Board of Directors Meeting

March 7-10, 2016

Reno, Nevada

In terms of changes or new business the Reno meetings were relatively uneventful. I will point out a few points but if you are looking for the complete details please check the meeting minutes listed on our district web site.

Reno 2016 Draft Minutes

To begin I would like to congratulation Jan Anderson of Regina. Jan was elected as the Aileen Osofsky Goodwill member for Western Canada. Please contact Jan with any questions you may have about nominations regarding goodwill recognition. On a personal note I was elected as the treasurer for the Board of Directors. I would like to say I am in control of the finances for the ACBL but the position is far less prestigious then that. As Board of Director treasurer I will be overseeing and approving expenses for the 25 Board members over the next year. It is nice to be recognized with that trust by the other 24 Board of Directors.

One of the most significant Reno motions involved the creation of an Anti-Cheating commission. I would like to say this isn’t a problem in District 18 and the commission will be mainly involved with security at our National events. A positive offshoot of the new commission will be an improved line of communication should any concerns come up around the District. The impetus of forming the commission was the high profile cases involving the Italian pair of Fantoni and Nunes and the Israeli pair of Fisher and Schwartz. If you aren’t up on these cases there was a detailed accounting of those and other famous bridge scandals in a recent article published by Vanity Fair . If you are interested in this here is link to the entire article.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/02/competitive-bridge-cheating-scandal

One motion that may have an effect on District 18 is the fazing out of the Cooperative Advertising program. With the expanded use of cheaper internet sources we are becoming less reliant on traditional advertising. This year the ACBL’s participation in this program will be reduced from 75% to 50%. The ultimate goal is to completely eliminate the program and replace it with more cost effective social media programs.

For a number of years the ACBL has retained the services of Peter Rank as league counsel. Peter is giving up his law practice in July and the ACBL is taking a new course for its legal services. The position of In-house counsel is being created and the search for a suitable applicant has begun. If you know of any candidates who may be interested in this position have them contact the newly created search committee.

The summer calendar looks exciting and I am hoping to see you at one of the various tournaments around the District. If you haven’t already seen the Idaho Falls Regional was forced to change its dates due to hotel contract difficulties. Our 1^st Regional of the year is to be held in Lethbridge, Alberta, May 9-15, with Idaho Falls following on June 6-12.

As always, all the best to you with your bridge endeavours and may all your finesses be successful.

Claire Jones

District 18 Board of Directors

(306) 584-3516