWS
Change to PMS By-Laws To be voted on at the Pacific
Masters Annual meeting November 17th.

Section 103.3H Standing Committees 

c. Equipment: (DELETE) The committee is responsible
for maintaining the PMS safety signs and
stopwatches.(end Delete) This committee shall be
responsible for the maintenance of PMS Safety Signs,
Stopwatches, and Trailer and for coordinating their
delivery with meet directors.

(delete and renumber)f.	Hospitality:  The committee
shall be responsible for exploring potential meeting
sites (with final approval of the PMS committee) and
for the provision of beverages and snack items
(including purchase and set up/clean up of such items)
for the monthly PMS meeting. This committee shall be
responsible for the maintenance of PMS Safety Signs
and Stopwatches and coordinate their delivery with
meet directors
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COACHES CLINIC AT THE OLYMPIC CLUB
Saturday, November 20
Coach’s Clinic at the Olympic Club, San Francisco
Our headline speaker will be world-renowned coach,
author, and swimming scientist Dr. Ernie Maglischo,
presenting topics on “early and mid-season
conditioning, pre-championship meet focus, and
Individual Medley racing. Another lead speaker will
still be added along with presentations given by
nationally recognized coaches from within Pacific
Masters Swimming. The day will consist of in-water
opportunities, lecture, demonstration, social
interaction, and a “Coaches Roundtable” for the
exchanging of ideas.
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OFFICIALS CLINIC
The Sierra Marlins Swim Team will be hosting a Stroke
and Turn clinic immediately after the Saturday
swimming session of their meet on November 20th.  It
will be held at the Folsom Aquatic Complex.

NOVEMBER-DECMEBER NEWSLETTER
The November-December is available on line
	http://www.pacificmasters.org/newsltr/index.shtml

PACIFIC SWIMMING TO HOLD CLUB LEADERSHIP AND BUSINESS
MANAGEMENT SCHOOL
Pacific Swimming is holding a club leadership and
business management school at the Holiday Inn, Oakland
Airport on Saturday, December 11th.

It will cover
   the ten basic responsibilities of a board
   three legal responsibilities of a nonprofit board
   How to more effectively recruit and retain
volunteers
   Characteristics of an effective board- staff
partnership
   How to govern more and manage less
for more info
   http://www.pacswim.org/CLBMSspecifics.pdf
   http://www.pacswim.org/CLBMSflyer.pdf
This is a free event, but they are asking for
preregistration so they know how many lunches to
order. This sounds like a great opportunity for
swimming clubs to become more efficient.


have a good week

michael

OFF THE WALL
Pacific Masters has been one member short because a
member joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Lesotho
(Africa) to teach English as a second language. Of
course being her father, I have been worried, nervous
and proud all at the same time.

In this age of instant communication, we forget
sometimes that not everyone is on line. Amanda writes
a letter and about two weeks later, I will receive it.
Round trip communication takes three to four weeks.
Her letters are always a joy to read, many times she
is writing about the challenges of teaching in a
foreign land, or maybe about the beauty of the African
mountains where she lives.

Besides teaching ESL, she also tries to talk about HIV
prevention in a country that has a 35% HIV infection
rate (The United States' rate is about 0.3%). 

Where in the United States, we toss a pen if it is
smearing a little when we write with it, or toss a
wooden pencil if it is too short, in Lesotho the
students use the pencil when it is shorter than a
digit on your little finger.

Saturday morning, I was checking the my email before
leaving for the Tuolumne County Aquatic Masters swim
meet (I planned to leave at 6 am). I got an email from
her that said she was in the Peace Corps training
center in the Maseru (the capital of Lesotho) and
there was telephone number to call.

I got out the prepaid international phone card and
called her. We talked for about two minutes before the
line went dead. (having lived in a third world country
before, it is just a part of life). I tried to call
for  few minutes, before deciding that I would try
later that night.

My wife tried to call a few times and was able to
reach her a couple of hours later. Later that night we
were able to chat with her. (earlier in the evening, I
went out and bought two different prepaid phone cards
- found out by using them that with Fastlink we could
talk for 47 minutes for $5.00 with CC1 Northern
California it was about 22 minutes for the same
$5.00).

One of the things that she is trying to do is to start
a library for the students. She is looking for books
that are interesting yet can be read by her secondary
school student. She said that the Harry Potter novels
are at the more difficult end of the spectrum of what
she is looking for. She is looking for Nancy Drew,
Hardy Boys  or books of similar difficulty. 

If you would like to contribute to the library at the
Morifi Community Secondary School you can send your
books to 
	Amanda Moore
	Morifi Community Secondary School
	Private Bag F006
	Mohales Hoek 800
	LESOTHO
There is a special rate for sending media (books and
stuff) to other countries, but you have to go to the
post office to find out about it.



		
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