what percentage of active swimmers are members of USMS?

Didn’t your membership dollars fund project to identify swimming pools in Arizona? And didn’t USMS membership dollars fund club development in AZ? Are these valueless? Rob, I could go into detail about the dysfunction within my LMSC over the past many years...but I will spare the details. Part of the challenge of doing good, worthwhile things like updating the Places to Swim list and Membership Development is: Getting somebody to champion the idea. Forming a team to help said champion bring the idea to fruition Getting a recalcitrant Board to fund the idea Sustaining the effort over time (read years) This is difficult to do for sure. I am getting help from USMS on some of these matters but don't expect any miracles. In the meantime, the perception remains that masters swimming is just for those 10-20% of swimmers who compete. And thanks for bringing up Dallas Aquatic Masters; USMS membership dollars made it possible for Jim, Bobby and coaches like them around the country to make a living coaching Masters Swimming programs. If it wasn’t for USMS and our members there would be no adult swimming as we know it today and there would likely not be any masters swimming programs or masters swimming coaches. For DAMM, SDM, and others there are two keys: Insurance Value of membership SDM is the team I train with and I have asked the owner about requiring membership. Those two points always come up. His perception is that membership is optional and others share that. Agreed, this is a selfish mentality but one that USMS must contend with. Obviously from your comments, we have done such a poor job of getting this message out to our local leadership. USMS is more than a magazine, a web site, discussion forum, discounts and swim meets; it is the adult aquatic fitness organization which is trying to provide our members with programs and services to promote health and fitness through swimming. I understand where you are coming from but those of us at the local level are up against a lot when it comes to selling USMS. The forth largest "masters" team in the state has over eighty members but is totally not plugged-in. They have a handful of swimmers who swim at meets but otherwise they are a wildcat team. Repeat this a few dozen times with teams of 5-50 swimmers throughout a large state/LMSC and you see the problem we have. There is much potential within our LMSC, we could double overnight if the value proposition increased for USMS. We could quadruple in a couple of years if our LMSC undertook a sustained effort to market masters swimming to the public. But right now that is not happening and we will be fortunate to experience marginal growth this year. It is indeed up to us, but us extends to leadership within the LSMCs that need to buy into the program for growth. I suspect that I am not the only Chairman experiencing these issues.

Didn’t your membership dollars fund project to identify swimming pools in Arizona? And didn’t USMS membership dollars fund club development in AZ? Are these valueless? Rob, I could go into detail about the dysfunction within my LMSC over the past many years...but I will spare the details. Part of the challenge of doing good, worthwhile things like updating the Places to Swim list and Membership Development is: Getting somebody to champion the idea. Forming a team to help said champion bring the idea to fruition Getting a recalcitrant Board to fund the idea Sustaining the effort over time (read years) This is difficult to do for sure. I am getting help from USMS on some of these matters but don't expect any miracles. In the meantime, the perception remains that masters swimming is just for those 10-20% of swimmers who compete. And thanks for bringing up Dallas Aquatic Masters; USMS membership dollars made it possible for Jim, Bobby and coaches like them around the country to make a living coaching Masters Swimming programs. If it wasn’t for USMS and our members there would be no adult swimming as we know it today and there would likely not be any masters swimming programs or masters swimming coaches. For DAMM, SDM, and others there are two keys: Insurance Value of membership SDM is the team I train with and I have asked the owner about requiring membership. Those two points always come up. His perception is that membership is optional and others share that. Agreed, this is a selfish mentality but one that USMS must contend with. Obviously from your comments, we have done such a poor job of getting this message out to our local leadership. USMS is more than a magazine, a web site, discussion forum, discounts and swim meets; it is the adult aquatic fitness organization which is trying to provide our members with programs and services to promote health and fitness through swimming. I understand where you are coming from but those of us at the local level are up against a lot when it comes to selling USMS. The forth largest "masters" team in the state has over eighty members but is totally not plugged-in. They have a handful of swimmers who swim at meets but otherwise they are a wildcat team. Repeat this a few dozen times with teams of 5-50 swimmers throughout a large state/LMSC and you see the problem we have. There is much potential within our LMSC, we could double overnight if the value proposition increased for USMS. We could quadruple in a couple of years if our LMSC undertook a sustained effort to market masters swimming to the public. But right now that is not happening and we will be fortunate to experience marginal growth this year. It is indeed up to us, but us extends to leadership within the LSMCs that need to buy into the program for growth. I suspect that I am not the only Chairman experiencing these issues.