I teased this on Facebook, wanting to actually do so with a photo, but my tease said I’ve joined another bowling-related organization. Before I tell about it, a little background, first:
There’s a large bowling group on Facebook that I’ve contributed to discussion in, and through various contacts with group members, who knew I had a blog, I came in contact with Jackie Wyckoff. She happens to be a member of the International Bowling Media Association’s Board of Directors. The association, abbreviated IBMA, is what used to be the Bowling Writers Association of America, but now encompasses the whole bowling media, including websites and blogs.
At Jackie’s urging, I submitted an application for membership, which was delayed in processing because of some kind of technical error (I eventually had to mail them a paper application.). On Friday, however, first by email and then by postal mail, I received word that my application was approved. While not officially a member at the time, I have also been contributing bigger news items from my blog (mostly about this year’s state tournaments) to their Facebook group.
While operating this blog is, of itself, enough to qualify me for IBMA membership, I must add that I’ve also recently contributed some articles to The Bowler’s Ledger, which Kathy Valerio of the Coke league and Sherm Cowan, the People’s Tournament’s TD, are involved with. This is a free monthly New England bowling newspaper which is available at the Westgate Lanes waiting area as well as in the pro shop. Two articles in particular that I’ve submitted had to do with the Westgate Lanes youth team’s national high series honor and the 600 doubles game thrown in this year’s city tournament by Ed Roberts and Alex Aguiar. While not paid for it, this does also qualify me as a published bowling writer.
With my membership in the IBMA now official, the administrivia for this post will be inclusion of their website in the sidebar list (under “Bowling Sites”) and updating the “About” page to note the membership.
As a final aside, membership does have its perks. I received an IBMA lapel pin with my postal membership notification (which was what I wanted a photo of for the teaser, but I was afraid my cellphone wouldn’t take a good closeup). Also, I’m able to get a discounted subscription to Xtra Frame, which I already subscribe to but will be happy to take the discount for.
The Tenth Board 