By Ken Monzingo
National Board Representative
International Bridge
The most controversial and important decision of the Louisville NABC board meetings was my motion intended to stem the exorbitant spending – $165,000/year – on the World Bridge Federation (WBF) invisible membership, which is currently paid from the league’s General Fund. The board rejected my motion that requested these so-called “dues” paid to the WBF by the ACBL are to be paid from donations raised from International Fund Games. It might have been interpreted as a motion to stop international competition – not true – and it was defeated. The premise of the motion was simply that International activities should come specifically from International Fund donations, not from the General Fund provided by ACBL members’ dues and sanction payments.
Management Report
League CEO Jay Baum is retiring in 2012, and the current board president appointed a committee of ACBL board members and outside corporate CEOs to conduct a study to present to the full board with possible candidates to choose from. Applications are open to anyone qualified to apply for the job.
The management report by Jay Baum reported year 2010 ended with 165,419 ACBL members. Club games in 2010 produced is 2,965,821 tables - 713,135 of these were on-line games. Tournament table counts for 2011 are ahead of 2010 – especially our STACs and regionals in the Western Conference.
Stan Subeck, employee pension fund trustee, reported our investments are in excellent hands.
Marketing & Technology
Current: Passed was a motion not to hold ACBL-wide games during the months of February (Junior Month), April (Charity Month) and September (International Fund Month) which are months designated special fund game periods.
New: ACBL’s Facebook page is gaining, plus 250 members on Twitter, and a few on LinkedIn. A smart phone “find a club” app is in the works, and is coming on well.
Old: ACBL Score is being completely rewritten, and the ACBL web site is (finally) being overhauled.
Online Bridge
A motion to stop awarding masterpoints for any game that includes one or more of those funny computer “robots” was defeated. Robot games remain as individual events.
A motion approving the policy for online games stating a player may not enter more than two ACBL-sanctioned online games during the same hour was passed.
No online points will count toward ACBL masterpoint races such as the McKenney and Mini-McKenney, but online points count toward a player’s total masterpoints.
For rank advancement, no more than one-third of a player’s total points required can be from online winnings.
Online masterpoints won remain unpigmented (no colors: black, red, silver or gold).
Online masterpoints count 100% toward strat and flight advancement.
For full minutes of the Louisville (and other) board meetings go to www.kenmonzingo.com