A Rare Breed
The passion of racquetball players has never been so apparent to me. In navigating the choppy waters of the membership dues increase, a maelstrom of dialogue has developed. Yes, Jim Hiser, the Board members and I have spent a considerable amount of time addressing the topic on conference calls, email, and telephone conversations. You can imagine that it’s generally not a congratulatory exchange. No one, including us, relishes seeing dues go up.
Some of our members asked us to justify the increase.
From a money perspective, we had to do it to continue to exist, having lost significant sponsor support. We could have raised rates a smaller amount each year over the past three years, but we chose not to do that. This raise was necessary. There is no fat to trim; there are no hidden savings accounts. We are month-to-month.
You, the members of USA Racquetball, are one of the small percentage of the five million (or so) racquetball players in America who either plays in tournaments or otherwise enjoys being a part of organized racquetball…or both. We also know that some members send us their dues simply because they want to support the sport. There are 14,000 of you: a rare breed.
Do the math. Fourteen thousand is a small fraction of 5,000,000. We exist to support and enable you, the few, first!
We will stay true to our stated Mission, because that, indeed, is what a mission is for…it articulates the reason why we exist.
USA Racquetball (USAR) is the National Governing Body for the sport of racquetball, recognized by the United States Olympic Committee, and is committed to excellence and service to our members. We provide the infrastructure and organization for racquetball. We also provide competitive opportunities for members and enthusiasts through our coordination of racquetball organizations, development and administration of rules and programs, sanctioning of events and development of teams for international competition.
Jim Hiser and your Board of Directors went through a lengthy strategic planning process last year. The strategies and descriptions follow.
SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS – We will develop a network of sponsors and supporters that will ensure our organization’s financial stability and future success.
COMPETITIVE SUCCESS – We will maintain the position of the United States as the #1 racquetball nation by developing top players.
MEMBERSHIP SERVICES – We will provide a broad and relevant range of member benefits and services.
MEMBERSHIP GROWTH – We will expand our member base to include a broad representation of recreational and competitive players across the United States.
PROMOTION OF THE SPORT – We will take a leadership position in marketing the benefits of our sport to all current and potential (future) constituencies.
Basically, as illustrated in the strategies above, our primary goal is to continue to support you, our employers; secondarily, we must generate new members from the remaining five million players. We have ideas…such as developing a closer relationship with club owners to assist them with programming and development ideas and to allow them to have a common voice in promoting racquetball. In essence, we want to prove to them that providing more courts, not fewer, will benefit us all.
We want to pursue ways to market subscriptions to this Racquetball magazine…to get the word out to the everyday recreational player and to generate revenues.
As the National Governing Body of our sport, in partnership with the state associations and other racquetball organizations, we want to create the framework under which racquetball can survive and thrive in the United States.
For you, the player who is already firmly living within the culture of racquetball, how will you personally make a difference? Ideas or actions…both are welcome (we can use volunteers to help implement ideas, too). I set up a temporary email address to receive your ideas this year: RballNews@aol.com. Criticism is healthy, but we need your suggested solutions as well.
USA Racquetball exists because you exist. We need you (and your support) to do the job…for you.
Cheryl Kirk
President