1. Greater emphasis on face-to-face recruiting. It is the one and only way to regrow the membership numbers. If there's anyone still left on local-level payroll (i.e., regional reps), part of their job requirements would be to do five days of door-to-door, face-to-face contacts, minimum 25 per day (one contact means getting one phone number, address and name -- if they won't give it up, it doesn't count as a contact ... typically takes 8 hours a day of hard work per day to get this) for a week in every association they represent. Too many of these guys are/were promoted into these positions because of a good-ol'-boy network and I doubt some of them could walk from the snack bar to the pit without passing out. Give them the authority to draft help from the local association if necessary, but let's get serious about association building since it's technically part of their jobs.
2. Require as part of house certification that each house buy a tape-reading setup. That way no one can make the excuse that you can't run a PBAX league in a given house if the interest is there. Houses like to put that off on the association because readers aren't cheap. Make it a cost of doing business for the house, and IMO it's their responsibility to monitor their own shot anyway.
3. Eliminate the static weight rules completely, or at least make it something like 6-8 oz before the ball is out of spec. Biggest complaint I hear as a hobby ball driller are guys who get their stuff weighed at tournaments and the balls pop back illegal -- and most of these guys get their stuff drilled at professional shops. Not enough people know how to use a dodo scale properly in the first place and the rules are archaic.
4. At Nationals -- eliminate the prohibition on the use of approved ball cleaners during competition. This doesn't affect me since I never use them during play, but I just find it stupid to have the rule on the books and then completely reverse course at the tournament. The only reason it's there is the USBC is too lazy to train people to enforce the statute at the tournament site.
5. At Nationals -- Create a third division for anyone who holds or who has held, within the last 20 years, a PBA card. I would prefer the USBC try to push those guys to the U.S. Open the same way the USGA pushes PGA members to the U.S. Open and away from the U.S. Amateur, but I'd settle for getting the guys who truly make a living at the sport away from the very good amateurs who happen to have other careers, just like golf does it.
Jess
