In 2019, not foreseeing the chaos that 2020 would bring, Bob Bruce, Long Distance Chair of Oregon Masters Swimming (OMS) working on behalf of the OMS Board, bid to host the One-Hour Swim ePostal National Championships in 2021. OMS was awarded the bid! Bob bid for the event specifically to generate revenue for OMS.
The One-Hour Swim is an ePostal National Championship that runs from January 1 to February 28 each year. It can be done in any standard size pool 25 yards or longer; your distance will be converted to yards if needed. Someone times and counts lengths for each swimmer, writing the time per every two lengths on an official split sheet. Then the swimmer enters the ePostal online. Simple!
Why does OMS need to raise this additional revenue? To continue to subsidize programs and events for you! Funds earned by OMS from hosting national events has helped keep your USMS membership prices down, your meet entries lower, helped pay for other events like the Association Meet socials and subsidized every swim meet.
However, USMS has just adopted what they call a “Unified Fee.” Next year USMS is changing the amount of the registration fee and the way registration fees are redistributed to the LMSCs. In 2021, fees will be $60 per person across the nation, and USMS will divide these fees 80% to USMS and 20% to the LMSCs. For the first time ever, the cost of membership will be totally out of the hands of OMS. Due to the adoption of Unified Fee, OMS revenue will drop. The OMS Board believes that hosting events is the best way of raising this shortfall so that OMS can continue its excellent programs, and is acting on their belief.
With the current situation in the swimming world, WE NEED YOUR HELP with this project more than ever before. We cannot overemphasize how important this is!
- Participation is crucial for this project to succeed! Bob’s goal for Oregon is for EVERY swimmer to swim and enter the One-Hour Swim in 2021. We MUST generate enough interest in this event so OMS can continue providing its traditional high level of programming. If we don’t support ourselves, who will?
- All swimmers means all swimmers! We realize that many of you have been mostly high and dry since March, but as you return to the pool, use this ePostal event as a goal or just as a strong training swim. Maybe our one-hour efforts might not be as strong as those in the recent past, but do it anyway.
- A side benefit–you’ve heard this from Bob dozens of times by now—could be that the Oregon Club will be #1 in the country for the One-Hour Swim in the “Overall” scoring category, which we have never done before! If all other persuasion fails, use Oregon Pride as the reason to do the swim, and enter the event.
Please commit to swimming the One-Hour Swim in January or February, and to encouraging your Oregon teammates and out-of-Oregon swimming friends to participate too. Many thanks for your efforts.