ACBL President's Report
ACBL President's ReportDear members of District 8:
I have been noticeably absent from the Advocate for the past year or so, and I apologize for that.
Last year was an interesting time to be president of the ACBL Board of Directors. The ACBL had to change how it did business and so did the Board. Necessity forced me to learn how to run meetings online. Juggling phone calls, texts and emails from the meeting participants while controlling the queue of people who want to speak is an art. But the Board and I have learned how to make the meetings effective.
Board activities: One of the changes I instituted was the frequent use of special meetings. In my first 17 years on the Board, there was only one special meeting and that involved hiring a new CEO. I think we had about ten special meetings last year and we have already had two this year. We just couldn’t wait four months between meetings last year, and I found single-topic special meetings an effective and efficient way to handle important issues. Some examples of single-topic meetings are discussing how to best use online bridge, the marketing plan, IT changes and developments, and formation of the Online Ethical Oversight Committee. We usually had a few minor things to handle as well, but the majority of the meeting was spent on one topic.
A second term: About halfway through the year, I realized how much information I had in my head that could not be easily transferred to a new president in 2021 and the negative effect it would have on management to bring a new President up to date. That is why I decided to run for president again. A majority of the Board agreed with me. Board regulations did not prevent a second term, although it had never been done. Based on my experience, I believe the president’s term should be two or three years. An attempt to do this several years ago failed, but I think the issue should be revisited.
Here are some interesting facts:
The current District 8 has had only three directors on the Board --
Ruth McConnell, Glenn Smith and myself. All three of us served as ACBL
president. Ruth and I both represented the ACBL on the World Bridge Federation
executive council, and both of us served as officers there. I think that is a
pretty good history for what is frequently referred to as the smallest district
in the ACBL.
St. Louis and other national tournaments (NABCs): The NABCs have taken up much time for management, even though we have canceled four in a row. The contracts for those tournaments had us facing a potential liability in excess of $1 million each. So far, we have avoided these liabilities while still canceling the tournaments. We did have some prepaid expenses for the tournaments but these were nominal in comparison to the potential cancellation liabilities.
We had to agree to rebook in St. Louis to avoid any penalties, but St. Louis is a great place to hold an NABC. Work on the contracts for the next St. Louis NABC is being completed at this time. It is planned for spring of 2026 but we have to wait for the contracts to be signed before we know for sure. Other sites that have been canceled will be considered for future NABCs as well.
Returning to face-to-face bridge: We hope that the COVID situation will allow us to resume face-to-face tournaments later this year. Unfortunately, bridge tournaments are the definition of a super-spreader event and most of our members are in the group most likely to have more severe illnesses if infected. Decisions are being made with the safety of our members and staff at the forefront.
I think the two biggest issues facing the ACBL this year both involve the resumption of face-to-face bridge. I think clubs will be most able to easily handle this, as they will know the local conditions and make the appropriate decisions based on those conditions. Tournaments create many more problems. People travel to tournaments. They may come from areas where COVID is not as controlled as it is at the tournament site.
We are working on making tournaments safer. Besides obvious measures such as masks and other physical ways to control the spread of the virus, we are working on a pre-registration program so players don’t have to stand in line to buy entries. This is in the early stages, but if successful, we hope to make it available for sectionals and regionals as well, not just for NABCs.
Financial risks for tournaments: The other big issue I see is the financial risk to units and districts of resuming tournaments. The fees they face when canceling tournaments are clear but most have been successful in minimizing these. On the other hand, they face financial risk in running tournaments. Most tournaments need to have a minimum number of tables to break even. Failure to meet room blocks can be very costly.
I have asked the tournament coordinators from Districts 6 and 22 to be the chair and vice chair of a work group which will work on sharing information the ACBL has with the districts and units. They also plan on holding meetings with district and unit officials to get information and best practices from them which can be shared. I hope this helps.
While I seem to have concentrated on problems, I am very optimistic about our future. If we could figure out to have online club play in less than a month, I think we can find a successful path for the future. We have excellent, hard-working employees. Trying to plan for the future while constantly fighting fires has really put them to the test. I believe they will pass this test with flying colors.
I look forward to the day when we can again meet face to
face.
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.