New Life Master: Tara Mufich

Tara grew up in Belvedere IL and graduated from Belvedere High School. From there, she earned a BS Degree from South Illinois University and a Master’s Degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana Campus. With her degrees, Tara has enjoyed a variety of occupations. Her first two years of employment she worked as a personnel director for Armor Pharmaceuticals and then three years as an elementary school teacher in the Chicago Public School System.

With a start of her family, Tara and her Husband Chuck moved to Rockford. Having three young girls, Tara elected to be a stay at home mother. When her girls got older, Tara again entered the work place and was employed for five years as a program director for Good Will Industries. Her last three-career endeavors were in the field of education, the last one being a Guidance Counselor at Hononegah High School. Upon retirement in 2005, Tara still works part-time as a consultant concerned with the No Child Left Behind Act, her latest assignment being with the Rock Falls High School.

Tara’s family includes her husband Chuck, three daughters who live in Chicago, and two granddaughters. They see their daughters quite often and Tara said, “ both she and her husband make excellent baby sitters.”

Her bridge career started at age 14, when her mother began to teach Tara how to play bridge. Like many other bridge players, she started by playing “party bridge”. Tara said she switched to duplicate bridge after her retirement and her development as a bridge player was mainly through trial and error learning. Although Tara had earned all of the gold points needed to be a Life Master, for the past year the last 1.39 silver points eluded her. Finally, at the Rockford Sectional in the Sunday Swiss teams event, Tara earned the needed silver points to become a Life Master.

Tara is one of my favorite bridge partners, and the two of us both have earned all 25 needed gold points together. I remember playing with Tara in the last round in a knockout tournament at the Lake Geneva Regional. Our team’s average was 302 points and our opponents' average was over 10,000 points. In this David and Goliath match, we held our own but unfortunately, we had fewer points than our opponents. In this knockout we did earn 9.41 gold points, and found out we could compete with the “big boys” 

Tara said, “Bridge involves perseverance, and can be frustrating, challenging, but in the end is very rewarding.”  Her success, Tara attributes to the many good partners she has had and becoming a Life Master was a result of these partnerships. When Tara is not playing bridge, she usually is involved with her family, gardening, or doing volunteer work where she tutors kids. As a friend and bridge partner, I congratulate you on becoming a Life Master.

Notes from the Unit President:

Karl Dencker has indicated the unit has purchased PADS (automatic scoring machines) for qualifying clubs in the unit. He stated, “The members started using them and everyone seems to likes the convenience. The Club Directors have now found that once the game has started they haven't anything to do except catch up on their reading and answer director calls.” 

The unit paid close to $9000 for the PADS. This purchase follows the board’s philosophy of getting the money from the bridge players and giving it back to the bridge players.

District 8 North American Pairs  

Congratulations to our Unit pairs who placed overall in District 8's annual North American Pairs (NAP) finals, held on November 13 in Springfield IL.

FLIGHT A 
   2nd place: Will Engel, Freeport IL - John Startzel, Cherry Valley IL
   7^th place:  Rich Whitsitt - Jack Snyder, St. Charles IL.

FLIGHT B (0-2000)
    3^rd place: Lucille & David Jenkins, Rockford IL 
    4^th place: Doug St. John, Rockford IL - Thomas Hardy, Huntley IL

The top two pairs in each flight won travel awards to Memphis TN in March 2012 to represent District 8 in the national finals of their respective flights. The third-place pair in each flight also qualified for the national finals, but receives no ACBL travel award.

The Changing Scene

New Junior Masters:  Mary Caskey, Rockford;  Joann Burton, Sun City, Arizona;  Lynne Madden, Sugar Grove.

New Club Masters: Elaine Barnett, Elgin;  Janet Kagen, Rockford;  Kathleen Porter, Elgin;  Dorothy Stewart, Rockford.

New Sectional Masters: Ardythe Edwards, Huntley;  Daniel King, Rockford;  Curt Worden, Rockford.

New Regional Master:  Carolyn Rosene, Geneva.

New Life Masters:  David Bald, Geneva;  Tara Mufich, Rockford.

New Bronze Life Masters:  Karl Dencker, Lake in the Hills;  Jo Kohn, Schaumburg;  Paul Thuma, Woodstock;  David Bald, Geneva.

New Silver Life Masters:  Francis Buhler, Rockford;  Wynn Cook, Aurora;

Unit 239 Tournaments

Snow Flake Sectional:  Jan 6 - 8, 2012 at the Holiday Inn in Elgin. Address is 495 Airport Rd -- from I-90, take exit 31 north. Hotel is 3 blocks north on the right side.
     Phone 847-488-9000 for guaranteed $79 rate.
     Partnerships: Bob Quintin 630-770-8499 or rq4mulae@hotmail.com -

Early Spring Sectional: March 9 - 11, 2012 at the Holiday Inn in Elgin.