We have some lengthy USBC discussions on our local board about some of the things mentioned here. I'm on the fence here (despite my letter and diatribe to USBC about lane conditions, which I'm sure LGD would have brought up had I not, I'm coming down off that soapbox back to reality, so by that admission, let's stick to topic here ok?). While USBC has many problems, in the grand scheme of things, the majority of them aren't things that directly affect the bowlers, persay.
USBC has 40 full time employees at headquarters, and for those 40 employees collectively, their annual salary is 8 million dollars.
Of all the money received by Susan G. Komen, only about 10% of it goes to breast cancer research, the rest goes to their operating costs. (and on an interesting side note, here's an article I came across last night
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/03/27/scientists-find-treatment-to-kill-every-kind-cancer-tumor/ )
USBC as of the 2014-2015 season has turned award purchase and distribution over to the local associations (though the cost is fairly minimal, it's still something) for everything but the major awards that you would fill out the award application for. It will be nice to have control over the awards (we handed out just under 3000 awards to 1250 association members last season, which we consider fairly excessive), but having to pay for it all and order it all ourselves, with no reduction in USBC fees, begs the question why. Their costs are being significantly reduced, (though their workload really isn't, they sub out nearly everything) but the bowlers are seing no return.
I was going to include this in my lane certification video (and probably still will), but in the past, you would run the certification process and send the results into USBC (ABC, WIBC) and they would sanction you or they wouldn't. Now, you go onto bowl.com, go under the center's sanction number, and there's a series of checkboxes. As long as you click yes to all, you're sanctioned. USBC sees no numbers, and they keep no records, so honestly, they have no clue whether lane certification is even being done, let alone whether your center passes or fails. We do it as a service to our bowlers and our centers so they can keep everything in good repair. However, if your centers don't want to spend the money or time, and the associations don't want to bother with the process, all they have to do is click some boxes and everything is good to go. So if you have ever seen things at your center that you swear can't be right or can't meet specifications, you may honestly be onto something.
So like LGD said, he pays his dues, and he gets what he wants out of it, keeps it pretty simple. In all honesty he's right, it's a pretty small fee that's once a year, whatever else they do or don't do beyond that, he doesn't really concern himself with it. However, a lot of these other things do matter to other people. So while LGD may be getting what he wants out of the deal and is content with it, a lot of people aren't. Then there are the people who are just bent over the principle of things and are concerned with what direction the USBC is going. A lot of bowlers pay their dues and are starting to question what they're getting for those dues besides a couple magnets. We honestly don't have very good answers for them, or at least not answers that really satisfy anyone.
Again, I'm on the fence. Like LGD, I pay dues, and I get what I want for it. Even if it was just for sanctioning for the Open Championships, I'd be ok with it. However, on the business side of it, it's hard not to have a big problem with how they're operating. So to put it in a nutshell, just because you aren't affected by the problems doesn't mean there aren't problems, but if you aren't affected by the problems, why throw a fit about it? Just like you may not be happy with how Walmart chooses to use the money you pay for their products, but if you're happy with the product, why does it really matter what they do with your money, it's not yours anymore anyway, you traded it for something that you're perfectly happy with, and as long as you consider it a good value, why worry about it?
