The State of Master Swimming.

I have a feeling if we actually had to pay the true cost per capita to use the pool more people would take up running! Or cycling, for those with poor knees...after the initial capital expenditure, cycling can be fairly inexpensive.

Sure, it sounds good in theory - if you could guarantee big numbers of paying swimmers you can indeed solve the pool availability problem. Are you suggesting that offering a free USMS membership (avg annual cost of $40) will bring out people in droves to pay ~$600 to $1200+ (or whatever) annually to swim on a team and therefore keep pools open and build new ones? Of course there are no guarantees in anything. But if we want to do anything significant with masters swimming, we need to be a whole lot bigger than 50,000 members. USA Swimming has an answer. A list of swimming alumni. USA Triathlon? What percent of triathletes train with a USMS club? Career swim coaches (or want-to-be coaches) are the other key. They have incentive to recruit members. FREE membership creates a great list of swimmers in which to market many different programs and benefits. The one common thread we all share is desire for water.

Big numbers of swimmers paying for programs would not only keep existing pools open, but would drive communities to approve new pools to be built. But as long as clubs show measly regular participation numbers, it isn't going to happen. I believe USMS and USA-Swimming have the tools to create great programs and benefits for members. But their strength is not signing up new members. Motivated coaches on deck and working out in their communities do it (recruiting) best locally. They have incentive. It's their career. Or it could be if they had the numbers for a substantial sized club. Make registration free. Make swimming huge. OK, I'll bite...Taking 50,000 members at $40 a pop to $0 creates a $2,000,000 annual shortfall at the USMS level. I feel like I am getting pretty good value out of USMS for my $40 (this forum is one example), and would hate to lose any of our current national level resources. Is there a plan for maintaining the national support at a free registration level? Or do we make it up in volume?

So.... we are brainstorming ideas for growing USMS membership. We're on the same team here. Clone Kerry O'Brien I really don't think the fee matters, it is just another excuse. There has to be a reason to make it to practice, and saving someone $40/year isn't very motivating to make a lifetime commitment. Give people reasons to show up to practice. Coaches that people like grow masters programs. Let's grow good coaches to grow USMS. Bring Kerry to a test tube near you.

We also offer a reduced fee for swimmers in the 18-24 age group and there is no way to implement this online at present. This is not correct. Our online system can be configured to offer discounts for designated age groups, such as 18-24 or 75+. It can only discount the LMSC portion of the fee, though (not the USMS portion). If your LMSC wants to implement this please contact me. Anna Lea

But perhaps if USMS registration were FREE... ...in a perfect world. If that were the case though, I wouldn't have to choose between usas and usms registration every year. :angel:

Nope, don't think I am mistaken, but I'd have to check to be sure. (Speedo and Jeff Roddin are current USAS members, so they may know the 2010 fee.) I remember thinking the fee was rather high at the time. But I swim in Potomac Valley outside DC where prices are generally extremely elevated and pool space is exceedingly scarce. 2011 usas fee is $47 + LSC fee. I'm assuming usms fees are pretty similar. I just can't swing joining both, and usms just doesn't offer me enough meet flexibility like usas does to merit spending my registration fee on the usms side. To limit myself by blowing my registration money on 5-6 specific meet dates all year just isn't worthwhile. I for one, would LOVE to be able to use my usas membership to join masters meets that i can actually make it to. Heck even if it was $10 extra or something to pony the two of them together it'd be a possibility but not full price. I can join 5-6 usas meets for that.

I still haven't heard why USAS and USMS couldn't work out a "reciprocal" arrangement. Join one and "get the other. I would even be willing to cough up an extra $10.00 to have this reciprocation work. Like others, having to join both is a pain, and seems to create competition between the two groups who both espouse "promotion" of swimming. Think about how this would increase the number of clinics, etc as well as meet opportunities. Indirectly, more money can be made on the latter than the registrations. USMS and USA-S are two completely separate organizations with their own infrastructures. Let's pretend there is a masters club at State University and you swim there. You pay quarterly dues of let's say $300 to swim there. Those dues go toward paying the coach, using the facility, perhaps getting a team newsletter, kickboards, etc. and maybe they give you a cap each year. Across town there is another masters club at the community college. They pay monthly dues of let's say $75 to swim on that team. Those dues pay their coach, pool time, a tshirt, their newsletter, blah blah blah. This is inconvenient for you because you want to swim with one program before work on Mon-Wed-Fri but swim with the other program on weekends because it is closer to your home. Now I want you to ask the coach at State University why the two programs can't just get their act together and make it easier for you to be able to swim at both since at the end of the day all you want is to swim.

Rather than trying to get free USAS or other memberships, maybe the better road to take would be to get more USAS meets dual sanctioned? Kind of a hassle for the meet directors, I know, but I believe this has been done before in PV. What PV did a while back was have the PVS (USA-S) meets automatically recognized by PVLMSC. It wasn't a true dual sanction (a dual sanction would mean you could enter the PVS meet as a USMS member). You still had to be a fully registered USA-S member to enter the PVS meet; but if you were also USMS registered it meant your times could get submitted for masters recognition. But a few years ago when we had to start turning in pool measurement and bulkhead cert forms for our times to be official, we did away with adding the automatic recognition to PVS meets. Not sure if all of this makes sense, but just wanted to clarify we didn't actually have dual sanctioned meets in PV. I've heard of meets like that but I think you have to have separate heats for masters and for USA-S.

.... I've heard of meets like that but I think you have to have separate heats for masters and for USA-S. The meets in Boise are dual sanctioned meets. Sanction number for both USAS and USMS are on the entry info. There aren't separate heats for the masters swimmers. They are seeded with the kids. As a side note - At a meet a few years ago I was in the lane next to my 15 y.o. son. A lot of trash talking went on before our heat. He blew me out of the water but it was fun.