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?
I joined USMS because they have 50s and the 100 IM.
It's great to see all the people say they joined to compete, but I crunched some numbers the other day, and I noticed that only 4 percent of the USMS population swam in Federal Way last May. So there are a whole lot of people who join because their team requires it and they need an organized place to swim.
I'd never join for that reason because it often takes a major battle of wills to get me to workout, and I wouldn't go to workout if there wasn't a goal to achieve in a future swim meet.
In fact, I've been on three teams since joining in 1999, and all three of them hold intrasquad meets. Very informal, kind of a way for people to see if they like competing without the stigma of doing it "in public." No one comes to these meets. In New Mexico, we had 75 people on the team. One year, we only had 10 people show up for the intrasquad.
That should give you an idea about the majority of masters. They just want to show up at 6 a.m. (or earlier), do their 60-minute workout, and go home. Good for them.
I joined USMS because they have 50s and the 100 IM.
It's great to see all the people say they joined to compete, but I crunched some numbers the other day, and I noticed that only 4 percent of the USMS population swam in Federal Way last May. So there are a whole lot of people who join because their team requires it and they need an organized place to swim.
I'd never join for that reason because it often takes a major battle of wills to get me to workout, and I wouldn't go to workout if there wasn't a goal to achieve in a future swim meet.
In fact, I've been on three teams since joining in 1999, and all three of them hold intrasquad meets. Very informal, kind of a way for people to see if they like competing without the stigma of doing it "in public." No one comes to these meets. In New Mexico, we had 75 people on the team. One year, we only had 10 people show up for the intrasquad.
That should give you an idea about the majority of masters. They just want to show up at 6 a.m. (or earlier), do their 60-minute workout, and go home. Good for them.
