President's Message

March 11, 2008

It is with some sadness that I report that this is the last online issue of Powerlines. We have used online media to restart our newsletter communications to our lifters and to manage competition results. Since 2001 Powerlines has been the mainstay of our coverage of our athletes and our federation. However, we also restarted our hardcopy newsletter with the objective of sending something to each of our members four times each year. It has included rankings, articles, and federation news. The value of the hardcopy version of the newsletter is that many of our members either are not online regularly or do have not found or don't take the time to read Powerlines. Using hard copy media assures that every current member will receive a newsletter. In discontinuing Powerlines we will temporarily lose the online rankings system but we hope to get it going again soon. This issue of Powerlines includes the rankings lists for all USAPL lifters for 2007.

Since our last issue, a number of exciting things have happened. From a publicity and exposure standpoint, our participation in the Arnold Sports Festival clearly the most important. While a costly venture, the "Arnold" exposes our athletes to more than 150,000 Arnold Expo visitors. We had inquiries from Muscle Media, Ironmind, and Sports Illustrated with hopes for followup articles. We were covered extensively in the Columbus dispatch, and through multiple press releases prior to the events in local media including print and broadcast media. But perhaps the most important aspect of our involvement in the Arnold can be found in the lifters' experience of competing in front of thousands of spectators. That is something never seen or experienced in powerlifting.

We concluded 2007 with a modest increase in membership. In fact, more people joined USAPL in 2007 than had since 2004. The increase of approximately 7% represents significant growth for our federation. In times of decreasing membership in our competitors such that some are all but nonexistent, USA Powerlifting is holding its own.

Our drug testing program remains a cornerstone of USAPL. We have continued to fine tune our out of meet testing program and have done more OMT's in December and January than in all the year previously. We look for ways to economize but if any lesson has been learned it is that there really is a minimum of testing require to "keep people honest." Doing only in competition testing, doing a small percentage, or testing only the winners is not sufficient. Testing must be done at every level and at times not predictable. We do expect increased failures over the next few years as lifters come into USAPL as their federations become less substantial.

I am sorry to have to close this message on a sad note. Phillip Battle, the Vice Chair of Virginia USAPL passed away this past Sunday morning on his way to church. Phillip was a USAPL stalwart, having been with us since he was a young man, and at 30, he was much to young to have passed on. Phillip was known to many on the East Coast for his willingness to help run meets, coach lifters and was always smiling and positive. Phillip will be missed by all who knew him, and by USA Powerlifting for his kindness and dedication to powerlifting.

LJM