The good news is that the drop was only 270 or so this month. The bad
news is that the overall drop was the worst in history at 3,400 since
early January of last year. It was about 200 better than my prediction
of 21,500 at 21,709.

Any attempts to paint over USCF's adult figures as less than disastrous
is ridiculous.

Even if the 780 prisoners which should have never been included in the
figures in the first place and the 550 adults crazy enough to pay almost
$40.00 for virtually nothing but the right to play in tournaments, the
fact that USCF continues drop over 2100 adults in a year is sad and
pathetic.

As the total number gets smaller and smaller, one would think the total
number would also get smaller, but instead it remains relatively steady
at almost 200/month regardless of whether that is 200/month out of
30,000 or 200/month out of 21,000.

What is even more sad, is that nothing will be done to alter this basic
problem which is now endemic and has been going on for over 8 years.

USCF leadership long ago decided that trying to increase or even
stabilize this number won't work, so a better idea is to continue
raising dues on the ones who still haven't left yet.

My bet is that next year, the Delegates will once again in their
infinite wisdom raise dues another $10.00 to $59.00/year on this group
to make up for the drop.

Best Regards,

Bruce