General
Manager
Three
Rivers Aquatics
Mark
Rauterkus
108
South 12th Street
Pittsburgh,
PA 15203
email:
Mark@SportSurf.Net
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
Posts
