The following letter recently was sent to USBC Executive Director Stu Upson and President Jeff Bojé.
I am writing this letter because of the amount of complaints we have received from our members regarding USBC. I listened to the conversation on the telephone conference earlier this season and heard about how “in touch” you all were with what the associations needed.
I, for one, do not know when USBC will provide the local associations with a computer program dealing with the youth bowlers that actually is user-friendly. We cannot get a roster or check the awards given to a league through Version 9.9.27 of WinLABS—and these are just some of the problems.
There was hope that this latest WinLABS update would have solved these issues as promised. But thus far, our association has found this not to be true.
It would have been helpful if the WinLABS folks had sent out some documentation on how to get these tasks done because it isn’t apparent to us. Normally to import something, you need something to import, i.e., a file/location. Speaking of computer issues, the bowl.com Web site is like walking in wonderland—so many of our members have expressed frustration with the “redesigned” site.
Again, it may be helpful for USBC to realize why the membership and associations visit the site: They want to find a member or tournament info or deal with a WinLABS issue, etc.—not read all about pro bowling! It seems that USBC keeps paying people to design things, and they just do not work.
As with the new membership cards, for example, the prominence of “USBC” in white lettering versus what bowlers and tournament directors really want to see—bowler’s name and local association—not to mention the amount of time it took for bowlers to receive their card, have many of our members saying that this “redesign” also is a failure.
I understand that we now have a field representative, Jim Zebehazy. I thought that this program was halted because it was not needed. With this in place, who will Mr. Zebehazy report to, and will the information gathered go down the same black hole it went down in the past?
USBC let down our association when it did not meet its announced expectation that the proposed amendments for the 2010 USBC Convention would be posted online by February 15. Once again, the members who attended our annual meeting six days later were not permitted to feel as if they are a true part of the legislative process because there were no amendments to discuss. All they essentially did was elect our officers and directors.
Many of our adult members recently have felt it was a waste of time to attend our annual meeting. If we are losing the older members, how do you propose we interest the younger members to serve?
And what happens when your 2011 convention is scheduled for June 27 to July 2? Do we have to play “find the annual meeting” with our bowlers?
It would be more helpful to have the USBC Convention sites rotated, i.e., Open Tournament site, then Women’s Tournament, rather than constantly moving the convention dates.
If we move our annual meeting past our traditional late February date, it falls into our local tournament time as well as national events such the USBC Open and Women’s Championships. How do you propose we get a quorum to discuss the proposed amendments—if, of course, we receive them in time—when our members are off to the four corners of the country bowling in tournaments?
I soon will step down after two years as president of the merged board and 25 years of total service to the boards, including a final year as president of our local ABC board. I sincerely hope that the above questions and comments will result in improved service from USBC to all of its local associations. We need a strong and efficient national organization to guide us in the years ahead.