Top 10 Reasons to Renew Your USMS Membership Now

We're at 16,819 members. Encourage your teammates to renew so we can hit 17,000 tomorrow!

For this point in the season is 17,003 ahead of or behind where the membership levels usually are? (BTW, I renewed last night. Don't give poolraat all the credit. :D) S

Done :banana: Thanks to poolraat, we're now at 17,003 :groovy:

We are currently ahead, and trying hard to stay ahead! As of the end of yesterday, we were at 16,856 members for 2011. Last year on December 9th, 2009, we were at 11,321.

Done :banana:

The renewals number is great news. Kudos for those at the top that were involved in promoting the renewals and for obtaining the incentives to renew on time. However, boos to those who authored the recent Coaches newsletter - very disappointing and rather insulting: Thank you coaches! A record number of clubs registered on time (before October 31) this year-- andAn Incredible 629 clubs have registered with USMS for the 2011 year. We've never had this many clubs registered this early in the year. Our coaches deserve a lot of the credit for this achievement! Are there numbers to support this last statement or is it just wishful thinking or deep-held belief? How many of our coaches were directly involved in the membership growth, versus non-coaches in the board-run clubs? I wish the top people in national USMS would realize and accept the fact that not all clubs are run by coaches. A lot of the results for the membership increase are also due to efforts by members that are on board-run clubs. In fact, a vast majority of clubs in our LMSC are NOT run by coaches. Think of all the incredible results we could get if USMS top dogs would accept this and aim its marketing and development efforts to all clubs, instead of only to those run by coaches. Maybe in order to hit 100,000 members, we need to aim the club development programs to reach all members actually doing the club developing. Promote coaching to the ones that are coaching, and promote club development to the ones involved in running the clubs. Sometimes they are the same entity, and sometimes they are not. Aim everything at one, and you miss the other, and in some cases alienate them.

I hate being the downer on such a positive thread (touting such positive results!!)

I thought of another reason to renew: It's sort of like getting the swimsuit edition in the mail every month. :blush: :blush: :blush:

How many of our coaches were directly involved in the membership growth, versus non-coaches in the board-run clubs? I wish the top people in national USMS would realize and accept the fact that not all clubs are run by coaches. A lot of the results for the membership increase are also due to efforts by members that are on board-run clubs. In fact, a vast majority of clubs in our LMSC are NOT run by coaches. Promote coaching to the ones that are coaching, and promote club development to the ones involved in running the clubs. Sometimes they are the same entity, and sometimes they are not. Aim everything at one, and you miss the other, and in some cases alienate them. Wow... what an excellent viewpoint! I hope the USMS Club Development is already aware of this scenario. If not, once again - a great heads-up. I've always assumed that a coach or coaches work as a team with the club's BOD. The opportunities presented with a coach on deck (full attention of the membership) and the BOD's emailed newsletter and website communication are endless. I'm concerned about the "workout groups" who have no coach or club organization. Are these swimmers receiving the information they can use from our USMS for their swimmers in a timely fashion or ever? The Coaches Streamlines newsletter should go out to anyone who checks off "Coach" on their USMS Registration if the LMSC offers that option. As well, the LMSC Coaches Chair should have a current and working list of the head coaches in their LMSC for communications. A BOD run club should be connected to at least one of these two options or they might find themselves in the dark at least for now. So - are all of your BOD members currently USMS registered? Be sure they are checked off as a "COACH" if your club does not have a masters coach. And - if you have a masters coach, is the coach USMS registered? You might be surprised at how many coaches are not USMS registered.

Is it possible to register unattached and still swim in a meet? There suddenly is a fee for me to register with a team. Since I seldom swim in a meet (but would like the option), I'm wondering if this is possible. Also, do you have to register in the LMSC where you live? I'm noticing some wide variances in LMSC fees.