Foothills USBC Survey Results
The Foothills USBC Board thanks those of you who responded to our survey. We appreciate and welcome your input so that we may best fulfill our mission to address the concerns of our membership. We heard from almost 25% of our 651 adult members.
Not wanting to flood you with all the statistics and information collected from the survey, this document will try to address the issues which appear to be foremost from your perspective.
Demographics
Of the 25% who completed the survey, 33% were male, 57% were female, and 10% did not identify their gender. Of those who provided the information, 29% were seniors (over 55). 72 bowlers reported an average under 150, and 59 reported an average of 150 and above.
Tournaments Participated
In
Fifty-two percent (52%) of you indicated that you have not participated in any tournaments in the past, with 14% participating in this year’s Open tournament, and 16% in this year’s Women’s tournament. This reinforces our concerns related to participation in our tournaments, and we hope the information gathered will help us find ways to increase those numbers in the future.
Why Don’t You Bowl in
Tournaments?
In response to why you didn’t participate, the major issues were that the dates weren’t convenient, you didn’t know when the tournaments were being held, or that you didn’t feel you bowled well enough to be able to compete in tournaments.
The Open tournament is 100% handicap, which allows bowlers of all levels to compete fairly. Bowling in tournaments is really no different than competing with higher average bowlers on your leagues. For those of you who have never bowled tournaments, we strongly encourage you to give it a try. You may be surprised at your success in tournament play!
Regarding dates and advertising,
we will make every effort next season to ensure that we do not compete with
other tournaments (i.e.,
Of particular interest to us is that we had one response that indicated he wanted a “men only” tournament. In fact, there hasn’t been a men-only tournament through either ABC or USBC for many, many years. The reason that we hold a women’s tournament is that we are required to do so by USBC national mandate. In addition, we had two responses that indicated that they would not bowl with men. It is difficult for us to address these issues since they are issues of personal mindset.
Tournament Issues
With regard to the issues presented, most responses fell into the neutral category. The question that created the most interest was that of whether to pay out more places by reducing the amount of the prizes. With 17% neutral, 32% agreed with more payouts and smaller prizes, while 34% disagreed. The board will take this under advisement.
Should Foothills USBC
Merge With Another Association?
The survey asked
if you thought we should merge with another association, for example,
Surprisingly, the responses were quite close, with 42% Yes, 33% No, 21% not responding, and 4% either unsure or didn’t care. This is a big change from our previous “merge” survey in which the majority did not want to merge with another association. This is an interesting issue that we will research and bring to the membership at the April 2008 annual meeting.
Other Comments
We appreciate those who made valuable suggestions and comments to improve the tournaments. Be assured that the board will bear these in mind as we plan for future tournaments. We also thank those who took the time to offer the board some kind words.
However, of the 153 respondents, 13 were negatively directed at board leadership, and/or included comments about bringing back Chuck DeCamp as association manager.
We cannot address the management issues here because the comments were generalized and did not include constructive criticism or practical suggestions for improvement. We would be happy to talk face-to-face with these respondents should they choose to come forward. The board works as a team, and no single person, regardless of his/her position, is solely responsible for the actions taken by the board. If such a person did wield such power, the board as a whole would be negligent in their oversight responsibilities.
With regard to Chuck, the board was also sorry that he chose to resign following his third meeting with the directors. Please remember that this was his decision to make, and if he didn’t feel he could work with the board members who were duly elected by the membership, then, in fact, he made the correct decision.
As a reminder to all, a meeting of the full membership is scheduled
annually in April. At this meeting, officers
and directors are elected for new terms.
The best way to learn about the association and to voice your concerns
with its operation is to talk with board members and attend membership
meetings. The way to directly impact the
association is to serve on the board. If
interested, please contact a member of the board. (Point of information: board members are limited to two, three-year
terms in office.)
Thank you for your contribution to the survey and
for taking the time to review these results.
If you have any additional questions or comments, please feel free to
contact any member of the board.