Clovis in 09??

Gee, I havent been on the forums in a while and it looks like I have been missed. Pacific proposed the rule about having national championships in one of USMS's LMSCs. Puerto Rico (Federacion Puertorriquena de Natacion) is in a different federation that USMS.Guam (Guam Swim Federation) another American territory is also in a different federation. Our national championships would be a guest of Federation and we would not have full control of our meet. A few years ago we did a survey of top ten swimmers about why the chose to compete at the Nationals. The biggest influence on whether to attend or not was the location of the national championships - if it was close to where they lived they more likely would attend. If the meet is held outside our LMSC, our championship could only attract those who could afford to travel over the 1000 mile minimum to attend the meet in Puerto Rico. We would lose the local USMS membership from attending as there would be no local USMS membership. A year ago I would not have thought of why we should even have this rule, the Puerto Rico came along. I swam at the natatorium in San Juan. It is a great facility; nice locker rooms, fast pool and when we were there, it had good weather. I know most of the officers of the Federation and I have the highest respect for all of them - they are great people. But they are in a different federation. (BTW would those who swam at the Puerto Rico meet raise their hands (Rob and Mark you can put your hand down) Did not see Paul there, was Swimstud there? We tried to promote the meet and it was great meet. Of course, my good feelings about the meet have nothing to do with the fact that I am the current Pan American Champion in the mens 55-59 400 Free and 800 Free. ) We know by looking at the attendance of the national championships, they have a population of competitors that is highly regionalized. When reviewing the recent long course nationals, about 35% of the competitors came from two LMSCs and when totaling the swimmers who came from the four adjacent LMSCs it totals about half the competitors. For the swimmers who attend the nationals, they can expect good competition, great facilities and generally a well run meet. The Championship Committee has worked hard to be sure that high standards are maintained. One of the advantages of being a USMS swimmer is that if the championships are being held in your area, you can participate in a great meet - if held outside the Federation we cannot offer a local meet to any of the membership. I believe that our national championships have been a great way for US Masters Swimming to showcase Masters swimmers. At most USMS championships, we usually get some newspaper stories and upon occasion we also get television. We are able to tell our story about fitness and healthy living. We showcase our athletes, we get people interested in persuing an active healthy lifestyle. This is great free publicity and promotes the USMS brand. For the local LMSC, having championships in their area or nearby has resulted in an increase of membership, if only for a couple of years. But this is a way to get people interested in Masters swimming, (of course, we just have to find a way to keep them members, but we can address that in another thread). I do not believe that our national championships should be a way to promote aquatic vacations for vacations sake. There are many great aquatic venues in the United States, we should find all those venues then WORK to get one of those venues to host the championships. I think there should be a rule or at least policy that we do not accept bids from outside the United States. It take much time and effort to put together a bid, then to travel to convention to present the bid. This rule would put the brakes on anyone outside the US from spending the time and money to bid for the championships. OTS I dont know if everyone appreciates the distances involved. Seattle is closer to Los Angles than Miami is to San Juan; San Francisco is closer to Denver than Miami is to San Juan; Houston is closer to Chicago and Miami than Miami is to San Juan and Washington, DC is closer Kansas City than Miami is to San Juan. (note Miami airport is the closest major airport to San Juan, Puerto Rico). While there have been questions about what calling this a national championships as most of the top ten swimmers in any age group choose not to participate, and there has been a call to name it a national festival, the meet has been within the boundaries of the United States Masters Swimming. For those who want to go to on vacation to compete (there was Perth - Did I miss you there Paul?) Coming up is the Masters World Games in Sydney, the UANA meet next year maybe Mexico, the South American Championships usually in November and the XIII FINA World Masters Championships in Sweden. I am sure all of those places will have great places to swim and you can use your frequent flyer miles to get there. What's wrong with PR? It's no worse than going to Clovis from NYC! San Juan is about 1000 miles closer than Clovis. If you go to Clovis, be sure to hit Yosemite, if San Juan there is Old San Juan, the Arecebo radio telescope and a national forest about an hour out of San Juan. Another example of "all politics are local"? Mr. Moore, would love for you to go public and defend your position on this? I can give you the reasons why Pacific made the proposal. Same thing. Less time change. Better beaches! I don't see how it's any different than when LC Nats were held in Hawaii. It was SCY that was held in Hawaii. Hawaii is part of our Federation. Puerto Rico is not Would love to know who proposed THIS little gem. Pacific Our "friends" in Pacific Masters...as I noted above I'd love for one of them to come forward with an explanation. In my humble opinion the more we can find extremely desirable "vacation" locales that will host a USMS nationals the better. Along with being a great place to go spend some fun time...it also has one of the nicest pool facilities in the world. Also, since PR is considered a "unincorporated territory" of the USA and its residents are "statutory US Citizens" why do our friends in NoCal want to discriminate? I disagree, USMS has a duty to its members to promote swimming, and I believe nationals should be held in an LMSC. You may differ. The difference about PR is that it has its own swimming federation and is not part of our federation or USMS While I certainly love pools & towns like Austin and Indy, I think having a wide variety of locales is great. Besides, if we can get people to come to Piscataway, New Jersey for a Nationals meet, I gotta believe a location that's actually attractive (e.g., Puerto Rico) would draw a great crowd. Before we automatically rule something out, why don't we try it? Puerto Rico did not draw a large crowd for the Pan American Championships. If you wish to go international swim competitions please see the list of competitions above. I would suggest that you go traveling internationally, great venues, great people. If you like to travel, you will have a lot of fun. I just dont think our nationals should do the traveling. michael

Gee, I havent been on the forums in a while and it looks like I have been missed. Pacific proposed the rule about having national championships in one of USMS's LMSCs. Puerto Rico (Federacion Puertorriquena de Natacion) is in a different federation that USMS.Guam (Guam Swim Federation) another American territory is also in a different federation. Our national championships would be a guest of Federation and we would not have full control of our meet. A few years ago we did a survey of top ten swimmers about why the chose to compete at the Nationals. The biggest influence on whether to attend or not was the location of the national championships - if it was close to where they lived they more likely would attend. If the meet is held outside our LMSC, our championship could only attract those who could afford to travel over the 1000 mile minimum to attend the meet in Puerto Rico. We would lose the local USMS membership from attending as there would be no local USMS membership. A year ago I would not have thought of why we should even have this rule, the Puerto Rico came along. I swam at the natatorium in San Juan. It is a great facility; nice locker rooms, fast pool and when we were there, it had good weather. I know most of the officers of the Federation and I have the highest respect for all of them - they are great people. But they are in a different federation. (BTW would those who swam at the Puerto Rico meet raise their hands (Rob and Mark you can put your hand down) Did not see Paul there, was Swimstud there? We tried to promote the meet and it was great meet. Of course, my good feelings about the meet have nothing to do with the fact that I am the current Pan American Champion in the mens 55-59 400 Free and 800 Free. ) We know by looking at the attendance of the national championships, they have a population of competitors that is highly regionalized. When reviewing the recent long course nationals, about 35% of the competitors came from two LMSCs and when totaling the swimmers who came from the four adjacent LMSCs it totals about half the competitors. For the swimmers who attend the nationals, they can expect good competition, great facilities and generally a well run meet. The Championship Committee has worked hard to be sure that high standards are maintained. One of the advantages of being a USMS swimmer is that if the championships are being held in your area, you can participate in a great meet - if held outside the Federation we cannot offer a local meet to any of the membership. I believe that our national championships have been a great way for US Masters Swimming to showcase Masters swimmers. At most USMS championships, we usually get some newspaper stories and upon occasion we also get television. We are able to tell our story about fitness and healthy living. We showcase our athletes, we get people interested in persuing an active healthy lifestyle. This is great free publicity and promotes the USMS brand. For the local LMSC, having championships in their area or nearby has resulted in an increase of membership, if only for a couple of years. But this is a way to get people interested in Masters swimming, (of course, we just have to find a way to keep them members, but we can address that in another thread). I do not believe that our national championships should be a way to promote aquatic vacations for vacations sake. There are many great aquatic venues in the United States, we should find all those venues then WORK to get one of those venues to host the championships. I think there should be a rule or at least policy that we do not accept bids from outside the United States. It take much time and effort to put together a bid, then to travel to convention to present the bid. This rule would put the brakes on anyone outside the US from spending the time and money to bid for the championships. OTS I dont know if everyone appreciates the distances involved. Seattle is closer to Los Angles than Miami is to San Juan; San Francisco is closer to Denver than Miami is to San Juan; Houston is closer to Chicago and Miami than Miami is to San Juan and Washington, DC is closer Kansas City than Miami is to San Juan. (note Miami airport is the closest major airport to San Juan, Puerto Rico). While there have been questions about what calling this a national championships as most of the top ten swimmers in any age group choose not to participate, and there has been a call to name it a national festival, the meet has been within the boundaries of the United States Masters Swimming. For those who want to go to on vacation to compete (there was Perth - Did I miss you there Paul?) Coming up is the Masters World Games in Sydney, the UANA meet next year maybe Mexico, the South American Championships usually in November and the XIII FINA World Masters Championships in Sweden. I am sure all of those places will have great places to swim and you can use your frequent flyer miles to get there. What's wrong with PR? It's no worse than going to Clovis from NYC! San Juan is about 1000 miles closer than Clovis. If you go to Clovis, be sure to hit Yosemite, if San Juan there is Old San Juan, the Arecebo radio telescope and a national forest about an hour out of San Juan. Another example of "all politics are local"? Mr. Moore, would love for you to go public and defend your position on this? I can give you the reasons why Pacific made the proposal. Same thing. Less time change. Better beaches! I don't see how it's any different than when LC Nats were held in Hawaii. It was SCY that was held in Hawaii. Hawaii is part of our Federation. Puerto Rico is not Would love to know who proposed THIS little gem. Pacific Our "friends" in Pacific Masters...as I noted above I'd love for one of them to come forward with an explanation. In my humble opinion the more we can find extremely desirable "vacation" locales that will host a USMS nationals the better. Along with being a great place to go spend some fun time...it also has one of the nicest pool facilities in the world. Also, since PR is considered a "unincorporated territory" of the USA and its residents are "statutory US Citizens" why do our friends in NoCal want to discriminate? I disagree, USMS has a duty to its members to promote swimming, and I believe nationals should be held in an LMSC. You may differ. The difference about PR is that it has its own swimming federation and is not part of our federation or USMS While I certainly love pools & towns like Austin and Indy, I think having a wide variety of locales is great. Besides, if we can get people to come to Piscataway, New Jersey for a Nationals meet, I gotta believe a location that's actually attractive (e.g., Puerto Rico) would draw a great crowd. Before we automatically rule something out, why don't we try it? Puerto Rico did not draw a large crowd for the Pan American Championships. If you wish to go international swim competitions please see the list of competitions above. I would suggest that you go traveling internationally, great venues, great people. If you like to travel, you will have a lot of fun. I just dont think our nationals should do the traveling. michael