ACBL Director's Report
ACBL Director's ReportHello, All --
At the July Board of Directors meeting, a new Fund Month was created. December 2012 will be the first Grass Roots Fund Month. It will function similarly to the months that currently benefit the Junior Fund, International Fund and Charity Foundation except that all money will be returned to the District in which it was raised. These funds will be used to benefit each District's grass roots events -- Grand National Teams (GNT) and North American Pairs (NAP).
Unit officers and tournament chairmen received this announcement from ACBL:
The ACBL hereby establishes a Grass Roots Fund. The month of December is designated as “Grass Roots Fund Month.” Clubs may hold special games under the same rules and regulations applicable to other special fund months (currently benefiting the Junior and International Funds and ACBL Charity Foundation). Funds raised shall be returned annually no later than March 31 to the individual District in which those funds were raised, and shall be used by the District to help fund Grass Roots Events. Grass Roots Events are defined as the Grand National Teams and the North American Pairs. The ACBL shall not charge the Districts any fee for the cost of collecting and disbursing these funds.
The Grass Roots Fund shall be considered an additional, eligible beneficiary from regionally rated games at sectionals along with the Junior and International Funds and the ACBL Charity and Educational Foundations.
The final paragraph of this regulation allows Sectional Tournaments to hold up to two special game sessions for the benefit of the ACBL Grass Roots Fund. These games pay regionally rated silver points. For additional information about these special games for Sectional Tournaments, click http://web2.acbl.org/codification/CHAPTER%2010%20-%20Section%20c.pdf
One important thing to remember is that no other special games can be run during December. So if your club normally has a charity game in December, you will need to reschedule it to another month. When the motion was passed, December was the only month available. We know this may not be popular, but we are working on rearranging some things so it can be moved for next year.
I would strongly encourage your clubs to run these special games. Particularly look at running them at your sectionals, where for an extra dollar entry fee, you can award regionally rated silver points.
This is a great opportunity to raise money to help subsidize our GNT and third-place NAP qualifiers. We all know the $1000 per team currently awarded to the GNT winners doesn’t go very far when split four (or six) ways.