We have been recently kicking around the idea of doing a "Dash for Cash" type of meet and wanted to know a few things first..
- Is doing this type of meet legal by USMS rules, or is there certain criteria that have to be satisfied (out of the oridnary sanctioning stuff) to keep everything "above board"?
- Has anyone done this before, and if so, what pitfalls / benefits are there for this type of a meet?
- If this has been done before, how was the turnout and what did you think made a great difference in how the meet went overall?
Any constructive feedback on this would be appreciated..
Thanks In Advance!
Rob Nasser
Parents
Former Member
Greets!
I was in a small Masters meet in Kenora (Ontario, Canada) in January '02 and they gave out heat prizes - ie: the first heat of men would be on the blocks for their 50M free, and the starter would hand over the microphone to one of the Hosting Club's members who would then say something like:
"The person who comes in third(second/first/fourth) in this heat will win this lovely ashtray(City of London, Ontario plate/CD of music/whatever)", but our team never seemed to figure out if there was any set pattern to when they'd select a heat to give out prizes to.
I, as a recreo-competitive Masters swimmer (ie: I compete at meets but I'm far from the fastest in my age group and that's okay by me, I'm here for the fun/fitness aspect), found the prize-giving made the meet that much more interesting. The prizes themselves were... well... "interesting" - I think the hosting club asked members to donate things they don't need anymore that are in good shape - but it's not like we paid for them to GIVE prizes at the meet, so while it was fun, I don't know if anyone got a prize of practical value.
This particular Host Club did very well in terms of prizes, etc, at the banquet after the meet. The club was able to get enough donations from local businesses to hold a raffle with a lot of neat prizes (approximately $10 in value each), and for me, who won two prizes with my raffle tickets, it ended the meet experience perfectly.
Now, this was a small meet, and a lot of the participants were 40+ and had gone into less than 5 meets by this time. You can probably entertain us newbies a lot more easily than experienced folk at the larger meets. :)
Jill
Masters Swimmer
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
http://www.mmac.mb.ca
Greets!
I was in a small Masters meet in Kenora (Ontario, Canada) in January '02 and they gave out heat prizes - ie: the first heat of men would be on the blocks for their 50M free, and the starter would hand over the microphone to one of the Hosting Club's members who would then say something like:
"The person who comes in third(second/first/fourth) in this heat will win this lovely ashtray(City of London, Ontario plate/CD of music/whatever)", but our team never seemed to figure out if there was any set pattern to when they'd select a heat to give out prizes to.
I, as a recreo-competitive Masters swimmer (ie: I compete at meets but I'm far from the fastest in my age group and that's okay by me, I'm here for the fun/fitness aspect), found the prize-giving made the meet that much more interesting. The prizes themselves were... well... "interesting" - I think the hosting club asked members to donate things they don't need anymore that are in good shape - but it's not like we paid for them to GIVE prizes at the meet, so while it was fun, I don't know if anyone got a prize of practical value.
This particular Host Club did very well in terms of prizes, etc, at the banquet after the meet. The club was able to get enough donations from local businesses to hold a raffle with a lot of neat prizes (approximately $10 in value each), and for me, who won two prizes with my raffle tickets, it ended the meet experience perfectly.
Now, this was a small meet, and a lot of the participants were 40+ and had gone into less than 5 meets by this time. You can probably entertain us newbies a lot more easily than experienced folk at the larger meets. :)
Jill
Masters Swimmer
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
http://www.mmac.mb.ca
