Cities and groups interested in being considered as host for the IGBO Annual Conference and Tournament to be held in May 2017 must submit the letter of Intent to Bid to the IGBO President by November 15, 2014.
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Cities and groups interested in being considered as host for the IGBO Annual Conference and Tournament to be held in May 2017 must submit the letter of Intent to Bid to the IGBO President by November 15, 2014.
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Tucson, Arizona, May 16, 2014: Albuquerque, New Mexico has been selected as the host city for the 36th International Gay Bowling Organization® (IGBO®) Annual Conference and Tournament in May 25-30, 2016. IGBO conducts conferences on a semi-annual basis to convene representatives from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) bowling leagues and tournaments worldwide. This will be the first ever IGBO conference hosted in Albuquerque. Read More
Groups interested in being considered as host for the IGBO Mid-Year Conference and Tournament to be held November 2016 must submit the letter of Intent to Bid to the IGBO President by May 1, 2014.
Updated November 14, 2014: Deadline to submit Letters of Intent has been extended to December 31, 2014
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In support of the upcoming IGBO Annual Conference in Tucson, Arizona, bowlers from 28 different cities bowling in regular league play registered and submitted their scores for the IGBO Winter Mail-In Tournament.
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At the IGBO Annual Conference in Tucson, the IGBO membership will hold elections for Vice President, Secretary and Regional Directors of even-numbered regions (Region 6: Pacific Northwest, Region 8: Southern, Region 10: South Plains, and Region 12: Mid-Atlantic.)
Interested members can submit their resume to the IGBO Secretary at Secretary@IGBO.org. If received on or before Monday, April 14, the resume will be included in the packet distributed to the Representatives. Resumes received after April 14 will be distributed at to the attendees the day of the meeting.
Eligible candidates must meet the requirements of Article II.4 in the IGBO Bylaws. All elected directors:
For more information, contact the IGBO Secretary by email at Secretary@IGBO.org
As we ring in 2014, the IGBO Fundraising Committee is happy to announce the Winter 2014 Mail-In Tournament benefiting the next IGBO Annual Conference in Tucson, Arizona. The mail-in tournament will take place from January 19, 2014 – February 8, 2014 using league scores from 2 consecutive weeks of bowling. League IGBO Representatives may determine which two consecutive weeks accommodate their league the best.
For example, if a league bowls on Mondays, the IGBO Representative could choose either Monday, January 20th and Monday, January 27th – or Monday, January 27th and Monday, February 3rd as tournament dates.
This format has been adopted to allow leagues some flexibility in planning and executing the mail-in tournment. If a league has any problem with this schedule, please feel free to contact the IGBO Fundraising Committee.
Download the tournament entry form and rules (pdf)
As a reminder, it is the responsibility of the IGBO Representative to collect the money and get a statistic sheet from the league secretary for average verification as of 31 December 2013. All paperwork must be submitted at once. As an incentive, for every league that submits 25 or more entries from their league, both the IGBO Representative and the League Secretary may enter for free! IGBO appreciates every effort on the part as the IGBO representative to not only support the mail-in tournament but to also use this as a tool to promote IGBO and make it visible to local league members.
On November 10, 2013, the Tucson 2014 IGBO Annual Committee received the IGBO flag from the Dallas 2013 Mid-Year Committee, signifying that the next IGBO conference will be held in Tucson, Arizona. This will be the second such event held in Tucson. The first event was the 1994 Mid-Year conference and 20 years later, IGBO is “Returning to the Wild, Wild West,” May 12 – 18, 2014.
IGBO flag presented to City of Tucson
On November 21, 2013, the Tournament and Conference Director Joseph Ware and Co-Director Kevin Wheeler presented the IGBO flag to the City of Tucson Vice Mayor Shirley Scott and Ward 5 Council Member Richard Fimbres, along with former Women’s Professional bowler and bowling center owner Jill Theis and center manager Scott Rarick. Immediately after the presentation, the Vice Mayor declared that the flag shall be “hung” at Tucson Bowl until it is time to turn the flag over to the Jacksonville Committee.
Councilmember Fimbres presented the Tucson Committee a Certificate of Recognition for their efforts in encouraging involvement in the Tucson LGBT community and the dedication in working together to make the 2014 IGBO Annual Conference a reality for Tucson. It was an amazing evening. The declaration and recognition was a surprise; however, the biggest surprise was the invitation to attend the City of Tucson Mayor and Council Study Session to update the city leaders and kick off the festivities for IGBO Annual 2014. “Wait until you see who throws the first ball,” remarked Mark Kerr, Public Relations Chairman. “It is going to be a Who’s Who in Southern Arizona.”
Mark Kerr, Joseph Ware and Kevin Wheeler of the IGBO Annual 2014 Tuscon Host Committee with City of Tucson Councilmember Richard Fimbres and Vice Mayor Shirley Scott
The City of Tucson is excited about the return of IGBO and the committee has their nose to the grindstone preparing a week of fun and excitement in the “Wild, Wild West.” Activities start off on Thursday, May 15 with a reception in the lobby of the hotel from 1 to 5 pm. Included will be a “Shave-Tail” meet and greet from 4 to 5 pm. For those unfamiliar with Wild West terminology, a shave-tail is a green, inexperienced person. So all those bowlers that have never been to an IGBO Annual or Mid-Year tournament are encouraged to attend and meet with the tournament committee and IGBO leaders.
Thursday evening of conference week at 6 pm, the Iowna Dublewyde Desert Classic will kick off at Golf-n-Stuff, just a mile from the hotel. This event will be a community wide event and food drive for our tournament charity, the southern Arizona Aids Foundation (SAAF). Cost is $10 and a can of food. This is a fun filled drag putt-putt golf event. Dawn the garb and join “Nancy-boys” and “Gal-boys” for a couple hours of hysterical putt-putt golf. The rest of the weekend is dedicated to bowling, hospitality, renewing friendships, and making new friends.
As the committee finalizes the details and gets everything “in apple pie order,” IGBO members are encouraged to plan to attend the 34th Annual IGBO Conference and Tournament. Pack your “best bib and tucker,” catch the next stagecoach to Tucson, and join us as IGBO “Returns to the Wild, Wild West.”
The International Gay Bowling Organization (IGBO) is issuing this Request for Proposal (RFP) to obtain a hotel contract negotiator for our Annual and MidYear event in any interested host country. IGBO provides educational services, communication avenues, and social opportunities to promote the sport of bowling and to enrich lives of individuals through leagues and tournaments worldwide.
Each year IGBO hosts 2 meetings and tournaments bringing 300-600 participants to hosting cities throughout IGBO. Additionally, the organization intends to offer this service to our 55+ member tournaments on an opt-in basis. Submissions are due by 30 November 2013.
For details or to respond, view the IGBO Hotel Negotiator Request for Proposal.
Over June 13-15, 2013, Tim Tkacik, Director of the IGBO® Pacific Northwest Region, had the opportunity to be part of the 2013 LGBT Sports Summit, hosted by Nike in Portland, Oregon. Approximately 100 LGBT athletes and allies met to discuss how to end LGBT bias in sports by 2016.
Participants were broken down into four groups: Coaches/Administrators, Athletes, Recreational Sports and Media. Les Johnson, an IGBO bowler from the Washington D.C area, led the discussion in the Recreational Sports Group where Tkacik, representing IGBO. In addition to IGBO representation, there were representatives from Federation of Gay Games, Gay Games Cleveland, US Olympic Committee, and representatives of LGBT softball, football, soccer, wrestling, basketball, tennis, golf and even surfers.
The Recreational Sports Group was tasked with presenting examples or ideas for three questions:
The group was then broken down into three subgroups, each one reviewing the questions and providing ideas or topics that would best apply to each question. After ranking the responses to come up with the top three for each question, each of the groups then met back to present their top three for each question. Groups then met separately again to compile a path to achieve the goals of the questions, which is to be handled by standing committees by the stakeholders of the summit.
The Summit resulted in encouraging Recreational Groups, like IGBO, to actively engage with the governing bodies for their sport, in our case USBC, to ensure bylaws and rules include protections against discrimination for LGBT bowlers. Only once that can be achieved by all national governing bodies for every sport, will the overall goal of the LGBT Sports Summit be complete. There is still much to do to make that goal a reality.
All leagues and tournaments interested in joining the International Gay Bowling Organization (IGBO) will now be required to submit their applications for membership electronically through the IGBO website. Links to membership applications are available in the IGBO Library.
Making the move to online applications for membership was one of the goals of IGBO’s Online Committee for the 2013-14 year. Brian McCollum, chair of IGBO’s Online Committee, feels that placing the forms online for completion will “help recruitment of members in countries outside of the United States of America, where IGBO is headquartered.”
McCollum highly recommends any league or tournament filling out the application for the first time to use the printable worksheets available for download in the IGBO Library.
With the release of the online membership forms, IGBO has begun renewing members for the 2013-14 membership year. Existing IGBO member leagues and tournaments should follow guidelines provided by the IGBO Secretary and their regional director to complete the membership renewal process for 2013-14.
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