MANAGEMENT REPORT FOR JANUARY 2005

 

 

To:                   ACBL Board of Directors

 

cc:                    Linda Mamula

Peter Rank

 

From:               Jay Baum, CEO

                        ACBL

           

1.         MEMBERSHIP:

            The end of the year membership was 150,440 paying members. This represents a 462 member increase, or 0.3%, over the 149,978 paying members at the end of 2003.  Total membership, which includes unpaid LifeMasters, was 168,380 or 1,210 (0.7%) greater than the 167,170 members in 2003.  (Exhibit 1)

 

            In an attempt to present a more precise picture of membership, we will start stating our membership in terms of active members only.  Those inactive life members that remain in that status for a period of more than 24 months will be considered bridge – dead.  Only some activity (playing, paying, or changing address) will bring them back into the membership rolls.  By doing this, we will be able to be more accurate in all our reporting.

 

            This will create a new benchmark for us and will not allow for true comparisons from previous years.  Internally we will still monitor the total membership for our own comparative purposes.

 

            All membership reports will be run on the same day.  This will alleviate the confusion that has been caused by running data on different dates.

 

 

2.         TOURNAMENTS: 

            A record-breaking year for tournament tables!  Regionals and NABCs led the way.  StaCs remain popular and sectionals are stable.  Congratulations to all for your part of making this happen.

 

            Table count 2003 – 2004 (Exhibit 2)

            End of year table count (Exhibit 3)

 

Our online clubs topped 17,000 tables in the month of December.  Bridge Base Online has gone from 0 to 5600 tables in six months.  World Winner's takeover of e-bridgemaster has shown no negatives, tables remain in excess of 10,000 per month.

 

The USBF regional in Dallas, December '04, did not have appeals committees.  The Tournament Staff adjudicated all disputes.  No problems whatsoever.  The following excerpt is from the Director-in-Charge report from that tournament.  'We did not have committees at the tournament and there were a couple of rulings I reviewed with the players. Everyone seemed to accept it with good grace and I never heard any criticism.  Might be something we could look at again.  I was at first against this at regionals but it works so well at the nationals I am changing my mind.'  A sponsor may opt to adopt the appeal method we use during NABCs for handling regional appeals.  This method would be most effective at our larger regional tournaments. 

 

 

3.         NEW EMPLOYEES:

Michael Butler - Internet applications: Mike has taken the position of webmaster and is doing a great job.

 

 

4.         MARKETING:

We have been invited to return, again with most expenses paid, to the Origins game convention in Columbus in July. We will plan another weekend of lessons and masterpoint games for the participants.

 

The school bridge public relations contract with Simpson Communications still is pending legal review. However, we have begun working with Simpson to promote the online Collegiate Teams game in February. Bridge Base currently is running an ad promoting the event on its Play site.

 

The Goodwill Anniversary planning is well under way. A poster with all dates and “Top 10 Goodwill Gestures” will be distributed to clubs in their January mailing.

 

You may recall the study released from Albert Einstein College of Medicine showing that playing cards “trumps” Alzheimer’s disease. The researcher now has applied for an NIH grant to look specifically at the effects of bridge. Marketing submitted a letter of support to the NIH.

 

Marketing and Internet Services are working together to prioritize new web site initiatives for 2005, including increased portal services.  The beginning of the year has been a flurry of updates and revisions for the site.

 

Teachers signed up 1079 new members during our special ABTA recruitment drive during October, November and December—110 more than during those three months in 2003. As a result, the ACBL is delighted to send the American Bridge Teachers Association a check for $5395. These funds will be used to enhance the summer convention and for other programs.

 

Marketing is beginning to prepare press releases on all the overall masterpoint race winners. A sample release for units to use is available on the web site. Recent releases on the new board of directors members resulted in a nice feature about Bill Arlinghaus in the Ann Arbor News.

 

 

The Cooperative Advertising Program rebates will continue in 2005. Our clubs and teachers received $113,834 in advertising rebates during 2004--$48,075 more than the previous year. And they have been very creative!  Kathie MacNab of  Halifax, Nova Scotia took advantage of free “advertorial” space when she took out an ad in a special section of the Halifax Herald. The paper ran a 16-inch story about the club and bridge.

 

5.         PLANNING SESSION:

Draft from the Planning Session in Orlando is attached.  Thanks to Harriette Buckman for her work in cleaning up the notes and flushing out the data.  Management’s proposed actions will be sent prior to Pittsburgh with a complete presentation during the Board meeting.  (Exhibit 4)

 

           

6.         BOARD ORIENTATION:

New Board of Directors members visited Memphis January 5 – 7, 2005.  Bill Arlinghaus and his wife Sandy, Bill Cook and Jeff Taylor joined President Roger Smith for an orientation of ACBL Headquarters.  Harriette Buckman was also in Memphis to complete the draft of the Long Range Planning session and review the CEO review documents and goals.