Hello all, I am posting here to announce my candidacy for the Board. I am aware that most of you will ask who I am since I don't play many events outside Oklahoma and Texas.

I am a guy that joined the PDGA about 30 years ago and I am an Eagle Club (Lifetime) member. I have always been more active running tournaments than playing in them. I ran my first event in 1984, The McClure Park Open, in Tulsa, OK and have since run 50+ events.

I have been involved in many disc golf activities outside the PDGA in my local community and have designed several courses. I am a member of the Disc Golf Course Designers Group and have the designation "Senior Designer".

I have many years of non-profit experience, I was a founding member and Secretary of the Oklahoma Disc Golf Association and served for the first 4 years until my work mandated a move too far away to be involved.

I have been the Director of the Junior Disc Golf Foundation for the last 6 years.

I recently stepped down as the Financial Director and Board Member of my local church after 6 years of service.

In summary, I have experience in both non-profit board positions and the sport I love.

My business experience is 13 years of running my own business and 15 years previous being self-employed in the oil and gas industry, mainly analyzing, constructing and negotiating contracts for major transactions between oil and gas companies. This experience has taught me to stand firm when negotiating tough deals.

With all that said, my statement is very simple, I feel I have the experience to help direct the PDGA in a positive direction that will lead to positive growth of the PDGA and the Sport of Disc Golf. I am not going to tell everyone that if I am elected I am going to change the disc golf world, but I will say that I will provide my 30+ years of experience and insight to the decision making processes that take place. My goal is to help the PDGA grow and move forward.

Thanks for reading and considering me as a Candidate.

Tom Lowry
PDGA #2446

Tom,

Thank you for all your previous contributions in supporting and growing disc golf in your community and for wanting to continue your contributions. Best of luck.

You seem to have the qualifications necessary to be on the BOD. I think many members in the last election voted on name recognition alone and didn't spend enough time or energy understanding how the candidates might lead once they were on the BOD.

It would be helpful to potential supporters who don't know you to understand a bit more about your thoughts on the state of disc golf today.

In your opinion what is working well in the game today?
What are some areas you see opportunities for improvements?
What do you see our sport looking like in 10 years?
Is it better to grow the sport from the top or the bottom? (increased top pro purses vs increased AM participation.)

Answers to questions like these should, in my opinion, determine who the members elect this election.

Thanks and best of luck to you.

Tom,

Thank you for all your previous contributions in supporting and growing disc golf in your community and for wanting to continue your contributions. Best of luck.

You seem to have the qualifications necessary to be on the BOD. I think many members in the last election voted on name recognition alone and didn't spend enough time or energy understanding how the candidates might lead once they were on the BOD.

It would be helpful to potential supporters who don't know you to understand a bit more about your thoughts on the state of disc golf today.

In your opinion what is working well in the game today?
What are some areas you see opportunities for improvements?
What do you see our sport looking like in 10 years?
Is it better to grow the sport from the top or the bottom? (increased top pro purses vs increased AM participation.)

Answers to questions like these should, in my opinion, determine who the members elect this election.

Thanks and best of luck to you.

Hi Pete,

In response to your questions:

1) The fact that the PDGA has many good things in place for running a Professional Tour is a good start. The scheduling, rating system, etc...is working well for the organizational end of the system.

2) Opportunities to improve exist in the area of better tournament screening. Such as requirements that TD's know what they are doing, not just letting anyone sanction an event, but provide a required TD education system teaching them to run an event and how to handle situations in a professional manner that we all know WILL arise. Better TD education equals better events.

3) Our sport is now on the verge of a possible big leap forward. However, this will require some growing pains for all. I'd like to see our sport in the mainstream of the public. Although, this will require much from everyone in our sport. Right now Disc Golfers are typically viewed as "pot smokers and reformed hippies" so to speak. We have to shake that image off before we can move too far forward. Activities such as that have to stop at all our events and our professionals must be portrayed as true professionals with outstanding character. This can be accomplished.

4) True growth comes from gaining your everyday local recreational player. The people that come out and play for fun with their friends and family. Those people represent a fan base and create an interest in our sport locally. In order to have positive public awareness, we need more local players especially young people. Young players will be the talent pool for our future.

I hope this answers your questions. I will be happy to address any additional questions presented.

Thanks, best of luck to you.

4) True growth comes from gaining your everyday local recreational player. The people that come out and play for fun with their friends and family. Those people represent a fan base and create an interest in our sport locally. In order to have positive public awareness, we need more local players especially young people. Young players will be the talent pool for our future.




In my experience, most recreational players are stoner, hippie types. What can we do to prevent these folks from picking up a disc? :)

In my experience, most recreational players are stoner, hippie types. What can we do to prevent these folks from picking up a disc? :)

I used to agree with getting rid of the "image" Disc Golf has but I recently changed my mind and feel we should pursue those who will be most receptive.

College kids and Hippies along with youngsters and Grannies!

Are you one of the Board approved candidates?

In my experience, most recreational players are stoner, hippie types. What can we do to prevent these folks from picking up a disc? :)

James,

We can't and shouldn't stop anyone from picking up a disc and playing. What we can do is encourage folks you refer to as "stoners" not to participate in smoking in our presence. I personally have only had a few folks get mad or say anything in opposition to me asking them not to smoke pot in my presence. We have to think and understand that not everyone thinks the same way. Those who think they have to smoke while playing will either not play with us after the request or play along and abstain. It has been my experience in my part of the country most folks will abstain when asked. Yes I have had a few be A-holes about it, and when that happens, I let them say what they will and go on about my game without them.

In other words, we want everyone to play, we just have to set rules and boundaries that each one of us must keep for ourselves.

Are you one of the Board approved candidates?

Here is the body of an email I received from Brian Graham,



"Dear Tom,

The PDGA Office has received your candidate questionaire and platform
statement for the Board of Directors.

I would personally like to thank you for your interest in moving our
organization and sport forward and we wish you the very best of luck in the
upcoming elections.

Regards,

Brian J. Graham
PDGA Executive Director"




So Bruce, does that sound approved? As far as I can tell from the email, I will be a candidate in the upcoming election. If not, then I have wasted my efforts here. I guess you can call or email Brian and ask if you are really needing to know more.


Thanks for asking.
Tom

Thanks for your willingness to serve.

Tom,
What is your stance on cigarettes/alcohol/illegal drugs? I'd like to hear more about where you see the PDGA going and how these issues relate to potential forward progress and how they can be overcome. I posted this on the cigarette thread but will repost it here:
Sat in on a wonderful HOA meeting yesterday with the CMPD (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Dept.) and a representative from the drug task force to address some issues we are having at the park across the street from me (Kilborne). An interesting piece of information came out of the bag from the CMPD drug task force rep, when he said that they are already preparing for the 2012 Worlds and will be "actively searching for drugs." The officer also cited a recent arrest where 78 pounds of marijuana was found hidden in a disc golfers car, and showed a picture of the SUV in the Winthrop pond and identified that it was because the people driving the car were "high" and that marijuana was found floating in it when the car was recovered. I wonder how many people will bail on Charlotte 2012 when they see drug dogs at the courses.

Cigarettes are absolutely the biggest issue with disc golf cleaning its reputation, lol!


I guess I wonder if a large contingency of the pdga members take advantage of the slack approach to enforcement of rules around drugs, especially in lieu of recent board members being voted in that appear marijuana friendly and have a history behind them of being in with the "cool kids". I don't feel that I should directly name people I believe to be pot friendly, but I think I make my point. How would you address this issue and ensure that the best professional athletes that are representing the PDGA are not consistently using illegal drugs or are being part of the trafficking of such illegal drugs?

.... and showed a picture of the SUV in the Winthrop pond and identified that it was because the people driving the car were "high" ........


You of course corrected the person on this misperception?

I don't want to belittle your point, but the person hasn't taken the time to get their facts straight. Perhaps that also illustrates the issue.

.... and showed a picture of the SUV in the Winthrop pond and identified that it was because the people driving the car were "high" ........


You of course corrected the person on this misperception?

I don't want to belittle your point, but the person hasn't taken the time to get their facts straight. Perhaps that also illustrates the issue.


So what ARE THE FACTS? I did not have any other information personally to illustrate a misperception. Maybe I should have given the guy a bumper sticker for the PDGA that says "It's In The Air"!?!

I would still like to know how all BOD members/potential future board members see illegal drug use as it relates to professional disc golf and the PDGA.

The facts are that the statement of 'because the people driving the car were high' is unfounded and inaccurate. The officer can easily verify this by checking for and finding that there was no related citation issued to the driver in the instance. I think we can also assume that there was only one person driving the vehicle, hence the 'person driving was ...' would be a more accurate reflection.

Again, I'm not arguing your point, just pointing out that the person making the statement did not take the time to verify the facts. Unfortunately, the statements point out that the person making them is operating under a stereotype that will make any conversations to the contrary or discussions of the many fine disc golfers and the benefits of the sport very difficult if not impossible. I agree with you that is is an obvious issue that challenges us.

Was a drug test given to both parties from the vehicle in question to prove they weren't high? I'm pretty sure that if a cop finds you with marijuana, he is going to assume you smoke it. If your car ends up in a lake and marijuana is found in it, no matter what the reason for the car ending up in the drink is, most people who think logically are going to make a correlation with the drugs/wet car. If this happened at say Hornets Nest in Charlotte, NC, I'm pretty sure charges would have been given. Both parties should be grateful that the Winthrop campus police and Rock Hill police handled it the way they did. I think the fact that we as disc golfers are using things like well he wasn't charged to defend the situation is simply being ignorant to the true issue and further supporting the stereotype. Just my opinion. It is clear that there are inconsistencies with how violations of park and pdga substance use policies are addressed across the board.

Given the situation I would think that the officials involved looked into things rather thoroughly, wouldn't you think? Regardless of Rock Hill officials or otherwise. To think differently may show a prejudice on your part as well.

Sorry I got involved here and again I'm not disputing your overall point, just that the statement made by the person was inaccurate. The fact that I know the driver is what prompted me to respond. Please continue on, and please consider that you are crossing into an area where you are shedding bad light on someone without having your facts straight.

I have a hard time seeing the thoroughness of the investigation simply because what discipline is given to one person who has not even faced his charges (the incident in the Dakotas-Indefinite suspension) is so vastly different then that given to other people on the disciplinary list, like let's say a sponsored NT player that was confirmed to have been drinking during sanctioned play. Discipline and consistency appears selective at best.

I have no ill will or negative intent to cast bad light on anybody involved in this. Unfortunately, this incident and others are the ones that have happened, and by which we as paying dues members, can assess whether our management entity is doing a good job.

Anyhoot, I am still interested in knowing how you feel Tom so I can decide if I want to vote for you. Sorry for the drift.

Tom,
What is your stance on cigarettes/alcohol/illegal drugs? I'd like to hear more about where you see the PDGA going and how these issues relate to potential forward progress and how they can be overcome.


Craig,

As far as cigarettes, I really don't feel that I should tell someone if they should smoke or not. It is a personal decision that they have to live with. I don't allow smoking in my house, but I have adult kids and friends that smoke and I allow them to smoke on my back porch as long as they use the ashtray provided and clean it before they leave. I smoked in the past but chose (about 25 years ago) not to any longer. The Board has already made the decision on smoking at Worlds and I don't have an issue with it. If in fact someone does smoke while playing, as long as they don't litter and use common courtesy while smoking then I have no issue.

Alcohol, During a tournament round should not be allowed, as currently provided for in the rules. When someone is finished playing and the round is officially over and it is legal for them to consume, then it is none of my business or the business of anyone else. Once again it is a personal decision.

Illegal Drugs, during the round should not be allowed, as currently provided for in the rules. I do not condone the use of any illegal drug.

As far as overcoming, the rules in place MUST be enforced in all aspects. Any tournament player should be accountable for knowing and abiding by the rules of play as already set out. The TD's of the future must be educated on how to handle any situation that will arise and they must be willing to act in a professional manner when addressing such situations.

The "Touring Professional" is a person like the rest of us. They should however, make every effort to act professionally and have a high moral character. With that said, everyone makes mistakes, we must have understanding when that does happen and ask ourselves how we should be treated if we were in that situation. However, if they break the rules, they too should have the same consequences as any other player would receive.

No one has a crystal ball, I'd prefer to see Disc Golf in the mainstream with our "Touring Professionals" having an image similar to the Touring Ball Golf Professionals. While not all are perfect and they don't try to make you think they are, they do, for the most part, have a good image in the public. Most are doing good things outside of golf for kids, veterans and the less fortunate of our society. Not a bad example for us to try to follow in my opinion. Will we? Who knows.

Tom,

One area I would like to see a change from how the BOD does things today is I would like to see better communication from the BOD to the members.

Could you please share your thoughts on this issue?

Thank you

Tom,

One area I would like to see a change from how the BOD does things today is I would like to see better communication from the BOD to the members.

Could you please share your thoughts on this issue?

Thank you

Pete,

As with any membership organization, communication between the BOD and the membership is extremely important. As I have stated before, each and every person thinks differently and what would be considered an open communication line to one person is not always considered that to another. While I do feel that communication could be better between our BOD and membership, there are many avenues in which something could be done to provide such an information source. Once again we could do one thing and someone would think that is not enough and so on and so on.

I personally feel if a link to the minutes of the meetings and the schedule of those meetings are available online to the membership, that is pretty good for an organization of our size. Others however might not agree. The other Non-Profits in which I have served on the BOD did not do any more than announce the time and location of such meetings and each held an annual meeting that any member could attend.

So let me ask you, what communication avenue do you think would better serve the membership? Ensuring that every member has equal opportunity to have access to the information is important.

Tom

Thank you, Tom, for your willingness to serve. Your experience and history of service both to the sport and in other areas of life are encouraging as is your apparent lack of unground axes.

Tom, one avenue that I think would be an improvement could be this very website. We, the PDGA, are already spending thousands of dollars on it but there is very little timely information.

Look at the smoking issue and how that was handled and communicated to the members. Months ago the minutes reflect the BOD spoke of how to handle medical marijuana at the upcoming pro worlds in California. The minutes don't reflect much more than that. Months later a non BOD member, not even on the PDGA staff announced on the message board that smoking would be banned at pro and am worlds this year and provided a link to the MMJ item in the minutes with no supporting information or reasons why.

The PDGA has several pages in our magazine. The PDGA posts announcements on this website regularly. An example of the improved communication I would like to see would have been, in a timely manner, post something along the lines of we the PDGA see value in increasing participation of youth and students in the sport. To promote their participation we feel we need to improve our on course image. We feel banning smoking during play would accomplish this. Please support our experiment and send comments to [email protected]

Instead we got no announcement, a discussion on the discussion board, a brief announcement, more discussion on the message board, a clarifiction of the policy, and through it all the best information I got on the whole issue was from and email exchange with the ED.

Another avenue. When Peter Shive and Pat Brenner were on the BOD they each had threads on the message board along the lines of "Ask PDGA Board Member Peter Shive..." this was a place to ask board members questions and actually get responses. My understanding is those two posting on the message board was NOT well received by the other board members. We now have a place on the website to send the bod members emails. I recently sent all 7 emails asking for their thoughts on the appointing board members Issue. Only 4 board members even bothered to reply.

This are simple, inexpensive ways to communicate better with members without requiring much time investment on anyone's part. The responses I got from some of the BOD members and the ED contained points I hadn't considered. IMO the PDGA being more proactive in their communication would go a long way in letting the members know why they want to enact a given policy and significantly reduce member push back.

Simple, effective communication. I get near weekly email communication from the PDGA. That's another avenue. I would certainly value BOD communication in that more than I do the recent announcement of a new course in Souix Falls ( no disrespect to the Sioux Falls people but I don't get to that part of the country very often)

Pete,

Thanks for the suggestions. While at this point I am only a candidate for the BOD, I cannot do more than I am presently doing. I agree that it is better to announce information about certain issues and policy changes with a brief explanation as to why it was done rather than just saying that this was done and here is the new policy.

Please know that I just want to see our sport and organization move forward. I also know from my experiences with other organizations, some of the little things make all the difference. Unfortunately, most organizations have so many issues to contend with, the BOD members often forget that the general membership is not aware of all the facts and information involved with some policy changes and letting everyone know these things often gets unintentionally lost. For the most part, when discussing an important issue in a BOD meeting, when a resolution is reached many are so tired of the discussion of it and just want to forget about it and move on, therefore nothing else is said unless asked about it later.

In summary, if I am elected to the BOD, I don't have any problem staying in contact with the membership as Peter and Pat did while serving by maintaining a thread on this website.

Thanks for all questions and support.

Tom

Thanks Tom.

Your background, reasoned approach, and willingness to communicate with the members has earned my vote.

Best of luck to you.

Pete

There is now a Candidate Evaluation available for everyone to use. I think this is a great idea, it allows voters to look at who is running and what each candidate can offer.

I hope everyone uses this tool and does not vote without the knowledge of each of the 18 candidates. It may take a few minutes to do this, however, I feel it will be a great benefit to everyone who does.

No one knows how things will turnout with so many folks running. I just ask that anyone who is an active member of our organization to please vote.

2) Opportunities to improve exist in the area of better tournament screening. Such as requirements that TD's know what they are doing, not just letting anyone sanction an event, but provide a required TD education system teaching them to run an event and how to handle situations in a professional manner that we all know WILL arise. Better TD education equals better events.

how do you feel about giving TDs more rights to control their tournaments?

also, how do you feel about BoD accountability?
having the ability to vote for members is all well and dandy but without knowledge of their voting record and their stances on issues it seems a little silly. we are basically voting based on a statement made before a three year term and then trusting in that time that you upheld your own mission statement. the minutes and announcements given dont really give enough detail into this. knowing info like this would allow better educated voting for the membership. afterall isnt that what the staff wants? us to make better choices for the BoD.

how do you feel about giving TDs more rights to control their tournaments?




also, how do you feel about BoD accountability?
having the ability to vote for members is all well and dandy but without knowledge of their voting record and their stances on issues it seems a little silly. we are basically voting based on a statement made before a three year term and then trusting in that time that you upheld your own mission statement. the minutes and announcements given dont really give enough detail into this. knowing info like this would allow better educated voting for the membership. afterall isnt that what the staff wants? us to make better choices for the BoD.



I'm not sure what you mean by "giving TD's more rights to control their tournaments". I've run over 50 PDGA events through the years and I felt as though I had control over the event. I'm very interested in what you are specifically asking here and I hope you will discuss what you mean further.


As far as accountability, I feel as if I should be accountable for everything I do. I have no problem with anyone knowing what my voting record is. However, when I have looked at the minutes of a few particular meetings that I was interested in, it seemed to me that any voting that took place was mentioned and stated who was for, against and any that abstained.

Please feel free to elaborate on your questions, I'll be happy to let you know how I think and feel on the matter.

Thanks for taking to time to ask.

While it appears that the elections are still nothing more than a popularity contest, I would like to thank all those who voted for me. Hopefully in the future voters will have enough information to evaluate the candidates on merit instead of name.

With that said, I would like to add that I wish the new board well and hope they think issues through and make decisions based on the good of the sport and membership as a whole and not the few who are attempting to make this sport their means of support. I for one am a Lifetime member of the PDGA will continue to play a few events and run a few events and support the PDGA and its board.

Thanks for trying to make a difference Tom.
I wish lots of things in this election turned out differently.