Summer League Swim 2021

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe both A and B meets could be unofficial this year.
No need to certify volunteers or have three timers per lane. It’s just for fun.

Are you new here? People take NVSL quite seriously.

Valid. NVSL is no joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe both A and B meets could be unofficial this year.
No need to certify volunteers or have three timers per lane. It’s just for fun.

Are you new here? People take NVSL quite seriously.

Valid. NVSL is no joke.

What's the big deal with just having unofficial meets this summer? Better than no meets.

[Anonymous]

one person per lane, with one stopwatch. that's the time. who cares if its not "official". They can put an asterisk next to it on the web page. BFD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe both A and B meets could be unofficial this year.
No need to certify volunteers or have three timers per lane. It’s just for fun.

Are you new here? People take NVSL quite seriously.

Valid. NVSL is no joke.

What's the big deal with just having unofficial meets this summer? Better than no meets.

unofficial meets happened last year. OP is talking about having league meets. Swim around here is weird- tons of club swimmers do club swim to be better for summer or to just make A meets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am guessing there will only be one timer this summer and all records that are broken will have to have an asterisk indicating only one timer.

I'd guess more that no records could be broken this season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am guessing there will only be one timer this summer and all records that are broken will have to have an asterisk indicating only one timer.

I'd guess more that no records could be broken this season.

That might be true, but my guess would be an asterick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe both A and B meets could be unofficial this year.
No need to certify volunteers or have three timers per lane. It’s just for fun.

Are you new here? People take NVSL quite seriously.

Valid. NVSL is no joke.

What's the big deal with just having unofficial meets this summer? Better than no meets.

unofficial meets happened last year. OP is talking about having league meets. Swim around here is weird- tons of club swimmers do club swim to be better for summer or to just make A meets

I don't think that is the motivation for club swimming. Club swimming is more about the swimmer and keeping the skills since it is perishable. Once a kid is 13 it becomes important to see if they have what it takes for college level swim. Club swim is a good "team sport" that just builds on being apart of something. And it is a hell of a lot safer than other contact sports (family of collegiate swimmers here).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe both A and B meets could be unofficial this year.
No need to certify volunteers or have three timers per lane. It’s just for fun.

Are you new here? People take NVSL quite seriously.

Valid. NVSL is no joke.

What's the big deal with just having unofficial meets this summer? Better than no meets.

unofficial meets happened last year. OP is talking about having league meets. Swim around here is weird- tons of club swimmers do club swim to be better for summer or to just make A meets

There couldn't have been unofficial meets last summer, it didn't meet the VA covid guidelines.

Why not just have unofficial A meets between two different clubs? Who cares if a time is "official" or not, if thats the only way they can actually have the meet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe both A and B meets could be unofficial this year.
No need to certify volunteers or have three timers per lane. It’s just for fun.

Are you new here? People take NVSL quite seriously.

Valid. NVSL is no joke.

What's the big deal with just having unofficial meets this summer? Better than no meets.

unofficial meets happened last year. OP is talking about having league meets. Swim around here is weird- tons of club swimmers do club swim to be better for summer or to just make A meets

There couldn't have been unofficial meets last summer, it didn't meet the VA covid guidelines.

Why not just have unofficial A meets between two different clubs? Who cares if a time is "official" or not, if thats the only way they can actually have the meet?

DP
There were unofficial meets last summer. There were a myriad of ways you could do it and be within guidelines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am guessing there will only be one timer this summer and all records that are broken will have to have an asterisk indicating only one timer.

VHSL (high school) used one timer and we timed in both hands and wrote down our dominant hand time. Plus head timer had two watches. So that’s 4 times that are possible when it comes down to records. But VHSL accepted one and have now completely regionals so I’m guessing NVSL can accommodate in a similar way.

Omg I feel like I couldn’t time in two hands LOL

I thought the same but not that hard! Haha

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:one person per lane, with one stopwatch. that's the time. who cares if its not "official". They can put an asterisk next to it on the web page. BFD.

+1M!!!
This!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The larger swim clubs need B swimmer revenue to cover the costs of coaches etc. so it’s difficult to offer only A meets. If A meets are happening, it’s difficult to tell crazy A swim families that the pool is sitting out the season. It’s a quandary.

B meets, even with large teams, could be done in different sessions.

I am on the board of a small club, small team. We lost about 1/8 of our membership last year. If we can’t offer swim team (I assume we will be able to on some form), then I fear we will lose more membership. 2019 was a good year, but another year like last year might cause the club to close.

did your pool botch reopening? our waiting list actually grew once we reopened

No. Total opposite. Opening went very well. We opened at the end of May for lap swim. As each phase progressed we were able to do the same. We were completely ready for each phase. Some nearby pools never opened last summer. We had about 25 full bonded memberships choose to not pay their dues. We only sold three new bond memberships. In 2019 we sold 18. What saved us last year was discounted temporary memberships later on the summer.

We haven’t had a wait list in decades. Things had been holding steady or improving slightly and 2019 was good for us. We had been able to invest in quite a few upgrades over recent years. Our pool can have 400 memberships. We had been running about 205 bonds and 30 temporary. We finished last year with about 178 bond memberships.

Our management company said they expect some clubs won’t make it to or through this coming summer.

I think there is a tendency for DCUM to think in terms of Arlington and close in McLean pools. There are a limited number of them, the waiting lists are years long, and so the pools can afford to lose some membership b/c there are many more members waiting in the wings.
But venture outside the beltway and there are lot of pools in the situation described above- don't actually even have full memberships. Those pools can't afford to lose members- e.g. if Overlee has 25 members 'choose not to pay dues' those members are no longer members and they would have to rejoin the waitlist, wait 8 years and pay new membership fees to get in. Plus, there are 1000 families waiting to take their place. But if a pool that doesn't have a waiting list, and is not full, looses members- they have no one to take their place, and the financial solvency of the pool becomes an issue.

Also- news flash- VA raised the minimum wage. Its $9.50 for this summer, going up to $12 an hour in 2023. While lifeguards were typically making more than this- pool snack shop attendants, front desk attendants, etc- were not. This is going to continue to increase costs to operate summer pools.

We don't have any of the bolded positions, but after last summer I'm afraid it is going to be a struggle to survive this summer if we don't have something close to a normal summer. Things were looking up in 2017-2019. 2020 was a big hit and it will be tough to recover membership numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The larger swim clubs need B swimmer revenue to cover the costs of coaches etc. so it’s difficult to offer only A meets. If A meets are happening, it’s difficult to tell crazy A swim families that the pool is sitting out the season. It’s a quandary.

We haven’t had a wait list in decades. Things had been holding steady or improving slightly and 2019 was good for us. We had been able to invest in quite a few upgrades over recent years. Our pool can have 400 memberships. We had been running about 205 bonds and 30 temporary. We finished last year with about 178 bond memberships.



Also- news flash- VA raised the minimum wage. Its $9.50 for this summer, going up to $12 an hour in 2023. While lifeguards were typically making more than this- pool snack shop attendants, front desk attendants, etc- were not. This is going to continue to increase costs to operate summer pools.

We don't have any of the bolded positions, but after last summer I'm afraid it is going to be a struggle to survive this summer if we don't have something close to a normal summer. Things were looking up in 2017-2019. 2020 was a big hit and it will be tough to recover membership numbers.

I laughed at the bolded positions. Most of the NVSl pools have those positions as volunteer jobs. Either as part of your membership you work the front desk/snack bar a certain number of shifts or if you have a kid on the swim team. The only paid positions are the guards.

[Anonymous]

Our front desk attendants are the guards. We have no snack bar.

[Anonymous]

At our pool the guards do the front desk and snack bar.