Let me start off with a big
welcome to the new BCAM Board Members, Randy Crim from Harbor Springs, Phil
Huffman from Holland, and Nick Miller from Baldwin. I am glad to see these great people joining
the BCAM Board. Also, I appreciate non-board
members Greg Gumtow from Clarkston for joining the Youth Committee and Richard
Maury, Lansing (via his motor coach), for joining the Legislative
Committee.
In addition, a big
congratulations go to Gordon Krum for winning the Dick Maury Cornerstone Award,
Bob Smoltz for the Michigan Proprietor of the Year Award and Richard Berg for
achieving Lifetime Membership. All of these awards were presented at the state
convention. I was also pleased to have
in attendance the Illinois BPA President Tom Sims and Kim Sims who attended our
board meeting and shared ideas. In
simple words, Audrey we couldn’t have done the convention without your help. Great job to the entire convention committee
for an action-packed couple of days!
In August we had a great idea
exchange on “money saving ideas in tough economic times.” Over 30 people representing 44 centers were
in attendance. Mark Voight, Livonia and Gary Richards, Saginaw conducted this open idea exchange. I know I found ways to save money by
listening to the other people in the room talk about what they were doing. On October 21st we will be having
another “IDEA EXCHANGE: How to Book Holiday Parties in a Crappy Economy,” plus,
we will learn how Dan LaBrecque of Nottke’s Bowl has brought national attention
to his center by creating a bowling league for unemployed bowlers while
partnering with Michigan Works. This
event will be held at Nottke’s Bowl in Battle
Creek from 11:00-2:00 p.m. on Wednesday,
October 21st.
Over 2000 lane beds representing
over 60 bowling centers have signed up for the Red Wings Promotion. At Airway Lanes in Portage, Mark has reported over 90 bowlers
signed up for his Red Wing Club. I am
not saying every center will get those numbers.
However, some good old fashion selling inside the center could help your
success. Good Job Mark.
The BCAM is proud to announce that
the BCAM Doubles presented by Miller Brewing will return for the 2009-2010
season. Details will be coming soon for
this event. In its first year, over 1400
bowlers bowled in the event. Also
through a bid process that was sent out to all BCAM centers, the youth
committee selected Howell Bowl-A-Drome in Howell to host the 2010 BCAM
Qubica/AMF Family Doubles Tournament.
The BCAM Board adopted the
proposal that, beginning in October, the financial records related to the
association would be available on-line on the Members Page of the BCAM
website. This would include the annual
BCAM budget. The BCAM will be one of
only two state associations that will post their financial arrangements
on-line. Also, if you haven’t been to www.michiganbowl.com you should check
it out. In addition, in October, BCAM will
be on Facebook.
Pepsi has been very active in
reviewing each center’s account history.
In some cases this has produced price rollbacks for proprietors that
were not getting the BCAM pricing. The
new Pepsi representative for BCAM is Janell Lewis. Pepsi has now assigned field reps to all BCAM
centers. Your center should be visited by a rep very soon. Pepsi has created a
great “marketing” tool for bottles and cans which they will be presenting to
the centers. Also, I found out an
interesting fact about Pepsi that I didn’t know: a bag-in-box Pepsi Product yields more
servings than several other brands on the market. If you don’t see a representative by the end
of October, contact Ken Prokopec.
I want to conclude by thanking
all members and non-members across the state that I have talked to and gotten
feedback from. This is your association and without good communication we can’t
fix problems or deal with situations.
Our objectives remain the same: to
help members achieve more paid games, to facilitate local and national buying
power, to maintain a legislative voice, and to promote communication and strong
committee work.
