Association eNews: July 5, 2012

In this week's e-News

Increase Your Average DVD
Merging records
System maintenance
Webinars

Increase Your Average DVD mailing
Many USBC association leaders and members soon will receive an offer to participate in the Increase Your Average – Secrets of the Pros DVD Collection featuring Chris Barnes and Team USA coaches. You may recall USBC tested this concept to a small group last winter and we are excited to report the test was successful, allowing for many more members to receive the offer.

The program involves a member receiving a free instructional DVD to preview. Then, they have the option to purchase and receive the next DVD in the series, which also includes several free game coupons for practice, send the DVD back, or keep the DVD as a gift. This is a great program as it allows bowlers who might not have access to coaching to receive great tips without any obligation.

As you know, USBC needs new ways to create revenue and this program has great potential while also providing a service to our members. We hope you will encourage members to either purchase the DVD or send it back so another member can receive the offer. The offer currently is being sent to select multi-year members and national tournament participants. More information can be found at BOWL.com/coaching, or by clicking here.

Merging records within WinLABs
Association managers should be aware that during the end of season maintenance, the tool for “Removing Duplicate Records” will be unavailable until further notice. While the WinLABs software will continue to allow the use of the tool, the information that is changed will not be received by USBC Headquarters. Any associations needing to merge records can contact bowlinfo@bowl.com. Please provide the bowler’s national ID numbers as well as which record should be kept.

Year-end system maintenance
The IBM iSeries at USBC Headquarters will be unavailable due to system maintenance starting Tuesday, July 31 at midnight until Wednesday, August 1 at midnight. You should expect that the following USBC applications will unavailable during this time:

Associate Membership (Join USBC)
USBC Search (Find-A-Member, Find-A-Center, etc.)
Coaches Association Registration
College Bowling
High School Bowling Team Registration
League Standing Sheets
Online Membership Processing (Youth)
Online Tournament Registration and Maintenance
Sport Bowling – League, Tournament/Center Registration, Search Pages
Supply Orders
WinLABs (including awards)

The SMART website will be unavailable starting at 5 p.m. Central on July 30, 2012 for year-end processing. Website and check processing will be available once the year-end process is complete. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Should you need immediate assistance, please contact us at 1-800-514-BOWL ext. 8292 or you may email us at smart@bowl.com.

Webinars to discuss customer service
Is your association in the business of customer service? While it can be tough to realize, we are all in that business. What exactly is customer service? Join Mike Larsen in a webinar as he provides an insight into customer service and how it can positively impact your associations. The schedule of the webinars (all times Eastern):

Tuesday, July 10, 3 p.m.
Wednesday, July 11, 8 p.m.

To register for this Webinar, please send an email with your name, association name and number, email address, phone number and the webinar in which you would like to participate to mike.larsen@bowl.com.

Classes are limited to 25 participants, so please register early. Registration ends 48 hours before the webinar is conducted. After registering, we will send you sign-on instructions.