Improving "Swimmer"magazine

Is there a reason that Swimmer is only for the membership? Would it be horrible if other swimmers--such as those on the forums who love swimming and being a lap swimmer but have not yet decided to join masters were to subscribe to the magazine? I think opening up the pool of recipients might generate some good turn-out and in return-generate a greater awareness of masters swimming and maybe even encourage some of those lurkers to join. I'm sure if it was open to others to subscribe that you could get doctors offices to subscribe (esp. those that deal with athletes on a more regular basis) and gyms that have magazines for those in the cardio rooms, and that would be in addition to any other individuals who might subscribe. I know its a nice perk to have this exclusive master's swimming magazine--but it would be a more effective magazine if it hit two or three birds with one stone--making it more worthwhile for the money and efforts it costs.

Perhaps a few copies could be strategically placed in swimming venues as a trial, to see if membership increases.. Or placed in my mailbox :-) I have received two in the two years I have been a member.

Yes, non-USMS swimmers may purchase a subscription... Perhaps a few copies could be strategically placed in swimming venues as a trial, to see if membership increases. I think any increase through this tactic would be non-trackable, and probably not worth the effort. A local bookstore here in Calgary was carrying this magazine for a short time a few years ago. I'm not sure which distributor it came from. I still miss the Rodale press publication, but I suppose swimmers don't need enough equipment to keep a magazine in advertising revenue. How many pairs of training fins is one person going to buy in a lifetime? Once most of us find goggles/suits/caps that we like we tend to stick with the make and model.

I'd like to know what other chapters are doing, and what Masters Swimming Canada is doing as well. Masters Swimming Canada phased out the printed magazine in favor of an online magazine, and then the online magazine was phased out in favor of just posting the articles on the web site. And then we lost our editor and primary writer, so we're currently in the process of rebuilding our content creation capacity, hoping to have things going again in the next month or two. We were spending more than a third of our budget just on printing and postage of the printed magazine, which was ok when we weren't doing much else. When we started becoming more active we found projects that had much higher value to the members that we redirected the funds to. Two examples are the Million Metre Challenge which is a program that lets members track the distance they swim and provides recognition at various milestone distances, and the mymsc.ca web site which in addition to news and resources gives members an integrated view of their results, rankings and records and their involvement in programs like the million metre challenge, check off challenge, the pentathlon program, 1km challenge, etc. We really need to do more on the news and communications front, but we are also attempting to put more financial and time resources into producing permanent resources in addition to newsy articles. Although the timing might not be right to use this analogy, I think consideration of the magazine is somewhat akin to handling investments, the right time to sell an investment is when you have an alternative investment that you expect to have a better return. Does USMS have something more important than the magazine that it could accomplish if it had the $300k+/year to invest? In the way of a radical change suggestion, maybe you could team up with floswimmer (or set up something along those lines) where you get someone to travel around the country with a video camera interviewing swimmers and coaches, and going to meets, and maybe go one step further and work with masters coaches and swimmers to produce video technique segments. Video is a way better tool than printed paper to convey drills and technique points and the technology, including underwater video, is dirt cheap these days. It would also give exposure to different programs, and coaches and swimmers. I think you could do a good job of it well within the budget for the magazine and still have money to put the best parts of the magazine online.

I dropped membership for a few years and only just rejoined, so I haven't seen a copy of Swimmer for a long time. What I didn't read were the articles about meets. What I did like to read were any articles on technique. What I wanted more of were articles on dry-land training, stretching or other ways to improve my swimming. I had subscribed to Swimmer's World (or whatever it was called) some years back, and it was simply a magazine of advertisements with a few worthless articles. After one year, there was one article I kept, and it was one about using exercies tubes to strengthen your shoulders. Waste o' money.

Follow-up The editor responded quickly and with thanks for the many ideas and different viewpoints expressed by members; some of those ideas and perspectives will likely be reflected in the next member survey, scheduled for 2009. The magazine is reviewed annually. A couple of the larger issues raised in this thread, namely, is the magazine within the core mission of USMS, and is this the best use of funds to promote the core mission, were also addressed by an administrator. As a means of promoting adult fitness and health, Swimmer lies well within the core mission. As a big-ticket item in the annual budget, it receives laser scrutiny (my words). Discussions concerning its function and fate are ongoing. Please contact the editor, Bill Volckening, at: editor@usms.org, if you have story ideas, and especially if you have journalistic tendencies and would like to pursue a story. (That's from me, LOL!) For those who thought their club newsletter had good articles that would be appropriate for inclusion in Swimmer, why not send the article to Bill? I'll continue to perform my scribal function and compile ideas and comments as they are posted here. :) (Quicksilver, your cat has been nominated for the first centerfold.) VB (Note: Quicksilver, aztimm, and mjtyson, your recs and wishes are now in the master list in post 3.)

(Quicksilver, your cat has been nominated for the first centerfold.) :eek:

More detailed athlete bios instead of just their favorite workout. Not necessarily the top ten achievers. I think we all take special interest in hearing how others juggle our work, family, and recreation time. Kind of like swimmers of the month. On that note, what about various masters clubs around the country. What do their pools look like? who's one their team? and top ten stats of their swimmers. My kid' "Splash" magazine has an ask the coach section... Questions range anywhere from stroke technique to how to overcome race jitters. And of course, the on-going technical photos which will appeal to both the novice and the elite. Everyone can appreciate a frame by frame breakdown of how so and so swims so fast. No one suggested centerfold yet.

No one suggested centerfold yet. Your cat has to be pretty buff by now.

... What I wanted more of were articles on dry-land training, stretching or other ways to improve my swimming.... I just saw a new (this summer) book on Amazon by David Salo and Scott Riewald, Complete Conditioning for Swimming, that looked pretty good. It has both in-water drills and dry-land core exercises to improve swimming. A check of the Contents and a few pages may tell you whether you want it or not. I plan to order it for myself. :agree: VB