I was dumbfounded recently when opening a letter with my 11-yr old from the USBC. This letter was addressed to my son, not "To the parents of: " and contained sales literature from Oreck vacuum cleaners.
My son has been a member of Young American Bowling Alliance (YABA) for the past 3 or 4 years and never received mailings such as this. Recently, however, the three different bowling associations merged to form the USBC so that rules and tournaments would be more uniform. It would seem they wasted no time in selling off a mailing list of membership without a single thought as to the age or sex of those members.
While I suppose sex has little to do with the purchasing of vacuums these days, age certainly should have been a factor! No child should have their names and addresses shared or sold without parental consent. While I doubt my child would have returned the order form, as a teacher, I am sure there is a very good possibility that some children will, thereby costing their parents some frustration and monetary funds to return item or argue Oreck for a refund should they insist "all sales are final." And, while Oreck may not make such a claim, who's to say the next mailing isn't from a more unscrupulous vendor.
The point is, the names of children should not have been given to Oreck or any other vendor without the consent of a parent. What is truly odd, and makes me even madder, is the fact that I am also a member of USBC, yet I have yet to receive the same mailing. Makes you wonder if the mailing list Oreck purchased wasn't strictly minors. It also makes me leary of both USBC and Oreck. I will certainly never buy anything they have to sell after this.
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