Getting Bowler Awards

[Larry Curts]

I run two leagues, a 12 team mixed and 12 team men's. I've been sec/treasurer for the last 3 years. I'm having trouble getting the bowler's awards from my local association in a reasonable time. We're into week 12 and I haven't received any awards for all weeks prior. Each time I call or e-mail Y-T-D award forms, I always get the same song & dance; too busy, no awards in stock, etc. I'm at the point where I don't even call them as I just end up getting PO"ed.

How long do you normally have to wait for your awards?

[Angel Zobel-Rodriguez]

For youth awards, rarely more than a week, sometimes the same day. The person from the youth committee who fulfills awards loves playing "Santa," and we have a back and forth competition to see which of us (him or me) can get a "jump" on the other and have the paperwork sitting with the other person.

For adult awards, it's rarely more than a week or two. Even my Sport awards (which require the lane tapes be certified by National before the awards can be fulfilled) don't take but 3 weeks.

If the association manager is taking this long, definitely put a call in to the president. If that doesn't work, I'd go over both their heads and put a call into National. I can see a month due to just about whatever, but 3 months? UCK.

[Frank Goebel]

The merged USBC association where I am has an association manager who was the past secretary of the old BA, and is quite efficient. His son brings things to my center, so it can be in as short as two league sessions (that primarily being due to the fact that his visit to my center is the day after my league bowls). The same can be said for the Youth awards, as they're coming from the same office.

Prior to this season, I was in a different association for Youth and that secretary, later association manager, is herself quite efficient. I was able to simply e-mail the raw info of the award submissions and receive things within a week or two by return mail.

[Bob Lanouette]

Our Youth Awards Assistant to the Association Manager is associated with my center so I have no problem getting youth awards for the next league session. Our adult association holds monthly meetings. The house reps get the awards for their respective houses at these meetings. It's their job to distribute the awards to the various secretaries in the centers they represent. Getting the adult awards can take from 1 month to almost 2 months depending on when the awards are earned and submitted. In Sept. I must've distributed over 30 awards that my league bowlers had earned in April and May of the previous season. Needless to say, some awards remained un-distributed because the bowlers in question had not returned to my league or stopped bowling altogether.

[Keith Chambers]

Normally we get our awards turned around in a week; but with all of the problems they had with the data bases at the start of this season we did not get any awards until the middle of October. When they got caught up, I had 57 awards to present! (See my thread on USBC membership cards)
I normally mail the applications two days after the league session, the office processes the awards within a day to two and delivers them to the center. The bowler usually has their award within two weeks of shooting the score.
Is your associaton behind on other processes? Are they merged? Do they have a new manager? If everything is as it is supposed to be and they still can not serve you properly - send an email to the Association Relations folks at USBC and tell them of your problem. They can assist the association with their problem. It may be something very simple or may be something technical that they need assistance with.

[Larry Curts]

Keith,

I'm dealing with a non-merged assc, but that's not the problem. It's an internal thing within the BA. I finally got all my womens awards last week, but the men's are still not being sent in a timely manner. I've dealt with this crap for 3 years now, but there's not much I can do. We've got this little bunch of guys running the show and they cover each others butts like a covey of quail. I'm 50 miles away and you wouldn't believe the excuses I hear. I always fax in my award forms within 7 days and even send in a y-t-d awards list at the end of each month. I was just curious if other leagues had to deal with this stuff. I finally got all my 2005/06 awards in time for the first night of bowling in August this year. And to make matters worse, they raised our local dues to $21 from $16 so we would get better service. "Thanks" for the reply.

[Joyce Lost]

I have two leagues Tuesday am and Friday AM and we are a merged association- At our lanes we have a jacket marked for our Association and one of the bowlers on the board pick up the award form, membership, etc
and every week takes it to the Local USBC office. Every award is to me in one week. IT'S GREAT- AND IT DOES NOT COST OUR LEAGUE A PENNY BY NOT HAVING TO MAIL THE AWARDS. WORKS GREAT.

[Phil Molzon]

I send my awards via internal fax driver on Sat. morning and they are in my mailbox no later than the following Wed. But, I have one of the best association managers you could ask for. Hugh Gorman is always right on top of things, and does a better job than I could expect anyone to do. So I guess my answer would be that your porblem is with the association, and I would encourage you to go to the annual delegates meeting in the fall, and voice your displeasure with the current board, as they have control over whom is association manager, and they are responsible for conducting performance reviews of him to make sure he is doing his job.
Sincerely Yours,
Phil Molzon, Secretary
Mentor RV Industrial League