At the convention I kept hearing...
"Swimming is the number one choice of exercise in adults" and
"Ask anyone and they'll be able to tell you gow beneficial swimming is" and similar phrases...
Well, I can't dipute the facty that swimming is good for you, one of the best forms of exercise there is.
Now, having said that, I can't help it notice that even in this 'day and age' where so many people are close to obsessed with fitness and exercise - especially in California - the USMS membership of some 40,000 is only 0.15% of the population of the US.
This leads me to think that we (the USMS) has missed the boat somewhere!!!
Coming back from my fiorst convention, I see that thewre is a lot of focus on competetive swimming, and most of the delegates and BOD nad EC are either current or former competetive swimmers, and naturally the focus would be on competing.
That alone is wonderful... BUT...
It is my understanding that close to 80% of the USMS membership consists of fitness swimmers.
Also, I hear that :
- in the last 2-3 years the USMS membership has been stagnating.
- USMS does want to grow in membership.
And...
at the convention, I see 'fitness' as being an auxiliary, almost a stepchild focus to the competetive side.
Don't get me wrong, I love to compete myself, BUT...
Competetive adult swimmers are a very narrow demographic and if USMS wants to grow, they (we) need to find more attractive ways to "build-educate-service" our potential fitness swimmers.
I find it puzzling that many 'fitness swimmers' will readily enter open water swims, but when they hear of a swim meet, they don't think they're good enough for it... I've done both, and let me tewll you, swim meets are much easier, especially for a first timer, then an open water mile swim in an ocean or a lake.
I also see coaches right here in this forum that are having a hard time explaining to their fitness swimmers why (other then insurance that some clubs require) they should be members of USMS.
I think USMS is failing in it's core objectives when it comes to attracting membership, servicing them and educatiing them, which I strongly believe will mostly come from the fitness side.
Well, this is all that comes to mind at the moment. I'm hoping to eventually refine the thoughts.
Comments, thoughts anyone? I'd love to have some dialogue about this and hear what other people think.
Parents
Former Member
Originally posted by LindsayNB
A key issue that needs to be considered is how to measure success. Should USMS success be measured by the number of USMS members or by the number of adults who are actively swimming? The mission statement supports the latter, but how do you measure that?
One possibility is to find a way to get swimmers to register without necessarily becoming paying members, but you still need to provide some motivation to get them to spend the time to register. You could also try to get clubs to register the number of swimmers they have, you still need to offer the clubs something to motivate them, perhaps a listing on the web site to advertise their existance and services to potential new members. Dealing with clubs does reduce the overhead.
Anyway, I just want to point out that number of USMS members is not necessarily the right metric for measuring success.
In response to Emmett, what services would you like to see USMS offer to clubs and coaches?
Well, I don't think we necessarily want to just have more registered members because they are required. That doesn't do much for the growth of a happy functioning organization and is usually very short lived result.
I'd much rather have members who actually want to belong, because they thinkthey are benefiting from the membership (in ways other than just insurance)
As for measuring the sucess... that's another long multi faceted topic. Ways of doing this are many.
For one, just the fact that many, or parhaps most coaches don't think that USMS offers much to the fitness swimmer is a pointer that something is not functioning. I kjnow there is desire to reach the fitness swimmer, but the result is ... as you see, many of them see no reason or benefit to being a member.
Also, I don't think we need to be overly concerned with measuring sucess before we have a detailed plan in place on what we want to accomplish. The core objectives of the USMS aren't the plan, they're just a broad bruch begining of it.
Once a number of tasks necessary to accomplish the general plan have been defined, measuring whether the tasks have been sucessfully completed or not won't be as hard, or asd much of an esotherical topic. It will become a puzzle that will fall into place, almost on it's own.
Originally posted by LindsayNB
A key issue that needs to be considered is how to measure success. Should USMS success be measured by the number of USMS members or by the number of adults who are actively swimming? The mission statement supports the latter, but how do you measure that?
One possibility is to find a way to get swimmers to register without necessarily becoming paying members, but you still need to provide some motivation to get them to spend the time to register. You could also try to get clubs to register the number of swimmers they have, you still need to offer the clubs something to motivate them, perhaps a listing on the web site to advertise their existance and services to potential new members. Dealing with clubs does reduce the overhead.
Anyway, I just want to point out that number of USMS members is not necessarily the right metric for measuring success.
In response to Emmett, what services would you like to see USMS offer to clubs and coaches?
Well, I don't think we necessarily want to just have more registered members because they are required. That doesn't do much for the growth of a happy functioning organization and is usually very short lived result.
I'd much rather have members who actually want to belong, because they thinkthey are benefiting from the membership (in ways other than just insurance)
As for measuring the sucess... that's another long multi faceted topic. Ways of doing this are many.
For one, just the fact that many, or parhaps most coaches don't think that USMS offers much to the fitness swimmer is a pointer that something is not functioning. I kjnow there is desire to reach the fitness swimmer, but the result is ... as you see, many of them see no reason or benefit to being a member.
Also, I don't think we need to be overly concerned with measuring sucess before we have a detailed plan in place on what we want to accomplish. The core objectives of the USMS aren't the plan, they're just a broad bruch begining of it.
Once a number of tasks necessary to accomplish the general plan have been defined, measuring whether the tasks have been sucessfully completed or not won't be as hard, or asd much of an esotherical topic. It will become a puzzle that will fall into place, almost on it's own.
