Baker, Chrisman, Hoagland, Williams elected to USBC Board of Directors

Current USBC Vice President Darlene Baker, incumbent Barbara Chrisman and newcomers Nicholas Hoagland and Marci Williams were elected Saturday to the United States Bowling Congress Board of Directors at the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium. All will begin serving three-year terms Aug. 1.

Voted to three-year terms to the USBC Board were Nicholas Hoagland, Barb Chrisman, Darlene Baker and Marci Williams (l-r).

Baker, Mahomet, Ill., has been on the USBC Board since its inception in 2004 and has been vice president since Aug. 1, 2007.

Chrisman, Pleasant View, Utah, originally was appointed to the Board in 2005 to serve the unexpired term of Kevin Dornberger when he joined the USBC staff.

Hoagland, Bloomington, Ill., is an adjunct lecturer at Indiana University who works as the sales and marketing coordinator for Indiana University Sports Properties while working on his Master's in sports marketing.

Williams, Wichita, Kan., recently retired from Learjet, Inc. after 34 years, the last 20 as a corporate tax analyst. She has been Great Plains USBC Association president since 2005.

Two incumbents up for re-election, Gary Anderson, Taylors, S.C., and Tommy Lee Baxter, Indianapolis, did not receive enough votes. Another current USBC Board member, Paul Egbers, Shorewood, Ill., did not seek re-election.

Vote totals for all nine candidates (1,080 total votes, 541 needed for election) were:

• Darlene Baker 728
• Barbara Chrisman 572
• Nicholas Hoagland 557
• Marci Williams 559
• Gary Anderson 483
• Tommy Lee Baxter 368
• Glenda Beckett 361
• John Masters 294
• Dennis Light 185

Legislation
The 1,183 voting delegates disposed of the 25 proposed changes to the USBC general playing, league and tournament rules and bylaws in about one hour. They approved 12 amendments, rejected 10, had two withdrawn and one prohibited from being presented.

Among those approved will:

• Give tournament officials authority to let participants practice prior to resuming an interrupted game/series due to equipment failure.
• Allow the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America to select the proprietor positions for the USBC Board with the USBC Board's approval.
• Allow youth associations to elect delegates to the annual meeting and count both adult and youth members when determining number of delegates a local association is entitled.
• Allow youth members, at least 18 years of age, to be eligible to serve as a merged association's delegate.
• Allow officers and directors in a merged association who hold youth membership only to have a vote on adult dues, directors representing adults and delegates to the USBC Annual Meeting.
• Allow state and local associations the choice to allow the board to use mail or electronic voting and provides the procedures to use.

Among amendments rejected were those that would have:

• Allowed affiliate associations to send delegates to the USBC Annual Meeting with voting privileges.
• Allowed substitutes to bowl without USBC membership until they participate in their third league session.
• Required a league to act on verbal charges.
• Allowed state and local associations to assess their adult membership dues without the delegates setting the maximum.
• Allowed associations the option to conduct championship level competition for its membership.

A proposed amendment that would have allowed delegates to elect USBC officers at the annual meeting was prohibited by Wisconsin state law from being presented.

Complete results on the amendments can be found on bowl.com.


Meet for the CureTM
The eighth annual Meet for the CureTM ceremony celebrated how USBC, its members and associations helped the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization raise awareness and money to fight breast cancer in the past year.

About 25 breast cancer survivors walked down the center aisle of the arena as Lynn Graves, San Diego and Fran Buettner, North Port, Fla., brought up the ceremonial check for $937,017, signifying the total of Bowl for the Cure events nationwide. That brings the total of USBC and the former Women's International Bowling Congress to more than $7 million.

A check for $937,017 from USBC was presented to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization. On hand for the presentation were (from left) USBC staff member Breanne Kusnierek, survivors Fran Buettner and Lynn Graves, Susan G. Komen for the Cure Vice President-Strategic Relations Diane Balma, Cause Marketing Manager Elizabeth Chandler and Cause Marketing Specialist Christine Kirkpatrick.


Youth Committee
Valerie Pittser was selected as the USBC Youth Ambassador representative to the USBC Board of Directors beginning Aug. 1 while Sue Huebel was named as the new representative to the Youth Committee and Kayla Chick was named the USBC Youth Ambassador representative to the USBC Youth Committee.


Athlete Board members
Lynda Barnes, Double Oak, Texas, and Del Ballard Jr., were elected by USBC athletes to serve as athlete representatives to the USBC Board of Directors beginning Aug. 1. They replace Diandra Asbaty, Chicago, who did not seek re-election, and Sean Rash, Wichita, Kan., who was considered.


Awards and honors

• Chick, Muscatine, Iowa, and Kyle Calcote, Friendswood, Texas, were honored as the female and male Youth Ambassadors of the Year.
• Roger Wiemer, Springfield, Mo., was presented with the USBC Proprietor of the Year.
• The Suburban Windy City USBC Association was honored as the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America's Association of the Year.

The 2009 and 2010 USBC Conventions/Annual Meetings will be held in Reno, Nev.