I believe it’s been a little over one year on the job as USCA president. How do you feel about the progress made so far?


I am pleased with the progress this year. The wheels of croquet turn very slowly, but a number of volunteers have put significant time and energy into the USCA and croquet. While I was on the USCA Management Committee (as Southeast Regional VP for four years) it took at least three or four months to get my feet wet as president and to get use to the swing of things. Over these three/four months I was trying


one, we can get good implementation and two, if so, will it be effective.


From the perspective of growing membership, is the USCA caught in a bit of a revenue/membership trap— can’t get more revenue without more members, can’t get more members without spending more money?


Absolutely. However, we did have a very small dues increase this year. This was the first increase in five years. As a result the USCA Management Committee will be allocating funds for the action steps to increase exposure of croquet.


"One of the suggestions of theUSCAplanning meeting was to do clinics with exhibitions. Golf croquet is fast paced and hard hitting and lends itself to spectators."


to formulate the direction of my tenure. I see very clearly what I want to accomplish now.


Can you elaborate on that clear vision of what you want to accomplish?


My ultimate goal is to increase exposure of croquet and subsequently increase the membership of the USCA. As you are aware, when you say “croquet,” most people think of backyard. Nothing wrong with this, however this doesn’t encompass the entire world of croquet. Only by increasing the exposure of croquet can we ultimately grow the membership of the USCA. The USCA membership has been static at 3,000 members for as long as I can remember. We need to get off that mark. This can be done by exposure of croquet to new persons, but also working on the attrition rate of the USCA members who don’t renew.


Toward the above, my main thrust this year was to re-energize/re-activate two committees which are vital. The Communications Committee and the Membership Committee are probably two of the most important committees we have. The Communications Committee has been chaired by Eric Sawyer of California who has done an excellent job and The Membership Committee by Tim Rapuano of New York. Again, another excellent job by Tim. I have also restructured the USCA Vice Presidents (First and Second) to serve as liaison from these two committees to the USCA Management.


I think the success of these two committees and their action plans will directly impact or achieve my goals.


That answer kind of overlaps my next question which was can you point to some specific wins and then maybe are there some disappointments you’ve had since you’ve been on the job? I would suppose that re-activating those two committees would be a couple of wins. Are there others as well and have you experienced any setbacks?


The work of Eric/Eileen and Tim/Don and their respective committees are definite wins. I cannot think of any setbacks per se.


Having said so, in order to keep moving forward requires implementation of the committee’s action plan. This is just now getting off the ground and remains to be seen whether


18 | august / september | croquetnetwork.com


Are you willing to give us some early clues on the action steps that will be taken or maybe just give an idea of where the focus will be?


One of the action steps is the use of golf croquet to widen the exposure of croquet. One of the suggestions of the USCA planning meeting was to do clinics with exhibitions. Golf croquet is fast paced and hard hitting and lends itself to spectators. As you and I have discussed, The Toxaway Mountain Challenge is the first of what I hope to be many events. Discussions are underway with New York, Florida and Mission Hills to do comparable events. Other actions steps which come tomind are the development of club websites with links to the national website. Another is the membership survey with is now underway to be followed up by a survey of the local club presidents by the district presidents. This lastwill allow us to get grass roots or local input.


Sounds good ... are there any early takeaways or trends that you’ve seen from the membership survey that you’d like to divulge?


Would be happy to, but the survey is just now being completed and the data hasn’t been analyzed. Ask me again in the future and I will share. Should be interesting.


Speaking of GC potential, often times, we hear that if croquet is ever televised, golf croquet is the most likely to succeed at catching viewers interest and is therefore the logical starting point. If that is true, is there a reason that none of the four major croquet associations haven’t produced video on a match with commentary? The idea being that currently there would be nothing to present to an interested network.


I can’t speak for the other major croquet associations but it would be hard to believe one of them hasn’t produced a video of a match. Even if filmed though, would it be of quality to show on television. Once again, unsure.


Relative to the USCA this could be considered, but this would be a significant undertaking. I can envision having the a GC match taped with Damon Bidencope doing the commentary.


Once done, would there be a market for it … what advertisers would sign on to broadcast the match? Just such a small niche, not sure there would be any takers.


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