OPEN QUESTION TO ANY TBA OFFICIALS re: World Championships

[wchester]

FACT!
Each Australian team member had to come up with A$1,500 to take part in the World Championships.

Were the team officials (coaches, psychologist and managers) also required to partially pay their own way ?

Now for my opinion....I feel it's disgraceful for Australia to force a representative bowler to pay for the honour of competing FOR Australia...If funding is that hard to come by..just raise the registration fees. I'll be the first in line to pay $25 yearly dues, if it means our athletes won't have to empty their own pockets in order to represent Australia.

Who else out there agrees with me?

Wayne Chester

 

[Graham]

Wayne

Id gladly pay the extra if I knew it was DEFINATELY - WITHOUT QUESTION going to the National team. If I paid extra then the National team was forced to pay anything id be pretty pissed off.

 

[Peter Coburn]

Wayne,

Yes, the team officials also had to pay a participation fee.

After witnessing Mick's gold medal performance over the weekend and watching the national flag being raised to the tune of Advance Australia Fair, I'd gladly do it all again for double, no triple, the fee.

I know that the rest of this team would support this statement.

Over the weekend I was a very proud to be an Australian and all of Australia should be very proud of the team sent to the World Championships. The men had a top 10 finish in every event - this is no mean feat at this level.

 

[Andrew S.]

There are many of us who would gladly contribute to any fund to help the National Teams.
However there are probably many more who are still not happy with the lack of disclosure practised by TBA with regard to their finances.
This fact alone could well deter the majority of the membership.
It still remains a mystery as to why TBA are so reluctant to publish their financials; what the hell, we are all either members or tax payers or both, so registration fees and ASC grants should be accounted for openly.

Wayne I didn't intend for this to be a political rant but sometimes TBA is its own worst enemy.

 

[Peter Coburn]

Andrew S.

Full TBAL financials were published on the TBA Website on the 11 August 2003, as requested and duly promised at the TBA AGM by your Queensland counterparts.

This information has been distributed to all associaitons and proprietors on this same date.

Please be aware that TBA is not a membership based organisation - you do not pay TBA a membership fee.

To clarify this you should refer to the "Structure of Our Sport" relational model on the TBA Website "Contacts" page.

 

[Andrew S.]

Thank you Peter I am aware of the membership structure. My Centre pays you and I pay them, so you are really playing with words when you say that TBA is not a membership based organisation.
And you shouldn't be using that as an excuse.

Yes the financials are finally available, I guess better late than never, and it was like pulling teeth to get them.

I am sure we are both aware of the correspondance that passed between TBA and the Qld State Board.
Frankly I doubt that you would have published as much as you did, had not the Qld Board badgered your organisation for disclosure.

Until such time as you are prepared to concede complete and full disclosure of all TBA expenses, the membership (or the Association Members if you prefer) will continue to have doubts.

 

[Peter Coburn]

Andrew S

You should re-look at the registered player model as it appears you are misreading the relational model.

Bowlers pay a membership fee to their centre or licenced association. The association in turn pays the centre proprietor and most centre proprietors pay the lane levy to the TBA TRUST.

I do not get any of this money.

The TBA Trust administers the funds given to TBAL on a monthly basis and on behalf of the proprietors.

 

[ilive2bowl]

If TBA is not a membership based Association and certainly not a Proprietor based Association then what kind of Association is it???

 

[Peter Coburn]

Tenin Bowling Australia Limited is a not-for-profit company, limited by guarantee.

 

[ilive2bowl]

Point missed!

 

[Peter Coburn]

Correct, the point of this posting has gone off the track.

In fact, our unpatriotic "friend" from Bendigo was hoping that the officials on the trip to World Championships got a free ride to Malaysia. Obviously, so that he could have another dig at TBA.

As I have mentioned above we all paid a participation fee towards this trip and, like the rest of the officials on this trip, I was very happy to pay my own way.

My avatar is not shrouded with stars and stripes.

 

[bm2]

Paying $1500 for the honour of representing your country????

One point that has not been raised is that a lot of bowlers pay MORE than that every year just to represent their respective states in Rachuig, DeVeer, Youth, Juniors and Seniors at the nationals. They do this because they love this sport, and are proud to be a state rep - and also, a lot of the time they have no control over what the "organising committees" charge for the various components of the trip. Govt funding is not available to all states/teams, and to be a part of it, you just shut up and pay up.

I would much rather contribute $1500 towards the cost of NATIONAL representation. There is only so much govt funding, and three lots of representative teams to share the bounty....this way all the rep players pay the same, and get a lions share of their trip subsidised. A lot fairer than, for example, TBA saying that the Adult team get all the funding this year, and the Youth and Seniors dip out. $1500 is a lot easier to come across than say $3500 if you were to pay the full cost.

It would be nice to see a system implemented where National teams did not have to pay a cent towards their representation, but how to do it? I think that you would find a lot of "one league a week" bowlers would not want to pay any extra money towards a bunch of bowlers who they had never heard of going overseas to compete...this means that the rest of us are left holding the kitty...Unless we are able to get valuable sponsorship dollars, which doesn't look likely given that our media hasn't even picked up on Mick's great win in Malaysia, the only option we have is the one which is in place now - partial funding, partial contribution.

This is just my opinion tho.... and just for the record, as a tag-a-long to the Seniors trip to Guam next week, I am paying my own way. :wink:

Broni 8)

 

[Peter Coburn]

Good luck to the Seniors Team departing on Friday for a camp in Cairns and then on to Guam early Monday morning for the 2003 ABF Seniors Championships.

I wish I could be with you to cheer you on but I'm just getting my voice back after returning from KL, can't afford to take another 2 weeks off work and have no budget left to fund another trip so soon.

 

[Graham]

In fact, our unpatriotic "friend" from Bendigo was hoping that the officials on the trip to World Championships got a free ride to Malaysia. Obviously, so that he could have another dig at TBA. My avatar is not shrouded with stars and stripes.

Peter,

Can you please explain what you meant in this instance when referring to Wayne. (in particular the "un-patriotic" statement).

You risk running along the same lines as another director who liked to resort to name calling when they didnt like the comments on this site.

Graham

 

[Peter Coburn]

Graham,

I certainly do not revert to or condone name calling, you know that this is not in my nature.

Wayne's quote . . .

I feel it's disgraceful for Australia to force a representative bowler to pay for the honour of competing FOR Australia

The bowlers and officials who travelled to Malaysia for the 15th WTBA World Tenpin Bowling Championships where patriotic enough to pay the participation fee in order to be part of this team.

For those of us that are self employed it cost a heck of a lot more than the participation fee to attend. I know that I would gladly and patriotically do it again.

Be rest assured that if there was sufficient funding to send our representative teams overseas free of charge then TBA would waive the participation fee. However, there is about a $100K pa shortfall before TBA can consider this, so if anyone has some smart ideas on raising this kind of money, for this purpose, then let's hear them.

Quite a number of the countries at World's receive fully funded trips.

 

[Graham]

OK, I understand your point and now we are in a full circle to whole point of the topic in the first place.

I remember a few years ago that members were asked to pay an extra amount to be included in an "elite" membership (or whatever you want to call it). This wasnt continued through for whatever reason. Now, the first post asked the question of making a membership level to help subsidise the trip. So the rest of our bowlers (including Wayne) can help with the cost of the trips of our bowlers to these Championships.

I guess thats why I was surprised at him being called unpatriotic, when in fact he did have an idea to raise money, he was even leading the charge so to speak, and nominating to be the first person to pay more to help our Aussie teams.

My reply to this was that the concern people would have is that it wouldnt go towards that use, probably sceptical that the promise of money going towards our teams wont be kept. I know that you are looking to turn things around, is this sort of thing (the increased membership for Tournament bowlers :?: ) a feasible initiative ?

 

[Peter Coburn]

Graham,

If some one outside of TBA wished to establish a fund, by the bowlers, and on behalf of the national teams and then contribute to the team expenses then I'm sure we could come to some transparent arrangement.

Uniforms, airfares and accommodation are the big dollar items on these trips. Airfares alone exceed $100K, dependent upon destination.

The next World Championships for Women are in Denmark in 2005 and in Korea for Men in 2006. Due to the distance and high expenses in these countries we therefore need to start planning for these now.

Suggestions please????

 

[ilive2bowl]

The REAL difficulty here is that the enormous amount of money raised by the TBA from proprietors in the first 2 years of this 'arm-twisting' process went towards the payment of 'past' debts. You simply couldn't fund current requirements when paying off past debts...could you? These debts now having been cleared (or so we understand) AND the arm-twisting still current, it would be interesting to learn (and I'm sure we will once we receive this years Financial statements) what the considerable amount of funds raised by the TBA from:
1) Proprietors per lane levy;
2) Proprietors having to 'buy' National Tournaments and
3) Income earned from Govt. sources
will be allocated towards.
Just another point...the composition of elite bowlers makes up a miniscule of the number of League bowlers who participate in the Sport week in and week out. I would like to see the TBA providing these bowlers with some meaningful and measurable benefit - such as spending some money 'profiling' the Sport of bowling that would give these bowlers a reason to be proud. It is rediculous to suggest that these everyday bowlers should contribute further towards the sponsorship of the elite athlete. Just as happens in every other sport let the elite athlete gain sponsorship for themselves if, indeed, the TBA were not able to allocate sufficient funds towards their total sponsorship. My Company sponsor a number of elite bowlers and are happy to continue doing so as these bowlers carry our name proudly wherever they compete but what of Joe and Joan bowler???

 

[Peter Coburn]

ilive2bowl,

As mentioned earlier, the TBAL financials have been sent direct to each proprietor/association as well as posted on the TBA website on the 11th August 2003.

For your convenience here is the URL: http://www.tenpin.org.au/forms1/TBAL_Financials_Jan_Jun_2003.htm

Graham has asked me to refrain from placing any TBA website URL's on this site but I'm sure in this instance he will over look this request and in the interests of your query.

 

[SCOOPS]

Well i know over in Perth a band of local bowlers of varying averages assisted Mike Muir in raising funds to assist his trip abroad and this isnt the first time.

Perth a Population of what 4thousand league bowlers how come bowlers from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland do the same thing.

I agree i dont like the idea of increasing the membership levy for all bowlers across the board to look after the 5% of the bowling fraternity. Do you all realise how hard it is to keep leagues and bowlers to keep paying this subscription NOW!!!!? and u want to increase it to $25.00pp GET REAL!

And as said previously i would personally pay but on the absolute guarentee it was going towards the top bowlers but then again i would prefer to go to a QUIZ NIGHT with a bunch of mates with my $20 and donate it that way.