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
I have to preface this with the statement that I know how hard it is to apportion space on a home page but it may be symptomatic of the emphasis placed on different aspects of USMS activities that the home page has 14 major items in the main column and over 80 item links on the left, the virtual swims are reached via the "fitness events" link which is 51st in the list, you have to scroll the page to even see the fitness items in the list. Of the 14 major items in the center of the page only the workouts is of clear interest to the fitness swimmer. Some of the stuff under the 2004 Long Distance Championships heading might interest fitness swimmers (1hr postal etc) but the heading certainly doesn't pull in a fitness swimmer.
Off the top of my head, one way to address this is to have more than one "home page", each one tailored to a different kind of user, starting with perhaps one page tailored to fitness swimmers and one tailored to swim meet oriented swimmers. The key idea being that USMS has different constituencies that have different interests and a one size fits all appoach (single home page) results in a lot of potentially unnecessary compromises and unnecessary competition for space on the home page.
It seems like the virtual swims would be an ideal item to make interactive, i.e. have users input their progress daily or weekly instead of just sending it in at the end. Make it a kind of "virtual open water race".
Looking at the web development timeline (minutes)
11/01/04 Records & Top Ten
11/01/04 Registration database specification draft for review
12/01/04 Content management
12/24/04 History & archives
12/24/04 Site redesign
1/01/05 Online entry updates for local use
3/01/05 National publication integration
3/15/05 Short course nationals support
7/15/05 Long course nationals support
9/15/05 2006 Worlds online entries
11/01/05 Online registration beta test
including 500 hours (1/4 man year) of web developer time for Worlds online registration, I get the impression that there is an emphasis/priority on the meet-oriented swimmer being expressed here, there is no mention of any significant project specifically aimed at enhancing the fitness section of the site.
I realize I don't know all the factors that went into the various things I mention, but I think the basic point is valid, the USMS site doesn't currently demonstrate a clear emphasis on/commitment to the non-meet-oriented fitness swimmer. With a site redesign coming up now is the time to ensure that the new design presents fitness swimmers with a face that makes it clear USMS has something to offer to them. I've presented one idea above, what other suggestions do people have?
I have to preface this with the statement that I know how hard it is to apportion space on a home page but it may be symptomatic of the emphasis placed on different aspects of USMS activities that the home page has 14 major items in the main column and over 80 item links on the left, the virtual swims are reached via the "fitness events" link which is 51st in the list, you have to scroll the page to even see the fitness items in the list. Of the 14 major items in the center of the page only the workouts is of clear interest to the fitness swimmer. Some of the stuff under the 2004 Long Distance Championships heading might interest fitness swimmers (1hr postal etc) but the heading certainly doesn't pull in a fitness swimmer.
Off the top of my head, one way to address this is to have more than one "home page", each one tailored to a different kind of user, starting with perhaps one page tailored to fitness swimmers and one tailored to swim meet oriented swimmers. The key idea being that USMS has different constituencies that have different interests and a one size fits all appoach (single home page) results in a lot of potentially unnecessary compromises and unnecessary competition for space on the home page.
It seems like the virtual swims would be an ideal item to make interactive, i.e. have users input their progress daily or weekly instead of just sending it in at the end. Make it a kind of "virtual open water race".
Looking at the web development timeline (minutes)
11/01/04 Records & Top Ten
11/01/04 Registration database specification draft for review
12/01/04 Content management
12/24/04 History & archives
12/24/04 Site redesign
1/01/05 Online entry updates for local use
3/01/05 National publication integration
3/15/05 Short course nationals support
7/15/05 Long course nationals support
9/15/05 2006 Worlds online entries
11/01/05 Online registration beta test
including 500 hours (1/4 man year) of web developer time for Worlds online registration, I get the impression that there is an emphasis/priority on the meet-oriented swimmer being expressed here, there is no mention of any significant project specifically aimed at enhancing the fitness section of the site.
I realize I don't know all the factors that went into the various things I mention, but I think the basic point is valid, the USMS site doesn't currently demonstrate a clear emphasis on/commitment to the non-meet-oriented fitness swimmer. With a site redesign coming up now is the time to ensure that the new design presents fitness swimmers with a face that makes it clear USMS has something to offer to them. I've presented one idea above, what other suggestions do people have?
