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.
Some quick thoughts for reflection:
I would prefer that our team handle the job of answering specific questions from potentials and making newbies feel welcome, and let the national handle the general questions, as most all responses suggest. Getting a national network too involved would defeat the premise that I see running though this thread - that the local club is "where the action is", and where the personal one-on-one contact works. USMS can do well with its general section for newcomers but for goodness sake, support local clubs as suggested instead of taking things out of their hands. I would prefer that potentials are referred to a club or LMSC and let us take it from there.
What is the emphasis?
Almost 90% of newcomers to our team come from our web site. (We have sucked up almost all the fitness lap swimmers in our pools already.) We find that most swimmers contemplating a dip into masters swimming are afraid of or not interested in competing. So why do most team web sites place meet schedules, meet results, top ten times, nationals, records, etc and links to such in a prominent place on their first page? What message does that convey to newcomers? Convention delegates are not the only ones emphasizing competition.
More human nature:
Our experience is that potentials who send an email (from our web site) asking for more information are really looking for comfort and reassurance. The info they are asking for is readily available on the site. A personal contact (even in an email) before trying the team out can go a long way to relieving the anxiety.
If newbies were able to find the USMS discussion boards on our site, chances are they found the "getting started" section, too. Maybe these posts are not really looking for information, but some emotional support. This should be an underlying theme in the responses we give.
Some quick thoughts for reflection:
I would prefer that our team handle the job of answering specific questions from potentials and making newbies feel welcome, and let the national handle the general questions, as most all responses suggest. Getting a national network too involved would defeat the premise that I see running though this thread - that the local club is "where the action is", and where the personal one-on-one contact works. USMS can do well with its general section for newcomers but for goodness sake, support local clubs as suggested instead of taking things out of their hands. I would prefer that potentials are referred to a club or LMSC and let us take it from there.
What is the emphasis?
Almost 90% of newcomers to our team come from our web site. (We have sucked up almost all the fitness lap swimmers in our pools already.) We find that most swimmers contemplating a dip into masters swimming are afraid of or not interested in competing. So why do most team web sites place meet schedules, meet results, top ten times, nationals, records, etc and links to such in a prominent place on their first page? What message does that convey to newcomers? Convention delegates are not the only ones emphasizing competition.
More human nature:
Our experience is that potentials who send an email (from our web site) asking for more information are really looking for comfort and reassurance. The info they are asking for is readily available on the site. A personal contact (even in an email) before trying the team out can go a long way to relieving the anxiety.
If newbies were able to find the USMS discussion boards on our site, chances are they found the "getting started" section, too. Maybe these posts are not really looking for information, but some emotional support. This should be an underlying theme in the responses we give.
