BELMO
Member
Gillian and the board:
Something I have come to realize is that the current CEO and attitude of the board towards bowlings current members and future members is a breath of fresh air.
I have spoken to Gillian today and asked a few questions about current matters and future matters of where TBA is heading.
Im impressed. Gillian is a tough girl, says what she feels and honestly left her ears wide open for both criticism and compliments i had for her.
Question 1 I had for our CEO.
"what was the reasoning behind the funding given to coaches and managers to represent national teams and not the players??"
Her answer....
Gillian has been apart and spoken with many other sporting organisation, in her experience she has always seen the coaching and managerial staff as a very important role when traveling and in each organisation these people have had all expenses paid for. When i asked her is that because the players too are given a free ride, her response was that in many other sports with equestrian being the example, students have been asked to pay anywhere from $15000 to go.
I then told her that bowling is much different to every other sport, how could she make a decision about something she knew nothing about??
Gillian then told me that every decision that TBA makes is not a decision made by only her.
The board and the CEO research and ask people in current positions with in bowling how it worked in the past.
The advice she and the board were given, using her past experiences and that of other sporting groups TBA did what they thought was right. TBA did not know this would be felt so hard by the players.
She went on to say that funding from the government is very limited and she believes that much of that funding should and will be used to build the sport nationally rather on teams that go away.
She did also say that sending teams at the highest level away is very important, hence the reason the world youth and adult mens are 2 teams she has committed a small portion of that funding.
I told her that i understand where she was coming from but i still did not agree with the TBA ruling on this matter. I told her that i felt is was very unfair and that each person on the team is of equal value.
She went on to say that she will be the first to put her hand up and say that she was wrong when she feels she is. In this case she said that TBA have got it wrong and would never of went that route knowing what she knows now.
"this is a lesson learnt, something i will make sure i deal with regarding future teams" our CEO said.
When i asked her would this change the ruling on the current youth team, she explained that now that it is released, all she do is talk about it with those who it will affect when the team is announced.
I asked her where the figure of $6500 came from?
She explained that it was a over estaminet and that figure would be the worst case scenario. She is and will be using all her resources to lower that cost as much as possible.
She asked me that if I could get the price down to $3000, like I stated in a earlier post on total bowling, she would happily take my suggestion and use it. Unfortunately i was over exaggerating the saving I could come up with and I told her that I was sorry for explaining to Totalbowling readers that the cost TBA were estimating was a figure purly to rip off the kids. This is not the fact at all!
Question 2:
"What plan does TBA have to build it's membership"
Her response.
She stated that this of all things will be the toughest challenge TBA will face. TBA's plan is to have a high performance level 2 coach in each state around the nation who will go and teach not only people who want to become better coaches but to help staff members around the country understand the very basics of bowling.
She believes (and i agree) the knowledge of many staff members about bowling is very limited, educating the younger staff members or those who are not bowlers themselves about the simple side of bowling may help with attracting new members.
How i asked??
Well if a family came bowling and the staff member saw that members of that family were taking a keen interest in the sport some simple coaching and useful knowledge about the game may excite the 'possible new member' into coming back to learn more and to progress in skill level.
Perhaps by offering a hand to get better would eventuate into signing this new bowler as a member.
I couldnt of agreed more!
She went on to say that not only do staff need educating but so do the public. There were only a few bowling centres Gillian had walked into that had any infomation about the competitve side to bowling.
Almost every bowling centre had brochures about birthday parties, corporate functions and school holiday deals, but where was the infomation about the "sport" of bowling.
This is something that will change if she can get the help of the ABPA.
It's essential that the public understands that the elite side of bowling exists, the more people that know about competition bowling the more people we can target to join our membership base.
League is an old and boring word to explain competition bowling. Gillian wants the word league changed to 'competition play'. An idea the USBC is thinking of doing, an idea i have actually said to my parents early this year, an idea i think will help in attracting new bowlers.
Of course this is not the only plan TBA has but out of the 45 min phone call with her, I could not lead into any more discussion.
I have called Gillian a handful of times and each time i have called i get answers and I get a clear and precise path of where she feels TBA need to go.
I had lost much respect for TBA in the past, but for a change I'm happy to be a member and I feel that the current CEO will actually do something to help build TBA rather than slow its eventual demise.
TBA is by far not perfect, but with the current CEO at the helm, i believe in the years ahead it will grow stronger and stronger and along the way we the members will be the ones benefitting.
Jason Belmonte
ps- The conversation i had with Gillian was not taped, i could only try and quote her as well as i could from memory, so please if i have written something and it may not read the way my head read it, blame me, not her!
Cheers
Something I have come to realize is that the current CEO and attitude of the board towards bowlings current members and future members is a breath of fresh air.
I have spoken to Gillian today and asked a few questions about current matters and future matters of where TBA is heading.
Im impressed. Gillian is a tough girl, says what she feels and honestly left her ears wide open for both criticism and compliments i had for her.
Question 1 I had for our CEO.
"what was the reasoning behind the funding given to coaches and managers to represent national teams and not the players??"
Her answer....
Gillian has been apart and spoken with many other sporting organisation, in her experience she has always seen the coaching and managerial staff as a very important role when traveling and in each organisation these people have had all expenses paid for. When i asked her is that because the players too are given a free ride, her response was that in many other sports with equestrian being the example, students have been asked to pay anywhere from $15000 to go.
I then told her that bowling is much different to every other sport, how could she make a decision about something she knew nothing about??
Gillian then told me that every decision that TBA makes is not a decision made by only her.
The board and the CEO research and ask people in current positions with in bowling how it worked in the past.
The advice she and the board were given, using her past experiences and that of other sporting groups TBA did what they thought was right. TBA did not know this would be felt so hard by the players.
She went on to say that funding from the government is very limited and she believes that much of that funding should and will be used to build the sport nationally rather on teams that go away.
She did also say that sending teams at the highest level away is very important, hence the reason the world youth and adult mens are 2 teams she has committed a small portion of that funding.
I told her that i understand where she was coming from but i still did not agree with the TBA ruling on this matter. I told her that i felt is was very unfair and that each person on the team is of equal value.
She went on to say that she will be the first to put her hand up and say that she was wrong when she feels she is. In this case she said that TBA have got it wrong and would never of went that route knowing what she knows now.
"this is a lesson learnt, something i will make sure i deal with regarding future teams" our CEO said.
When i asked her would this change the ruling on the current youth team, she explained that now that it is released, all she do is talk about it with those who it will affect when the team is announced.
I asked her where the figure of $6500 came from?
She explained that it was a over estaminet and that figure would be the worst case scenario. She is and will be using all her resources to lower that cost as much as possible.
She asked me that if I could get the price down to $3000, like I stated in a earlier post on total bowling, she would happily take my suggestion and use it. Unfortunately i was over exaggerating the saving I could come up with and I told her that I was sorry for explaining to Totalbowling readers that the cost TBA were estimating was a figure purly to rip off the kids. This is not the fact at all!
Question 2:
"What plan does TBA have to build it's membership"
Her response.
She stated that this of all things will be the toughest challenge TBA will face. TBA's plan is to have a high performance level 2 coach in each state around the nation who will go and teach not only people who want to become better coaches but to help staff members around the country understand the very basics of bowling.
She believes (and i agree) the knowledge of many staff members about bowling is very limited, educating the younger staff members or those who are not bowlers themselves about the simple side of bowling may help with attracting new members.
How i asked??
Well if a family came bowling and the staff member saw that members of that family were taking a keen interest in the sport some simple coaching and useful knowledge about the game may excite the 'possible new member' into coming back to learn more and to progress in skill level.
Perhaps by offering a hand to get better would eventuate into signing this new bowler as a member.
I couldnt of agreed more!
She went on to say that not only do staff need educating but so do the public. There were only a few bowling centres Gillian had walked into that had any infomation about the competitve side to bowling.
Almost every bowling centre had brochures about birthday parties, corporate functions and school holiday deals, but where was the infomation about the "sport" of bowling.
This is something that will change if she can get the help of the ABPA.
It's essential that the public understands that the elite side of bowling exists, the more people that know about competition bowling the more people we can target to join our membership base.
League is an old and boring word to explain competition bowling. Gillian wants the word league changed to 'competition play'. An idea the USBC is thinking of doing, an idea i have actually said to my parents early this year, an idea i think will help in attracting new bowlers.
Of course this is not the only plan TBA has but out of the 45 min phone call with her, I could not lead into any more discussion.
I have called Gillian a handful of times and each time i have called i get answers and I get a clear and precise path of where she feels TBA need to go.
I had lost much respect for TBA in the past, but for a change I'm happy to be a member and I feel that the current CEO will actually do something to help build TBA rather than slow its eventual demise.
TBA is by far not perfect, but with the current CEO at the helm, i believe in the years ahead it will grow stronger and stronger and along the way we the members will be the ones benefitting.
Jason Belmonte
ps- The conversation i had with Gillian was not taped, i could only try and quote her as well as i could from memory, so please if i have written something and it may not read the way my head read it, blame me, not her!
Cheers
