MATT SMITH: Field Supervisor, Districts 18, 19, and 20

The field supervisor position is responsible for administering tournament director functions in a given area (hiring, staffing tournaments, evaluating and promoting directors etc.). Matt's area includes D18, D19, and D20. As he puts it: "I'm doing the same job Roger did so well for the last ten years or so. So far, as best I can tell it involves a lot of putting out small fires and a lot of paperwork!" Roger Putnam remains the D19 tournament coordinator

Matt Smith was born in Victoria in 1957 and began playing bridge in 1971. He started playing at my father Paul's bridge club in Victoria. Both of his parents (Paul and Joan, both now deceased), his brother Duncan, and his wife Vicky are life masters and most of Matt's siblings (three brothers and three sisters) have played at various times.Matt became a LM in 1983. He attended UVIC for three years but left "temporarily" (history and political science) to run a local bridge club starting in 1981. Temporary became permanent. Matt started working part-time as a tournament director in 1983, becoming fulltime in 1995 when he gave up the bridge club. He became an associate national TD in 1999 and a national earlier this year (2002). Matt has been field supervisor since April 2002.

"As I'm sure you can guess, I owe Phil Wood a debt of gratitude for getting me started in this business and for supporting and encouraging me along the way. Roger was also a big influence on me and my career." Matt tells us.

As for hobbies? "I golf (badly) and play bridge whenever I can".