I have heartburn with the POLICY (not RULE) that no refund is given when a swimmer’s sixth event is dropped by the championship committee. When this policy is invoked, the affected swimmers are essentially taxed through no fault of their own or the meet host. I’m not familiar with any other type of event where a person pays to participate, is denied participation and is not returned the entry fee even though the event occurs.
Is there a reasonable reason why this policy exists?
Frosty,
I appreciate your irritation with this, but we have already talked this one through several months ago. USMS and its subsidiary activities are a VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATION! There is no "them"; we're in charge. There is no pot of money that is supporting anyone's lavish lifestyle. The meet entry fees cover the costs of the event. Nationals cost what Nationals cost. If we are charging too much, we need to lower the event fees for everyone because, I repeat, this is our organization; we charge ourselves what it costs to do our events; there are no leftover funds for people who feel they did not get their money's worth.
I really do understand why you think this is unfair. At the last SC Nationals, if you signed up for 6 events, you would pay $54 ($30 meet entry fee + $4 x 6 events), while someone swimming 5 events would pay $50. If they had invoked the 6th Event Rule (which they did not this last time, BTW), both of you would have swam the same 5 events. Is it a little unfair? Yeah, but do we really need to get excited over $4?! Again, we are a volunteer organization. How do you want our limited supply of voulunteers at Nationals to spend their time? Making sure the meet runs smoothly, and that people get to swim what they want to swim when they expect to swim it? Or would you prefer they spend the HOURS it would take to cut $4 checks to the people who lost their 6th event? Just consider the cost of mailing them out. Ignoring the value of the time of the volunteers, the out of pocket expenses (postage, stationary, check fee) would be in the range of 15% - 20% of the value of the refund. Put it another way, while you were in Tempe, you probably spent more than $4 on gatoraide and powerbars (or leaving the waiter/waitress a decent tip after eating out on night). C'mon already, move on.
Matt
Frosty,
I appreciate your irritation with this, but we have already talked this one through several months ago. USMS and its subsidiary activities are a VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATION! There is no "them"; we're in charge. There is no pot of money that is supporting anyone's lavish lifestyle. The meet entry fees cover the costs of the event. Nationals cost what Nationals cost. If we are charging too much, we need to lower the event fees for everyone because, I repeat, this is our organization; we charge ourselves what it costs to do our events; there are no leftover funds for people who feel they did not get their money's worth.
I really do understand why you think this is unfair. At the last SC Nationals, if you signed up for 6 events, you would pay $54 ($30 meet entry fee + $4 x 6 events), while someone swimming 5 events would pay $50. If they had invoked the 6th Event Rule (which they did not this last time, BTW), both of you would have swam the same 5 events. Is it a little unfair? Yeah, but do we really need to get excited over $4?! Again, we are a volunteer organization. How do you want our limited supply of voulunteers at Nationals to spend their time? Making sure the meet runs smoothly, and that people get to swim what they want to swim when they expect to swim it? Or would you prefer they spend the HOURS it would take to cut $4 checks to the people who lost their 6th event? Just consider the cost of mailing them out. Ignoring the value of the time of the volunteers, the out of pocket expenses (postage, stationary, check fee) would be in the range of 15% - 20% of the value of the refund. Put it another way, while you were in Tempe, you probably spent more than $4 on gatoraide and powerbars (or leaving the waiter/waitress a decent tip after eating out on night). C'mon already, move on.
Matt
