Planning for Success

Local associations around the county have been a staple in supporting organized bowling for over 100 years. The volunteer structure that has powered associations for all these years go through changes as new people recognize their ability to help the sport through their association.

To help associations become more equipped for change and to expand the skillsets and needs of their board and volunteers, the USBC Association Development Team has developed a program, Planning for Success. This program is designed to assess the associations current state, identify what is working and what needs improvement, design an action plan to make the improvements and set a timeline in which to complete the plan.

Planning for Success will provide an extensive self-assessment and evaluation of the association, a timeline of events to be completed by the association, opportunity to design an action plan for each area of improvement, an opportunity to participate in at least two face-to-face meetings with the regional Manager (our RM is George Lambert) and the ability to participate on monthly conference calls to review current status and operations of the association. These action plans are designed to help the association move forward and create accountability among its members.

All of these items would be put in place so the local association can focus on improving, diversifying and evaluating where they have skills that need to be cross-trained and shared with others in order to provide a stronger safety net.

For Goal Setting, an observable and measurable end result having one or more objective to be achieved within a more or less fixed timeframe, associations should use the SMART initiative. What is SMART? It is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely. The SMART initiative is used around the country in large and small organizations/work places.

In order for Planning for Success to work in any association, the association has to be willing to make changes and will need 100% participation by the association board members. The process takes 6-12 months to complete and is in its infancy. Currently, USBC is working with four different associations as their pilot program.

As A Future For The Sport, our association needs to increase our volunteer base, recognize success and work well done, create accountability amongst our board members and create a sense of empowerment to everyone’s efforts.

Submitted by Fran Reus