NEWSLINE STORY

published March-April 2016

President's Message
Reporting In from the NHPA Council Winter Meeting

by Stu Sipma, NHPA President

The NHPA Council held their annual winter meeting January 22-23 in Montgomery, Alabama, host site of the 2016 World Horseshoe Tournament. The meeting was held at the Embassy Suites for two full days with a short break to tour the 70,000-square-foot Multiplex Center at the Cramton Bowl, located on the edge of downtown Montgomery. The host hotels for this year’s World Tournament will be the Embassy Suites, Renaissance, and DoubleTree.

This year’s winter meeting included two full days of meeting topics. Some of the main topics on the agenda included: finalizing our 2016 goals; reviewing the 2015 financial report; establishing our 2016 budget; reviewing Proposed Rule Changes; reviewing the 2016 World Tournament; membership and sanction league reports, to name a few.

Our goals have not changed from 2015. All of these goals are very important to the Executive Council and should be just as important to all of you.

Increase membership
Control spending – maintain/attempt to grow the general fund two-three percent per year
Promote the sport of horseshoe by continuing to incorporate recommendations by marketing research
Support and maintain the NHPA Hall of Fame Museum memorabilia
Secure national sponsorships
Provide consistency and improvements throughout the charters

Secretary-Treasurer Dave Sidles reported to the Council that the membership count has declined slightly, making this the seventh year in a row. Adult members dropped from 9,900 in 2014 to 9,641 in 2015. However, junior membership increased from 691 in 2014 to 716 in 2015.

My message to the charters is that if we all don’t do our part and get new members to sign up and participate, the Council has no option other than to review an increase of membership dues. Membership dues are the only revenue to run our business. I will be giving a financial report at the delegate meeting this year since we have no bylaw or proposed rule changes this year.

Dave Sidles reported to the Council our current financials for 2015 and that we are working at finalizing our budget for 2016.

In conclusion, I challenge each and every one of you to inspire your clubs within your charters to sign up members … and not only adult members, but juniors too! If each charter would take this initiative, can you imagine how membership would grow? Come on, everyone, do your part this spring and sign up new members! Let’s see what we can do to turn this trend back the other way.