What’s Striking

Standards

Do me a favor and humor me for a bit. Do an internet search for “Memphis Golf Association”. Just see what pops up, and click on what might be the 1st link. Just poke around. Next, do another internet search for “Memphis Tennis Association”. Do the same thing. Now, search “Memphis Bowling Association”. Poke around, if you can. Notice anything.

Let me stop you from accusing me of picking on our association. I randomly did the same search on 5 other associations. Houston (quite nice at 1st glance, but also a basket case), Nashville (equally as bad), Chicago (Shockingly good and up-to-date), St Louis (some good, some bad, some ugly) and then BALTIMORE. WOW is all I have to say. From the city that has brought us such an ugly eye, BEAUTIFUL website. I would have never guessed it.

The object behind this isn’t just to shine light on, or pick on our association. There are other associations out there that are very similar if not worse (I’ll be honest. I looked up Roanoke West Virginia USBC, much to my surprise it was actually better). My 1st point is the differences between 2 sports that are typically used in comparison to bowling, tennis and golf. The members of those sports hold tennis and golf to a higher standard. This isn’t just a board thing, it’s a member thing (an us thing). If you hold your standards low enough, you get what you pay for. Where as holding standards up higher, you tend to elevate things around you.

In my line of work, it is better to not have an SOP than to have an SOP and not follow it. It would be better for some of these associations to not put out information at all than to put out information 5 YEARS OLD. Some had broken page links, etc. Yes, don’t get me wrong, some of them looked really well put together and eye catching (probably expensive), but that’s not what’s necessary. Just make sure what you do have published…..WORKS.

I am just as guilty of not getting involved as 99% of our association. The best I could tell from our associations page, we have approximately 2200 USBC members as of 2023. The reason I say 2023, is because they don’t have a more recent average list. Of the 2200, I would assume maybe AT MOST 500 are youth, and I am pretty sure that is on the high side. So that leaves us with 1700ish adult bowlers. Of those 1700, do you know how many adults were at the annual board meeting where they voted on officiers……go ahead, I will wait. I don’t think there was 100 people there, which is sad. Before criticizing our association and their decisions, show up. I am just as guilty

While looking at other cities association pages, the ones that didn’t make me cringe, I saw some interesting and inspiring things. Green Bay for instance. Really nice page, and love the idea of their Green Bay Open. As I stated in the previous newsletter and in my rant, bowling can not survive off the model from 1950. In order to maintain and hopefully bring league numbers back up, we need to bring new ideas to the floor. If you choose to just sit there and do nothing, don’t complain when you get an award from the association and its a pen that says congratulations on your 600 Game…..(I did not mistype that). We need to raise our standards.