President's Message

Since this is our last issue before the end of the year, I want to wish all of our members a happy holiday season. This is a time when we can reflect over the year and consider the good things that we have and the friends that we've made.

For my part, I am thankful for the opportunity to have met so many wonderful people through powerlifting, and to be given the chance to further USA Powerlifting. Over the past few weeks, I've been to the Jr. World Championships, Men's World Championships, the Southern California Regional Championships, and by the time this is published, the American Open. While our travel is sometimes rigorous, I believe it is important for the leaders of USAPL to travel to where our members are competing and meeting. Your Vice President, Johnny Graham travels even more than I do, serving as a valuable resource to local meet promoters in his area, and to coach our athletes at international championships. I think this reflects the perspective of your current Executive: we want to meet you, help where we can, and generally improve your accessibility to your federation.

We have an ambitious competition schedule planned for 2004, with many of the contest promoters you know putting on meets, and a number of new meet directors trying their hand. Please get out and support both the established meets, and some of the new ones. We are re-expanding into areas that we have been absent from for a while as well, and look forward to our prior members coming back to USAPL competition.

So, as we end 2003, plan your next years competition schedule. Jump into a meet and have fun.

Larry