May/June cover of USMS Swimmer

It seems to me that the central issue here is motivators. Some people are motivated by competition, some people are not. Some people are only motivated by competition if they have some hope of competitive success, however they define that. A lot of people are motivated by experiencing improvement and setting achievable goals and pursuing them. Some people are motivated by just getting in the water and swimming laps and don't need or want anything more and there isn't much point in trying to "service" those people. Here, and in previous discussions I have had on this topic I have found that competition oriented swimmers repeatedly attempt to cast attempts at offering services to non competition oriented swimmers as attempts at dividing the membership. I am mystified by this assertion. Serving all your members doesn't have to be an us versus them issue. I would like to point out that in most competitions seeding is done by time but the results are rearranged by age group and gender. Meet software does this automatically with no effort on the part of the meet management. That presentation represents a certain set of values, there is no reason that the software could not be supplemented to provide additional presentations that reflect other values, goals, and motivators, also with minimal to no effort on the part of the meet management.

It seems to me that the central issue here is motivators. Some people are motivated by competition, some people are not. Some people are only motivated by competition if they have some hope of competitive success, however they define that. A lot of people are motivated by experiencing improvement and setting achievable goals and pursuing them. Some people are motivated by just getting in the water and swimming laps and don't need or want anything more and there isn't much point in trying to "service" those people. Here, and in previous discussions I have had on this topic I have found that competition oriented swimmers repeatedly attempt to cast attempts at offering services to non competition oriented swimmers as attempts at dividing the membership. I am mystified by this assertion. Serving all your members doesn't have to be an us versus them issue. I would like to point out that in most competitions seeding is done by time but the results are rearranged by age group and gender. Meet software does this automatically with no effort on the part of the meet management. That presentation represents a certain set of values, there is no reason that the software could not be supplemented to provide additional presentations that reflect other values, goals, and motivators, also with minimal to no effort on the part of the meet management.