Think I made post recently in USBC not being around much longer. Wish i and the 1000's of bowlers had magical answers to prevent them from becoming extinct. I see USBC disappearing and each state governing their own bowling congress. It is ashame with all the knowledge out their that we as bowlers can't get the right people in place.

Youth program being handed down to state level, adult awards program disappearing, two handed bowlers with thumb holes not being used illegal now. Seems the snowball is getting bigger and bigger.

Think I made post recently in USBC not being around much longer. Wish i and the 1000's of bowlers had magical answers to prevent them from becoming extinct. I see USBC disappearing and each state governing their own bowling congress. It is ashame with all the knowledge out their that we as bowlers can't get the right people in place.

Youth program being handed down to state level, adult awards program disappearing, two handed bowlers with thumb holes not being used illegal now. Seems the snowball is getting bigger and bigger.

The biggest problem with USBC is the membership. Bowlers are the biggest bunch of whining, crying, complaining hypocrites I have ever seen. Whether is it's lane conditions(too easy or too hard), tournament locations or governance rules, there is always something to bitch about when your a bowler.

USBC is always trying to establish a more effective youth program, but in my opinion, they already have too many crying babies in the local associations.

No body see where they are making proposals on USBCs website for the up coming year to.......................raise fees?

Shocker

They seem to making proposals to only increase local and state dues.  The only proposal I saw that affects national dues is to decrease them from $10 to $7.

Edit:  There was a proposal that was denied last year to increase local dues so not sure how far this will go.  I personally don't mind a small increase in dues to maintain some level of organization.  But as with any increase, it needs to be properly managed.

They seem to making proposals to only increase local and state dues.  The only proposal I saw that affects national dues is to decrease them from $10 to $7.

Edit:  There was a proposal that was denied last year to increase local dues so not sure how far this will go.  I personally don't mind a small increase in dues to maintain some level of organization.  But as with any increase, it needs to be properly managed.

This ties in with my previous statement about bowlers being a PITA. Last year, after announcing the end of the awards from the National Office, USBC offered the Locals associations the ability to raise their OWN local dues enough to cover the award program. Each local association could decide the awards and frequency. I thought this made the most sense as each association could let their members tell them how important (or not) the awards program was to them as bowlers. But of course, the delegates voted it down, because, you know, it's just USBC trying to run things.

My opinion, it's not the dues that's the problem here, it's the membership.

If you want to continue the awards program, dues have to go up. Assuming normal inflation (3.5%/year) for all goods and services, you should expect your dues to double every 20 years.

The USBC has made some missteps, to be sure. I thought the move to Texas was too ambitious. The problem is, if they're not ambitious enough -- meaning, if they won't pay a competitive wage to a CEO or employees -- they're not going to hire anyone worth a d*mn.

The real INTERNAL issue is the membership is getting older, and we do a sorry job as a sport -- and always have -- of transitioning our youth bowlers to adult leagues. You don't find many league bowlers in their 20s in most places. You have your youth programs, then the kids hit 18, go to college and we lose them, then hope to pick them back up after they get out of college. There's a lack of retention there and it kills us. We have to figure out a way to keep them in the sport, whether it's in the way we set up the league schedule, whether we let them bowl for free for those years, whatever it is.

The major EXTERNAL problem, though, is the same thing that hurts our adult leagues: The world has changed in a lot of ways, a big one of them is related to work schedule, and long-format leagues may not be the answer anymore. In addition, we're fighting video games, youth soccer, travel baseball, etc.

In regards to the tournament itself, it's like the other thread that other people got in a screaming match with me over (i.e., the why-it's-always-in-Reno thread): If you keep sending it back to the same place over and over, people get burned out. Don't tell me that the venue always has to be the same size, or we have to have the tournament the same length every year because that's the way it's always been done. I think it's pretty clear we're being forced, as a sport, into thinking outside the box now, and the penalty for not doing so will be the end of our tournament.

The tournament has become more of a vacation thing than a competitive event for a large portion of the field -- both sexes can bowl, you can drink beer during competition just like you were in your league back home, etc. The dual-gender entry is here to stay, but every change these days seems to be about either going more casual, or protecting the format (multi-month, huge lane requirement) over what's fiscally responsible. I'll just lay it out there -- the tournament as we know it will have to change. Some people will get all kinds of pi**ed off about that but they'll have to deal with it.

Jess