I live in a very diverse area of MoCo but our swim clubs (which are not geographically restricted) are not as diverse as the neighborhoods. Membership is expensive. I know plenty of non-diverse people who don't join them because they think the county pools are a better deal, they aren't that into swimming, two working parents, etc. These swim clubs were founded to keep POC out, so, there is a history to overcome.

OP, are you referencing private summer pools or the large year-round USA Swimming clubs?

We're in Arlington and admittedly the private pools inside the beltway all came about as a way to exclude minorities. Although that has changed, people still mostly join pools where they live so if general areas are still primarily white, you're going to end up with a pool that is primarily white.

As to why they don't have sliding scales, I'd presume it's partly due to finances. Our pool's budget is built around the number of memberships, which is capped. If you decided to cut the dues of a certain segment of those memberships by a certain amount then you have to make up the difference somewhere. Do we turn to the current members and say "ok, tell us your annual income and we'll let you know if your dues are going up or down."? That's not an easy thing to do. If I'm a member selling my membership to someone at a lower income, do I lose money because they have to pay me less than I purchased my membership for?

No one has mentioned this on here yet, but timing matters too. My kids have two working parents. Swim club times don't work for us at all (either too early, too late, hours not long enough, not combined with a camp afterwards so we have care until 4pm, too much on weekdays and not enough on weekends, etc). I think that's the real issue. My local swim club is cheap and I believe it's inclusive, but you need a SAHM to make it possible.

Make them public. Not membership based. Whaaaaaaat?

Anonymous wrote:Prince Mont Swim League was the first integrated summer league in the area. If you are looking for more diversity, look to that league. MVP Dolphins are part of that league and are located in DC (although it's just a team, not a club). Other teams in the league function more like typical MCSL clubs.

MVP Dolphins is one of the least diverse teams in the league.

#HousingSegregationIsEverything

It’s an interesting question. I’m surprised that more people don’t seem to notice that all 6 teams in NVSL Division 1 were located in McLean or North Arlington this summer. We did have more-diverse Dowden Terrace last year but they are now in free fall and lost every meet in Division 3.

If Langley drops out of Division 1 after this summer’s losses, it will almost certainly be replaced with … McLean Swim & Tennis.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was another thread where someone mentioned Little Falls Swim Club being a clique-y pool. And a DP said maybe there's a lack of DEI, which I understand to be diversity, equity and inclusion. It's challenging because the clubs are locality based and, well, these aren't economically or racially diverse places. How can swim clubs be more inclusive?

I find this to be a funny statement. Our swim club has tremendous DEI. We swim against team after team that does not. Most of these pools are in affluent areas and chose schools with low FARMS and high Greatschool ratings (probably the vehicle that perpetuates racism more than anything). We live in a nice neighborhood but with bad schools by DCUM standards. If you hit the real estate board or even the education stuff they will tell you - STAY away from south Arlington, Alexandria, Annandale, etc. You can't move away from brown people and then want to bus them into your pools.

Not what about hiring practices? There are POC in my neighborhood maybe their job the team if the coach looked like them. At least my POC family feels that way. What about having summer events that are tied to different, authentic cultural celebrations instead of some awkward luau that has no input from the actual Hawaiian- descent family. The problem is the POC aren't even given any consideration at all.

We have an immensely diverse coaching staff but an immensely diverse swimming population as well. Sometimes diverse coaches want to coach for a team with diversity. We actually recruit on that. But our neighborhoods are diverse and inclusive. We did not self segregate.

Many neighborhood pools have boundary covenants as they were built as an amenity for local communities (often by local communities). Our pool has a waiting list also. But wouldn’t help DEI at individual pools but I would absolutely support county investment in pools in diverse neighborhoods that could join the MCSL. It would be a great perk to have access to a pool.

individual pools are only going to be as diverse as neighborhoods are. I don't believe it is a matter of cost. A lot of these pools are fairly low cost or included in a neighborhood HOA fee. Our swim team fee is nominal. I think it works out to less than $5/practice. This is not country club swim.

I do agree though (beyond summer), Swimming is an expensive sport - that could be addressed through cost of year-round swim. Also, the rejection of various swim caps is ridiculous. USA Swim should fix that.

Last point - I didn’t interpret earlier poster to mean all clique issues were related to diversity. A lot of complaining was more about favoritism of club swimmers or volunteer families or whatever.

Prince Mont Swim League was the first integrated summer league in the area. If you are looking for more diversity, look to that league. MVP Dolphins are part of that league and are located in DC (although it's just a team, not a club). Other teams in the league function more like typical MCSL clubs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was another thread where someone mentioned Little Falls Swim Club being a clique-y pool. And a DP said maybe there's a lack of DEI, which I understand to be diversity, equity and inclusion. It's challenging because the clubs are locality based and, well, these aren't economically or racially diverse places. How can swim clubs be more inclusive?

I find this to be a funny statement. Our swim club has tremendous DEI. We swim against team after team that does not. Most of these pools are in affluent areas and chose schools with low FARMS and high Greatschool ratings (probably the vehicle that perpetuates racism more than anything). We live in a nice neighborhood but with bad schools by DCUM standards. If you hit the real estate board or even the education stuff they will tell you - STAY away from south Arlington, Alexandria, Annandale, etc. You can't move away from brown people and then want to bus them into your pools.

Not what about hiring practices? There are POC in my neighborhood maybe their job the team if the coach looked like them. At least my POC family feels that way. What about having summer events that are tied to different, authentic cultural celebrations instead of some awkward luau that has no input from the actual Hawaiian- descent family. The problem is the POC aren't even given any consideration at all.

Anonymous wrote:There was another thread where someone mentioned Little Falls Swim Club being a clique-y pool. And a DP said maybe there's a lack of DEI, which I understand to be diversity, equity and inclusion. It's challenging because the clubs are locality based and, well, these aren't economically or racially diverse places. How can swim clubs be more inclusive?

I find this to be a funny statement. Our swim club has tremendous DEI. We swim against team after team that does not. Most of these pools are in affluent areas and chose schools with low FARMS and high Greatschool ratings (probably the vehicle that perpetuates racism more than anything). We live in a nice neighborhood but with bad schools by DCUM standards. If you hit the real estate board or even the education stuff they will tell you - STAY away from south Arlington, Alexandria, Annandale, etc. You can't move away from brown people and then want to bus them into your pools.

Anonymous wrote:charge on a sliding scale. If you earn 1m, you pay $10,000. You earn 100k, you pay $1000. You earn 60k, you pay $200, etc.

No one would ever agree to this. I think most have funds that can supplement someone who can’t fully pay but this doesn’t fix the problem either. Oh, and your suggestion fails to consider those who retire early, have lower earnings, but large assets. Sure the assets will produce passive income, but maybe not as much as wage earners with less assets.

charge on a sliding scale. If you earn 1m, you pay $10,000. You earn 100k, you pay $1000. You earn 60k, you pay $200, etc.

There was another thread where someone mentioned Little Falls Swim Club being a clique-y pool. And a DP said maybe there's a lack of DEI, which I understand to be diversity, equity and inclusion. It's challenging because the clubs are locality based and, well, these aren't economically or racially diverse places. How can swim clubs be more inclusive?