AMERICAN CONTRACT BRIDGE LEAGUE 6575 Windchase Blvd. Horn Lake MS 38637-1523 www.acbl.org Spring Edition • May, 2013 NEWS Inside ... Top 50 Clubs ..................2 Best Practices ................3 Special Events ............ 4-5 Recommended Discipline Procedures in Clubs........6 Updates from the Board in St. Louis ......................7 Dear Club Manager, ♦ It’s not too late to register your club for The Longest Day on June 21, 2013. More than 100 clubs have already registered to participate. You will be holding games to raise funds that fuel the care, support and research efforts of the Alzheimer’s Association. Click here https://thelongestday.alz.org/home/national/1 to get started. Once you register, you will receive emails through the Alzheimer’s Association website to guide you to success. ♥ ACBL is pleased to announce the hiring of Alexandra “Alex” Turner as our Director of Marketing and Communications. I hope you can attend the reception for Club Officials and Teachers at the Atlanta Summer NABC so you can meet Alex and welcome her to ACBL. Join us on Friday, Aug. 2 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. For a complete listing of programs, schedules and contact information in Atlanta, visit our website at www.acbl.org and click on the Atlanta NABC logo on the right hand side of the page. ♣ Remember, the amnesty program for lapsed members runs through June 30, 2013. Upon payment of membership dues or services, all masterpoints earned during the lapsed membership period will be credited to the member’s record at no additional charge. Director of Club and Member Services Follow us on American Contract Bridge League and @ACBLbridge Club Managers A NEWSLETTER FOR NAP – North American Pairs The NAP event has been a major ACBL pair championship since 1979 and was originally known as the Grand National Pairs. This grassroots event is staged in qualifying rounds at the club, unit and district levels. It culminates in a final held in conjunction with the Spring NABC, which will be held in Dallas, TX in March 2014. The contest is run as a flighted event: Flight A (Open), Flight B (fewer than 2000 masterpoints) and Flight C (Non-Life Master with fewer than 500 masterpoints). Flight eligibility is determined by the June 2013 masterpoint cycle, which was run on May 6, 2013. Any points earned after the June masterpoint cycle does not affect flight eligibility. Clubs can hold two NAP games per sanctioned session during each of the months of June, July and August. Masterpoint awards are sectional rated half red/half black. Fees are $4.00 per table. There is no registration required, just choose the game in ACBLscore, DBADD to include with your club’s month end report. Click here (http://web2.acbl.org/documentlibrary/play/NAP20132014/Club_Information. pdf) for all the information you need to hold NAP games at your club.
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AMERICAN CONTRACT BRIDGE LEAGUE
6575 Windchase Blvd.Horn Lake MS 38637-1523
www.acbl.org
Spring Edition • May, 2013
News Inside ...
Top 50 Clubs ..................2
Best Practices ................3
Special Events ............ 4-5
Recommended Discipline Procedures in Clubs........6
Updates from the Board in St. Louis ......................7
Dear Club Manager,♦ It’s not too late to register your club for The Longest Day
on June 21, 2013. More than 100 clubs have already registered to participate. You will be holding games to raise funds that fuel the care, support and research efforts of the Alzheimer’s Association. Click
here https://thelongestday.alz.org/home/national/1 to get started. Once you register, you will receive emails through the Alzheimer’s Association website to guide you to success.
♥ ACBL is pleased to announce the hiring of Alexandra “Alex” Turner as our Director of Marketing and Communications. I hope you can attend the reception for Club Officials and Teachers at the Atlanta Summer NABC so you can meet Alex and welcome her to ACBL. Join us on Friday, Aug. 2 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. For a complete listing of programs, schedules and contact information in Atlanta, visit our website at www.acbl.org and click on the Atlanta NABC logo on the right hand side of the page.
♣ Remember, the amnesty program for lapsed members runs through June 30, 2013. Upon payment of membership dues or services, all masterpoints earned during the lapsed membership period will be credited to the member’s record at no additional charge.
Director of Club and Member Services
Follow us on American Contract Bridge League and @ACBLbridge
Club Managersa N e w s l e t t e r f o r
NAP – North American PairsThe NAP event has been a major ACBL pair championship since 1979 and was originally known as the Grand National Pairs. This grassroots event is staged in qualifying rounds at the club, unit and district levels. It culminates in a final held in conjunction with the Spring NABC, which will be held in Dallas, TX in March 2014. The contest is run as a flighted event: Flight A (Open), Flight B (fewer than 2000 masterpoints) and Flight C (Non-Life Master with fewer than 500 masterpoints). Flight eligibility is determined by the June 2013 masterpoint cycle, which was run on May 6, 2013. Any points earned after the June masterpoint cycle does not affect flight eligibility.
Clubs can hold two NAP games per sanctioned session during each of the months of June, July and August. Masterpoint awards are sectional rated half red/half black. Fees are $4.00 per table. There is no registration required, just choose the game in ACBLscore, DBADD to include with your club’s month end report.
Click here (http://web2.acbl.org/documentlibrary/play/NAP20132014/Club_Information.pdf) for all the information you need to hold NAP games at your club.
22. Indianapolis Bridge Center Inc., Indiana 7,379.0
23. Beverly Hills Bridge Club, California 7,357.0
24. Le Mirage Club de Bridge, Quebec 7,173.5
25. Houston Bridge Studio, Texas 7,162.5
Club Name, State/Province #Tables
26. The Bridge Spot, Massachusetts 7,069.0
27. The Village Card Club Inc., Arkansas 7,034.0
28. Duke City Bridge Club, New Mexico 6,964.0
29. AZ Bridgeworks, Arizona 6,901.0
30. Pompano Beach DBC, Florida 6,894.5
31. Vanderbilt BC of Nashville, Tennessee 6,873.5
32. DOTYBRIDGE-Scottsdale, Arizona 6,814.5
33. Glen Rock Bridge Center, New Jersey 6,684.0
34. Hartford Bridge Club, Connecticut 6,667.0
35. Hollywood Bridge Club, Florida 6,363.0
36. Hilton Head Island BC, South Carolina 6,313.5
37. R. A. DBC, Ontario 6,313.5
38. Twin City Bridge Center Inc., Minnesota 6,295.5
39. Win "The Bridge Club", Florida 6,254.0
40. Bridge Centre of Niagara, Ontario 6,238.0
41. Bonita Bridge at Wiggins, Florida 6,137.0
42. The Bridge Connection, Michigan 6,044.5
43. Bridge Club of Baltimore, Maryland 6,038.0
44. Cove Community BC, California 5,903.5
45. Hazel's Bridge Club, Ontario 5,894.5
46. Omaha Bridge Studio, Nebraska 5,891.0
47. Bridge Center of Austin, Texas 5,888.0
48. Saskatoon BC, Saskatchewan 5,867.0
49. Bridge Center, California 5,865.0
50. Toronto Bridge Club, Ontario 5,734.5
2012 Table Count for Online Clubs1. Bridge Base Online 747,870.0
2. OKbridge Inc. 143,498.0
3. Swan Games Online BC 14,522.0
♣3ACBL — Club Managers Newsletter Spring Edition • May 2013
In the 2013 Winter edition of the Club Managers newsletter we asked you to share your “Best Practices.” Here are a couple of ideas from Brian Potter of North Carolina and Tom Coyle of Ohio. Thanks for sharing!
From Laurinburg, NCBridge at the Village is a very small open club. We meet once a week and usually have four to five tables. A retirement community hosts us as a residents’ club/activity (no rent). Many of our players have difficulties handling the cards because their hands do not work as well as they did 40 to 60 years ago.
Recommended best practice: We have pre-dealt computer hands with hand records every week. We get zero complaints about the computer-dealt hands. Until other commitments forced me to ask the players to make boards for shuffle and play, our players never knew another way to play duplicate bridge. Now, appreciation for pre-dealt boards is even higher.
Half a dozen hand records are plenty, but the few folks who want them really appreciate them. This vocal minority hates shuffle and play because there is no hand record for them.
This notion clearly will not fly everywhere, but I strongly recommend considering it for new duplicate clubs forming to serve retirement communities where many players will be experienced rubber bridge players. For many of them, the “you do not have to shuffle” feature will not be a small consideration.
Do not worry if many participants are purely social players with no desire to join the ACBL or play tournaments. My club’s ACBL membership proportion is growing slowly but steadily. Several of the players who want those hand records have begun playing I/N games at nearby tournaments, and we hosted a sectional early in our third year. It was a much-enjoyed and exciting money loser this year, but we’re doing it again next year. The retirement community management looked at the losses and said to themselves that they got more than 50 prospects to see the facility for less than $20 a person – an amazing marketing bargain.
Here’s an idea from my club members: They collect old hands from newspapers, magazines and books so that there’s an analysis to study.
Players with collections take turns building a set of boards with the lesson deals. Then, others play the lesson
deals with follow-ups comparing reality with the lesson. These weekly sessions may have only one or two tables. Sometimes, a hand will have spent so much time in the archives that I’ll be asked to comment on how modern methods would suggest treating the hand. Bidding may have changed quite a lot, but best play (except on deals where either restricted choice or theory of empty spaces influences the analysis) rarely differs.
Brian Potter, Club Manager and DirectorBridge at the Village, Laurinburg NC
From Dayton, OHI run some special games at the Friday session I direct at MVBA Bridge Center in Dayton. Here are some you might want to try.
1. Beat the Pros. Select a “pro” pair. Give a free play to the pair(s) who finish with a higher percentage game than the pros. Warning: This may be hazardous to the financial health of the Director. Even pros can have a bad day.
2. “Beer Card” Game. Offer a free play (maximum one per player per session) to any player who wins the 13th trick with the diamond 7 (diamonds may not be trumps). Further stipulations: (1) declarer who wins trick 13 with the beer card must have made his contract and (2) a defender who wins trick 13 with the beer card must have defeated the contract.
3. Exacta Box Game. Based on horse racing. Give all players a betting slip at the start of the game. Each player may then select/predict the two pairs in the game who will finish first and second.
The order of the finish does not matter so long as the two selected pairs are first-second. Those with correct selections receive free plays. This sounds easy, but in practice it is much tougher than hitting the exacta in a eight- or 10-horse field at the track.
These special games do create interest and provide some fun for the players.
Tom Coyle, Club Manager and Director MVBA Bridge Center
♣4ACBL — Club Managers Newsletter Spring Edition • May 2013
ACBLscore It’s very important to keep ACBLscore updated in your computer. Changes are made periodically that involve ACBL-wide games and require the most recent updated version for setting the game up. To update your ACBLscore program, please click here (http://www.acbl.org/acblscore/specificationsDownloads.html)
Longest DayJune 21, 2013The Longest Day is a sunrise-to-sunset event to raise funds to support the efforts of the Alzheimer’s Association and will be held on June 21, the longest day of the year.
All clubs may hold games from 12:01 a.m. through 11:59 p.m. on June 21. Games may be regular length games (18+ boards) or short games (12-17 boards). Both games award 70% sectional-rated black points. Table fees included on your club’s June month end report will be $4.74 for regular length games and $3.46 for short games. All table fees from the Longest Day games will be submitted to the Alzheimer’s Association by the ACBL on behalf of our clubs and Members.
The newest version of ACBLscore is required and can be downloaded here. (http://www.acbl.org/play/thelongestday/scoring.pdf) Detailed game setup instructions can be found on the same page.
If you would like to register for the Longest Day, please click here. (http://www.acbl.org/play/thelongestday/)
ACBL-wide International Fund Game # 3July 26, 2013Help support North Americans in international bridge competition. On Friday evening, July 26, bridge clubs across ACBL will host the third of three events designed to raise funds to defray expenses of North American teams entered in international competition for World Bridge Federation titles. Masterpoint awards are half red, half black at sectional rating. In addition to masterpoints earned at clubs, there will also be ACBL-wide and district-wide awards. Printed material is sent by mail approximately four to six weeks in advance of the game. Click here (https://web.acbl.org/SpecialEvents/index.do) to sign up.
ACBL-wide Instant Matchpoint GameOctober 2, 2013The Instant Matchpoint game will be held on Wednesday evening, October 2, 2013. Masterpoint awards at the club are 1.00 gold point to section tops; the remaining points are half red, half black at sectional rating. Additional overall and district-wide awards are possible. Players can see their score instantly after each deal is completed. Game material includes analysis booklets written by national champion Larry Cohen. Fees are $11 per table. Click here (https://web.acbl.org/SpecialEvents/index.do) to sign up.
Grass Roots FUNd GameThe Grass Roots FUNd game joins the other fund/foundation games (Charity, Junior Fund, International Fund and Educational Foundation) with the same rules
♣5ACBL — Club Managers Newsletter Spring Edition • May 2013
and regulations. Funds raised will be returned annually to the individual district in which those funds were raised to help fund local Grand National Teams and North American Pairs.
Beginning in 2014, January is Grass Roots FUNd month. During the month of January, clubs may hold all sanctioned sessions as Grass Roots FUNd games. No other fund/foundation games can be held in January. Masterpoint awards are 70% sectional-rated black. Fees are regular club game fees plus $4 per table.
During the months of, March, May, June, July, August, October, November and December, clubs may choose one game per month per sanctioned session from one of the following funds:
138,859 Members won 6,021,182.41 points at any level of play 12,944 Members won 522,939.05 points at online clubs 52,162 Members won 237,578.03 points at NAP games at clubs 6,760 Members won 25,920.37 points at other NAP games 14,092 Members won 45,678.45 points at GNT games at clubs 4,000 Members won 30,179.91 points at other GNT games 134,295 Members won 2,920,245.19 points at club games 72,452 Members won 315,345.53 points at STaC games 63,946 Members won 552,715.85 points at sectionals 54,714 Members won 1,092,218.56 points at regionals 10,986 Members won 123,426.37 points at regional events at NABC 1,779 Members won 29,579.63 points at NABC events (not NABC+) 3,191 Members won 125,355.47 points at NABC+ events
1,859 Members won points at online clubs only 56,775 Members won points at face-to-face clubs only 80,225 Members won points at sectionals or higher 57,247 Members won points at regionals or higher 4,267 Members won points at NABC events only
Number of Points Won in 2012
Recommended Procedures forDiscipline of Members in Clubs
♣6ACBL — Club Managers Newsletter Winter Edition • May 2013
The following procedures for hearings at clubs are suggested,but not mandated.
RECOMMENDED PROCEDURES FOR DISCIPLINE OF MEMBERS IN CLUBS
Background. ACBL sanctioned clubs are not subject to the rules of the ACBL Code of Disciplinary Procedures, except in the instances of discrimination, ethical violation and the barring of members from playing because of high skill levels. In all cases of club discipline, no club-imposed discipline may apply to any sanctioned events other than the club.
The following are disciplinary suggestions for club managers and directors when disciplining members for actions taken at their clubs. These suggestions are not mandated by the ACBL, but are offered to assist clubs in assuring fairness to players and the club and to reduce the likelihood of a successful court action after the discipline is taken.
Notice. If a discipline, such as temporary or permanent banning of a player from the club, is taken by a club manager or director, it should be stated in writing, indicating the reason for the discipline and the length of discipline, and given to the disciplined player.
Appeal. It is recommended that the disciplined player be provided the opportunity to appeal the action, within a set number of days (suggest how many days) before an impartial hearing committee, consisting of a chair and at least two other ACBL members, appointed by the club manager or director. The club manager or director should not sit on this committee.
Challenges. The disciplined party may be allowed to present challenges to the appointment of the hearing committee members based on cause, such as bias. The hearing chair may rule on such challenges.
Recording. It is recommended that the proceedings be recorded and that the recording be maintained by the club.
Evidence. It should be explained to the disciplined party that at the hearing he or she may introduce written evidence, introduce witnesses and make a written statement on his or her behalf. Because the disciplined party is appealing the discipline, he or she should present evidence first, followed by the club representative. The chair may place the burden of proof on the disciplined party. The committee need not be bound by legal rules of evidence and should admit evidence, even hearsay, if such evidence is reliable and applies to the case at hand.
Limitation of Evidence. The chair may limit the introduction of evidence as long as such limitation does not prevent a fair process to either party.
Legal Representation. It is recommended that no attorney representing either party be allowed in the hearing room.
Decision. A written decision should be made by the committee chair and presented to the club representative and the disciplined party.
Update from the Board of Directors Meetingin St. Louis MO
Alert ChartThe following changes to the ACBL Alert Chart are effective Jan. 1, 2014.
1. A weak jump shift by advancer is not Alertable. Advancer is defined as the partner of an overcaller.
2. All 2♦ responses to a strong 2♣ opening are non-Alertable.
Convention ChartsChanges to the ACBL Mid-chart and Super Chart portions of the ACBL Convention Chart (effective Jan. 1, 2014) can be found at the following link: http://web2.acbl.org/documentLibrary/about/1301-exhibits/2013_1_StLouis_board_minutes.pdf
Membership RequirementsThe following changes to ACBL membership requirements and additional tournament fees for non-ACBL members are effective Jan. 1, 2014:
All participants of NABC+ and NABC events must be ACBL members whose membership dues or service fees are current.
Except for charity events, STACs or events limited to players with no more than 20 masterpoints the sponsoring organization will charge a mandatory additional fee of at least $4 per person per session for non-members and non-service fee paying Life Masters at regional tournaments and $3 per person at sectional tournaments. The additional fee shall be retained by the sponsoring organization.
Eight is Enough Game The Rules for Eight is Enough games are amended as follows:
Effective immediately, a club may hold an ‘Eight is Enough’ game as an open game. There must be no upper limit on the number of masterpoints allowed for “A” team members.
Senior Age Effective Jan. 1, 2014, the minimum age for ACBL-sanctioned Senior events shall be 60 years of age. Those eligible under present rules on Dec. 31, 2013, will remain eligible in subsequent years.
Playing Directors in STaCsPlaying directors in STaC games and their partners are ineligible to receive overall STaC masterpoint (silver point) awards, but are eligible to receive section awards. Effective immediately, at sponsor option, the above restriction may be waived. Such waiver shall be noted on the sanction application submitted to ACBL Headquarters.
♣7ACBL — Club Managers Newsletter Winter Edition • May 2013
