Most of us received a letter from the PTF pleading for contributions so that it wouldn’t have to trim its (bloated) staff, but apparently not enough of you felt the compulsion to support a PTF staff that has grown tenfold over the same time period that our membership had been decreasing in size.
Well, the USPA has managed to pick up the tab on this one, adding to a staff that begs the question-“What are all these people doing?”
The PTF couldn’t make any adjustments to its oversized staff so the USPA brought Kris Bowman aboard its already overloaded boat.
I’m not calling to question the altruistic motives of Kris Bowman or any other USPA or PTF employees. I am merely asking that their positions and salaries be justified. Is this the best way to use the financial resources at hand? What impact does this have on the long-range plans of the USPA and polo in America.
I have mentioned time and again that we are investing a great deal of time and money promoting youth polo when little research has been done to prove that these programs are doing anything to promote the game or grow the membership. These efforts have been going on for decades now and we find the membership has been decreasing over the years. I’ve said it before, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and getting different results”. That, in my opinion, is what we are doing. There has been no tracking system put in place to follow up on these programs to see what their affect is on the growth of polo, and to me that’s just bad business.
There was a time when the USPA and the PTF were each operated by a single person. Today we find twenty people doing those same two jobs for a diminishing membership.
Transparency and accountability! That is what is called for, and that is what the USPA needs to offer.
I have found that subtle hints don’t seem to work well with the USPA, and in fact, not so subtle hints don’t work well either. The fact is that the USPA Board is made up of a number of stubborn, small-minded, closed-minded individuals who have no real understanding of the needs and/or wants of the membership.
I’m sorry, I forget that the USPA considers only clubs as members, but they don’t seem to understand those needs either.
Their hierarchy balk at the concept of getting any information form the many polo blogs that are out there yet an open and positive blog on Polozone allowed the Eldorado Polo Club to sort through its many concerns in an open and anonymous (if so desired) format.
I will continue to ask for the USPA to become transparent and accountable and hope that someone in a “leadership” role will develop a sense of responsibility and morality that will allow the true membership of the association to be informed of the Association’s doings.
We have seen the Association’s constitution reworked over the years to better serve those in official positions, yet we cling to an outdated concept of membership that was created in the late 1800s.
We’re dealing with fantasyland when we look at the moves of the USPA. In my opinion, if this were a movie, the “leadership” of both the USPA and the PTF would be the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz-looking for a brain.
