From the Unit President

As the newly elected President of Unit 208, many of our members have reached out to me to offer congratulations and share thoughts and ideas on what they would like to see from our unit. What motivates these players in our unit to share thoughts? I simply think they care. They care about their local clubs and they care about bridge thriving and growing in Central Illinois.

Our players’ caring is demonstrated in different ways. They operate local clubs, teach bridge, serve on boards, run tournaments, prepare food or set up tables for a game. In every corner of our unit,  someone is volunteering their time to perform some task vital to our success. 

Note that the operative word here is volunteering. And what do they ask in return?A common thread in many of the ideas I hear is that we need better communication. I’m told by members of our unit they don’t always know about local tournaments or special games that are scheduled. So, while many events are on the ACBL site, we want to make it even easier for our players to find out what is going on in our Unit.

That's why we've introduced a new web site: www.Unit208.org. Here, you'll find contact information for our Unit 208 Representatives so you can send in questions or issues. We also plan to provide minutes of Unit 208 Board meetings to keep you abreast of unit news. And we will always have details of our upcoming tournaments so you can make plans to attend. 

My hope is that you will continue to share your ideas, as well as learn more about Unit 208. Together we can ensure that duplicate bridge continues strong in Central Illinois.

     - Carole Sholes, Springfield IL

Silver Point Stars

Many of our Central Illinois players had big successes in the Fall Silver Point Sectional, held at local clubs the week of November 1. Congratulations to these players who placed in the the top 100 of the 1319 masterpoint winners in District 8:

17.74   Zach Freehill, Bloomington IL

14.31   Ann Caparros, Springfield IL

13.92   Larry Wilcox, Springfield IL

13.09   JoAnn Schroeder, Normal IL

13.00   Shirley Logan, Springfield IL

12.91   Audrey Danocup, Huntley IL

12.84   Ned Horton, Champaign IL

12.84   Brian Maloney, Mahomet IL

12.09   Liz Zalar, Springfield IL

11.15   Cindy Moore, Bloomington IL

10.92   Leonard Kaufman, Peoria IL

10.19   Dave Freehill, Bloomington IL

10.17   Donna Kaufman, Peoria IL

 9.84   John Goring, Frankfort IL

 9.83   Ray Russ, Henry IL

 9.73   Steve Babin, Normal IL

 9.17   Eunice Patton, Bloomington IL

 9.04   Hank Hoffman, Bloomington IL

 8.33   Patrick Moos, Peoria IL

 8.27   Sandy Stults, Springfield IL

 7.87   John Millar, Galesburg IL

 7.87   Bill Tracy, Galesburg IL

The next Silver Point Sectional is coming up the week of February 4, 2013. Details are here. Check with your local club manager for details on the special games in your area.

North American Pairs

Congratulations to everyone who played in the District 8 North American Pair finals in Springfield in November. Central Illinois pairs took six of the nine qualifying spots for the national finals in St. Louis in March. Congratulations and good luck to:

C2 - Jerry Oswald, Bloomington & Lane O'Connor, Towanda

C3 - Aravind Alwan, Champaign & Milt Epstein, Urbana

 B1 - Bernard Riley, Pekin & Mary Allen, Peoria  

 B2 - Bob Shair & Gary Dell, Champaign

 B3 - Terry Goodykoontz, Champaign  & Michael Ring, Bothell WA

A1 - Mark Kessler, Springfield & Colby Vernay, Lacon

Movin' Up 

   Congratulations to these Unit members who recently advanced in rank: