Louisville Report

Louisville was a nice place for a tournament.  The Galt Hotel personnel were extremely helpful and the playing area was excellent.  They had 9,547 tables, which was about what I expected.  There were many good restaurants within walking distance and many a short ride by taxi.  I was able to go to the fabulous Churchill Downs Kentucky Derby Museum and I recommend that anyone in the area stop by and enjoy it. 
Kudos go to Beth Reid (District Director) and Hannah Davis (Tournament chair) for a job well done.

Membership

We lost 787 members In January 2011, but we rebounded a bit in February with a gain of 234.  We are hopeful that we will not lose membership for the year.
President Craig Robinson has set a goal to visit 100 clubs in 100 days during 2011.  Click on this link to learn more:  clubmanager-newsletter-winter-2011-2-01.pdf.
In 2011, almost 3,000,000 club games were played; 700,000 of these were played on-line.
Regional and Sectional Tournaments had a nice increase in number of tables for January and February.
The Cooperative Advertising program continues to be a successful and popular resource for clubs and teachers.  The program in 2010 subsidized advertising costs for 340 clubs and teachers.  42 ad campaigns have been subsidized in 2011 as of February 1, 2011

School Bridge Classes

A total of 367 school bridge classes were conducted during 2010.  Already there are 82 registered for spring 2011 with more signing up.
The 2011 Youth NABC will be held in Toronto this summer.  Plan on attending if you are a youth as this will be the biggest ever.

Appointments

These appointments were made by the ACBL President:

Miscellaneous

The application for readmission to the ACBL by Massimo Lanzarotti and Andrea Buratti was denied.

The seeding points (in NABC+ knockout events) for masterpoints were changed.  Anyone interested should check the ACBL web site.

Masterpoints were awarded to the ACBL winners in the WBF Championship in Philadelphia.  I agree with this except for the Senior events which are now counted toward the Senior Races.  The age limit at the WBF is 60 and the ACBL age limit is 55.  I believe the age limit should be the same or the WBF events should not count toward our races.  If any one has an opinion on this let me know.

A motion to have a two day Swiss qualifying or Round Robin added to the format for the Women's KO to be held the first two days of the event and to award event seeding points which would impact placement in the KO phase was deferred until the Summer NABC.  Ladies, if you have an opinion on this, please send me an e-mail.

A masterpoint committee has been appointed and is studying everything about the awarding of points.  If you have something you would like them to consider send it to the ACBL, Attention: Masterpoint Committee.

The next NABC will be this summer in Toronto.  It will be a good one.  Make your plans now and do not forget you now need a PASSPORT to go to Canada.

See you at the tables
Dan