There are nearly 3 million bowlers who are members of the United States Bowling Congress (USBC), the governing body for bowling in the United States. After several years of discussions, it was finally launched Jan. 1, 2005 and began to be adopted across the country during the 2005-2006 winter bowling season (in most parts of the U.S., the winter season starts in August/September and ends in April/May while the summer season covers the remaining months).

The USBC has combined the American Bowling Congress (ABC), the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC), the Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA), and USA Bowling into a single governing body for the sport. For over 100 years, the ABC oversaw men's bowling (although women could join) while the WIBC watched over the women (here, men could not join) and YABA was the youth's sanctioning body. USA Bowling represented the United States internationally.

With these once separate entities joined together "under one umbrella," it is a move in the positive direction. It will serve to unite the forces that wanted to achieve the same goals and objectives but many times could not. The USBC mission is simply to promote the sport of bowling by providing the necessary programs and services so that the integrity and the future of bowling will be preserved. They will continue to improve the sport as a whole.

It is not required for any bowling league or tournament to be sanctioned/certified; however, it is highly recommended. For me personally, I will obtain my USBC Certification to show my support for the governing body, but will participate in both USBC and non-USBC certified events.

I will be an independent who, while promoting the sport of bowling, can see the pros and cons of each situation and/or event that has to decide whether or not they want to be sanctioned by the USBC. The arguments for certification center around achievement awards (honor scores) while the majority of arguments against certification tend to be more emotional; however, even if the league or tournament is not USBC certified, they will follow the general rules and regulations of the governing body.

Here's two situations I have been involved in that decided to be non-USBC certified:

1) It is the umpteenth year that the tournament has been held. There is a lot of money to be won and bowlers come from across the country to participate. Unfortunately, each year has been marred by "seemingly nice people doing unseemly things." When the tournament officials decide to enforce the rules, the "seemingly nice people" threaten to file written protests/grievances with the local bowling association and the national governing body which then freezes all prize monies until the matter is sorted out. This can take months of appeals and hearings. To prevent re-occurrences of these protest filings, the tournament owners decided to inform everyone that, "this event is non-USBC certified but will be run by USBC rules and regulations. All protests and infractions or rules will be decided by the Tournament Directors."

2) The league is in a retirement community and all members are over 65 years of age. More than 80% of the bowlers only took up bowling regularly after they retired and barely average 120 - 140. They don't really care about getting patches, trophies, or plaques much less being able to achieve some of the high scores that are needed for USBC recognition. Their league rules state, "we are not USBC certified; however, will follow general playing rules set forth by the USBC."

Without a governing body, there will not be any standardization of playing rules and regulations; specifications to control equipment and the use of them; recognition of high scores and records; and the overall promotion of the sport. There are situations, however, where I feel it is not necessary to certify the event through the USBC. The USBC at least insures that there will not be chaos in the future of bowling and all bowlers should join and support them in their efforts to continue monitoring, fostering, and promoting the game we enjoy.

A Hui Hou!