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
Pre St. Louis
March 11-14, 2013
February 18, 2013
Welcome to St. Louis,
The St. Louis meeting promises to be a very fruitful meeting. Many of the motions deal with housekeeping chores but there are several for which I am very interested in your opinions. I’ve listed the motions I believe most affect our District. Your thoughts on these motions are much appreciated. The full meeting agenda will soon be posted on the ACBL web site, http://www.acbl.org/about/bodmeetings.html .
If any of these items are of interest to you please send me your thoughts as well.
Item 131-102: Removal of Masterpoints.
A former member has requested that their masterpoint record be removed from the ACBL data base. The current practice is to maintain a temporary record of points won and also track points that are still being won when the former member participates in future events. These temporary records are used to place the past member in stratums appropriate to their masterpoint level. The former member feels this practice arbitrarily puts them to a level above their masterpoint level as they believe they should now be ranked according to the zero masterpoints they officially hold. Our management team is wanting a defined policy on this issue.
Item 131-40: ACBL International Fund Game
In San Francisco the Grass Roots committee passed a motion to have Grass Roots month moved to January. This created a conflict with the year’s 1st ACBL International Fund Game which traditionally is in January. The motion asks that the 1st International Fund Game of the year be held on the Saturday of Super Bowl. It is felt this will eliminate the conflict while moving the Fund game to a weekend that has relatively few conflicts.
Item 131-115: Online Bridge
This motion comes from the Board of Governors and asks the Board of Directors to establish a new and completely separate masterpoint system for Online bridge. By having two separate records it is felt masterpoint achievements will be more accurately reflected.
Item 131-56: Senior Age
This item requests the ACBL senior age be raised to 60. It is felt this is a more accurate reflection of our aging population. Effective date: January 1, 2014. Those players who are already 55 will be grandfathered while those who miss the effective date will have a 5 year wait.
Item 131-53: Playing Directors in STaCs.
In Philadelphia a motion was passed that allows clubs to use playing directors in STaCs. These playing directors are eligible for session awards but are ineligible for overall awards. This motion would amend the Philadelphia motion to allow the sponsor of a STaC the option of waving this restriction.
I believe this would be very beneficial for Districts like ours that have sparse populations and smaller clubs.
Item 131-52: Membership at Tournaments
This item would require all participants at tournaments to be current ACBL members. It was deferred in San Francisco. While it is desirable that all of our players are members I believe this would be harmful to smaller tournaments.
I am very interested in your thoughts on these and all the motions and as always, may all your finesses be successful.
Sincerely,
Claire Jones
District 18 Board of Directors