2008 Las Vegas Report
Las Vegas was a great place for a National Tournament; people love to go to Vegas. About 10,000 people went and there were 19,720 tables in play. The Chairman Ken Monzingo and his Co-chair Bonnie Bagley did a tremendous job. They were somewhat disappointed at only being the biggest National in the 21 Century and not the biggest of all time. (That is Vegas in 1991). The players will be happy that we are returning to Vegas in the summer of 2014.
Life Master Requirements Increased
For years I have heard how much easier it is to make Life Master now then is was 10, 20, 30, or 40 years ago. Now starting January 1, 2010 the requirements for Life Master are changed as follows.
| Current | January 1, 2010 |
|---|---|
| 300 points (150 pigmented) | 500 points (250 pigmented) |
| 25 must be gold | 50 must be gold or platinum |
| 25 must be red or gold | 50 must be red, gold, or platinum |
| 50 must be silver | 75 must be silver |
| 50 must be black | 75 must be black |
The new requirements will not apply to people who are ACBL members as of December 21, 2009 and maintain continuous membership in the ACBL until they achieve the rank of Life Master.
For members achieving the rank of Life Master under the new rules, the rank of Bronze Life Master is abolished. A new rank of Advanced NABC Master is created with the same requirements as the old Life Master rank.
ACBL Memphis Office
As many of you know the Headquarters Bldg in Memphis was sold last year and we have been looking at varies sites for a new bldg. in Las Vegas the board in executive session passed the following motion:
Resolved that contingent on relocation incentives that can be realized, management is directed to find a new site for the ACBL headquarters in the Memphis area.
It is good to get this resolved and get on with running the ACBL for the betterment of its members.
Appeals Committee’s
In a close vote the Board voted to keep on with player appeals committee’s for the NABC plus events. In Las Vegas there were no Regional Senior events but there were open events at 10 & 3(As well as 1 & 7:30) which many members preferred.
A new NABC + event, The Platinum Pairs was proposed for 2010, the 6 session pair event would be open to anyone who has won 50 Platinum points in the 3 prior years. This seems like a good ideal to me but it was deferred to Boston in order to look for a place on our busy schedule to hold this event.
The Reisinger Board of match team in the fall conditions were changed to allow registration for the event up to 2 hours prior to game time, this will not start until 2009.
Unit requirements, privileges, and responsibilities were changed in The ACBL handbook. The new requirements will be on the ACBL web site.
At my suggestion the ACBL is developing an ACBL Bridge Column which would be available to Units to offer to weekly or monthly publications. It would have space for the local unit to insert a phone number and contact person for information about Bridge in the community. This is not going to be a competition with the syndicated column’s published in the daily newspapers. I am hoping more non duplicate players will read this and decide to try duplicate.
My year as President of the ACBL is going fast I am now over half way through .It has been enjoyable going to many new places and meeting Bridge players from all over. This has taken me away from Texas more than I like but I will be able to attend the Dallas Regional for 4 or 5 days.
These are the highlights of the Board meeting in Las Vegas the full minutes are on the ACBL’s web site. Any questions you can email me at danmores@sbcglobal.net.
See you at the tables.
Dan
