Paul Smith has started another thread which has migrated to what USMS might do to attract and keep more members. I thought, after trying unsuccessfully to find a thread on the subject, that I would hit the nail on the head.
There was a recent membership poll on the issues, which I participated in, but I thought it might not have emphasized strongly enough my own personal reasons:
I AM A MEMBER OF USMS SOLELY BECAUSE IT PROVIDES A MECHANISM FOR COMPETITION.
There are other 'benefits' that accrue from your USMS membership but most of them are of no interest to me. Insurance is one that is often mentioned, but in my experience, this is not such an important factor.
Excluding city and county recreation centers and private athletic clubs, here is a list of all the teams I have trained with and their membership requirements:
Laramie Masters Swim Club: trained at the high school; USMS membership required.
University of Wyoming Masters Swim Group: trained at the University; USMS membership not required.
Ford Aquatics: trained at the University of Arizona; USMS membership required.
Northern Arizona Masters: trained at Northern Arizona University; USMS membership not required.
Snow Mountain Masters: trained at Snow Mountain Ranch YMCA; USMS membership not required.
University of Denver Masters: trained at DU; USMS membership not required.
So, of the six teams I have trained with only two have required USMS membership. Most of my training is solo at clubs and recreation centers, so the insurance problem is not an issue.
Also, now that I'm over 50, there are other competition avenues open to me (read Senior Games...) so I could continue to compete even if there were no USMS (In fairness, here, I should stress that USMS has worked VERY HARD to bring these games up to their standards of competition. I went to some of the earlier versions of these that were just a joke. I believe that we seniors owe a great debt to Scott Rabalais and others for carrying this out.)
What's your reason?
There are other 'benefits' that accrue from your USMS membership but most of them are of no interest to me. Insurance is one that is often mentioned, but in my experience, this is not such an important factor.
Actually, even if you join USMS just for the competition, insurance is a very important factor. To take over a pool or beach facility for a competition, the people putting on the competition have to show the facility management that the event will have liability insurance. Sanctioning, whether through USMS or USS or USAT or whatever, provides the insurance without which the organized competition could not occur.
In any event, I think that USMS statistics suggest that most USMS members do not join in order to compete. Taking my team as an example, most members of my team don't go to USMS-sanctioned swim meets or OW races (or if they do they go so seldom that I have to believe that competition for them is secondary). Instead, they are USMS members because our club requires USMS membership and they want to work out with our club. And circling back, our club requires USMS membership because we rent a facility that requires us to have our own liability insurance, and USMS provides that insurance. If we did not obtain insurance through USMS, we would have to obtain it through some other provider or we would not be able to have an organized workout group that employs a coach and controls use of a portion or all of the facility during the time we are using it.
That reason (organized workouts) is also probably my main reason for being a USMS member, even though I do compete.
There are other 'benefits' that accrue from your USMS membership but most of them are of no interest to me. Insurance is one that is often mentioned, but in my experience, this is not such an important factor.
Actually, even if you join USMS just for the competition, insurance is a very important factor. To take over a pool or beach facility for a competition, the people putting on the competition have to show the facility management that the event will have liability insurance. Sanctioning, whether through USMS or USS or USAT or whatever, provides the insurance without which the organized competition could not occur.
In any event, I think that USMS statistics suggest that most USMS members do not join in order to compete. Taking my team as an example, most members of my team don't go to USMS-sanctioned swim meets or OW races (or if they do they go so seldom that I have to believe that competition for them is secondary). Instead, they are USMS members because our club requires USMS membership and they want to work out with our club. And circling back, our club requires USMS membership because we rent a facility that requires us to have our own liability insurance, and USMS provides that insurance. If we did not obtain insurance through USMS, we would have to obtain it through some other provider or we would not be able to have an organized workout group that employs a coach and controls use of a portion or all of the facility during the time we are using it.
That reason (organized workouts) is also probably my main reason for being a USMS member, even though I do compete.
