Is this the face of Masters Swimming?

Dan...glad to hear it...that means you have your own specific ideas on what needs to be done so please share more of them. The only way we are ever going to b able to define what USMS is will be through debate! Now to your point about insurance, goggles, suits, etc having no appeal to you but paying for Eddie Reese to give a talk thats all great. But you are missing many years of a very clear "mission" if you will from USMS....and that has been a very inclusive, fitness based organization that is not primarily interested in meets....remember that I think less than 10% of registered members compete. So...if we stay that course and decide we do want to grow than its logical to assume that growth would come from primarily fitness/lap swimmers not competition focused swimmers...I would argue than that any "trinkets" or give backs would probably mean quite a bit to these folks. If however we want to try and build on your primary interest which is racing than we will need to focus on a smaller organization and that would mean less funding which means higher dues...but you still need to get the interest of those folks as well...I would suggest a very focused campaign to try and tap into high school kids graduating who maybe are not attending college but would like to continue training/competing, or recent college grads.....both groups have little if any money and I again argue that give backs, goodies, etc. are a lure. For us old farts maybe those things are not such a good draw.....who knows? "Subvert the Dominant Paradigm" I think you understand my comments are not personal to you. My primary interest is actually fitness, but racing keeps me motivated and is how I measure my achievement. Like many here said - the 10-15 people I swim with generally do not compete much. I swim at a private club with a "Masters program" with a very good coach. If we lose swimmers, I worry about losing the coach. USMS membership is not required (but club membership or a per-swim card is). We are not lane constrained so overcrowding is not a problem. We have fun, whether we compete or not. Because SCY Nationals are in Austin in 08 - we're shooting for 6-8 to race next spring. So I am generally in the camp that increasing USMS membership is better than the opposite. To me a smaller more focused organization is ultimately a losing proposition because less participation means fewer swimmers, less access to pools, coaching, etc. I do think USMS may be missing something by not offering more to the committed competition swimmer. That's why I suggested a VIP level with more benefits instead of an across the board increase in dues. USS probably couldn't do a VIP program because of the likely complaint about elitism and economic status of some children. One dislaimer - my history with USMS is about 3 years - so I have no idea what it has been. In spite of my belief that USMS membership growth is a good idea - it wouldn't bother me if fewer 45-49 people swam my events!

The big question is, why do so many people leave USMS? Do you Forumites have any theories? Anna Lea The variables collected on the membership form are name, address, age, and gender. Other data you have or could calculate would be the density of indoor and outdoor pools in the zip code, distance from an active masters team, distance to USMS-sanctioned events, whether the person competed, if so how recently and how frequently, and his or her ranking in competitive events, etc. Some of these variables are probably more correlated than others to the dependent variable (renewal or non-renewal). Since the dependent variable has only two possible outcomes this would probably be a good problem to apply a technique called logistic regression. This might provide some insight into which member segments are renewing at a lower rate, and how to proceed with a marketing plan.

At 2004's Savannah Nationals, the local news had a story on the meet. Of course they mostly focused on writer John Feinstein's story, but we were on TV! It was pretty exciting! That's a good point. Here in Chicago, Phil Hersh covers many of the "minor" sports for the Chicago Tribune. We should get in touch with him about both the IL state meet and Nationals. I have a vague connection. His son used to play on the Evanston high school hockey team (two years ahead of my son), so I can certainly find a way to get in touch with him. Skip Montanaro

There could easily be coverage in the newspapers to boost awareness. The Washington Post seems to cover a fair number of local marathons and triathlons, at least to some extent. The local town papers have updates on "masters running." But I never see a single thing on masters swimming. They could report on zones or nationals, it would seem, especially if local masters athletes were competing. Perhaps the newspapers, like everyone else, just don't know that masters swimming is a sport. There are some meet t-shirts and team t-shirts, Bill. They sell some gear at big meets. I have a parka. They need to televise the meets and have more camera angles, especially under water. Fort: not sell at meets, but as part of the race pakage like, running, cycling, and Tri events do. Parkas and neat things should be raffles or door prizes. What about post awards parties on or near the meet site.?:party2:

Anna Lea, great meet for new people. I love it! There was one here last summer that was in a neighborhood pool. No blocks, SCM in Aug and most had never done a meet before. It was a lot of fun, even as a more experienced person like myself. The only bad part was being the only person to enter the 200 BR. I asked and got a person to swim 200 back next to me so I had company. I wish more meets were fun like this one. Fort and Bill, I agree with your points 100%. We need to get the stories of USMS members out to the general public. Why isn't Nats on tv? Why isn't there newspaper coverage on local meets? Etc... Alison

Why isn't Nats on tv? Oh goodness, that could quite possibly be the most boring TV event ever, with a nielson rating of -9.

Why isn't Nats on tv? In this city, if your sport does not involve the letters C-H-I-E-F-S, it's not going to get onto local TV. Period. Off-season, you say? It's still all Chiefs. They just report on who got arrested that week instead of reporting on the games. Anna Lea

Fort and Bill, I agree with your points 100%. We need to get the stories of USMS members out to the general public. Why isn't Nats on tv? Why isn't there newspaper coverage on local meets? Etc... Alison There could easily be coverage in the newspapers to boost awareness. The Washington Post seems to cover a fair number of local marathons and triathlons, at least to some extent. The local town papers have updates on "masters running." But I never see a single thing on masters swimming. They could report on zones or nationals, it would seem, especially if local masters athletes were competing. Perhaps the newspapers, like everyone else, just don't know that masters swimming is a sport. There are some meet t-shirts and team t-shirts, Bill. They sell some gear at big meets. I have a parka.

At 2004's Savannah Nationals, the local news had a story on the meet. Of course they mostly focused on writer John Feinstein's story, but we were on TV! It was pretty exciting! Most events that do get newspaper coverage are pretty big - we're talking closing down streets, parks, etc... those somewhat draw attention to themselves, since people wonder why they are there. There were daily updates w/ results in the Palo Alto/Mountain View CA papers when we were there for worlds. If we're all hiding in an indoor pool, however, we probably need to draw attention to ourselves. Perhaps for our big zone/national meets, meet directors should be encouraged to get the word out to our local news outlets - TV and Newspaper - to try to get a story. I bet every LMSC picks up some new membership that way.

Many meets do offer single day/meet membership for $10 or so. yep... see the USMS LMSC Handbook under Registration for the form (on p12 in '07). in my LMSC the registrar supplies the one-event forms (with the correct info for our LMSC already provided).