ACBL Director's Report
ACBL Director's ReportIt was so nice to see so many of you in St. Louis at the Spring NABC. Part of my morning ritual at an NABC is to read the Daily Bulletin and look for names I know in the results. There were so many District 8 members doing so well, in the national, regional and intermediate/novice events. Mike Carmen, tournament co-chair, received a special award at the Goodwill reception. And everyone was telling me how wonderful the tournament was. They especially liked the playing sites, the after-game entertainment and food (I was told many times how it was the best food from any NABC), and the large number of close, reasonably-priced, good restaurants.
Attendance dropped off a bit on the final weekend, which was attributed to the snowstorm. I can understand people’s reluctance to come that weekend – it took me 5 hours to drive 100 miles going home Sunday night! I played bridge for nine of the ten days and remembered how much I love the game and why I got involved in the governance part. It was just sheer joy getting to play bridge for nine days, even when I didn’t do well.
Membership recruitment has obviously been going well. District 8 used to have the smallest population of any ACBL district by about 100 members. Now it has about 200 more than the smallest populated district. There are two or three more within reach.
The meetings included many discussions about issues as well as motions to be decided. I led the discussion on redistricting. I repeated our district board’s position that we have no objection to a totally new system, but we do object to some smaller districts being divided up and tacked onto other districts. The proponent of redistricting thought it was unfair to the enormous districts that they receive the same number of representatives in the GNTs and NAPS as districts only a fraction of their size, and the same representation on the national board of directors. Interestingly, the director from the largest district (Florida) said her district was fine with things as they are. Major concerns against redistricting were destroying volunteer networks that work well and the legal restrictions on divvying up the assets of the existing (not-for-profit) organizations. The final decision was to leave things as they are.
On to motions:
There were changes made to the Super Chart and Mid-Chart regarding allowable
conventions. Various changes were made regarding opening weak two bids showing
two suits in the Mid-Chart and the Super Chart now allows opening one bids that
could show fewer than 8 HCP in third and fourth seat. No action was taken on
adding additional 0-10,000 NABC games. The initial one was held in St. Louis, a
Swiss team event. Approximately 80 teams entered and all of the comments I heard
from the participants were favorable. However, total table count did not
increase. (A team from Peoria finished in the overalls of this event and one of
its members made Life Master with the points won.) The issue of these events
will be brought back up this summer.
Last meeting’s motion regarding mandatory ACBL membership to play in tournaments was amended and passed. This restriction was only extended to NABC events (it already applied to NABC+ events), but the surcharges for non-members or non-dues paying life members were increased. The surcharges do not apply to events for players with no more than 20 masterpoints or to charity games.
Probably the most significant motion passed was the one increasing the minimum age for senior events to 60. The motion includes a grandfathering clause allowing anyone who is 55 by December 31, 2013 to remain eligible to play in senior events. I moved to amend the motion to remove the grandfather clause but my motion to amend was soundly defeated.
If you carefully read the official minutes of the meeting, you will see I voted against item 131-57. This authorized the 10K Swiss team event described above. My objection to the motion was that it only authorized the event for one year with an option for a second year. I believe any new event should be given three years before deciding if it is viable or not. I hope they decide to give it a second year, especially after 80 teams entered this year. The downside is that total attendance during the event did not increase above predictions made before the event was added.
The final motion I want to share is the one amending the motion previously passed not allowing playing directors to receive overall STAC masterpoints awards. This is now a district option. If a district wants to allow playing directors to win overall masterpoints in a STAC game, they may waive this restriction so long as they note it on the sanction application submitted to ACBL headquarters.
And now on to my passion, the GRAND NATIONAL TEAMS. The district final is May 4-5, 2013 at the Eagles Club in Springfield. Please let me know if you plan on coming, but reservations are not required. Please notify me at gkheth@hotmail.com or(573) 999-5969. I have a problem with the voicemail on my home phone so please use this new phone number. You can text me at this number, too.
I hope to see some new faces at the District Final.
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.