They are not paying for pool time. |
I agree with this 100% and hope that any use of Silver Spring for practice is kept the an absolute minimum. |
That only works for summer, spring and fall. Too cold in the winter as they are both fully outside. |
Private clubs are practicing outside in winter |
This isn’t a private club and it’s too cold in the winter months. They have a brand new pool that was promised to families. |
I don't know about that...I think that might be a historical mindset at this point. That was certainly the sensible planning case to be made 15-20 years ago but with impacts of climate change at play and if the previous two "winters" are to be used as a guide an outside option moving forward may be a viable plan. From what I understand, part of the plan for Glenmont was to enclose the bathrooms so that would make it more feasible to use in winter. |
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/1189750.page#26966261 |
It's a viable plan for spring and fall but not when it gets in the 20-40's. They have a brand new indoor pool. They can hire more staff to extend the hours and RMSC can pay for the coaches parking. |
Outside is better than SS. Lots of traffic driving from Bethesda to downtown SS. Pay to park and then risk having your car stolen. Then long drive home. I’d rather swim outdoor close to ksac than do that |
Most other clubs swim outside in the winter at this point. RMSC might need to buy a winter coat and toughen up |
20's no. 40's yes. Our winters now have more days closer to 40s and above than 20s or below. You can pull up the historical data at noaa.gov to see for yourself. Over the past 2 years, there just haven't been many days over the winter where outdoor in a heated pool wouldn't work. It would seem that this trend isn't going to be reversing in the near future(unfortunately for the planet). Worse case, they could plan for indoor for 4-6 weeks in Jan/Feb but the rest can be done outdoor. The only caveat would be for the mini's - probably want to plan for longer range indoor for them. |
Every time this comes up, I beg someone to find the financials. I have tried and come up empty. But, I have a hard time believing RMSC as a business pays nothing to the County (or City for Rockville). It would help RMSC to actually publish this and clear up some misunderstandings and complaints, or at the least be transparent. |
Rec Department and county government sites are mine fields. Hard to find this data. But yes, county rmsc sites do not pay for pool time directly. Swimmer fees cover 1) coaches pay 2) meet/USA swimming fees 3) administrative costs (think county bureaucrats who work in aquatics). The increased price of rmsc in recent years is driven by a push to cover more of these expensive and to raise coaches pay substantially. My understanding is it used to be about a $15/hour job and now it’s in the ballpark of $25. |
Your car isn’t getting stollen. I’d rather go to silver spring than Bethesda. |
RMSC is under the umbrella of the Rec Department. It is a cash cow that supports all other aquatic rec programming.
Think of it this way: 45 kids in each mini group 45 kids in JR1 45 kids in JR 2 All paying about 1200, so there's 160,000 added to the operating budget just for each site alone. And that's just the younger, less expensive groups. |