In the business world, it is often necessary to fire good people because they can't or won't do the job.
I was among the few bowling journalists who witnessed the discussion and votes on bowling's Single Membership Organization in Knoxville March 14 and Reno April 29, and it was sad to hear the ignorance of so many stubborn delegates who spoke against the merger proposal.
In Knoxville, I was not surprised that the ABC delegates rejected the merger, but I was surprised that WIBC, in spite of a valiant second effort on April 30, ended up with the same result. I was perhaps the only journalist who predicted WIBC would vote in favor of the merger in two separate columns. They were close—only 84 votes short on the second ballot, but close doesn't count. Or does it?
Because the majority of combined delegates voted in the affirmative, bowling's leaders must now feel they have an obligation to find a way to make the United States Bowling Congress, or a similar group, a reality. I don't hear many knowledgeable industry leaders saying, "It's over, let's move on."
It's obvious that those misinformed delegates who voted to reject the SMO did so for mostly selfish reasons. Some didn't want to give up their "power" to vote on ABC and WIBC issues; others were concerned that the merger would mean the end of free trips to their conventions; and many simply didn't understand the proposal or take it seriously enough to consider the future implications of their vote.
One important lesson we've learned from the process is that it is very difficult to move forward with so many delegates involved, almost 4,000 in both conventions. Can you imagine the United States Congress with 4,000 representatives and senators? It's often chaotic with 535.
So now what? As I said in last month's humble offering, If not now, when?, my gut feeling tells me that now is the best time to make a single membership organization a reality, and I hope somebody, perhaps the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America, steps up to the plate to force the merger. If it takes special meetings, call them. Whatever it takes, with or without delegates, it should be done now so bowling can move forward.
By voting as they did, ABC's and WIBC's delegates may have written their own pink slips. Why? Because one of the contingency plans not yet announced by the American Bowling Congress may be to find a way to open up ABC membership to all bowlers. They are already open to men and women; it doesn't seem far-fetched that ABC could become the "New American Bowling Congress" with a men's division, a women's division, and a youth division, which is exactly what the United States Bowling Congress was designed to become.
Who cares what it's called, as long as it gets done. I proposed several years ago 'USA Bowling' would be a good name for all the groups combined. WIBC had a unique opportunity to lead the way, but those negative renegade delegates prevented it. WIBC Executive Director Roseann Kuhn called it the "saddest day in the 87-year history of WIBC." Why? Because Roseann, along with the unanimous support of both the WIBC and ABC board of directors knew that without the merger, bowling is in real trouble. And as Bowlers Journal International's Jim Dressel said in a recent column entitled Dead Women Voting?, it could mean the end of WIBC as we know it.
Now, it may be up to the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America to make it happen, and make no mistake, they can make it happen. In 1991, BPAA forced ABC and WIBC to adopt the System of Bowling, ending a couple of decades of bad feelings between the groups caused mostly by denial of honor scores. That issue, compared to the one in the spotlight now, seems insignificant.
On April 29 in Reno, American Bowling Congress Executive Director Roger Dalkin announced that ABC would reveal its contingency plan "by the middle of May." Don't be surprised if ABC announces a plan to team up with BPAA to create a single membership organization to include all bowlers.
If they are smart, and I sincerely believe they are, the plan will have WIBC inclusion, as it should. It seems impossible for WIBC to retain its name and identity as a women's only organization, but WIBC leaders and the majority of its delegates have already accepted that.
In effect, the WIBC vote let ABC out of the doghouse and possibly put them in the penthouse. Now ABC, with BPAA's help, can return to the position of leading a single membership organization, one without all, or most, of those delegates who are so afraid of change. To be blunt, the ABC and WIBC delegates were given an opportunity to resign with dignity for the good of the game. They refused, so now it may be necessary to fire them.
Comments or questions? Contact Jim Goodwin