District
Direction
By Ken
Monzingo
National
Board Representative
Of
all the wonderful things that happened at the just-finished Fall North American
Bridge Championships and board meetings in San Diego, memorable moments to me
were the awards and contributions of four men. First off, the ACBL has made a
great choice in naming Warren Buffet and Bill Gates jointly as the 2010 Honorary
Members of the year.
Who else
has done more to promote our image nationally?
Second, our
own Chris Larsen of Costa Mesa was chosen Goodwill Member of the Year. I was
honored to be the one to present this great man to the committee. Chris, as
always, was thankful and humble.
And last,
Eddie Kantar agreed to play a session (three matches) of Flight A Swiss Teams
with three novices from the tournaments’s I/N program; one match with each, as
the other two played as their teammates. These I/Ns - Robin Rodger and Chrissy &
Bob Fried - were selected by lot and were nervous, but thrilled.
Better yet,
after getting blitzed the first match as expected, the team actually won their
second round by nine IMPs! These three hardly even knew what a Swiss Teams event
was, but won 0.40 MPs in a Flight A event at a national tournament. Eddie
autographed his books for them (“they
were such nice people”
–Eddie) and
posed for pictures; a memorable event for everyone - including me.
ACBL Board Meetings
Sally
Pelmear, Mission Viejo, brought to my mind that a beginner game had a
requirement of ten boards to be played to award masterpoints. Timewise, this is
undoable following a morning class and preceding an afternoon open game. I filed
a motion to reduce the requirements to six boards and it carried unanimously,
25-0 - without discussion!
On other
motions presented –
I voted for ...
· The
“Mini-Spingolds” to be converted into a Bracketed KO of 32 team brackets playing
full day matches.
Motion failed.
· At
sponsor option, in club games or tournaments, the allowable number of strats in
a stratified event be increased from three to five, and that the allowable
number of flights in a flighted event be increased from three to four (or five).
Motion failed
· The
restriction “No more than 1/3 of the masterpoints that are needed to establish
ACBL status level can be from online play” is removed.
Motion failed.
· Add
a Flight A to the North American Pairs event with a masterpoint range of 0-5000.
Change the name of the flight for players over 5000 masterpoints to Championship
Flight.
Motion failed.
· Effective
with the 2011-2012 North American Pairs, Flight B will be raised to 0-2500
masterpoints.
Motion failed.
I voted against ...
· Membership
dues are increased from $35 to $37. Life Master service charges $32 to $34.
Household membership dues are increased from $64 to $68. Junior membership dues
are increased $14 to $15. New member membership dues are increased $26 to $28.
Motion passed.
· Tournament
Director session fees increased by 8%.
Motion passed.
· And
I was the only dissenting vote to raise remuneration to “volunteers” who serve
on national appeals committees. How can you raise the “wages” of “volunteers”?
Motion passed 24-1.
· The
rest of the time I was mostly on the prevailing end of votes. For viewing of all
the motions, voting and actions at the Fall Board Meetings go to
www.acbl.org
The San Diego NABC
The
national was a booming success - 12,927 tables in play making it maybe a top 10
largest Fall NABC, and breaking a previous San Diego Fall NABC record. The
players were thrilled with Peter Rank’s “My Fair (Little Old) Lady” production
that was performed the first five
days of the NABC, written up in the
New York Times
bridge column as the “real star of the tournament.”
The packed
house Thanksgiving Day Fiesta was much more than any of us had anticipated. A
beautiful presentation of wedding dances by Tijuana’s Ballet Folklorico, backed
up by Mariachis del Mar and a dynamic vocalist (age 12!) singing Mexican
heritage songs and
a cappella
in four languages. Plus a wonderful dinner.
Of Rose
Meltzer’s famous “Breakfast with the Stars” Peggy Kaplan wrote:
“With proceeds going to Junior Bridge, the breakfast creates as much good as it
does fun and excitement. Thank you, Rose, along with all your stars burning so
bright.”
–Peggy
Kaplan
The CEO of
the league, Jay Baum, mused that the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel was probably
the finest venue ever for a NABC. I would not dispute that; the place is
phenomenal.
My
special thanks go to my devoted chairmen, Bonnie Bagley, Fran Foresta, Toshi
Yingst, Chris Champion, Wendy Turk, Matthew Mallory, Al Schuster, Audrey Wicks,
Ann Cressman, Alice Leicht, Marvin French, Linda Trent, Jody Pedri, Hans Giroux,
Letha Couch, Billie Greene, Debbie Gailfus, Alan Gailfus, Ana Lilia Cortes,
Laura Loring and Suzanne Lebendig. Plus Leticia and Sergio of my staff; all the
willing volunteers who helped.
Well done gang, take a bow!