The philosophical question of what is the role of an association official has been debated and discussed "ad nauseum" by many intellectuals for many years without a definite resolution.

Is an association official's primary role to serve its membership, sell memberships, or represent its views on the local, state or national levels?

A definitive answer is as elusive as to "which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

In order to answer, one must recognize and identify what type of bowlers are in the marketplace today that membership associations are trying to either service, sell, or represent as their dues-paying members.

For the purpose of this analysis, we will identify three basic groups of bowlers. They are league bowlers, tournament bowlers, and recreational bowlers.

From these three basic groups, you can further identify additional subsets of competitive bowlers vs. casual bowlers and frequent bowlers vs. infrequent bowlers.

League bowlers can be further divided into handicap, scratch, mixed, senior, fraternal, church, club, and social leagues that bowl on a weekly, every other week, or monthly basis.

Tournament bowlers can be further divided into subsets of those who annually participate in local and state association tournaments, commercial scratch and handicap tournaments, and organizational or club tournaments that operate on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.

Recreational bowlers can be defined as open-play bowlers, "rock-'n-bowl" or "cosmic" bowlers, modified-format bowlers, birthday party or company-sponsored bowlers, and casual bowlers who may bowl weekly, monthly, or just bowl once a year with family and friends.

By identifying bowlers into three basic groups with their additional subsets and frequency of participation, the conclusion must be logically drawn that "one size does not fit all" in respect to a single membership package that organizations are currently offering today's bowlers.

Tiered membership is the answer for bowling's future if membership organizations are to be a viable entity when competing with other sports and recreations for people to join and return.

If an organization offers different membership types (or levels) that addresses the needs of these bowlers, then the question of prioritizing the servicing, selling, or representing of membership will fade away.

The ABC, WIBC, and YABA currently as well as the future United States Bowling Congress (USBC) must acknowledge that tiered membership has to be a tangible, valuable, and realistic choice for a bowler. The price tag on these different levels must be perceived to be worth it for bowlers to choose.

Tiered membership offered by the ABC and WIBC in the past failed because it did not offer true "tiers" but instead was a program that offered gimmicks, gadgets, trinkets, and marketing camouflage (a pseudo bowlers home shopping network) in three different packages with different price tags that appealed to practically nobody.

The USBC has no plan concerning tiered membership on the drawing board. This type of planning, thinking, and restructuring of putting the membership organizations under one umbrella (USBC) by changing the name on the marquee but still letting everybody operate as usual is like an "ostrich burying its head in the sand."

A definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Like Susan Powter used to scream on her infomercials, "Stop the Insanity!" It is just insane to keep doing the same thing over and over again with the same people in charge at the national levels by just changing the name and believing things will get better by osmosis.

The USBC is moving forward without a vision or plan to address tiered membership, which is the most pressing issue facing bowling's membership organizations.

This lack of visionary leadership will result in the continuation of membership erosion and will also lead to the demise of sanctioned league and tournament bowling in the not so distant future if something isn't done quickly to stem the tide.