Letter from TRA GM to Market House Athletic Assn

General Manager

Three Rivers Aquatics

Mark Rauterkus

108 South 12th Street

Pittsburgh, PA 15203

email: Mark@SportSurf.Net

home: 412-481-2540

www.FreeTeam.Org/tra

August, 1999

Market House Athletic Assn.

City Parks Recreation Directors

Dear Friends of Sports on the South Side,

This letter is a formal request to all the good folks leading the programs at the South Side Market House, including the directors and booster-board, to begin a serious dialog concerning joint programming efforts.

Case in point: I'd like to attend your next board meeting, and perhaps a couple of meetings in the fall of 99. At the meetings it is imporant to make a review of past occurance, make an few summary statements, review our shared understandings of inventory and resources, and make some decisions about the future.

As you may or may be be aware, the TRA is a swim team, Three Rivers Aquatics that practices in the school months at the Oliver Bath House at 10th Street. The team used to be city-sponsored, then called, DPR (Dept. of Parks and Recreation). For the past number of years the team was organized with a parents board, and that has just recently changed so now the team has a "general manager." With new leaderships, the team is out to make a few significant changes, yet we are going to build upon our past.

We are going to "profesionalize" our management, hence we'll be a coach-operated organization with a new 501c3 charter. We are still going to be using the city facilities. Nonetheless, program changes are expected.

By all means, we want to work with the folks at the Market House to allow for an expansion of programming efforts so we can better serve the needs of the children in Pittsburgh. We want to put forth both the highest quality swim

experience with a competitive team capable of getting our kids onto the Olympic Team -- as well as offering well-rounded introduction to swimming programs that get the kids exercising in a new environment, making new friends, learning about themselves and having fun!

working with PHD -- but we need to be more clear on the relationship AND be sure we have higher-levels of coordination with future planning and expected happenings.

Case in point: In July 00, TRA is hopeful to organize a week-long day camp for its members, and others in the AMS. This day-camp will include a training session at Highland Park Pool and afternoons spent in a Zoo Camp. We'd like to present this info in its early planning stages to PHD so as to keep everyone up to date, and perhaps better craft this enrichment experience so as to accommodate more participants from PHD and throughout Penn Hills.

Another example is our hope to offer a two-month training and carnival swimming experience in August and September 2000, both at the Highland Park Pool and other facilities. The main goal of this camp is to get swimmers to stay in shape and enter the fall season with better conditioning -- as is the way with swimmers in other parts of the USA and from around the world. We hope to conclude this training period with an out-of-state swim meet, perhaps to Orlando -- much like an All-Star Team, but without the need to have fast times to qualify, only a willingness to improve.

By the time of your board meeting, other items of interest will be ready to be revealed to you. Some of these elements would be very easy to incorporate into offerings made available to those of the PHD. However, we have to share the ideas and increase the formal communications between our organizations if this is to occur for everyone's benefit.

Good luck to you, the team, its administration and all your competitors!

Sincerely Yours,

(NEW) GENERAL MANAGER

Three Rivers Aquatics

Mark Rauterkus