wchester
Bowling Tragic
The TBAL CEO Gillian Thompson-Rogers opened the meeting with an inspired Powerpoint presentation, which I would recommend everyone see. It can be found at this link:
http://www.tenpin.org.au/2008_AGM/Sport for a lifetime Presentation.pdf
Gillian is very aware of our plight and the mistakes which have been made in the past. I truly believe that she will do everything within her power in an attempt to raise the awareness of tenpin bowling and to give something back to the membership in return for their registration dues. However, everything comes at a cost, and the cost will likely be borne by you, the average league bowler. The CEO and the board of directors stated that dues for the 2009 season are expected to be ratified by the end of September of 2008. My expectation, and remember this is only my feeling, is that the yearly registration dues will be in the vicinity of $30.00 per bowler
This is by no means a complete recap of the AGM. It is however an attempt to relate to you the questions which I presented to the board and the answers which were given.
Firstly let me explain that the Q and A session didn't go exactly as I had hoped. Instead of taking questions one at a time from those in the room, John Coxon asked for questions to be written on a sheet of paper, from which he then selected a few questions to be fielded. I gave him a list containing 12 questions which you, the members of Totalbowling had suggested. Some of these question were on another list, that of Christian Purdue, and the answers to these questions are included in the following:
What does the average bowler get in return for his TBA membership/registration/sanction fee?
Right now the average bowler doesn't receive anything. ( Gillian's answer )
Why hasn't the TBA put a restriction on league and centre conditions and enforced this for honour scores?
Question was not chosen, so no answer
What is TBA doing in regards to publicity of the sport? Will there be more publicity in the future, or less publicity, & if so, what will be done to further advertise this great sport?
Vaguely covered in the PP presentation, but no definitive answer given
What is the TBA doing to help juniors in regional areas?
Asked by a couple of observers. It did not elicit an answer
What can TBA do to keep juniors in our sport once they graduate to youth and beyond.
Question was not chosen, so no answer
Only the best 7 under 18 boys and girls can make the State team each year. Almost every other sport invites the best of each age group (under 10, under 12, under 14 etc) to compete each year. Why is bowling different?
Question was not chosen, so no answer
Why not have international 14 and under representation? Most other sports have it, why not us?
Question was not chosen, so no answer
When is the TBA going to step up and put forward a similar program to AFL's AusKick or Milo's Have a Go Cricket?
Question was not chosen, so no answer
Why do we continually throw money at training camps etc for the elite when 90% of our bowlers are not in this bracket.
This specific question wasn't asked, but a similar question elicited the following answer..Out of the $220,000 in ASC funding, $150,000 is spent on the grass roots level and only $70,000 to the 'elite' bowling development program.
Are state associations going to be funded (under the TBA banner) to support local programs, country clinics and school programs?
Question was not chosen, so no answer
Is TBA going to do anything to shut down the seemingly endless number of organisations, committees and sub committees we have.
Question was not chosen, so no answer
TBA axed a long standing successful state versus state handicapped event, Walter De Veer Memorial Tournament on the grounds that ASC funding would be at risk if the event continued to be part of the nationals.
This was the last question of the day and it ended up being answered by a representative from the ASC (Australian Sports Commision) who took this opportunity to not only answer this question but to give everyone a clear idea of how our sport ranks in terms of gov't funding among some similar sports. The short answer was that he felt that the TBA should not be spending so much time and energy on the DeVeer as it was not an "elite' competition. John Coxon said that there were many complaints of sandbagging and that some of the teams were predetermined due to non disclosure of qualifying rolloffs.
As for future funding, he issued a caveat. Should the TBA stress the fact that there are 3.7 million people who participate in tempin bowling each year, then funding could be at risk, because after all, why would bowling need $230,000 if they have 3.7 million users. ..(PS .I think Gillian has a plan to get some sort of fee from every one of those 3.7 millin participants.)
My question to the TBA is why has this decision been reversed and at what risk to funding, if any?
We ran out of time so this second part went unasked and unanswered.
Some notable response during the day included the following:
Is anything being done to better the TBA Natioinals?
Entries were hurt last year by some opposition (meaning HOLT) - John Coxon
As long as Alex wasn't overspending, then everything was ok - John Coxon is response to a comment that the board is responsible for the current mess..
The most used line of the day was "we're aware of it and we're doing something about the problem. Details will be revealed when we have an answer"
to be continued.........
.
http://www.tenpin.org.au/2008_AGM/Sport for a lifetime Presentation.pdf
Gillian is very aware of our plight and the mistakes which have been made in the past. I truly believe that she will do everything within her power in an attempt to raise the awareness of tenpin bowling and to give something back to the membership in return for their registration dues. However, everything comes at a cost, and the cost will likely be borne by you, the average league bowler. The CEO and the board of directors stated that dues for the 2009 season are expected to be ratified by the end of September of 2008. My expectation, and remember this is only my feeling, is that the yearly registration dues will be in the vicinity of $30.00 per bowler
This is by no means a complete recap of the AGM. It is however an attempt to relate to you the questions which I presented to the board and the answers which were given.
Firstly let me explain that the Q and A session didn't go exactly as I had hoped. Instead of taking questions one at a time from those in the room, John Coxon asked for questions to be written on a sheet of paper, from which he then selected a few questions to be fielded. I gave him a list containing 12 questions which you, the members of Totalbowling had suggested. Some of these question were on another list, that of Christian Purdue, and the answers to these questions are included in the following:
What does the average bowler get in return for his TBA membership/registration/sanction fee?
Right now the average bowler doesn't receive anything. ( Gillian's answer )
Why hasn't the TBA put a restriction on league and centre conditions and enforced this for honour scores?
Question was not chosen, so no answer
What is TBA doing in regards to publicity of the sport? Will there be more publicity in the future, or less publicity, & if so, what will be done to further advertise this great sport?
Vaguely covered in the PP presentation, but no definitive answer given
What is the TBA doing to help juniors in regional areas?
Asked by a couple of observers. It did not elicit an answer
What can TBA do to keep juniors in our sport once they graduate to youth and beyond.
Question was not chosen, so no answer
Only the best 7 under 18 boys and girls can make the State team each year. Almost every other sport invites the best of each age group (under 10, under 12, under 14 etc) to compete each year. Why is bowling different?
Question was not chosen, so no answer
Why not have international 14 and under representation? Most other sports have it, why not us?
Question was not chosen, so no answer
When is the TBA going to step up and put forward a similar program to AFL's AusKick or Milo's Have a Go Cricket?
Question was not chosen, so no answer
Why do we continually throw money at training camps etc for the elite when 90% of our bowlers are not in this bracket.
This specific question wasn't asked, but a similar question elicited the following answer..Out of the $220,000 in ASC funding, $150,000 is spent on the grass roots level and only $70,000 to the 'elite' bowling development program.
Are state associations going to be funded (under the TBA banner) to support local programs, country clinics and school programs?
Question was not chosen, so no answer
Is TBA going to do anything to shut down the seemingly endless number of organisations, committees and sub committees we have.
Question was not chosen, so no answer
TBA axed a long standing successful state versus state handicapped event, Walter De Veer Memorial Tournament on the grounds that ASC funding would be at risk if the event continued to be part of the nationals.
This was the last question of the day and it ended up being answered by a representative from the ASC (Australian Sports Commision) who took this opportunity to not only answer this question but to give everyone a clear idea of how our sport ranks in terms of gov't funding among some similar sports. The short answer was that he felt that the TBA should not be spending so much time and energy on the DeVeer as it was not an "elite' competition. John Coxon said that there were many complaints of sandbagging and that some of the teams were predetermined due to non disclosure of qualifying rolloffs.
As for future funding, he issued a caveat. Should the TBA stress the fact that there are 3.7 million people who participate in tempin bowling each year, then funding could be at risk, because after all, why would bowling need $230,000 if they have 3.7 million users. ..(PS .I think Gillian has a plan to get some sort of fee from every one of those 3.7 millin participants.)
My question to the TBA is why has this decision been reversed and at what risk to funding, if any?
We ran out of time so this second part went unasked and unanswered.
Some notable response during the day included the following:
Is anything being done to better the TBA Natioinals?
Entries were hurt last year by some opposition (meaning HOLT) - John Coxon
As long as Alex wasn't overspending, then everything was ok - John Coxon is response to a comment that the board is responsible for the current mess..
The most used line of the day was "we're aware of it and we're doing something about the problem. Details will be revealed when we have an answer"
to be continued.........
.