ACBL Director's Report

    by Georgia Heth, Morton IL
          District 8 Representative on the ACBL Board of Directors


Hello, Everyone:

Grand National Teams: It has been a busy time since I last wrote a newsletter. We had the Grand National Teams District Final in Springfield in May and only 29 teams showed up. After last year's 45 teams, that was disappointing, but we still had a good time. If anyone has any ideas on how to increase participation next year, please let me know. And start thinking about your teams for next year. The 2008 finals are in Las Vegas, which is always a fun place to visit.

Champaign Regional: The Champaign Regional was in its new home at the Hilton Gardens and Homewood Suites. The new hotels are lovely and the playing site has been renovated as well. The Homewood Suites includes breakfast each day and dinner Sunday through Thursday, which makes it very reasonably priced.

Rockford & Metropolis IL Split Regional: I wasn't able to attend the Metropolis regional and see their new site at the casino, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. I was at the Rockford regional, which had the honor of having the ACBL President, Sharon Fairchild, attend. Attendance was up more than 45 percent over last year. Sharon had a good time visiting with everyone and there was a "Breakfast with the President" Sunday morning before the game that was very enjoyable. She and I both appreciated all the effort the volunteers put into making her trip a pleasant one.

District 8 Charity Week: District 8 is having a Charity Week this fall. All clubs are invited to participate and help raise money for charity. Hand records are available for clubs with internet access. The sanction fee is an additional $1.00 per person, all of which goes to charity. Karl Dencker is organizing this for the district and can answer any questions. We are hoping each club will have at least one session. The games will be sectionally-rated.

Nashville Board meetings: After a series of relatively easy board meetings, the one at the Nashville NABC was not. The ACBL is in the process of re-determining pay policies for its employees based on changes in the law. The process is a difficult one in trying to balance the needs of all parties involved. Management has been hard at work and progress is ongoing.

Other major topics at the meeting included the first reading of the new masterpoint revisions. The main change is that masterpoints for knockout events will be based on the average masterpoint holdings of the teams entered in a bracket, not on the number of brackets entered. That means that a bracket with a specific masterpoint holding will pay the same whether it happens to be the top bracket or a lower one. The Masterpoint Committee used the new formula on all regionally- rated knockouts held last year and found that it did not decrease the number of masterpoints awarded. The motion is reported in full in the minutes of the meeting. Other changes include increasing the match awards for flight A and X Swiss teams and increasing the maximum allowable overall award at regular open club games to 2.5 masterpoints. Special games can award up to six masterpoints.

Other Board actions included:

I hope to see many of you at our upcoming regionals in St. Louis and Fort Wayne. Good luck at the table.

     -- Georgia Heth

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.