District 8 President's Report
District 8 President's Report
Have you noticed it is regional tournament time in District 8 as well as districts across these United States? I recently returned from the Illini Regional in Champaign IL. If you haven’t played in this tournament, mark your calendar for next year – you won’t be disappointed. Within the coming weeks, we have four more District 8 regionals coming up. Watch for them.
I want to take a few minutes to discuss tournaments – both sectionals and regionals. Within District 8, we have five Units. The District is granted by ACBL to hold four regional tournaments. In order for each unit to have their own regional, Crystal Lake IL and Paducah KY hold a split regional during the same week. Thus, the regionals are Champaign IL, Crystal Lake IL/Paducah KY, Fort Wayne IN and St. Louis MO. A unit may hold as many sectional tournaments as they want.
All tournaments are put together by volunteers and are a mountain of work. It’s becoming more difficult to find playing spaces at a cost that allows us to keep the price of entry fees to a minimum. Before the tournament is when 90 percent of the work is done. Each detail has to be covered. The bridge player never sees all the work that takes place. Once the space is locked in, the chairman completes an ACBL form to request the dates to make certain we aren’t conflicting with other nearby tournaments. Next comes the planning of a playing schedule that will draw as many players as possible, then submitting it to ACBL for approval at least six months before the event. The District 8 Board of Directors also approves regional schedules. Then there's all the planning for hospitality, directors, host hotel, partnerships, prizes, ads and flyers and other promotions ... and the list goes on. Until you open the door, the chairman has no idea how many players will attend.
The bottom line is that you don’t want to take any tournament for granted. Someone is doing a tremendous amount of work so you can enjoy the game of duplicate bridge. When you can, give that person a big “thanks”. They are doing it only for the love of the game. Volunteer to help out. Support your tournaments!
Lastly, when your unit is holding a tournament, you can appreciate why all local club games should be canceled on those days. This is especially true for regionals. By closing, the clubs show strong support for the unit and encourage players to play in the tournament. It’s a courtesy. Club games wouldn’t be successful if there weren’t tournaments, and tournaments wouldn’t be successful if there weren’t weekly club games. They need each other.
The next District 8 tournament is the split regional on June 20-26 in Crystal Lake IL and Paducah KY (Metropolis IL). Plan to attend one of them and watch the Advocate for other upcoming tournament dates.