ACBL Director's Report
ACBL Director's ReportHello, everyone --
Well, my trip to Reno was exciting – the plane was struck by lightning and a scheduled ten-hour trip ended up taking 18 hours, but at least I got there.
The Board of Directors meeting was interesting. On the first day, we spent several hours discussing goals for the ACBL. We also changed the policy on special games. This hasn’t been much of an issue in District 8, but it has been a major bone of contention in various others parts of the ACBL. Special games will now be limited to the three fundraising months (Junior Fund in February, Charity Fund in April and International Fund in September) when a club can run unlimited games to benefit the fund of the month, and then one per month in the remaining nine months. When you add in the quarterly club championships, the club appreciation games, STACS, NAP qualifiers, GNT fundraisers and the nationwide games, there will still be plenty of special games. Masterpoint awards for the special games benefitting the Junior and International funds and the Charity and Educational foundations will pay 70% of sectional rating with a top possible award of six masterpoints.
At the request of the chairmen of two of our regionals, I made a motion to change the name of the event known as the Regional Side Game Series. This event used to be called the Continuous Pairs. After my motion was voted down in committee 1-9-1, it came to the whole board, where a lengthy discussion ensued. It was finally decided that we could just call it the Continuous Pairs and no motion was needed. So my motion was defeated 0-25. It was heralded as the first time a motion was defeated 0-25 and the maker got what they wanted. The whole process was enjoyed so much we did it on another motion soon after.
Membership is still rising and we are almost at 165,000 members. Management had feared the growth was propelled last year by the new requirements for life master for people who were not members as of December 31, 2009, but membership continues to grow, which is great.
A budget was finally passed for 2010 with a deficit of $374,000.00. This is significantly higher than expected in November, but about $250,000.00 was for non-recurring expenses and so the budget was approved.
An attempt to raise the minimum age for senior events failed, as did an attempt to require that all funds raised in charity games be sent to Memphis for distribution. This would have affected charity games to benefit a local charity. Instead, any club that raises money for local charities must prepare an accounting of all funds so raised and make it available for public inspection no later than February 28 of the next year.
Another new national event was created: the Super Senior Pairs, for ages 70+. The event will be held the last two days of the fall NABC, starting in Orlando. It will pay platinum points as an NABC+ event, but will not count towards the senior masterpoint races and will not qualify for Grand Life Master eligibility.
Monetary awards for the North American Pairs qualifiers who tie will be averaged between the pairs who tie, instead of using tie-breakers.
A motion from the Board of Governors to mandate that the regional two-session games at NABCs must have 26 or more boards per session failed. Those against the motion generally preferred to leave the decision between 24 and 26 boards to the local organizing committee and management.
All sanctioned games held at clubs, with the sole exception of STACS, will now count towards the Ace of Clubs masterpoint races. Previously, some other special games were not included.
New requirements for the ranks up to Life Master were enacted. These only apply to the people who are subject to the new requirements for Life Master – those who join or re-join after letting their membership lapse after December 31, 2009.
Karen Walker was reappointed to the ACBL Disciplinary Committee. I am not sure if she thinks this is a plus or not. She has sat on several hotly contested hearings. Those of you who have sat on this type of committee are probably familiar with Gary Blaiss, a long-time ACBL employee. He has been the keeper of the Code of Disciplinary Regulations for many years and was invaluable to me during the years I was chairman of the Appeals and Charges committee. He announced his retirement in Reno. We wish him well.
There will be a separate article on the Grand National Teams District Final, to be held on May 1 and 2 near Springfield, so I won’t say much here except: MAKE YOUR TEAMS AND GET YOUR RESERVATIONS IN. The finals are in New Orleans this year, which is a great place to visit. So far, I only have about six reservations and I am sure that there are more of you who plan to play in the best event we run. (Okay, so maybe I am not impartial.)
I hope to see many of you on May 1, then many more Memorial Day week at the Champaign regional.
-- 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.