Recruiting

I totally disagree. I think public pools are absolutely essential to the sport. I'm not saying pools should be totally free, but the fee should be reasonable. Define what's reasonable to you? To me, charging the price that allows a business to stay in business is very reasonable. I fear that if all pools are private you're going to exclude a large segment of the population from swimming. And, yes, I'll admit it, I'm a bleeding heart. Bleeding heart... Then I'm afraid we won't agree on much... *sigh* Bleeding hearts are for debutants and beauty pageants and similar fairytales :p So back to growing the membership of USMS. Let me pose this question: why do you think it is important to grow USMS? And using the fact that it is one of USMS's "core objectives" doesn't count. Oh, let's not grow, let's stagnate and be mediocre instead. While the economy and the rest of the world passes by. Let's freeze the USMS just the way it was in 1973. We got our own little spot, and let's not share it with anyone else, and hide inside our little blue blanket. I'm sorry, if you can't see reasons for growth, I'm not the right person to explain them to you (in a calm manner). Edit: and let me clarify my position. I'm not opposed to growing USMS. I just feel that membership is already at an acceptable level. I don't believe raising my membership fees or meet fees to furhter market USMS is the right thing to do. I don't agree with you, sorry, I really couldn't possibly disagree more. We're diametrically opposed on this. Frankly, this is just the thing that is extremely irritating within parts of USMS, there's a group of people that are afraid of everything, and look at most things half empty and disagree with almost everything. There's just enough of the doomsdayers and nay-sayers to stifle and filibuster every effort, and enough people afraid to stand up to them that a lot of efforts just die off in a fear of confrontation. I really hope that change of governance will suceed in getting past that.

I totally disagree. I think public pools are absolutely essential to the sport. I'm not saying pools should be totally free, but the fee should be reasonable. Define what's reasonable to you? To me, charging the price that allows a business to stay in business is very reasonable. I fear that if all pools are private you're going to exclude a large segment of the population from swimming. And, yes, I'll admit it, I'm a bleeding heart. Bleeding heart... Then I'm afraid we won't agree on much... *sigh* Bleeding hearts are for debutants and beauty pageants and similar fairytales :p So back to growing the membership of USMS. Let me pose this question: why do you think it is important to grow USMS? And using the fact that it is one of USMS's "core objectives" doesn't count. Oh, let's not grow, let's stagnate and be mediocre instead. While the economy and the rest of the world passes by. Let's freeze the USMS just the way it was in 1973. We got our own little spot, and let's not share it with anyone else, and hide inside our little blue blanket. I'm sorry, if you can't see reasons for growth, I'm not the right person to explain them to you (in a calm manner). Edit: and let me clarify my position. I'm not opposed to growing USMS. I just feel that membership is already at an acceptable level. I don't believe raising my membership fees or meet fees to furhter market USMS is the right thing to do. I don't agree with you, sorry, I really couldn't possibly disagree more. We're diametrically opposed on this. Frankly, this is just the thing that is extremely irritating within parts of USMS, there's a group of people that are afraid of everything, and look at most things half empty and disagree with almost everything. There's just enough of the doomsdayers and nay-sayers to stifle and filibuster every effort, and enough people afraid to stand up to them that a lot of efforts just die off in a fear of confrontation. I really hope that change of governance will suceed in getting past that.