6th event at SC Nats?

One of these years, I'm going to get a facility in New England that is large enough to host nationals. One of these years... -Rick That'd be excellent. And it may be next year for me. I'm not doing SCY Nats in 2011.

I don't want the 6th event cancelled either. At Indy, the 6th event was cancelled (I recall?), the meet was started extra early, and it still ended at a decent time. 4:30 one day? WTH? If nationals is ending that early, I don't see the issue. If you're at Nationals, expect to spend the day at the pool. It's not like a half day in season meet. It costs plenty in terms of money and family time "chips," so let's swim. Indy went from 7:30am until 4:30pm, which is 9 hours. I vote for Fortress to either time for 9 hours or be a stroke and turn judge for 9 hours. And at the end of her 9 hour shift on her feet we tell her, "well, we just need you for another 2 hours so people can do their 6th event and then you can go home..." It's either that (10-11 hour shift) or you need a full second shift of volunteers (3 timers per lane x however many lanes you have; officials, Hytek people, warm up marshalls, awards desk, etc.). Meaning you either stretch one shift to be barely tolerable (8-9 hours) or you have to have two full crew shifts. Two shifts doubles your cost (many hosts pay the timers). When we increase the meet surcharge by as much as $10 we hear more whining than a Miami restaurant full of JAPs! Can you imagine if we actually charged an extra 50 bucks or so for the meet?! People would scream bloody murder like we took away their tech suits or something! Oh wait, that is already going to happen.:bolt: Fort, please bring some very comfortable shoes for your timing shift in Atlanta...:bump:

To make the economics work, you really do need to have a significant base charge. There are certain fixed costs associated with having a person come to the meet for "zero" events. It doesn't cost 6 times as much to swim 6 events as it does to swim 1. But it's significantly expensive to swim 1 event. I.e., the way it's setup makes a lot of sense for the real economics. Also, truth is, getting meet participants to work the meet can be very very difficult. It's usually easier to have people who are not participating in the meet be involved with staffing. That way they are single-task-oriented. I don't know what they're doing in Atlanta, but what often works well is to "sub-contract" things like timing to a club team, for example. I.e., we need 24 timers, or 30 timers, or whatever... such-and-such club team is organized to provide those people. That way, when they show up, they all know each other, and they have an ability within their own ranks to fill in for missing people. Also, if you have a leader within that group, i.e., someone who could be the head timer, everyone in that group already knows that person, and that person already knows everyone in their group. It makes it much easier to manage those mini-armies of people. If you have 30 "random" people signed up to time, it can be a disaster. Make no mistake... organizing the small army required to pull of something like a national championship is no small task. A national championship meet could easily involve 300+ workers of one kind or another. -Rick

Abolish the surcharge and make it $15 per event up to 6 events (relays extra). Job done. Seriously though it's Nats...you're there anyway, and it' not like you're going drinking until Sunday. Also the deal could have been free campus accommodation in exchange for volunteering some timing duty. Me...I'll pay more so I can sit back and enjoy the meet.

Indy went from 7:30am until 4:30pm, which is 9 hours. I vote for Fortress to either time for 9 hours or be a stroke and turn judge for 9 hours. And at the end of her 9 hour shift on her feet we tell her, "well, we just need you for another 2 hours so people can do their 6th event and then you can go home..." It's either that (10-11 hour shift) or you need a full second shift of volunteers (3 timers per lane x however many lanes you have; officials, Hytek people, warm up marshalls, awards desk, etc.). Meaning you either stretch one shift to be barely tolerable (8-9 hours) or you have to have two full crew shifts. Two shifts doubles your cost (many hosts pay the timers). When we increase the meet surcharge by as much as $10 we hear more whining than a Miami restaurant full of JAPs! Can you imagine if we actually charged an extra 50 bucks or so for the meet?! People would scream bloody murder like we took away their tech suits or something! Oh wait, that is already going to happen.:bolt: Fort, please bring some very comfortable shoes for your timing shift in Atlanta...:bump: You're right, I was being selfish and not thinking about the hard working non-swimmers at the meet. My bad. For the record, I would not scream at $50 more for a national meet. I limit my screaming to taking away "rubber" suits and giving us paper suits that rip, stretch or are stolen right away.

True FC + VC = TC. I think maybe there should be a survey to find out what competing folks want...yet another huge task. Do we go no QT, 6 limit higher FC and lower or zero VC. Or lower FC and higher VC. Maybe folks don't care about long days when they are "vacationing" I feel for the folks that work the meet but that's why they get paid, and maybe the answer is 2 shifts. It doesn't seem right that someone only able to swim 3 events outside of QTs and maybe on 3 separate days too, has to subsidize other swimmers just because of their superior athletic ability...that's just my view though. You raise good points Rick. ------------------ As for short days: If we're really adamant about speeding it up then let's not let anyone swim who cannot go sub :30 in a 50 FR or sub 1:00 on the 100 into the meet. After all, there are some really fast folks out there who have better things to do than wait around for the rest of us. Quality swim meets are long drawn out affairs...bring a book and a cushion.

. I limit my screaming to taking away "rubber" suits and giving us paper suits that rip, stretch or are stolen right away. Or end up costing more thant the suits that were taken away. Scream for making swimming less affordable again.

Seriously though it's Nats...you're there anyway, and it' not like you're going drinking until Sunday. WHAT?!?! Not drinking until Sunday ... what's that about?

Since you're handling timing shifts, how do you want to pay for my flight, accomdation and incidentals? I'm not sure about USMS but if you officiate for a USA Swimming meet your expenses are tax deductible.

Seriously though it's Nats...you're there anyway, and it' not like you're going drinking until Sunday. Did I miss some kind of a reverse blue law rule change? No going drinking until Sunday? Can I withdraw my entry? Cause if there ain't beer, I ain't swimmin'...