Chairman's Message

Jack L. Shelton USPA® Chairman

USPA is you

What do we do for you? We strive to improve polo...

Development initiative
Help us help your club increase membership

One of the prime missions of the USPA is to promote the sport of polo. One of the best ways to promote the sport is to grow the sport. Simply stated, that means when local polo clubs increase membership, the USPA has a corresponding increase in membership. As you may know, we have spent the better part of a year studying the key ways to help polo clubs grow and we have come up with a few ideas, including the Polo Development Initiative (PDI) program.

There are over 275 clubs spread throughout the country and it is likely that no two clubs are organized and managed in exactly the same way. There are many clubs that are content to just have a safe place to play, maybe an arena or an outdoor field or both, and are happy with just enough players to choose up two sides and play some polo. There are the clubs that are subsidized by one or a few who underwrite all or most of the overhead expenses to operate a polo club. Last but not least, there are those clubs that need or who would like more playing members to better share the costs of maintaining the polo club facilities.

Over the years, the USPA has prepared and published several manuals that were designed to give member polo-club owners and managers an overview about how to start a polo club and how to become better organized in terms of field maintenance and public relations. The Polo Training Foundation (PTF) has done an excellent job of setting up and financing programs that would not only train new members, but would train the trainers to do a comprehensive plan of creating those conditions that would encourage club growth. Over this past year we have planned a more coordinated effort using all of our polo resources to do a better job of finding new members, training them and, we hope, ensuring a positive membership growth pattern in the years to come.

One of our more coordinated efforts started this past summer. PTF's Kris Bowman and USPA's Ed Armstrong and Peter Rizzo visited various member polo clubs to listen to polo-club owners and managers as they described what types of improvements they would like to see at their respective clubs. Our team of experienced polo consultants responded by suggesting tried and true ways for everything from growing better polo fields, to growing a dedicated spectator base, to reliable ways of soliciting and training new players. We feel that this type of one-on-one, face-to-face, grass-roots support between club owners and mangers and the resources of the USPA/PTF are the best way to respond to clubs that ask for help to make their clubs a better place to play polo.

Another effort to materially help our clubs grow membership is through the PDI program that is designed to help fund approved membership growth projects. There is a PDI application process that begins with the USPA Club and Membership Development Committee, whose chairman is Gerry Aschninger. Within Gerry's committee will be a PDI subcommittee to review all funding requests for membership growth projects submitted by USPA members. A PDI committee-endorsed request will be forwarded to the USPA Finance Committee to determine if funding is available and then on to the executive director, who will ultimately approve or disapprove all funding requests up to $10,000.

This is an exciting time to be a part of the USPA. We are encouraged by our nearly 4,200 members for the year past-an all-time record! We are confident that our grass-roots efforts will direct a wide range of resources to clubs that will ultimately promote our sport beyond our expectations.

We need your help, so let us know how we can help you and your club.

See you on the polo field.

P.S.: I would like to thank Kris Bowman for her valuable time and service as past chairwoman of the Club & Membership Development Committee. Kris indicated that she will continue to be an active part of the committee.

Jack Shelton