Is this the face of Masters Swimming?

...they just felt your little world might crumble if a lot more females started whopping your ass... Living with two daughters, a wife, and a female nanny I'm used to taking a whopping, or whooping, as we say here in the United States of America, from women, all day long.

Living with two daughters, a wife, and a female nanny I'm used to taking a whopping, or whooping, as we say here in the United States of America, from women, all day long. Well, at least they provide you with the ability to get to your early morning practice.

I agree with the multiple face approach. I see Dara as an example of the ultimate, or what is possible, if you do everything you can to succeed. Only a tiny percentage of Masters swimmers are even remotely like her. The message to attach to Dara might be something like "age and family aren't barriers to world class performance." Kind of an in your face statement too to our younger world class athletes who can't beat her. The majority of us are 40-ish and participate for fitness and some competition, at least a few times a year. A message for us could emphasize fitness, satisfaction, comraderie, and show how swimming can fit in to a complicated family life. Isn't this the core group we want to attract and retain into their 50s? Another category is the lifelong/senior swimmer. Highlight a 60-80 yr. old who has been swimming for 40 years. Show how quality of life in these years is even better when you're swimming.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I want to get the phrase "Masters Swimming" into the public consciousness as much as possible. If the TV and print media mention Dara's participation in Masters Swimming as part of their coverage, it spreads the word that such an organization exists. On the other hand, I have a hard enough time now trying to convince swimmers that they're "good enough" to swim with my Masters workout group. If people start assuming that they have to be as good as Dara to participate in Masters Swimming, then I'm really in trouble. Anna Lea I agree. The face of Masters swimming should be a person without their own "team" behind them. Alison

Paul Smith is implying that membership in USMS is declining. Is this, in fact, true? Where are the membership numbers? No, this is not true. Our membership has increased every year for quite a while. We hit 43,000 for the first time in 2006 and our projection for 2007 exceeds that. What is true, however, is that our turnover rate is very high. We've averaged a "did not renew" rate of 35% for at least the last three years. This is a big concern to all of us on the Board of Directors. As with many businesses, it's easier to keep a current customer than to find new customers. The big question is, why do so many people leave USMS? Do you Forumites have any theories? Anna Lea

The big question is, why do so many people leave USMS? Do you Forumites have any theories? Anna Lea *creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak* "...there goes Pandora's box...."

I've lurked for years but this topic has finally inspired me to post. This is a (mostly) intelligent and thought-provoking discussion. USMS is a uniquely complex organization, trying to be all things to a wide variety of people aged 18 and up who have many and diverse goals. Their only common characteristic is swimming. So it's ludicrous to assume that there is one or even twelve faces representing our organization. If we try to define who we are too precisely, we risk alienating a segment of the membership, and that would be a bad thing for the organization. I happen to train for competition and can't imagine just swimming for the heck of it. But if I only trained with like minded people, our team would be about a fourth of it's current size and I wouldn't have met some of the wonderful fitness swimmers, triathletes, cross-trainers, and rehabbing runners that share lanes with. We would also not generate enough income to have a full-time coach, and sixteen opportunities a week to fit workouts into our busy lives. I believe that if folks think it's the elite swimmers who are the face of USMS, maybe they're just a little confused. I understand that there's no age limit in USS which might be a more appropriate platform for the aging awesomes. USMS has a huge mission. I'm really glad to see that people are asking questions and having these thought-provoking discussions. Bottom line for me, is that while some fine-tuning (modernizing) and organizational changes are necessary, precisely defining our members would be a little hazardous to our health. Whew! That wasn't as hard as I thought it would be! :doh:

Here's a concept...lets have fewer members. Raise the annual membership to $200 a year and get us things like access to discounted health insurance, a membership to 24 Hour fitness and a free training suit from our swimwear sponsor. Lets have smaller meets. Raise the entry for nationals to $150 and have cash prizes for records that are set...add in a raffle for $500 as well so the so called "elite" who would have a shot at the record had a shot at cash as well. Fine but then make it two tiered, if you want to be USMS elite you can pay $200, I'll stick to something more reasonable as a "for the love of swimming" level amateur and forgo the prize money that I won't win. If I have to pay $200 a year, Rob Copeland better be at the Y every time I go for a swim telling noodlers to stay out of my way. :rofl: Theory: Some probably try competing and don't like it. They prefer to just swim at their own pace and for fitness. Why would you join if you don't compete? Moving some material from this forum to a "members only" might help encourage those seeking workouts and info to stick with the org. Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?

Hmmm....I disagree with most of what Paul Smith posted. 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"

Seriously, do you keep stats on how many non-renew that swim with a team versus swim unaffiliated? I know that can be a bit misleading because some swim UNAT even when they swim with a team. I'd be interested in seeing if team affiliation has higher retention rates. As a registrar, I don't think I would have a good way to track that. The opposite is also true - many swimmers in the smaller LMSCs register with a club so they can swim on relays together when they go to big meets. But many of them train individually. I don't always know where they all swim. You can look at a lot of the statistics yourself. They're in the National database administrator's report from this year's pre-convention packet. Go to this link: www.usms.org/.../ecno.pdf, ...then look at the last 3 or so pages that begin with the heading, "Database Administrator Esther Lyman". Anna Lea