USBC Board approves changes to youth bylaws and rulebook
The USBC Board of Directors has approved a change to a USBC Youth bylaw and two rulebook changes related to awards. A description of the changes:

Process adjusted for merged state and local youth committee appointments – The USBC Board of Directors voted to change USBC bylaws allowing merged state and local Youth Committee members to be appointed by their association president with Board approval.

This change comes in response to feedback from merged associations reporting increasing challenges with the Youth Committee election process.

Restrictions on local association merit awards removed – USBC has removed restrictions on local association merit awards. Local associations are now free to set their own criteria for merit awards and include in its association manual.

Less than 15 percent of associations were submitting merit awards to headquarters and some feedback from field indicated the criteria was too restrictive. Moving forward, USBC will provide a printable certificate on BOWL.com for local associations to create their own merit awards.

Youth awards season defined as August 1–July 31 – For those awards limited to once-per-season, this change formally creates consistency with USBC Youth and Adult memberships on the same league season schedule.

Associations that have a youth committee should be sure to inform their committee members of this change as they may not be recipients of the eNews newsletter.

Enhanced BOWL.com site
Starting next week, users will automatically be directed to the new and improved BOWL.com website. Some of the URLs on BOWL.com will be changing with the enhancement, so there is a possibility that bookmarks previously saved may no longer work.

Once the new site becomes available, users will not be able to access the old site. For this reason, association officials should be sure to familiarize themselves with the new site. You can click here or go to https://bowl.com to see the new site. There will continue to be a feedback tab on the right hand side of all pages on the new site, so please be sure to take some time and give us your thoughts and concerns.

Convention update
The 2012 USBC Convention and Annual Meeting will be held from April 24-28 in Arlington, Texas. For delegates arriving on Tuesday night, tickets to the live ESPN televised finals are available for purchase on BOWL.com/convention, or by clicking here. Association managers should be sure to enter their delegates and alternates in WinLABs and transmit them electronically to USBC Headquarters.

It has been reported to USBC that some associations have transmitted their delegates and when they log on to register for workshops, their information is incorrect. Please understand the data is being received properly but is not being converted through the systems accurately. We are currently working on a solution and it should be fixed in the coming days.

Youth Committee selections
The USBC board has named Ray Baty of Wichita, Kan., and Brent Bowers of Mulvane, Kan., to the USBC Youth Committee, and selected Erik Galganski for another three-year term, starting with the 2012-13 season. Each was recommended by the USBC Nominating Committee.

Baty and Bowers will begin their three-year terms on Aug. 1, 2012, joining Galganski, chairman Frank Wilkinson, Cera Daily, Elbert Gibson, Brenda Green, Debra Haggerty, Amanda Hollenbaugh, Alan Nordman Sr. and Rick Pittser on the committee.

Legislative Update meetings
The first weekend of Legislative Updates have been completed and we have received some great feedback from association officials. We still need as much information from the field as possible, so please save the following dates as we encourage you to attend one of these discussions sessions:

Thursday, Feb. 16, 7-9 p.m. – SeaTac, Wash. Area (The Clarion-Federal Way)
Friday, Feb. 17, 7-9 p.m. – Bay Area, Calif. (Courtyard Newark Silicon Valley)
Saturday, Feb. 18, 1-3 p.m. - Anaheim, Calif. (Holiday Inn Anaheim)
Saturday, Feb. 18, 6-8 p.m. - Chicago (Embassy Suites at Schaumburg)
Sunday, Feb. 19, 1-3 p.m. - Denver (Holiday Inn Lakewood)
Sunday, Feb. 19, 1-3 p.m. - Detroit (Clarion Hotel at Detroit Airport)
Sunday, Feb. 26, 3-5 p.m. - Columbus, Ohio (Marriott Columbus Airport)
Thursday, March 1, 7-9 p.m. - Orlando, Fla. (Boardwalk Entertainment Center)
Friday, March 2, 7-9 p.m. - Atlanta (Best Western Plus at Atlanta Airport)
Saturday, March 3, 1-3 p.m. – D.C./Baltimore (Holiday Inn Washington Dulles)
Sunday, March 4, 1-3 p.m. - Scranton, Pa. (Hilton Scranton & Conference Center)

Association managers and presidents, please pass this information to your association’s delegates and members, as the information will be important for the 2012 USBC Annual Meeting. If more information is needed, please contact your Regional Manager.

75 and 140 pins over average lapel pins on back order
For those associations who have recently placed a supply order with us containing 75 and/or 140 pins over average lapel pins, they are currently on back order. As they come in to USBC Headquarters, we will ship them to associations in the order they were received. We apologize for any inconvenience.