2016 USBC Convention is this week in Las Vegas

ARLINGTON, Texas – The 2016 United States Bowling Congress Convention and Annual Meeting, featuring seminars, presentations of national awards and scholarships, and legislative sessions, is taking place this week at The Orleans in Las Vegas.

The convention starts Tuesday with exhibits and a late-afternoon seminar by the Rules team, featuring the always-popular rules quiz, but kicks into high gear on Wednesday with a special speaker, followed by seminars and networking opportunities for delegates. The Delegate Welcome Reception will take place Wednesday evening.

The Meet the Candidates session starts Thursday’s schedule, followed by an all-delegates seminar titled “Continuing To Build A Future for the Sport.”

The opening session of the USBC Annual Meeting, which includes reports from industry representatives, including SMART, the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America, The National Bowling Association, Strike Ten Entertainment, Professional Bowlers Association, World Bowling and the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, starts Thursday afternoon.

Presentations by Bowlers to Veterans Link (BVL) and Susan G. Komen Meet for the Cure also will be part of the Thursday afternoon schedule, with the USBC Hall of Fame dinner and induction ceremony scheduled for Thursday evening.

The USBC Hall of Fame inductees for 2016 are Kim Adler and Mike Durbin for Superior Performance, Steve Kloempken for Outstanding USBC Performance, Harry Sullins in the Veterans category and Joan Romeo for Meritorious Service. Live coverage of the induction ceremony will be on BOWL.com’s BowlTV.

The Annual Meeting continues Friday morning with presentations of national youth awards and scholarships, USBC National Recognition Awards and the Alberta E. Crowe and Chuck Hall Star of Tomorrow Awards.

Friday’s afternoon session of the Annual Meeting will be the legislative session and board elections.

During the legislative session, delegates will vote on seven proposals involving changes to bylaws, league rules and tournament rules. Among the four proposals to the USBC National Bylaws is a proposal to increase national dues for the first time in 10 years. The present bylaw states dues cannot exceed $10; the proposal asks to raise the dues ceiling to $15. Two other bylaw proposals seek to require non-merged local and non-merged state associations to merge by Aug. 1, 2018.

Delegates also will vote to determine three open positions on the USBC Board of Directors.

Current USBC President Frank Wilkinson of Staten Island, New York, incumbent director Mark Martin of Waterford, Michigan, and Jeffrey Ussery of Tonganoxie, Kansas, were slated by the USBC Nominating Committee for the open positions. The USBC Nominating Committee may slate up to two candidates for each open position on the board. Two candidates are running from the floor.

Live coverage of the Annual Meeting and USBC Hall of Fame inductions will be provided on BowlTV.

For complete information on the 2016 USBC Convention, including a look at the proposed amendments and biographies of the slated candidates for the USBC Board, go to BOWL.com/Convention.