Inside the
Boardroom
With
Barbara Nist
Houston Spring
2002
The Houston NABC was
considered a financial success with 10,656.5 tables in play, about 800 more
than projected. While the hospitality
was excellent including a large sponsorship, and the locals worked very hard to
provide for the players, I believe that management provided a disservice to the
members with this site selection.
Why? We have been in Texas 3
times in the last 7 or so years. The
room rates at the two Westin’s were certainly no bargain at US $138 including
taxes and more at the Marriott. And,
with playing at three different sites some 8 to 10 minutes walk outside, it was
very inconvenient for many of our players.
Also, an interesting point, taxi’s refused to drive between the two
major sites because of the low fares.
The ACBL CEO had to pay $10. in order to make a timely
presentation. I’m sure some of our
infirm players paid as much or more. I
would hope that in the future we attempt to stay within our guidelines of
having one site or one site with a connected convention center. With our aging population and the number of
handicapped players, we must take a more responsible role in catering to their
needs.
Budget
In a continued effort to let
Management manage, the BOD resolved that the ACBL CEO has the authority to
direct funding authorized in the 2002 budget under Marketing and Education
areas from existing programs to new or other existing programs. Expenditures will not exceed the total
approved budget and must not include funding in those areas specifically
mandated by BOD regulations.
Elections
Box Lix, our neighbor in
District 20, was re-elected as ACBL Treasurer for another one year term.
Effective summer 2002,
elections for the office of ACBL President will be held at the Summer meeting
rather than Fall. This will allow more
time for coordination between out going and in coming Presidents.
Fall 2004 NABC
The board authorized
management to move the 2004 Fall NABC from the Orlando Peabody to the Marriott
Orlando World Center as the remodeling of the Peabody would not be completed by
Fall 2004. The Marriott will provide a
one-site tournament.
Junior Coupons
The Junior Coupon item was
revisited and the new policy for NABC’s is as follows:
Junior Coupons are restricted to ACBL members residing in Zone Two
who are either 21 years of age or younger or full-time students between 22 and
25 years of age. The ACBL BOD believes
Junior/Student coupons should be set at an affordable price to encourage junior
player participation at NABC’s. As a
guideline, Management should set Junior/Student coupons at approximately 50% of
the NABC regional entry fee. For 2002
the NABC entry fee using Junior/Student coupons will be $6. per session.
Mini-Life Masters’ Pairs
Management shall make
arrangements to add a LM to 5000 masterpoint event and a LM to 1500 masterpoint
event to the Summer NABC schedule for a two year trial. Except for the masterpoint restrictions, the
conditions of contest will be identical to the six-session Life Masters’ Pairs
that has no upper masterpoint limit.
Red Ribbon Pairs
The Red Ribbon Pairs will be
held concurrently with the NABC+ Open Pairs II (second Thursday and Friday) at
the Spring NABC starting in 2003.
Bracketed KO’s
A team or teams wishing to
play up in a Bracketed KO event shall be accommodated unless the upper bracket
is full (16 teams playing in a 4-session KO).
Tournament Director Education
Management will develop a
comprehensive education, training, and certification program for all ACBL
tournament directors. A component of
the program will be training relative to dealing with the public. The program will be developed in 2002 and
instituted in 2003. Each Director will
be required to be certified in accordance with his/her rank. The training will include a separate
certification for all tournament directors handling appeals at NABC’s.
Tournament Directors’ Assignments & Fees
The BOD reaffirms that the
then-current ACBL policies and regulations regarding tournament directors’
assignment and charges apply to all ACBL sanctioned tournaments irrespective of
the entity to which the sanction is granted.
ACBL will charge all
organizations the same fees for ACBL tournament directors as we charge for them
at the then-current ACBL rate for the tournament director that is being hired.
USBF
In response to a request from
Michael Becker, President of USBF, the BOD policy will be:
The USBF will preside over
the selection of all USA teams including Open, Women’s, Junior’s, and Senior’s,
including the instances where the Senior Team is allowed to be transnational
within Zone Two.
Any discipline imposed by the
USBF at a USBF event sanctioned by ACBL shall be referred to:
Senior Event Age Classifications
Senior events may be held
with minimum age restrictions of 55, 65
or 75. Such events may be stratified by
masterpoints. The awards will be 80%
for 55+ and 70% for both 65+ and 75+.
Any two age-limited events may be held simultaneously.
ACBL’s World Computer Bridge Championship VI
The ACBL’s annual World
Computer Bridge Championship may be held as part of the 2002 WBF’s World Bridge
Championships in Montreal.
Continent Wide Game
Overall masterpoints will be
awarded in Continent-wide Charity Games and in Continent-wide International
Fund Games that use hand records and for which National and District winners
are determined and published in the ACBL Bulletin. In addition to District overall awards, Continent-wide overall
winners will be determined and overall masterpoints awarded. Overall point awards will be red points with
amount and depth of awards as recommended by the Masterpoint Committee and
approved by the ACBL BOD.
Amnesty Program
There will be an amnesty
program provided beginning June 1, 2002 and ending December 31, 2002. Special rates for multi-year memberships will
be available. The program applies to
anyone, except new members whose
membership has lapsed or whose service fees haven’t been paid for at least 12
months. Any pertinent reinstatement
fees are waived.
Teacher Subsidy
The BOD elected to remove the
three year new membership subsidy provided to recruiters and teachers as it
wasn’t providing the benefits expected.
Management was authorized and encouraged to develop and implement a
program to subsidize teachers who need assistance in order to properly and
efficiently instruct new duplicate bridge players and students.
Club Games
Sanctioned clubs may hold
regular open games with a minimum number of boards played of 12 up to a maximum
of 17 boards. The masterpoint awards
will be 80% of the award for open games.
Sanction fees for these games are $.40 per table. The BOD suggest that a club may want to hold
two sessions in one evening to accommodate those wishing to play early and
those wishing to play later.
Barred Club Game Players
To bar a player, club
management must notify the player in writing and send a copy of the
notification to the ACBL Club Membership Department. The notification must include the player’s name and player number
and the reason for the barring.
A club may extend the barring
of a player from GNT, NAP, STaC’s, qualifying sessions of a progressive
sectional, unit or district competitions, charity games, IMP games and unit or
district-wide championships held at the club.
In such cases, the written notice to the person barred must include the
person’s right to appeal the action to the Unit Board in which the club is
located. The barred player has 30 days
from receipt of the notice to appeal to the Unit in which the barring took
place. Such written notice is required, otherwise the barring shall not be effective. The club may not impose partnership
restrictions on such players for these events unless the unit, district, or
ACBL first imposes them.
Canadian Regional
An annual permanent-site
regional is given to the appropriate Canadian district to be held in
conjunction with the Canadian Bridge Championships. The CBF is requested to present specific ideas to the ACBL BOD
for their consideration.
Duplicate Gin Rummy Report
The American Duplicate Gin
Rummy organization reported on the progress of ACBL providing record-keeping
for tracking the standings and accomplishments of their online duplicate gin
rummy membership. This
should provide substantial cash inflow with very little manpower on our part.
Appeals Committee Proposal
Mike Passell provided an
insightful report on the Appeals Committee.
It has been suggested that all Appeals Committees be eliminated at all
levels, including sectionals and regionals.
Tournament Directors and others wishing to be trained as official committee
members will be provided specialized training.
It was further suggested that the monies saved from subsidizing these
committees be put into a pool to award those directors, believed by the players
to be the most deserving, as an annual bonus.
Duplicate Bridge Laws Revision
John Wignall, WBF Chairman of
the Laws Commission, addressed the BOD.
He is seeking help from the ACBL Laws Commission with the revision of
the Laws of Duplicate Bridge.
In closing, I would like to
state that Jay Baum, our new CEO, is going to be a positive force in
revitalizing our organization. The move
to change the Tournament Director Manager to a non Tournament Director is going
to be a positive step for our organization as well as the Tournament
Directors. Brad Holtsberry has been
given a difficult task, but I also feel confident that he will do a great job
providing uniformity and quality in Tournament Directors. I wish them both good luck and promise my
support.
Looking forward to seeing you
in Penticton at the largest regional in our area. Margaret Pearce, Tournament Chairperson, has done her usual
excellent job in providing the best for our members.
As always
Barbara L. Nist
District 19 ACBL
National Director