Super Bowl Sunday is always an important day for us here at the USBC Open Championships because it means that everyone is in town and Opening Day is right around the corner.
Today, all 42 travelers, the leadership team and a few folks from USBC Headquarters in Greendale, Wis., got together for the first of three days of team building/orientation. After so much traveling and unpacking, it was nice to see everyone together and enthusiastic about getting down to business. Today's agenda included some introductions and updates, followed by a social function/Super Bowl party at JC's New York Pizza Department, just a short walk from the convention center.
The next two days will be spent discussing any changes to the event, like the creation of Tournament Services, which was formerly Registration, Brackets and Bowler Services. We also will be discussing bowler and employee surveys from the 2007 event to see what people said before we strategize about how to make this event better. Some of the time will be spent refreshing everyone about the tournament rules, procedures and policies, while some will be set aside for setting goals for 2008.
During the orientation today, one of the new travelers, Brian Whitman, mentioned that he's been reading my blog and thought it was interesting to hear about some of the behind the scenes stuff that he was about to experience while traveling across the country. Hopefully others are reading along and enjoying the chance to see what it takes to make this tournament happen. It truly is an amazing process and experience.
By Wednesday, we will be in our respective departments to finish setting up and further train any new travelers.
While this is going on, our on-site HR folks from Employment Source have been taking applications and interviewing candidates, hoping to hire 60 locals to help us while we are here. One positive thing I've heard is that a lot of the local bowlers and association members have shown an interest in being part of the 2008 Open Championships and soon will become a valuable part of our tournament staff.
Each day we look more and more forward to the start of the event. Each day the venue looks a little different and a little more complete. The pins will be crashing in no time.
