To All NEBA Bowlers,
I want to take a moment and wish all of our members and their loved one’s a very happy and prosperous 2017.
It’s been an absolute honor to serve as NEBA’s president these past 2 years. I would argue NEBA is the best bowling association on the planet. Bowlers working hard for the bowlers to make the experience the best we can. Always looking for ways to improve and stay the course. 50 plus years and a month has not gone by where an event wasn’t held. We have incredible sponsor support and growing to enable us to do even more for our members. We do our best to diversify lane conditions throughout the year given all styles and lane preferences a chance to compete. Most importantly, in my opinion, is the fact that it’s an atmosphere where you can enjoy yourself and compete at one of the highest levels. I’ll take a line from the movie fever pitch “It’s my bowling family” as that’s what it truly feels like to me.
For so many years we all have heard the rumblings of “bowling is dead” or on a decline which may very well be true for most venues in the U.S. but not in New England. NEBA continues to be strong and in 2016 we actually had 794 individual bowlers compete at our events which is highest recorded. We have something special in the bowling world my friends and I want to thank everyone that has ever been active in either a leadership role or at the board level. A vision was created by our founders back in 1963 and has been carried forward for generations and we strive to continually improve and evolve for our members. You would think the NEBA blueprint for success would be replicated in other regions but I will say the amount of work that happens behind the scenes to plan each season and execute the way our management has for over 5 decades is astonishing.
The 2017 schedule has been posted on bowlneba.com under the events tab. Some of the highlights for 2017 include:
- 2017 will have the entry fee increased from $90.00 to $95.00 of which $2.50 will go into the prize fund and the other $2.50 will be awarded to bowlers that miss making match play. The actual distribution will be announced prior to our 1st regular scheduled event.
- With the generosity of one of our sponsors we have added a special series of events for our lady members which they will have an opportunity to earn points at 4 of our regular singles events throughout the year for a special prize fund.
- We are working toward expanding our live coverage of the final matches to include the semi- final matches as well allowing for more of our members to be showcased. In conjunction we will also be expanding our social media and marketing efforts to increase awareness of NEBA and all we have to offer the competitive bowler. Be sure to tune in to our live coverage as we had over 3K view our last event.
- We are going back to Yankee Lanes in Keene for a weekend of special events with added money and our 3rd annual golf outing.
- We also added Chicopee Lanes and Ken’s Bowl back on the schedule after many years off to accommodate our Western, MA and Eastern, NY members and to expand membership in those markets.
- The announcement of the NEBA hall of fame and a special event weekend to induct our 1st class. More details in the coming months.
We have a great season ahead of us and I want to welcome your incoming president Chris Forry. We are in great hands and to compliment Mr. Forry the entire 2016 board has volunteered to serve again in 2017. I also want to thank all of our generous sponsors, the bowling centers that host our events, our management team Becky and Dan for the great work they do and most importantly all of you our members for making NEBA such a success. We are looking forward to another record setting year in 2017.
Happy New Year to everyone,
Christopher Viale
CViale@CambridgeCredit.org
