Did you believe Bill Clinton when he wagged his finger in our face and pounded his fist on the podium and said, "I didn’t have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky?"
Were you offended, or at least disappointed when he later got caught and was forced to admit that he lied?
Would you vote for him again?
With that vivid picture in mind, why should we vote to give the American Bowling Congress and the Women’s International Bowling Congress another dues increase? Do you honestly think that giving more money to a corrupt and inept membership organization is going to help make bowling a better sport? Or will more money merely maintain the status quo, prolong the decline, and allow weak leaders to remain in power?
I suggest the latter is more accurate.
Much like the United States Congress, the ABCongress and the WIBCongress have been riding a gravy train for more than two decades.
The primary purpose of the ABC and WIBC is to maintain the rules of the game and insure the integrity of the sport by protecting playing standards and specifications.
Instead, the leaders of ABC and WIBC in the past two or three decades have decided that it should also be their job to act as a public relations firm, a marketing company, a for-profit tournament organization, and whatever else they want to do to spend our money.
The mentality that exists in bowling’s hierarchy is puzzling. Instead of cutting spending and downsizing in bad times, they continue to ask for more taxes (dues money) to maintain their so-called "services."
Not unlike a lot of people in government jobs, they talk about dues money as if it is "monopoly dollars" instead of hard cold U.S. currency. "It’s only two dollars," they say, as if asking for a contribution to a charity or selling Girl Scout cookies.
The next time you hear, "It’s only two dollars," translate that into real money: Two dollars times 3.5 million members is a cool $7 million!
But they are not just asking for two dollars. ABC’s proposal starts at $2 and goes to $6 if membership drops from 1.9 million to below 1.7 million (which it will). If an amendment proposed by delegates from Tulsa passes, WIBC dues will go up from $6 to $15 on the national level. That’s a nine dollar increase, which translates to $13.5 million.
Altogether, if ABC and WIBC get the maximum dues increase they seek, over $20 million more dollars will flow into Bowling Headquarters annually. Do you trust our current crop of leaders to use that money wisely?
I don’t. Here’s why:
I could go on, but space is limited.
Here’s a novel idea (and a new concept for ABC/WIBC): Learn to live with the budget you now have. Like any other business, cut salaries, cut staff, and cut expenses. Stop trying to be all things to all people and do the job your organizations were created to do.
Here are some specific examples:
One thing I’ve noticed in all my years in bowling is that there are too many people doing too little at Bowling Headquarters and that ABC and WIBC officers love to travel.
As an example, ABC Executive Director Roger Dalkin and his assistant, Jack Mordini, recently took a whirlwind tour of more than a dozen cities to convince people they needed a dues increase. Well, I say that if you didn’t spend so much on travel, maybe you wouldn’t need more money! And the awards program is almost as big a joke as the scoring.
Just by cutting in these areas, ABC/WIBC could save over $6 million annually. If they could do that for a few years, maybe dues could go down instead of up.
Jim Goodwin, a BWAA director and LPBT's regional program director, is the award-winning editor/publisher of Stars & Strikes, in which the preceding originally appeared. Subscription rates are $20 per year (Pin Point Publishing, 2850 Red Valley Run, Rockwall, Texas 75087 .. voice/fax: 972/771-0069).