AMERICAN CONTRACT BRIDGE LEAGUE
6575 Windchase Blvd. Horn Lake, MS. 38637
Claire Jones
District 18 Director
(901) 332-5586
2708 Lakeview Ave FAX: (901) 398-7754
Regina, Sk. S4S 1G3
Canada
H: (306) 584-3516
F: (306) 585-1443
Email: stats@accesscomm.ca
Philadelphia, PA.
July 9-12, 2012
July 21, 2012
Greeting to Everyone,
At this time the rewriting of ACBLSCOR is undoubtedly the most important happening at our Horn Lake headquarters. With the contract signed and the first stage of the rewrite completed things are really starting to move along. In order to keep you up to date the writers have set up 3 web sites. To find full details and background on the project go to http://www.acblscoreplus.com . For a bulletin board where you can exchange ideas go to http://ideas.acblscoreplus.com . The third site is geared towards our members that have a programming background http://developer.acblscoreplus.com . This project promises to be a giant step into the future.
Another feature of the ACBL web site is the “Find a Teacher” page, http://www.acbl.org/learn/findATeacher.html . Currently there are 1743 teachers registered on this page. If you know of anyone looking for a teacher be sure to send them to this page. I will also remind you of the “Cooperative Advertising” program. This is a great program which helps you pay for those teaching programs you are setting up, http://www.acbl.org/marketing/coopAdvertising.html .
When contacting Horn Lake you may have encountered a few new faces. Bruce Knoll has been hired as the Director of Information and Technology and Bryan Delf is the new Education Manager. We still have 3 positions open 1) Director of Marketing Communications, 2) Marketing assistant, 3) Assistant to the Recorder. If you know of any candidates or are one yourself be sure to contact human resources at Horn Lake.
Here are highlights of some of the motions passed in Philadelphia. Remember that if you want to see the complete Philadelphia minutes they will be posted in the ACBL web site in early August, http://www.acbl.org/about/bodmeetings.html .
Item 122-27: Unit Team Games
If your Unit has been running extended team games a provision was added to enable the use of a 7th or 8th member on teams. These team members are not eligible for over-all awards but it was felt that the extended nature of these events needed special consideration.
CARRIED: Unanimous
Item: 122-30: NAP/GNT Residency Guidelines
In the past it was not specified that players being augmented had to meet the residency requirements of the Districts. The addition now specifies that all players being augmented have to meet the original residency requirements of all Districts.
CARRIED: Unanimous
Item 122-55: Establish and Define Purposes of the Grass Roots Fund
NAP’s and particularly GNT’s are events that need to be stimulated. The month of December is now designated as “Grass Roots Fund Month”. Clubs are now able to hold special games during December and the extra money charged for these special games will go specifically to these events. All moneys raised are returned to the respective Districts to be used for promotion of the events.
CARRIED: 23-1-1 , I voted in favor.
Item 122-58: Unit 390 bylaw Waiver
The Calgary Unit had request a waiver for their new bylaws. The ACBL suggests that Units state their objectives when writing bylaws. Doing this created problems for the Unit when they had applied for recognition under the Alberta government’s Society provisions. As stating objectives is not a specified requirement for Units it was felt this bylaw waiver did not create any specific concerns for the League.
CARRIED: Unanimous
Item: 122-80: Masterpoints
This motion would have required all sanctioned games issuing masterpoints to follow the laws of duplicate bridge. It was specifically aimed at robot games which allow the one human player to always have the best hand at the table. In March this motion was tabled and sent to the Laws Commission. The Laws Commission’s opinion was that while robot games did contravene the letter of the law they were still in fact a test of bridge skill. They stated it was not in there realm to sanction the games and sent it back to the Board od Directors. The majority of the Board felt robot games serviced many members and passing the motion would not be in the best interest of all members.
FAILED: I voted against the motion.
Item 122-81: Strength of Field Formula.
This certainly was the most controversial item on our agenda. As stated previously I had co-sponsored a motion to have this motion tabled until a complete study of masterpoint problems was completed. Prior to our Philadelphia meeting the tournament directors issued a report which expressed many concerns over the implications of implementing the proposed formula. Combining my concerns with this information I decided to withdraw my motion and vote against the SoF proposal. The proposal was voted down and an action item has been sent to management to conduct a thorough study of perceived masterpoint problem with a list of possible solutions to correct any problems found.
FAILED: I voted against the motion.
Please don’t hesitate to write with all your questions and concerns.
As always, may all your finesses be successful,
Claire Jones
District 18 Board of Directors