Online entries for the Colonies Zone SCY Championships opened today. The meet will be April 19-21, 2013 at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
Entry Form, Timeline and Team Roster are available at:
www.patriotmasters.org/ColoniesZone2013.htm
"Giving" isn't just about hosting meets, it is about contributing to the health of the masters swimming community.
But as an aside, hosting an event certainly IS a good way for a large club with resources can contribute to that community: VMST, with fewer than half the numbers of FXCM, will host at least 3 pool meets and 2 OW races this year. I should point out that many of these event also make the club money, so VMST can also benefit. It is indeed sometimes better to give than to receive...!
But I can't think of any time that VMST or even any other group "gobbled up" an event virtually all by its lonesome. What's more, VMST swimmers, as with swimmers in other clubs, tend to participate in races throughout the meet. I just checked for FXCM: 104 swimmers on Friday (out of 128 possible spots), 24 on Saturday, 17 on Sunday.
That pattern is not the recipe for a healthy event, and the effects ripple. Look at tjrpatt for an example of how this sort of thing might change participation: because his favorite event isn't there he won't make the trip. So the effect is to reduce the number of swimmers, the average number of events each swimmer participates in -- both of which cost the host money -- and to degrade the "social capital" of the meet by not integrating well with the other swimmers, possibly turning people off from attending in future years.
"Giving" isn't just about hosting meets, it is about contributing to the health of the masters swimming community.
But as an aside, hosting an event certainly IS a good way for a large club with resources can contribute to that community: VMST, with fewer than half the numbers of FXCM, will host at least 3 pool meets and 2 OW races this year. I should point out that many of these event also make the club money, so VMST can also benefit. It is indeed sometimes better to give than to receive...!
But I can't think of any time that VMST or even any other group "gobbled up" an event virtually all by its lonesome. What's more, VMST swimmers, as with swimmers in other clubs, tend to participate in races throughout the meet. I just checked for FXCM: 104 swimmers on Friday (out of 128 possible spots), 24 on Saturday, 17 on Sunday.
That pattern is not the recipe for a healthy event, and the effects ripple. Look at tjrpatt for an example of how this sort of thing might change participation: because his favorite event isn't there he won't make the trip. So the effect is to reduce the number of swimmers, the average number of events each swimmer participates in -- both of which cost the host money -- and to degrade the "social capital" of the meet by not integrating well with the other swimmers, possibly turning people off from attending in future years.
