Editors Note: As the Senior Director of Association And Membership Operations, at the USBC. Mike Larsen has a lot on his plate to take care of these days in the world of bowling. Among those responsibilities include helping get the facilities ready to host the annual USBC convention at Southpoint in Las Vegas. If you were one of the 701 delegates that attended the 19th Annual Convention this year. What you saw when you got there, was the finished product of getting things ready for this years attendees. We at thetenpinexpress.com. were wondering all week, what it took to get everything ready for this years festivities. We were fortunate enough to sit down with Mike on Thursday April 25, to find out. Below is our conversation with him.
By Michael 'Chip' Begg
Managing Editor - thetenpinexpress.com
Director Mesa Metro Association
Q: How long have you been with USBC, and how long have you been handling Opps.
A: I’ve been with USBC for 15 years, started in 2008, and helping drive the convention since 2015.
Q: When do you start to prepare for the move to the annual convention. How many people are involved, and what is it like to coordinate all of the logistics.
A: There’s a lot of moving parts, as you may imagine, from staff coordination, to education planning and organizing, to working with the hotel staff to ensure all rooms and meals are ready, to communicating with attendees about all activities and registration. Planning is sort of year-round, but it gets really in gear in November of the prior year.
Q:How far out does Southpoint give you access to the meeting rooms. From start to finish, how long does it take to set up.
A: We get things built over the weekend before, so the event opens Monday with Registration and we begin setup on Saturday.
Q:How much equipment comes from Dallas. What are the logistics like in getting this done.
A We send a dedicated box truck with everything the week before. We couldn’t do it without the team here ordering, organizing, packing and getting the delivery scheduled.
Q: How many conference rooms do you rent. Do you always have enough of the things you need for the week. How much of the things you need for the week, stay here in storage until the following year.
A: We contract with the hotel a few years out for the spaces needed, South Point, The Orleans, Grand Sierra in Reno have all been great to work with over the years and ensuring the spaces we need are secured. Nothing really stays there in storage for the following year, we do ship things back that are needed for other events we organize throughout the year. As an example, we ship a cage with IT stuff, computers, printers, network stuff, etc and those come back here because in just two months some of it will go to Junior Gold to operate that event.
Q: When did you decide to have the convention at the same time and site as the open. How has that worked out for the tournament bowlers and delegates.
A: It’s the USBC Board of Director’s Convention really, as it’s their Annual Meeting and they choose the site. I recall back in 2013 time period when the tournaments were both in Reno that the delegates asked to have Convention there also. Since then it’s been with one of the tournaments (Open or Womens) every year but one.
Q: How many staff members come from DFW, to work the convention. What is it like having everyone come out to Southpoint, and work the convention for a week.
A: It’s about 30 staff members in total, some are only there for a few days, while others are for nearly the week. It’s great being able to have some of our staff who doesn’t get to work with associations as much in the field be able to meet and learn about them, it’s a great experience.
Q: Are there currently any plans to take the convention to another site, like Reno or Syracuse. How many times has it been in Reno and Syracuse. The convention and or Open.
A: We will look at upcoming cities very soon for 2026, 2027 and 2028. With the recent announcements of the WC in Charlotte in 2027 and Greenville, SC in 2028 for the Open, we’ll see what we can do about getting a location there for the board to consider. There will need to be convention and hotel space to host us in addition to the tournament.
Q: How far in advance, do you book facilitators. Are they scouted by staff beforehand, or recommended?
A: It’s about the same time frame as getting ready, we keep a list of educators that are suggested to us from other events or conferences. We start in the fall, our staff starts organizing our own sessions and we begin interviewing guest educators to see what messages fit for the time we are in and with the experience we are trying to provide. We’re always open to hearing about educators for us to explore.
Q: How much personal satisfaction do you get, when the job is done. And when you get a compliment.
A: It’s what makes it all worth it. Bowling’s volunteers are the local and state level really do drive so much of the service and participation in our sport, so to be able to put on a quality event for them is an honor to do. I’ve made so many great friends and connections over the years from the event and with my other work travels.
Q: Do you get a chance to bowl nationals while you are here.
A: USBC staff can bowl the national tournaments as a team building activity, and I do get to do that as I’ve bowled in many times in the past, I think I’m approaching 20 times soon. It’s fun to share the Open with newer employees who may not bowl so they get an understanding of how much the event means to the sport.
Q:Are any of you Rangers fans. How far is HQ from T-Mobile, and did you get to see them play in the world series.
A: Ha. We for sure have a few co-workers who are from the area originally and are big Rangers fans, it was great to see them win the World Series. I’m a Mets fan, my family is from New York, but the Rangers are for sure my #2 team now as Globe Life Field is about ½ mile from IBC. No World Series games for me last year, tickets were a bit crazy, though I did finally get to take my wife and two girls to a game last season, we saw them play the last home game of the regular season so I like to think we brought them some good juju for the playoffs.
Q: What is it like working in bowling. Is it what you thought it would be like to work in bowling.
A: Sort of a fun question, there are definitely many things that I am a part of and service that I never would have imagined I’d be doing. Working for the National Governing Body can be very tough, but extremely rewarding. We often take a lot of the heat for things, even if it’s something we have limited or no control over. It just comes with the territory, and that’s not something I understood when I first started working here, I was just happy to be working in the sport. But now, I do have a strong understanding of the responsibility that comes with it, even though it can still be tough.
Q: Have you accomplished what you wanted to, by working in bowling.
A: I’ve gotten to be a part of more than I ever imagined over the years.
Q: If not, what would you like to accomplish during your career, and on the lanes.
A: On the lanes, shoot, just be able to keep bowling somewhat competitively every once in a while. With my work schedule and family, it’s not about me anymore on the lanes though.
Q: Can you provide a small background what you have done in the game.
A: I started bowling at the age of 4 in Merritt Island, Florida at Shore Lanes. I was pretty good pretty quick and really excelled and started to bowl in tournaments at around 10,11,12 and then into bigger events around Florida as a teenager and competing in Junior Gold (never very good though). I went to UCF to earn a degree in business and compete on the bowling team. We were really good my time there, just a great mix of guys who are lifelong friends now, and we were #1 in the country for a bit of time but never won the coveted Helmer Cup. I realized in school that I likely wasn’t going to be a pro bowler, considering I was 4-5th best on my own team. My only real success as an adult is a had a lucky game at the OC in 2012 and bowled a 300 during doubles.
National Bowling News - May 9, 2024