ACBL Director's Report
ACBL Director's ReportGrand National Teams: Do you have your team for the District 8 Grand National team event? The District Final is May 3 and 4 at the Education Association Building in Springfield. If you have your team, would you please let me know by e-mail? Reservations aren’t necessary; I am just asking for them to help me plan the event. If you don’t have your team, it is time to get one! I have spent hours working on it and still don’t have one. I hope you have better luck. Anyway, I will see you there.
Special guest at the Champaign Regional: Dan Morse, President of the ACBL, will be attending the Champaign Regional. This is the first time I can remember that a President who was not a member of District 8 has attended that tournament. Dan is a world-class player (literally – he has represented the US several times in the few years I have known him) and is an extremely nice man and a hard worker for bridge. Please feel free to introduce yourself to him and make him welcome.
Detroit NABC: The Spring Nationals were held at Detroit’s Renaissance Center, which I think has to be the best site for a Nationals I have seen. All of the games were in ballrooms in the host hotel, food was easy to get and the city was glad to have us there. Unfortunately, attendance did not meet expectations. It is a pity. The local committee put a lot of work into the event, which was appreciated by those of us who did attend.
The board meetings produced a few big changes. Here are some of the major ones:
Disciplinary hearings: There were many changes to the Code of Disciplinary Regulations (CDR), which guarantees fair and impartial hearings and outlines procedures that must be followed in disciplinary hearings. If you are involved in any committees, please be sure to refer to the most recent version of the CDR, which is on the ACBL website. Many of the changes were organizational, but there were two significant changes. One involved the burden of proof in hearings, which has been changed to a “preponderance of the evidence” (it used to be “clear and convincing”.) The second bans attorneys from the hearings. Participants can be represented by attorneys, but the attorneys must stay outside of the hearing. They can be represented in the hearing by a non-attorney. Notifications regarding these changes have been sent to the appropriate unit and district representatives.
Cell-phone ban: The policy on electronic devices was passed. Beginning with the Las Vegas tournament, no cell phones or other electronic devices will be allowed in NABC events, including the Grand National Teams. This is an attempt to avoid possible cheating. Full details are in a separate article in this issue.
Recorder system: Another discussion of cheating issues was in regard to the use of the recorder system. Apparently, there are many people who will not complete recorder forms because they think nothing ever happens with them. This is not only false, but it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If no one is willing to fill in the forms about suspicious behavior, nothing ever will happen about it. The CDR provides for “pattern” cases – those where enough suspicious things happen to rule out coincidence. Without completed recorder forms, it is difficult to make a pattern case.
Convention chart changes: The one significant change to the Mid Chart conventions is that Multi 2D opener (used to show a weak two in an unspecified major) no longer legal in pair games. It can only be used if at least 6 boards are being played against the same opponents, which effectively limits it to team games. No other changes were made to the convention charts.
New bridge laws: The new Laws of Duplicate Bridge are going into effect September 8, 2008. The ACBL had to pick certain options in the new laws. An interesting new law is that an opening bid at the one-level cannot by agreement show fewer than 8 high card points. Another change is that it will be legal to look at your opponent’s convention card at your RHO’s turn to call, and you can look at defenses to methods permitted by the Mid-Chart or Super-Chart whenever it would be appropriate to look at your opponent’s convention card. ACBL staff directors will have training in the changes before they go into effect.
Masterpoint awards: There were changes made in masterpoint awards for knockout events. One set of changes was to correct a mistake. Others accounted for masterpoint inflation and a decision to lower awards for brackets with fewer than 16 teams. It is believed that the changes to award masterpoints based on strength of field rather than the number of teams entered is generally going well.
STAC fees: Fees for STACS are changing to a flat-rate per table rather than various charges for different things. The larger the STAC, the cheaper the per-table fee.
Mini-bridge teaching programs: A shortened Mini Bridge program was passed. This is for students up through the 6th grade level only. It differs from the School Bridge program in that no text will be provided and the teacher subsidy is reduced to $200.00 for eight hours of instruction and supervised play. It was believed that this program will be more successful with the younger students.
The Shanghai incident: The Board asked the US Bridge Federation, Canadian Bridge Federation and Mexican Bridge Federation to adopt regulations disallowing all non-bridge related public statements and demonstrations by any Zone 2 federation representative participating in an international bridge competition. This was an attempt to avoid any further situations like the one that occurred at the Shanghai world championships, where the U.S. women’s team displayed a political sign at the awards ceremony.
As always, for the full minutes of the meeting, please consult the ACBL website.
See you at the
tables,
-- Georgia
If you have questions or suggestions about ACBL Board actions or other bridge matters, please contact me at gkheth@hotmail.com or 917 S. Main St., Morton IL 61550-2419.