How many people are actually USMS members?

Originally posted by jennyfer80 i'm not a member yet. i definetly plan on joing, but not until i am ready for meets, probably early next year. i have questions though :) 1. can you swim in meets outside of your zone? like if i become a member of north carolina ms which is in the dixie zone, can i swim in meets in virginia? can i enter in meets by myself? should i just join virginia ms? (there are no teams i want to join in my area) 2. how do you qualify for national meets? do the times have to be swam in that season? thats all the questions for now. i'm sure i'll have more later..... thanks! First of all, most Masters swimmers rarely or never enter meets, so you don't have to be "ready" to compete to join USMS. But there really is no such thing, anyway. Swimmers at meets are all levels of ability and the competition is very low key -- there's no reason to be afraid that you're not ready or not competitive. But to answer the specific questions: 1. Yes, you can enter meets outside your zone (anywhere in the country, in fact) and you can enter by yourself -- you can always register "unattached" (even if you are on a team, usually you would send the entry yourself). 2. You don't actually have to meet any qualifying times to enter Nationals. Any swimmer can enter up to three events, without meeting qualifying times. If you want enter more than three though (up to six), you have to meet qualifying times within the preceding year.

Originally posted by jennyfer80 i'm not a member yet. i definetly plan on joing, but not until i am ready for meets, probably early next year. i have questions though :) 1. can you swim in meets outside of your zone? like if i become a member of north carolina ms which is in the dixie zone, can i swim in meets in virginia? can i enter in meets by myself? should i just join virginia ms? (there are no teams i want to join in my area) 2. how do you qualify for national meets? do the times have to be swam in that season? thats all the questions for now. i'm sure i'll have more later..... thanks! First of all, most Masters swimmers rarely or never enter meets, so you don't have to be "ready" to compete to join USMS. But there really is no such thing, anyway. Swimmers at meets are all levels of ability and the competition is very low key -- there's no reason to be afraid that you're not ready or not competitive. But to answer the specific questions: 1. Yes, you can enter meets outside your zone (anywhere in the country, in fact) and you can enter by yourself -- you can always register "unattached" (even if you are on a team, usually you would send the entry yourself). 2. You don't actually have to meet any qualifying times to enter Nationals. Any swimmer can enter up to three events, without meeting qualifying times. If you want enter more than three though (up to six), you have to meet qualifying times within the preceding year.