ACBL Director's Report
ACBL Director's ReportHello District 8,
Another Board of Directors meeting has come and gone. But the most interesting thing to me at the Washington DC nationals was a committee ruling. A pair was placed on probation for slow play in the Spingold KO Teams. This is the first time I have seen anything significant done about slow play. I hope the trend continues. Here is the legal disclaimer: I know nothing about the merits of this specific case and am not commenting on the appropriateness of the actual decision. I am just happy the issue was addressed.
The Grand National Teams were fun, but the best any of our teams did was 5th-8th for our Flight C team. Our Open team was eliminated the first day, and the A and B teams were eliminated the second day. Better luck next year. The District Board will be deciding at the St. Louis board meeting whether the district final will be one day or two. I asked for comments on this in the last Advocate and received exactly none. I don’t know if this means no one read the article or that no one cares about the decision. If you do care, please let me know as soon as possible.
Andrew Carver was selected as one of six Junior Ambassadors. His appointment was announced at the Junior reception in D.C. The Ambassadors were selected based on their ethics, sportsmanship and passion for the game of bridge. I was pleased to present the award and then accept it on his behalf. We were able to have him present by phone so he could hear the presentation. We hope to present his certificate at the St. Louis Regional. We will be making another announcement then, too – if you have read the minutes from the DC meeting, you will know what it is.
Jerry Fleming, the president of the ACBL, will be attending the Fort Wayne Regional. Jerry is a very friendly, outgoing man but still be sure to introduce yourself to him and make him feel welcome. Jerry’s focus on the BOD is “Grandma Jones”, the typical ACBL member who plays in her club, maybe a few tournaments, doesn’t care much about big-time bridge but is the backbone of our organization. He is always checking to make sure we aren’t wasting her money or messing things up for her. He has pushed for average point stratification for teams and pairs recently, so if you enjoy this, thank him when you see him.
The Washington tournament was really nice. The playing sites were relatively close to the hotel rooms, there were plenty of restaurants nearby, we got a nice umbrella as a registration gift, and the hospitality, at least for the three days I was there, was wonderful. The local players gave a reception for the GNT players on Wednesday night, and Saturday night the Capital Steps performed. They were hilarious. Sightseeing was easy using the Metro system. It was a great experience.
Highlights of the Board Meeting
Jay Baum reported that membership is up more than 1400 members and that tournaments are expected to match or exceed 2008. Club game attendance is slightly down. The lease-purchase agreement for the new ACBL headquarters is proceeding nicely and staff is hard at work on the business of finishing the building – picking an architect, owner’s agent and general contractor and making all the necessary decisions. While it would be nice to move into the new building at the end of the year when our lease expires, it is unlikely to be ready then. They are hoping to have the warehouse done so that when the truck returns from San Diego, it can just unload at the new building. He expects the grand opening ceremony to be late winter or early spring, 2010.
Rich DeMartino was elected president of the ACBL for 2010. He is a very hard worker for bridge and I am sure he will do a good job as president.
There were various amendments to the Recorder Regulations and the Code of Disciplinary Regulation. The most significant was that if a member violates ACBL regulations at two completely different clubs, the Unit may bring charges against him. Previously, only ethical violations could be prosecuted by the Unit.
Members applying to join the ACBL or to renew their current membership will be required to disclose any discipline imposed by another bridge organization. Management may request that an application be reviewed by the Appeals and Charges Committee before granting/renewing the membership. The A&C Committee may accept the application, deny it either permanently or for a specific period of time, or deny it and allow reapplication after a specific period of time. There is no appeal from this decision.
The Spring NABC schedule was changed so that the new event, the Platinum Pairs, will be played at the same time as the IMP Pairs, not the Open Pairs.
The financial reports of the ACBL will be made available on the ACBL website within one week following the conclusion of the NABC at which the report was presented.
The ACBL will establish ACBLwide races for masterpoints won in internet bridge games, and will consider a section on the website devoted to internet bridge.
In stratified events, “the stratification level of a team or pair may be based, at sponsor option, on the average masterpoint holding of the team or pair.” This is available for club and unit games and tournaments but not in qualifying events. They also decided that in stratiflighted and limited pair and team events, “once the flight of the pair or team is decided, stratification within each flight may be based, at sponsor option on the average masterpoint holding of the team or pair.” The second one means that the masterpoint holding of the player with the most points determines which event you are in, but then you can use the average to determine your stratum. It took a few examples for me to fully understand this one.
We also had full board policy discussions on technology, marketing and NABC site selection.
I look forward to seeing many of you at the St. Louis and Fort Wayne regionals. I have had to learn to play bridge on the internet since the boys arrived and I look forward to five days of live bridge. See you soon,
-- 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.