|
OK... I'm back from summer vacation from the forum... Had a great time in Cedar Rapids at the WT! My thanks to everyone who worked so hard to put on this awesome event! Many exciting things happened there... Meeting the South African Jukskei Team was awesome! Well, I could go on for hours about all that and more...
While in Cedar Rapids, I was able to have several one on one conversations with our new NHPA President, Stu Sipma. One thing I will say about Stu is that he is absolutely committed to finally developing a national youth program for horseshoe pitching. This is something that should have happened sixty years ago. Every other sport that has seen explosions in participation in the last hundred years has accomplished this by extensively developing youth programs everywhere. A great example of this is golf... and man, has it paid off for them! Stu totally recognizes this and badly wants to develop our great sport in the same way and I applaud him for that... finally, this is getting the attention it deserves!
Anyways, I've been trying to catch up on other posts in this forum and I see there is a lot of talk about the poor finances of the NHPA. My gosh, let's give this president the tools he needs to do the good things he wants to do! I see a lot of talk about how the world tournament prize fund needs bolstered in the Elders Division and in other places and that we want to expand the electronic scoring but all that is impossible due to the fact that the tournament is running in the red already... Well, the answer to that couldn't be any simpler... raise the entry fee $25.00! Seriosuly, you're signing up to play in a tournament that you're going to probably spend a couple thousand bucks to attend... what's another $25 to a player in the world tournament? Just solve it that way... end of story. Does anyone really have a problem with that?
Getting back to the youth development... Here we go again... same story... no money to work with for this either... Well, come on... seriously? Just raise the NHPA dues to where they should be and we'd have no trouble with this. If NHPA was keeping pace with other similar organizations, their annual dues would be somewhere between $50 and $100. So, let's just do this... Here is my proposal:
Raise NHPA yearly adult dues to $65.00
NHPA gets $45 and the state charters get $20 (all states charge the same amount in this system). NHPA members get their current membership benefits, plus Newsline and a T-shirt or ball cap or some item with annual membership logo on it.
All of the extra revenue collected gets put into a fund to develop youth pitching programs all over the Unted States.
Don't tell me you can't cough up another forty bucks a year to help save this sport we all love so much. If I can, you can and I'll be the first to do so... Seriously, let's just do this and give this President the tools he needs to be successful. If we do our part, I know he will do his... We will have thousands upon thousands of kids playing horseshoes all over this country in a few years... Think about that... is that worth forty bucks? It is to me... If it's not worth it to you, then you need to find another sport.
It is time we took this sport into the 21st century and if we lose a few stingy, grumpy old men along the way, who cares... What do we need them for anyways? Think of the throngs of kids we'll gain in the process instead... definitely a worthwhile trade if you ask me!
Again, let's just do this and get the ball rolling on all these things... what are we waiting for?
|
