It really is about time you asked questions and held your “leaders” accountable for the decisions they make (or in many cases don’t make). It is time you looked into the budget of the USPA, it is time you examined the decisions that are being made regarding the investment of USPA monies into flawed or failed philosophies.
What you also need to be made aware of are some of the programs that find their way into mainstream USPA policy, and one of those examples is the AIPF.
What is the AIPF? You might ask, and I’m sure most of the membership is unaware that this “charitable organization created to help fund American teams going to international competitions” is not much more than a slush fund to send a US team into FIP competition-at your expense.
Understand that this “nonprofit” isn’t anything that the USPA could come up with on its own. I believe it was the brainchild of self-appointed FIP big-wig Pat Nesbitt, the Chairman of the International Committee, the man who has had no contact with either group staging either the Westchester Cup (being organized by the Museum of Polo-nothing to do with the USPA) or the Camacho Cup (being staged by The Villages Polo Club in Central Florida).
In case you don’t remember, our last FIP team didn’t even make it to the competition, being eliminated in zone competition by Canada. Don’t even begin to ask about the method of team selection.
What interests me, however, is the fact that the USPA has committed some $90,000 to the AIPF over the course of three years with no public hearings or accounting of where this money goes or how it is spent. Although if you read carefully it appears to rest all of the power in the hands of the “sitting Chairman of the USPA”, that would be Tom Biddle.
Any word from you Tom? I didn’t think so. Let’s continue to keep this information to “ourselves”. Business as usual.
As I understand it, when the “good ol’ boys get together for their spring meetings in Florida the issue of funding the AIPF is put off until the morning after a late night cocktail party where it is slipped under the noses of some very hung-over delegates and board members.
What I didn’t notice right away was its appearance on the menu of the USPA website. If you click the AIPF name you will be greeted with by-laws of this Illinois not for profit organization and little else. There is no accountability for the funds collected or spent, and no tracking of the success of the program (although we are all well aware of the fact that the USPA doesn’t appear to track the success or failures of any of its programs).
You just think about that $90,000 that is being withdrawn without your knowledge when you are finding it hard to get through these lean times and ask yourself why so much emphasis is being put on FIP activities and not on the storied international tournaments that are a part of the history of the USPA.
4 Comments
th000000124pm09, 62009vUTC01bUTCSat, 24 Jan 2009 22:53:13 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p01
Now the junior players and college clubs have to play airfare for instructional clinics because of the “tight economics.” Let’s continue to not put any money into young players here-and not just the kids of pros and patrons. We are so missing the boat here. You should have seen some of the kids that came and went in a VERY brief polo career here. Ranch kids that could ride anything you put under them and had the hand-eye coordination to carry the ball down the arena in the air. Okay, I am rambling, but I am tired of this association not putting its money where its mouth is – from the USPA website “Continued growth at the collegiate level assures a bright future as polo’s strength depends on these young players of tomorrow.”
th000000125am09, 72009vUTC01bUTCSun, 25 Jan 2009 06:44:12 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p01
I am sorry to burst your balloon, but the concept that the future of polo is in our youth is misguided. There has been NO growth attributed to the youth programs the PTF has been hosting for decades. It’s a great photo op but it has done NOTHING to grow the membershipwhile draining money, time and people from a better conceived approach. Sorry. And be clear that the USPA does not handle the youth program, it is the PTF-separate entity, separate funding.
th000000125am09, 72009vUTC01bUTCSun, 25 Jan 2009 08:42:01 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p01
Of course you are right, that is why golf and tennis are suffering so terribly while polo is in its heyday. If you think that the USPA and the PTF are not intimately intertwined then why is Danny S. on all the committees making decisions?
th000000125am09, 72009vUTC01bUTCSun, 25 Jan 2009 10:09:12 +0000 11, 2007 at 08:46p01
Polo has been doing the youth thing for forty years that I know of and has not managed to grow the game. I agree with you regarding the intertwining of the PTF and the USPA. I also think it is WRONG for Danny, an employee, to carry as much influence as he does and serve on the committees he does. As an employee I would look to him for information, not guidance. His track record speaks for itself. If you want to see an I/I program that is creative and progressive take a look at England’s SUPA. You might as well since neither the USPA nor the PTF feel inclined to learn anything from others.