ACBL Director's Report
ACBL Director's ReportDear District 8 members,
It is with great sadness that I learned of Glenn Smith’s death. He was the District 8 representative of the ACBL Board of Directors (BOD) from 1994-2002. He was an anomaly in the world of bridge governance in that he started at the top – he did not serve on his unit or district board before being elected to the ACBL Board, and so far as I know, the only tournament volunteer work he did was to co-chair several NABCs. He became a friend and a bridge partner to me after he was elected to the BOD. He gave me the best introduction to the BOD when I succeeded him that I know of, and I have asked most of my fellow members. His wife Margie made it possible for him to overcome his physical inconveniences and continue in the bridge world. Our thanks and sympathy go out to her now.
Another St. Louis NABC: St. Louis was awarded the Spring 2021 NABC. It is great that we are considered a desirable site. Not only do we have a great physical site for the tournament and reasonable prices, but we have great volunteers to get the work done!
National award for Dencker: Karl Dencker, past-president of the District 9 Board of Directors, was named the 2014 Aileen Osofsky Goodwill Member of the Year. He will be honored at the Goodwill Reception at the Dallas Spring NABC next month. We are very proud of him, and of his friends who gathered the testimonials in support of the nomination that resulted in Karl winning this award. Sandy DeMartino, president of the Goodwill Committee, was particularly impressed that Karl sent out thank you notes to new attendees to the regional he runs.
World
Mindsports Games: I was lucky enough to be invited
to attend the World MindSports Games in Beijing in December. The best part was
getting to go to a Chinese high school and play bridge with some of the
students. The boy on the left in the photo was my partner; the
boy on the right was one of our opponents. They had four hands premade for us to
play but we reshuffled and played two more before they called time. My partner
played very well.
Grand National Teams: It is time to be thinking about the Grand National Teams. The District Finals are in Springfield IL the last weekend in April. It is time to be forming your teams and sending me your reservations. You can email me at gkheth@hotmail.com or text or leave me a voicemail at (573) 999-5969.
Please encourage your friends who are eligible for flight C to participate. They are not as familiar with the event and may not know how much fun it is. Some of them are afraid of it being a two -ay event, but it is only a two-day event for people who get as far as the semifinals or finals. It is only two sessions if four or fewer teams enter a flight, three sessions if 5 to 8 teams enter, and only becomes four sessions if nine or more teams enter a flight.
It is my goal (or dream) to have at least 12 teams in flight C. Our participation in the other flights is reasonable, but Flight C needs to grow. Please remember that the flights have changed. Flight A is now 0 to 6000 masterpoints and Flight B is 0 to 2500 masterpoints.
Fall Board meetings: I am sorry I did not have time to meet the deadline for the December Advocate with the details of the November meeting of the Board of Directors. Here are some of the highlights.
A Youth Protection and Abuse Prevention Policy was passed. Management has already started instituting it to staff. It will be distributed to the Districts and Units as well. Anyone employed by the ACBL or contracting with the ACBL and having contact with minors will be required to abide by it. The provisions seem quite strict but the policy was developed by consulting with experts in the field and reviewing best practices. We did make some slight changes to exempt lawful behavior by parents. As some of the more cynical of you may have already realized, this policy will not only protect our youth but our organization and our volunteers.
Dues will go up by $2 per year starting April 1, 2014. This is a good reason to do a multi-year renewal before then. Dues for Junior and Patron members are not affected.
A motion proposing that the BOD create a Club Committee was defeated. This was because management is forming just such a committee.
The Code of Disciplinary Regulations was amended to define a “Unit-Sponsored Club” and to extend the original jurisdiction of units, districts and the ACBL to behavior at Unit-Sponsored Clubs. It was felt that it was appropriate to do this since the Unit was running the club. I think this is the best argument against unit-sponsored clubs that I have ever heard. I know of no-unit sponsored clubs in District 8.
The full minutes of the minutes are available on the ACBL website.
See you at the tables,
-- Georgia