Hi Everyone:

LaSalle University will be closed on Wednesday, November 26th through Friday November 28th for the Thanksgiving Holiday. We will return to swimming on December 1st.
Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.

It's that time of year again to sign up for your child's favorite event - the 1650 at GA on January 4th. As before, Karen has requested that children in the elite group sign up for this meet. If you have any questions regarding sign-up, please talk to Karen. The meet information was emailed to those of you for whom this applies. Entries are due by the end of practice on Tuesday (November 25th) before the Thanksgiving Holiday. For those of you who have escrowed money you may send your entries to meetreg@swim4cac.org. For everyone else, pleaser register at the pool.

It's time to sign up for our next swim meet for children 9 and over. The next meet with be on January 10th and 11th at GCIT in Gloucester, NJ. For those of you new to the club, GCIT is approx 10 minutes over the Walt Whitman Bridge. It's a very nice facility. Please talk to your child's coach before signing up for the meet so they can help you pick the events your child should swim.
Meet registrations will be due by the close of practice on Tuesday, November 25th. For those of you who have escrowed money for meet fees, please send your child's entries to meetreg@swim4cac.org. If you have not escrowed money, you may sign up at the pool.

We will be signing up for our next mini-meet in January in a couple of weeks.

There are a few dates over the next few months that the pool will be unavailable due to LaSalle Basketball games in the fieldhouse. We are trying to work out other dates over the winter break between Christmas and New Years that we may be able to swim. We will let you know once we hear back from LaSalle.

DATES LASALLE POOL UNAVAILABLE:
NOVEMBER 18TH
DECEMBER 2ND
DECEMBER 17TH
DECEMBER 23RD
JANUARY 21ST
JANUARY 28TH
FEBRUARY 4TH
FEBRUARY 18TH
MARCH 4TH

Dear CAC Families:
 
We just received word from LaSalle University that we can start swimming on November 3rd!!  We would have 3-4 lanes Monday-Friday from 7:15-8:45.  The bronze and silver groups will swim from 7:15-8:15 and the gold and elite groups will swim from 7:15-8:45. 

Directions to LaSalle University pool: 2000 W. Olney Ave.

Cheltenham Ave. to R on Ogontz Ave. to R on Olney Ave. Pool (Hayman Center) and parking lot are one block up on left. It is an easy 15 minutes from Cheltenham High School. [see #32 on campus map http://www.lasalle.edu/campusmap/temp/Campus_Map_1280_above.html]
 
Before we can set a fee schedule we need to know how many children would be interested in swimming at LaSalle.  We know it is hard to commit without knowing a price, but the more children interested in swimming the lower the price will become. Please remember that unlike Cheltenham H.S., we do need to pay LaSalle for pool time.  The fees that we will be paying to LaSalle are very reasonable considering how many lanes they are allowing us to use. 
 
We will accommodate any CAC HS swimmer for the first two weeks of November and pro-rate the fee.
 
Please let us know by Monday whether you are interested in having your child swim. Once we receive a total number of swimmers we will let everyone know a price.  We promise we will keep it as low as possible.
 
For those of you who won't be swimming with us this Fall/Winter season, we hope too see you in the Spring.
 
Thank you again for all your patience during this time.  We appreciate all your kind emails and support.

Dear Cheltenham Aquatic Club Families,
The CAC Board met last night following the Tuesday Cheltenham School Board meeting.  Thanks to all of you who showed your support at the meeting.  Unfortunately, it appears that the pool will be closed for the next 6 months while bids go out and repairs are made.  As a result, we are canceling our Fall/Winter session and will pick up again with our Spring session in April.

We will issue full refunds to all families and will not charge for the few weeks that we were able to swim.  We were also able to get refunds from USA Swimming!  Please be patient while we do the required paperwork for 90+ swimmers in order to process your refund. (I hope that didn’t sound too much like the IRS)

New swimmers will not be able to swim in the upcoming Nov. 1 meet because they will not be registered with USA Swimming.

“ Old” swimmers –Since you are currently registered with USA Swimming, if you are interested in swimming at the Nov. 1 GA meet and Nov 23 JW meet, please let us know by Sat. Oct. 18 so that your refund can be adjusted appropriately to account for meet coaching fees, which will be determined by the number of swimmers swimming.

We are currently pursuing 2 options for those swimmers who wish to continue swimming as part of CAC but at a different pool.  The 2 locations are 25-30 minutes away, depending on where you live, and the times would be a bit later.  We will keep you updated as soon as we get confirmation on prices, daily availability, etc. We will re-register swimmers at that point.

Thank you all for your extreme patience and flexibility.  We hope to see all of you in the Spring at the newly heated CHS pool or within the next few weeks at our alternate location!

The CAC Board

Dear CAC Families:
We are writing to let you know some of the efforts going on behind the scene. The Business Committee of the Cheltenham Township School Board is providing a report on the pool situation to the School Board on Tuesday
at the School Board Meeting. We expect during the public comments part of the meeting that many CHS parents and students will speak about the situation. Timing is not certain, but public comments will probably take place towards the end of the meeting.

Many people have been asking what they can do for us. We believe that a show of support at the board meeting from CAC members who are Cheltenham residents would be the best thing we can do. If you would like to speak during the public comments, please feel free. Just remember that the focus needs to be on the pool and not on other projects going on in the district. The pool being closed is not only affecting our swimmers and the HS swimmers, but all of our coaches, adult school employees and township employees that have lost their jobs. The board meeting is this Tuesday, October 14th at 7:45 @ the Administration Building, 2000 Ashbourne Road @ Washington Lane. Even if you can't make it to
the meeting on time, please try and attend since public comments will not occur until later in the meeting.

We are still waiting for phone calls back from various facilities. We will be having a CAC board meeting on Wednesday after we see what happens at the school board meeting. We will send out an email on Thursday letting you know what will
happen with the club until the pool re-opens. We wanted to thank all those families that have sent us supportive emails.

We appreciate all the support.
The CAC Board

Dear Cheltenham Aquatic Club Families,
We were informed on Tuesday that the Cheltenham High School pool will be closed until a new heating system can be installed. They have estimated that the process of bids and repairs will take at least 3 months. Needless to say, we are devastated to hear this. We had an emergency Board meeting on Tuesday night along with Head Coach, Karen Wirtshafter. We will be pursuing several options over the next few days in trying to get pool time. Unfortunately, this is a bad time to look for pool space, as several clubs in the area are currently without their own pools due to construction and/or repairs.

We have contacted USA Swimming and they will put a hold on the $57 US Swimming fee. Meet fees are not refundable but we have not yet sent in the meet fees for the Dec. meet at GA; the meet for this weekend and in November at GA are still on.

What is the worst case scenario? Our season will not start until sometime in January. If that is the case, we will refund your club fee in full and reregister at that time.

What is a better scenario? We will find pool time in the next week or so and prorate your fee if you decide to swim in our alternate location.

What can you do in the meantime? Put polite pressure on anyone you know in the township or school district administration. Attend the Cheltenham Township Board meeting next week to support the pool repairs, if it makes it to the agenda. We strongly encourage any parent of a CHS swimmer to contact members of the school board before the meeting and question the length of the repairs and what can be done to facilitate the process.

Thank you for your patience; there is a lot beyond our control and we are doing everything that we can to move ahead in a positive direction. If you have any constructive suggestions, please let us know immediately. We will post information on the website and send you an email as soon as we get any news and will also post your questions and answers in case anyone else has similar concerns.

Thanks again!
The CAC Board

We have a few days coming up were there will be no swimming because the Cheltenham School District will be closed for the Jewish Holidays. Please mark your calendars for the following dates when the pool will be closed:
September 30th
October 1st
October 9th

The rule of thumb is, if the school district is closed we will not have swimming. We are waiting for our complete list of dates from the school district and will pass them along when they are received.

Please remember that October 6th @ 6:15 is our parent's meeting. This meeting is important and at least one parent or guardian should try and attend. Personal Best will also be at the pool beginning at 5:45 to sell our team suit. We will also have team caps available for sale.

Meet registrations for the meet being held at GA on December 13th and 14th will also be due on October 6th. Meet information for this meet is available in the Meets section of this website. We will be going over how to register for meets at the parent's meeting, so if you have questions on registering for meets we will be available to discuss this with you.

Team Picture night will be October 22nd this year. Please make every effort to have your swimmer at the pool this night for the team photo. Envelopes will be available soon.

REMINDER: parent's meeting on Monday, October 6th beginning at 6:15 in the pool lobby.

Please try and get your child to swimming on time. I know that this is not always possible, but please do your best. For those gold and elite swimmers who are not planning on attending dry-land at 5:45, please do not come to the pool until 6:10 when we get in the pool. If your child comes before 6:10, please make sure they know they will have to participate in dry-land and to bring sneakers.

Children should bring all their personal belongs to the pool deck, unless they bring a lock and lock up their things in the locker room. There are many activities going on in the school and many groups using the locker room.

There will be a parent meeting on Oct. 6 from 6:15-6:45 PM at the pool. Team suits will be available for purchase from Personal Best from 5:45-6:15 PM and following the meeting. If you cannot make it on that night, the suits will be available at Personal Best (Academy and Grant Rds. in the strip mall).

We will be signing up for the first two meets of the season at registration this year for children 9 and over. We need to do
this to avoid being closed out of the meets. The last day to sign up for these meets will be Tuesday, September 16th.
Our first meet of the season is scheduled for October 11 & 12 at GCIT in Gloucester, NJ. The second meet of the season, which is our most popular, is being held at GA on November 1st and 2nd. Meet information is available on our website.

Dear Past, Present and Future CAC Members:
Summer swimming is over and that can mean only one thing ... it's time for Fall/Winter swimming! Registration will take place at the pool entrance on the following days and times:
September 15th & 16th - 5:30-7:30 September 22nd - 5:30-7:30
If you can't make it to registration you can either print out the registration form attached to this email or download the registration form and mail it to Cheltenham Aquatic Club, P.O. Box 83, Glenside, PA 19038.
We are still waiting for confirmation by the Cheltenham School District that the pool will be ready for us to start swimming on September 15th. Once we get notice we will send an email and post it on the website.

We have instituted a new policy regarding meet registration due to meets closing out early. Once meet information is posted on Middle Atlantic's website we will send out an email attaching the meet information. Families will have 48 hours after the email is sent to sign up for meets. Because of this change, we will once again be allowing registrations by email IF you have escrowed money at registration. A $100.00 escrow payment for meet registration at the time of registration is required for registering by email. If you choose not to use the email registration, you will have to have your meet registration and payment at the pool before the deadline posted on the website and in our email. NO LATE REGISTRATIONS WILL BE ALLOWED THIS YEAR.

We pride ourselves on our success with our swimmers and our flexible scheduling for you and your swimmers. We are also the most reasonably priced USA Swimming club in the area and we are happy to announce that for the second year, prices will remain the same.
Please feel free to e-mail us at info@swim4cac.org if you have any questions.

Welcome to the Cheltenham Aquatic Club's 2008-09 swim season. The 2008-09 flier contains registration information, explanations of practice groupings, and tentative prices.

PLEASE NOTE: Registration dates and season start dates are tentative until confirmed by the Cheltenham School District.

Please be sure to download the lastest copy of the CAC team handbook. Parents and swimmers will need to sign the Swimmers' Code of Conduct by the end of the first week of practice.

NO PRACTICE DUE TO SCHOOL CLOSINGS (subject to change):

Oct. 6 2008 :

There will be a parent meeting on Oct. 6 from 6:15-6:45 PM at the pool. Team suits will be available for purchase from Personal Best from 5:45-6:15 PM and following the meeting. If you cannot make it on that night, the suits will be available at Personal Best (Academy and Grant Rds. in the strip mall).

Aug. 2008