Husky Swimming Foundation

The Husky Swimming Foundation has confirmed the meet date for the 2010 edition of the Husky Invitational.  A Save-The-Date flyer will be coming your way via email or regular mail sometime soon and we have included a digital copy here:

HUSKY INVITE – SAVE-THE-DATE

In order to help cover the cost of the meet, we will be looking for Title and Event sponsors and will have sponsorship information available as soon as possible.  If you or your company is interested in becoming a sponsor of the Husky Invitational, please contact Cam Gravrock.

In other news, we have also begun developing plans for the Husky Swimming Foundation Gala.  Dates are yet to be confirmed, but the event is tentatively scheduled for Fall of 2011.  In preparation for this event, there will be an alumni gathering in November.  We’ll be sure to keep everyone posted once we have confirmed the date.

Thanks again for your continued support!

~The HSF Board

Happy New Year!  And with the new year, the Foundation board has some exciting news to share with the swimming community.  We have made a commitment to revive the Husky Invitational!  So mark your calendars:

This event is coming together quickly and we will be seeking help from our Husky Alumni and the swimming and local communities.  Serving as our Meet Director will be Jana Vincent, with honorary co-Directors, Coach Earl Ellis and JoAnn Brislin.  The Meet Referee will be former USA Swimming President, Ron Van Pool.

Please spread the word about this event.  If your team is interested in attending, please contact Jana.  Meet invitations will be formalized in the coming weeks.  If you or your company has interest in becoming a sponsor of this event, please contact Jana or Cam Gravrock.

In conjunction with the Husky Invitational, Cam Gravrock is chairing an effort to hold the First Annual Husky Swimming Foundation Gala.  Details regarding this event will be provided as they become available.

Finally, the University of Washington Athletic Department has kindly donated its remaining Husky Swimming apparel to the Foundation.  We are currently finalizing some donation thresholds that will enable you to get your hands on the final allotment (for now!) of t-shirts and parkas.  Once we have established the protocol for these items, we’ll let you know…

We’re looking forward to the coming months and hope you will find a way to include the Foundation in your charitable giving this year.  We’re counting on the support of alumni, the swimming community, and the local community to help us realize our goals.  With the team we have in place now, there is no ceiling to what we will be able to accomplish!

Happy Holidays from the Husky Swimming Foundation!  It has been quite a while since our last update, but the Foundation has definitely been working hard over the last few months.  Our focus continues to be our Lost Dawg Campaign as we attempt to rally all former Huskies behind our effort.  Again, please forward our information to any lost swimmers out there!

We have also taken an active role in Northwest Swimming.  Under the direction of Brandon Drawz, the Foundation has  bid to host the 2011 Sectional Championships in Federal Way–it looks as though it will be a successful bid and we are excited to have the opportunity to keep a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest swimming community.  Related to this event, the Foundation has also committed to resurrecting the Husky Invitational.  Former coaches Jana Vincent and Earl Ellis have expressed interest in ensuring we get this project up and running.  With the full support of the Foundation, we have no doubt that these meets will be a resounding success!

We have also reached out to a local organization which has been actively promoting the development of additional pools in the Seattle area.  In 2008, the Seattle City Council directed the Parks and Recreation Department to conduct a feasibility study for a new outdoor pool in Seattle.  The Foundation is circling the wagons and hoping to tap into this development as we progress towards our goals.

Our last piece of news is the introduction of our newest Board member, Cam Gravrock (Class of 1997)–we’re happy to have Cam join our team and look forward to working with him!

Again, Happy Holidays from the Husky Swimming Foundation!   Cheers!

We have received our Certificate of Exemption from the IRS and it can viewed by clicking HERE.  As promised, the exemption is retroactive to 2008, so all donations remitted to date and all those gifted in the future are tax deductible. 

At our last board meeting, we continued discussions about our Lost Dawg Campaign and we encourage you to spread the word to fellow Huskies and Husky Swimming supporters that we may be looking for them.  Please get your complete contact info to Jana or Rick.

We also formally adopted a mission statement and established the Foundation’s goals. They will be permanently listed on our website on our Missions & Goals page and we will also present them at the bottom of this post.  Our next schedule board meeting will be September 17th.  In the meantime, we will update you with any new information we have and will continue to work for our fellow Huskies!

Our Mission:

• The mission of the Husky Swimming Foundation is to support the reinstatement of men’s and women’s swimming at the University of Washington.  By partnering with the University, the alumni, USA Swimming, Pacific Northwest Swimming and the public, the Foundation seeks to preserve the long established swimming traditions in the Pacific Northwest.  The Foundation seeks to provide a local collegiate swimming opportunity for our regional age-group swimmers so that they may compete at both the national and the international level.

Our Goals:

1. Endow the athletes’ scholarships;
2. Build and operate a state of the art training and competition facility;
3. Provide for the operating expenses of the swimming and diving program on a sustained basis; and
4. Support swimming in the Pacific Northwest at all age group levels.

We have confirmed with the Internal Revenue Service that our application for exemption under Section 501(c)(3) has been approved and we are now officially a tax-exempt organization!  Once we have our hands on the actual certificate, we will post a copy on our website.

We have a board meeting scheduled for tonight, August 19th, and will report back to you in the coming days.  In the meantime, please continue to help with our Lost Dawg Campaign!

It has been quite a while since our last update, and for that, we apologize.  It’s been a hectic summer, but you can be assured that we are all still working dilligently to bring Husky Swimming back to the University of Washington.

We’d like to extend a BIG thank you to all of our contributors!  We are continuing to build a solid balance in our bank account–every penny will help our cause in the long run!

We have begun the first phase of our mission and we have affectionately named it “The Lost Dawg Campaign.”  The Board felt that our starting point for action should be to rebuild our alumni and support base.  There are many Huskies out there that we have lost contact with and we need to bring them back into the family.  We need to rekindle the spirit of Husky Swimming and galvanize support for our cause from within the Husky network.  Once we have the Husky team working together towards a common goal, then building a new facility and reinstating the programs can be achieved much quicker.

Heading the Lost Dawg Campaign will be Jana Vincent and Rick Colella.  We have established a sizable email list through our site’s subscription service, but we will be trying to track down additional alumni and supporter information (phone, address, etc.) in the coming weeks and months.  If you would like to update your contact information, please contact Jana or Rick.  And, PLEASE, forward our website along to any Lost Dawgs out there!

This is just a quick update to announce that the Foundation has added four new board members.  The Foundation’s Bylaws currently allow for eleven board positions and we are proud to add Andy Hathaway, Bill Patterson, Brandon Drawz, and Jana Vincent to the Board.  With the addition of these four, our current board is as follows:

• Catherine Clark, President
• Kelly Sterling, Secretary
• Ryan Stratton, Treasurer
• Ron Van Pool
• Rick Colella
• Mark Prothero
• Megan Wolfe
• Andy Hathaway
• Bill Patterson
• Brandon Drawz
• Jana Vincent

We have a great group of individuals with a wide range of experience both within the sport of swimming and professionally.

Our next scheduled Board meeting will be on July 8th and we will be sharing our progress with you as we move forward.

We thought it best to give you a recap of the month’s events and to provide an outline of how the Board plans to move forward:

• On May 28th, several members of the swimming community, including a few of our board members, had an opportunity to make a presentation to the Board of Regents.  There was no discussion–this was simply a presentation to the Regents regarding the University budget.  Subsequently, the Regents approved the budget without reinstating the program.
• On June 5th, the Board of Directors of the Husky Swimming Foundation held our first meeting to discuss Foundation goals (both short-term and long-term), an initial gameplan for accomplishing those goals, and to put together a small team to meet with Athletic Director Scott Woodward, and Assistant A.D., OD Vincent.  The initial board meeting was a positive step and a recap of our vision is below.
• On June 11th, a small group met with Woodward and Vincent to seek information regarding the program cuts, what could be done to save the program immediately, and to discuss the long-term vision of the Foundation.  The meeting went as expected–there is no workable immediate solution and the program will not be reinstated in time for the 2009-2010 season.  However, the athletic department is very much open to the concept of bringing back the program with a newly built facility and a program endowment.

So now we move forward.  At the June Board of Directors meeting, the Foundation Board formed seven committees that will begin to oversee the long-term commitment of the Foundation to build a new facility and to have the swim programs reinstated.  The committees are as follows:

1. Facility Committee
2. Fundraising Committee
3. Public Relations Committee
4. U.W. Liaison Committee (work with the University and Athletic Department)
5. Government Liaison Committee (Seattle, King County, Washington State, etc.)
6. Pacific Northwest Liaison Committee (work with Club, High School, Water Polo, Diving, and Synchro teams)
7. USA Swimming Liaison Committee (Work with USA Swimming)

At the next Board meeting, which is scheduled for July 8th, Board members will be assigned to oversee the committees, which will be open for membership from the city, county, University and swimming communities.  Each committee will have specific tasks and goals and will report to the Board on a monthly basis.  The overall goals of the Foundation are as follows:

1. Reinstatement of the UW Swimming Team by funding annual operating expenses, including scholarship endowments;
2. Construction of an aquatic facility to support the reinstatement of the UW Swimming Team and local communities; and
3. Support and promote the sport of swimming at all age levels and skill levels in the Pacific Northwest.

We greatly appreciate the support of everyone so far.  We have taken just a few steps on what will be a long journey, but we know that if we can all solidify our efforts behind a single, unified effort, that we will be successful.  Please stay tuned and look for an opportunity to help out.  We will be soliciting your volunteer time in the very near future!

The Foundation requested a meeting with athletic director, Scott Woodward, and a small group met with Woodward and O.D. Vincent yesterday morning.  Representing our interests were Rick Colella, Ron Van Pool, Kelly Sterling, Ralph Teller and Jeff Lowell.  It was a productive meeting which will definitely define our objectives as we begin to move forward. 

The group’s goal at the meeting was to get a better understanding of the decision, what (if anything) could be done to save the program immediately, and to share our long-term vision.  The decision remains a budgetary cut, but there will not be an opportunity to resume the program this year, with or without significant donations from the public.  However, the athletic department is very receptive of the Foundation’s long-term goal of construction of a new facility, program endowment, and reinstatement in the future.  It was mentioned specifically that Diving will have to be a part of the program, which we certainly envision with a new facility.

So, our short and long-term objectives can become much more clear now.  As mentioned in an earlier post, we will have a summary of our Board meeting from last week up shortly which will help set forth our agenda and plan of action as we move forward with the process of raising capital, building a new facility, and getting our program up and running again.  Please see this as a call to action!  The Foundation will be asking for your support, with both volunteer hours and monetary assistance.  The community needs a new aquatics facility, the Univeristy needs a swimming and diving program, and we will need your help to get it done.

On a related, but equally important note.  Husky Pool is in jeopardy of closure unless we can obtain renter and tenant commitments to use the pool.  The pool will be closed after the summer quarter if they cannot find enough tenants to pay for the cost of keeping it open.  We need to help get the word out to teams that may be interested in using the pool–High School Teams, USA Swimming Teams, Water Polo Teams–this is your official call to duty!  If the athletic department cannot find viable renters/tenants within the next 30 days, the decision to close the pool in August will be made.  If you are an interested party, please contact O.D. Vincent immediately (his phone number can be found HERE).

The Foundation board met last night to begin the process of creating short and long-term goals and a game-plan for accomplishing the Foundation’s primary missions:   program reinstatement and building a new facility.  We are in the process of putting together an Executive Summary of the meeting, which should help outline the direction we are heading and most importantly, the help we will need from you, our supporters.  It was a productive meeting and we have a great team in place!

We hope to have our summary up by mid-week, after the Board has had a chance to review the document. 

One result of the meeting was finalizing the team that will be meeting with the Athletic Director, Scott Woodward, and Assistant A.D., OD Vincent.  The meeting will be held this coming week and we will provide everyone with an update as soon as possible.