OEVT question for Event Directors

Hi Nicole! Southern Pacific LMSC also only offers OEVT membership for our sanctioned open water events. We do not offer OEVT for sanctioned pool meets, except for one or two that are annual fundraising types of meets. And then the host has to get approval to offer OEVT registration from our LMSC Executive Committee.

OEVT participants do not represent a club, they are not able to swim in "legal" relays, and they are not eligible for official times, top ten, or other awards. So, any pool results need to have these participants removed from the backup. For open water, the host can download a spreadsheet with the OEVT entry information from Club Assistant to forward to USMS as required. We then invoice the host for the total fees for the OEVT participants, since USMS "invoices" the LMSC for the total OEVT membership fee amount per event.

We have not found that OEVT individuals join USMS. In fact some are previous USMS members who only want to participate in the open water swim or the fundraiser meet.

Hi Nicole! Southern Pacific LMSC also only offers OEVT membership for our sanctioned open water events. We do not offer OEVT for sanctioned pool meets, except for one or two that are annual fundraising types of meets. And then the host has to get approval to offer OEVT registration from our LMSC Executive Committee.

OEVT participants do not represent a club, they are not able to swim in "legal" relays, and they are not eligible for official times, top ten, or other awards. So, any pool results need to have these participants removed from the backup. For open water, the host can download a spreadsheet with the OEVT entry information from Club Assistant to forward to USMS as required. We then invoice the host for the total fees for the OEVT participants, since USMS "invoices" the LMSC for the total OEVT membership fee amount per event.

We have not found that OEVT individuals join USMS. In fact some are previous USMS members who only want to participate in the open water swim or the fundraiser meet.

Thank you, Robin. I knew everything about what they can and cannot do. I was curious about whether you find that they join and whether the people who process this find it onerous. 

In the Gulf, we have too many people who do not participate in any event. We are looking at this from every angle.

The national office would have more data than an LMSC board about the percentage of OEVT members who ultimately join USMS. I doubt many if any LMSCs track or have the means to track that data. I have asked Membership Services about this over the years, during both the Hughes and Butcher administrations, and now as then the answer I've received is hardly any OEVT members join USMS within a few months of a OEVT purchase. I don't know the percentage but feel free to ask Membership Services directly. I'd be surprised if it's more than 3%.

Hi Nicole, we have found that our OEVT participants do NOT join USMS (open water and pool meet participants).

For pool meets, the meet admin has extra work to do to remove the OEVT swimmers and their times from MM and the backup. This is onerous and has to be done before the results are final.

For open water races, the info is requested by USMS about month after the event, so it is hard to get the host to report the number of participants (not number who registered) and provide the OEVT details. Our Open Water Chair and I (as Sanction Chair) have to remind the host how to do this. We have tried to be proactive and get the info earlier, but it doesn't always work and we have to remind the host multiple times regarding what they need to provide.

Note that OEVT registration was not offered when we hosted the USMS OWNC Festival and one of our open water hosts doesn't offer OEVT registration for their events due to capacity limits at their venue. So we do get some new members due to this.

Separately, Our LMSC Annual Meeting is always in November and it usually includes a stroke & turn clinic. And our big LMSC SCM Championship Meet in Long Beach is always in December. We have found that participants do join USMS in order to attend these events and their membership carries over to the following year.

FOMO works better than OEVT in motivating people to join USMS, especially November-March.

Robin, you mentioned that any pool results need to have these OEVT participants removed from the backup.  That is not quite accurate.

OEVT swimmers are part of the official results, even though their swims cannot count for any USMS awards.  They should be uploaded as part of the meet results, just as other swims like 25-yard swims are uploaded.  The local Top Ten Recorder makes sure those swimmers are listed as non-members, and then the swims will automatically NOT be included for top ten or other awards.  The Event Results database is NOT just for Top Ten and awards.  Per the Guide to Operations for Top Ten Recorders (page 2) of the General Information:

Statement of Purpose: The USMS Event Results Database (ERDB) is the repository of official results from events that are formally Sanctioned or Recognized by USMS. The ERDB is used to list a swimmer's results and may be used to generate awards and recognition data, such as seasonal top 10 lists. Data will be maintained for meets, long distance pool events, and open water events.

Then on page 4 of that same document, 1^st bullet, it explains: One-event members should be marked as non-members in the auditing process in the Top Ten Tools.

Thanks Mary Beth. I knew that for our first Gulf LMSC hosted swim meet (Hallowmeet) and I did not delete them but designated them as OVET and then sent them to our Membership Coordinator. I was both Meet Director and and the Administrator Official running the HyTek Meet Manager software and doing all of the pre and post meet emails and reports. This meet was set up for both experienced swimmers and swimmers who had never been to a swim meet. We did do OVET and the process was not onerous at all. 

Just want to clarify and clear up any misunderstanding. As I stated, our LMSC does not offer OEVT registration for sanctioned pool meets. For the occasional fundraising meet where the host would like to offer OEVT registration, any OEVT swimmers only participate in the nonconforming fun unofficial events listed on the order of events stated in the meet announcement.