I'm guilty of it. I imagine we're all guilty of it: seeing a meet announcement and seeing our favorite two events back to back, or four events we want to swim on one day and then only 1 then next day. We get irritated and wonder why the meet director couldn't have designed this to better suit our needs? We moan at workout, whine on the forums, ***** on our blogs, etc. I'd like to encourage my fellow forumites to join me in taking a pledge:
I hereby pledge to:
just be grateful that there are volunteers, teams and facilities willing to host Masters meets,
recognize that no matter how hard these dedicated volunteers try, they'll never be able to create the order of events that satisfies all Masters swimmer,
recognize that, even if I can't swim those two favorite events in this meet because they are back to back (or whatever my complaint is), I've got a multi-decade Masters career ahead of me in which to swim them at different meets,
to, therefore, stop whining/moaning about the order of events, and
look at a different order of events as an opportunity to branch out and try new events!
Signed,
Patrick "Indebted to Masters Meet Directors/Officials/Volunteers" Brundage
As one who does the entry forms, based on a grid system, for Oregon Masters, I will take the pledge and will be happy with those how do as well. I've been doing the entry forms for about 10 years now and have personally only heard 2 complaints.
So Allen, take the pledge so I can relax more :)
Allen was one of the two, wasn't he? :bolt:
More seriously: I understand that not everyone can be satisfied, and absolutely volunteers deserve gratitude for the jobs they do. I can choose events according to the meet.
The only thing I would suggest to meet directors is maybe to move things around a little from year to year, like nationals does. If it is the SAME event order year after year after year, that means you always have the same choices or sacrifices to make.
As one who does the entry forms, based on a grid system, for Oregon Masters, I will take the pledge and will be happy with those how do as well. I've been doing the entry forms for about 10 years now and have personally only heard 2 complaints.
So Allen, take the pledge so I can relax more :)
Allen was one of the two, wasn't he? :bolt:
More seriously: I understand that not everyone can be satisfied, and absolutely volunteers deserve gratitude for the jobs they do. I can choose events according to the meet.
The only thing I would suggest to meet directors is maybe to move things around a little from year to year, like nationals does. If it is the SAME event order year after year after year, that means you always have the same choices or sacrifices to make.
