The long and the short

The long is the flight time.  To get to Bermuda from Seattle, it was an overnight red-eye into Atlanta, a  four hour connection, and then another two hour flight to the island.  The short is of course, the Bermuda Shorts, which are definitely in attendance here at this tournament.

More to follow as the week progresses.  Suffice to say that the Bermuda regional is like none that I have ever attended.  And that is all in a positive vein.

And for the record, there will be no pictures of me in Bermuda Shorts.

Weather cold, welcome warm

I’m winging my way home after visiting the Rock and Roll Regional in Cleveland.  It was definitely nippy, with a few snow flurries today – but it’s a bridge tournament, where you spend most of your day indoors in a big ballroom.  To and from the car, to and from the restaurant.  That’s when you need your coat.  Otherwise, who knew that it was January?

As the title says, the welcome Linda and I received from District 5 and the players at the tournament was wonderful.  Linda got to see many old friends and I had the first of what I hope will be many productive Q&A sessions with our members.  On Thursday between sessions, the tournament hosted a reception and meal for all non-life masters.  I was asked to speak before the dinner, with Dick Early doing a bridge lesson afterwards.

After giving some hopefully helpful information and advice, I opened the floor for questions.  And did I get them.  From questions on masterpoints, knockouts, and gold points to inquiries about bridge governance and finances, they picked my brain.  Sometimes they got an answer that they didn’t like, but I didn’t pull any punches.  And they didn’t either in the questioning.  It was good to see that that newer members wanted to know more about our league and its inner workings and procedures.

During the course of four days, a number of members came up to me with thoughts, ideas, suggestions and, of course, a few complaints.  But even from the criticisms come new areas of thought.  I’m carrying with me a small notebook to jot down these comments and thoughts – better to make notes than rely on my brain that sometimes can’t remember to count trump.  Or what the spot card was of the opening lead.  You know, the stuff bridge players should always remember, but sometimes we don’t.

A big thank you to Sharon Fairchild, the District Director for District 5 and to Jan Assini, Jim Overcasher and Jill Smith, the tournament chairs.  And even more thanks to the many, many volunteers who made the tournament possible.  From the Daily Bulletin to the wonderful hospitality to the partnership desk and more. I know that if I try to list them all, I’ll miss at least someone.  So suffice to say, thank you to all who did their part.

And yes, we’ll be back to Cleveland again.

On the road

I’m off to my first tournament of the year, the Rock and Roll Regional in Cleveland, Ohio.  Technically, the tournament is in Independence, Ohio, but Cleveland itself is just a short distance away.  Since it’s January, I’m packing my hat, gloves and scarf.  You never know.

This tournament will bring back some good memories.  It was at a Cleveland regional that I had my first real “date” with my wife Linda.  Add in that our matron of honor is the current District Director for District 5, Sharon Fairchild, and this should be like old home week.

The tournament is sponsoring a reception for the Non Life Master players and I’ve been asked to speak to them.  I’m really looking forward to that – as I tell every group of NLMs that I meet “I remember what it was like.  I was once in your shoes.”  And that is so important for the “veterans” of our league to remember.  We were all like someone else, in some way or another, earlier in our bridge careers.

Did someone help you out along the way?  Did you get advice from a better player that improved your game?  Did someone extend a welcome that made your early bridge experiences better?  If so, remember to share that with those coming up today.

With almost six and a half hours of flight time and total travel time of nine hours, it’s going to be a long travel day.  Fortunately, Delta Airlines has inflight wi-fi, so I’ll be able to keep in touch while airborne.

If you are going to be attending the Rock And Roll Regional, I hope that you’ll stop by and say hello.  Let me know what you’re thinking about the ACBL.  See you there!

Member Feedback

One aspect of serving as ACBL President is that members turn to you with questions and suggestions.  It’s less than ten days into my term and already emails are coming in, with both questions and suggestions.  I think that’s great.

In addition to email, readers of this blog can comment directly on any post.  Just click on the little “word balloon” symbol in the upper left of each blog posting.  Alternatively, you can click on the “leave a reply” or “replies” link found at the end of each post.

The main difference is that the email is private to me while the comments are public to all readers of the blog.  Maybe we’ll have some stimulating “conversation” in the comments section as the year goes along.

In any case, I’ll be reposting anonymous collections of interesting comments and questions to share with other ACBL members.  Stay tuned.

Task Number One

Although there is a ceremonial role to the presidency, my first real task of the year is the selection of the committees of the Board of Directors.  Like any board, there is a wide variety of skill sets, backgrounds and interests among the 25 ACBL District Directors.  My challenge is to match individual board members to committees where they can contribute to the board’s work.

Now, if the board had unlimited time and resources, this would be much simpler.  But these groups only meet face to face at the three NABCs.  Add in that the meeting time for committees is a bit less than two days.  Plus, committees run concurrently, not sequentially, so you work to try to eliminate conflicts where members need to be in two places at once.  Or three.  In addition, you need to find good chairmen to run the committees.  And the right people to serve on each.

As with virtually any human endeavor, it’s impossible to do it perfectly.  In that way, it’s much like the game of bridge itself.

The Start

I’ve been honored to have been selected by my colleagues on the Board of Directors to serve as ACBL President for 2013.   This blog will be the record of my year – of the people I will meet and places that I will visit.  We’ll also discuss some of my goals and aspirations for our league.

As the representative for all of the more than 166,000 members of the ACBL, my term will be more than just travel.  It will be an opportunity to hear the voices of our members; to take those voices and create a better bridge experience for all.

Feel free to write to me with your thoughts and comments.  I can be reached at through this email link, or via the ACBL.