August 6, 2002

Washington DC Report

Washington D. C. is a popular city for hosting an ACBL National Tournament. There was enough room for all events to be played in the hotel and many restaurants within walking distance from the hotel. 14650 tables were in play during the tournament -- 350 short of the estimated attendance, but everyone seemed to have a good time. The hospitality was exceptional with many favorable comments expressed by the visiting players.

The Hall Of Fame Induction Dinner was a great event. Two of our late and great District 16 members were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Emma Jean Hawes lived in Ft. Worth and was one of the great bridge players in Texas and one of the revered Ladies in the Bridge World. The founder and patron of the Dallas “ACES”, Ira G. Corn, Jr. was also inducted into the Hall of Fame. Ira was our District 16 Director to the A.C.B.L. Board of Directors for many years. Both of these individuals were fine representatives of our District, Bobby Wolff presented Ira and Dorothy Truscott presented Emma Jean. I was honored to present Hugh Ross one of the living inductees into the Hall of Fame

Sue Doe, a District 16 director was honored by the ACBL for exceptional customer service. Congratulations Sue.

Al Levy of New York was elected President of the ACBL for 2003.

Meredith Beck ( 16 year old ex District 16 member) captained a team (which includes District 16 member Lisa Burton) that won the Junior Trials in Washington, they are USA 1. Congratulations Meredith & Lisa.

In response from Board members and players who did not like the scheduled plans to interrupt the tournament play with Thanksgiving Day the Fall N.A.B.C. being held in Phoenix, the tournament will start on Thanksgiving night. A survey will be taken of the people at the tournament to see which schedule they prefer. If you are not attending the fall national and have strong feelings about this matter, please express your choice and/or opinion to the A.C.B.L. via e-mail.

The ACBL is rewriting the ACBL Code of Disciplinary Regulations. I am serving on the committee currently reviewing the latest draft, we will present a final version to the full board for approval at the Fall meeting.

APPEALS COMMITTEES:

Many experienced players have requested a change in the way appeals are handled at the NABC Plus events. Management was instructed to develop and implement procedures consistent with the laws of duplicate contract bridge which will give the director in charge of a tournament (or his designated appointee) the responsibility for making a final adjudication of an appeal of a director’s ruling at that tournament. Opinions appreciated to me and/or the ACBL via e-mail.

This will be implemented January 1, 2004 to give 16 months for extensive training of directors to help with this new responsibility. I am serving on the committee to work with Management to develop appropriate procedures. These procedures will include using expert players in matters of bridge judgement. The experts will not know the names of the players involved in the appeals.

These new procedures will be at National’s. Sponsoring organizations will decide what process to use regarding appeals at their own tournaments similar to other decisions they make, such as how many boards to play in a KO match, the starting times, the victory point scale and how many tournament directors are needed to run a tournament.

TOURNAMENT CHANGES:

A unit not holding at least two 99er Sectional tournaments per year is encouraged to grant approval to any club within its jurisdiction that applies for a sanction to run such a tournament.

With management approval, a sponsoring organization may run a limited Sectional with a maximum of 299 masterpoints or less using local directors.

The upper masterpoint limits for strat/flight has changed.
AX is now a maximum of 5000 and must be at least 500 higher than B.
B is now a maximum of 2500 and at least 750.
C is now a maximum of 1000
These are optional and sponsoring organizations may place limits anywhere within these guidelines.

Team events may be Swiss, Board a Match, Knockout or any combination of the three events.

There are no seeding rights in KO matches. Should a seating disagreement arise:
a. at the start of a match: there is a coin flip with the winner selecting which half to have seeding rights with the losing team to have the other half.
b. if there is no disagreement until the second half, then the team that is losing will have the seating rights. If tied, a coin flip will be used.

The ACBL Board of Directors accepts the revised Hall of Fame procedures. The two committees were combined into one which will make for a smoother operation.

SPECIAL GAMES:

Overall masterpoints will be awarded n Continent-wide Charity Games and in Continent-wide International Fund games that use hand records and for which National and District winners are determined and published in the ACBL bulletin.

ACBL BULLETIN:

The new ACBL Bulletin will begin with the January 1, 2003 issue. It will consist of a full size magazine with an insert of Audrey Grant’s Play Bridge magazine. This will allow the ACBL to have only one magazine which will be a bigger size, have larger print and will be cost effective.

ACBL MEMBER ENTRIES

Effective 1-1-03 at all NABC’s entry fees for non-members and unpaid LM will be $2 per player per session higher the for ACBL members and LM who have paid their service fees. Charity evens & 0-20 events are exempt.

CLUBS:

ACBL score windows version is approximately 50% complete, testing at the club level should begin January 2003 and final release version should occur April or May 2003.

In closing I would like to add that Bridge is on the increase. We are attempting to get Bridge accepted in the Olympics which I feel would be the greatest thing for Bridge in years. If by chance anyone knows any member of the USOC or IOC please let me know we can use all the help we can get.

Good Luck at the Bridge Tables Dan