Clovis in 09??

Michael, This was well written, thank you... Paul, If you are going to insult me, be accurate. I said, "Go, or don't." It is a personal decision and I was pointing out some curious (to me) reasons people were using not to go. You brought up the crime angle, but may risk the trip, anyway. Where did I ever say that I did not care? If I did not care, I would not be volunteering (lots of) my time to help this organization for the last 24 years. The attack mentality will not make friends, and we can use all the friends we can get. This is not war, it is swimming, and we do not own any of the pools. I may be wrong, but I see from some of your posts that you think in primarily the competitive mode. There is nothing wrong with that, I am only establishing a baseline. USMS is made up of over 75% non-competitive swimmers. I do not call them fitness, because I presume that even the highly competitive swimmers derive some fitness benefit from the activity. We cannot ignore them to charge about only looking for competition venues, but have to balance our efforts in order to serve all of the membership. This results some times in no one being happy. The championship committee is in fact trying to implement some of the things you suggest, and the difficult part is that even they are not in complete agreement. Depending on which part of the country you are from, there are a long list of items that have varying priorities, and each member of the committee has his own list. Although it would be nice to make grand strides, it is only with small steps that USMS can comfortably and responsibly keep inching forward. We are a business run by many business people who differ in their outlooks save one, swimming. That commonality keeps USMS afloat despite our many flaws and disagreements. But inch we do. I have not given up on the Rose Bowl pool, but I would hesitate to say, "you're stupid if you don't take this deal." That would ensure that the facility would be lost to us forever. It is tough to take rejection, but with perseverance, we will move ahead. The marketing package is in the works. We simply need to educate the folks with the keys to the pools to think that it is a good business decision to let these annoyingly persistent Masters have their swim meet, and make some money in the bargain. Most, if not all pools that have hosted USMS nationals have found the experience to be highly rewarding on several levels. To the image issue. We are actively working on our brand and how best to update and improve it. Stay tuned. I was one of those HS/College swimmers wondering about the old timers and their swim meets. Way back in 1971, my coach, Burt Kanner, left our AG team at a local meet to participate in Masters nationals when it was held at Santa Monica HS. He did not wear a flowered cap and he did shave down. My first Masters meet was in 1976.

Michael, This was well written, thank you... Paul, If you are going to insult me, be accurate. I said, "Go, or don't." It is a personal decision and I was pointing out some curious (to me) reasons people were using not to go. You brought up the crime angle, but may risk the trip, anyway. Where did I ever say that I did not care? If I did not care, I would not be volunteering (lots of) my time to help this organization for the last 24 years. The attack mentality will not make friends, and we can use all the friends we can get. This is not war, it is swimming, and we do not own any of the pools. I may be wrong, but I see from some of your posts that you think in primarily the competitive mode. There is nothing wrong with that, I am only establishing a baseline. USMS is made up of over 75% non-competitive swimmers. I do not call them fitness, because I presume that even the highly competitive swimmers derive some fitness benefit from the activity. We cannot ignore them to charge about only looking for competition venues, but have to balance our efforts in order to serve all of the membership. This results some times in no one being happy. The championship committee is in fact trying to implement some of the things you suggest, and the difficult part is that even they are not in complete agreement. Depending on which part of the country you are from, there are a long list of items that have varying priorities, and each member of the committee has his own list. Although it would be nice to make grand strides, it is only with small steps that USMS can comfortably and responsibly keep inching forward. We are a business run by many business people who differ in their outlooks save one, swimming. That commonality keeps USMS afloat despite our many flaws and disagreements. But inch we do. I have not given up on the Rose Bowl pool, but I would hesitate to say, "you're stupid if you don't take this deal." That would ensure that the facility would be lost to us forever. It is tough to take rejection, but with perseverance, we will move ahead. The marketing package is in the works. We simply need to educate the folks with the keys to the pools to think that it is a good business decision to let these annoyingly persistent Masters have their swim meet, and make some money in the bargain. Most, if not all pools that have hosted USMS nationals have found the experience to be highly rewarding on several levels. To the image issue. We are actively working on our brand and how best to update and improve it. Stay tuned. I was one of those HS/College swimmers wondering about the old timers and their swim meets. Way back in 1971, my coach, Burt Kanner, left our AG team at a local meet to participate in Masters nationals when it was held at Santa Monica HS. He did not wear a flowered cap and he did shave down. My first Masters meet was in 1976.