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Club Managers's
News Letter |
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Comments from Carol Robertson, Manager of the Club Membership Department: Al Levy of Commack, New York, was elected as 2003 ACBL President. Al will be visiting tournaments throughout the year. He hopes to meet with as many club managers as possible at these tournaments. If you have concerns and are unable to attend any of the tournaments listed below, please write Al in care of ACBL. Gatlinburg, Tennessee Regional April 7 – 13 Special Events: If you participated in the North American Pairs last year, information will be sent to you. If you wish to participate and did not do so last year, you may leave a message for the Special Events Department on the toll-free Customer Service Line 800-464-1623 or e-mail SpecialEvents@acbl.org with your club number and a request for the NAP material. ACBL Adopts New Exam to Become a Club Director In the New Year, ACBL began using a new Club Director’s Test. Long-awaited changes include the use of ACBLscore, ACBL’s comprehensive bridge club computer program. Use of a computer and ACBLscore will be allowed during testing. There are no matchpointing or factoring problems on the new test. The exam has questions about laws pertaining to the most frequent table calls and asks about the most common movements and types of club games. Candidates are permitted to use any bridge books available. Of particular value will be the new ACBL Club Director’s Handbook, Chapters 4 and 5 of the ACBL Handbook of Rules and Regulations, Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge and Duplicate Decisions. Have you Claimed your $hare of the Money? Club Managers, teachers, units and districts – any individual or group associated with the ACBL – are eligible to receive subsidies of 50% of their expenses to promote the game of bridge. The payments are funded through ACBL’s Cooperative Advertising Program. The program works like this: The ACBL will subsidize 50% of the cost of your advertising program up to a maximum subsidy of $250 per program. You are not limited to one subsidy per year—you may submit requests for multiple programs while funds remain available. Send us a sample of your promotional piece along with copies of paid receipts. Eligible media are radio, television, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, outdoor ads, Yellow Pages, fliers, handbills and more. For more information, contact Jean Patterson, Manager of Marketing Services, at ACBL headquarters. Phone: 901-332-5586, Ext. 295. Customer Service Line: 800-467-1623 FAX 901-398-7754 e-mail jean.patterson@acbl.org. ACBLscore CORNER Starting in 2003, you MUST be using version 7.0 or higher or else your players might be missing out on higher masterpoint awards by not being eligible for district-wide and ACBL-wide ranking of certain ACBL-wide games. Upgrading ACBLscore is EASY. Here are the instructions for downloading from the ACBL web site. It is not necessary to have an older version. Contact Alicia Van Gunda at 901-332-5586, ext. 258 for an authorization code. Have your 6-digit club number available. To download ACBLscore from the ACBL web site: Go to http://www.acbl.org
in your internet browser; Important: DO NOT save it to your a: drive (diskette) After the download completes: "ACBLscore setup" should now appear: The following applies when the "ACBLscore setup" dialog box
appears: 1. Create FULL install disks for the first time or update installation on any other computer. Start the installation on this computer. If you do not have ACBLscore installed on your internet computer, the download will offer the following: 1. Create update only disks for another computer that has an
older version of ACBLscore installed (no authorization code
required.) a) Create FULL install disks for first time or update
installation on any other computer IF YOUR CLUB CURRENTLY DOES NOT USE ACBLscore AND OWNS A COMPUTER, PLEASE CONTACT ALICIA VAN GUNDA AT 901-332-5586 Ext. 258 FOR AN AUTHORIZATION CODE TO DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM FREE OF CHARGE. HAVE YOUR 6-DIGIT CLUB NUMBER AVAILABLE. 2003 INTER-CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES SCHEDULE Has your club participated in an Inter-Club Championship game? Why not give it a try? These events combine face-to-face play with the perks of across-the-field scoring through the Internet to determine overall rankings. After the fame players can view how they did with other clubs. All clubs entered in the event will play face-to-face at each club. They will be competing for session awards and overall masterpoint awards. The deals will be sent electronically to you. Your players will be competing with other participating clubs throughout ACBL and for the overall masterpoint awards. Below is the schedule for 2003: DAY DATE SESSION Tuesday April 29 Afternoon Sign up for any game – provided you have a session sanctioned for that time – by accessing the club page at www.acbl.org/clubs/icc/icc.htm on ACBL’s web site. LINK TO CLUB WEB PAGES To have a link to your club’s web site included in the online Club Directory, visit www.acbl.org/internet/clubinfo.nsf/clubinfo?openform and provide the information requested. 2003 CHARITY OF THE YEAR The National Hospice Foundation has been names the ACBL Charity of the Year. This selection carries with it a grant of $100,000. The National Hospice Foundation addresses the needs and desire of terminally ill patients, their families and loved ones. Currently there are approximately 500,000 patients in more than 3100 hospice programs. More information is available at www.hospiceinfor.org or by phoning the Foundation at 703-516-4928. DISABILITY POLICY Any time an ACBL member, because of a physical disability or handicap, needs the aid of special equipment or needs special consideration (e.g., Braille cards, bid-boxes, a permanent North-South, etc.) no ACBL sanctioned club game or tournament may prohibit the use of said special equipment or consideration. It is ACBL policy to accept the word of any player indicating they have a disability. NEW MEMBERS Please remember to tell your new members they can record points earned in the 12 months preceding the date they joined ACBL. The maximum they can record is 20 masterpoints. We continue to get masterpoints from new players earned several years ago and we have to return them. Please help get the word out to prospective members. INSTANT NEW MEMBERSHIPS When a player joins through your club and fills out the instant membership application, please send it to ACBL as soon as possible. We are processing new members as soon as we receive them and mailing out their packet of information the next day. ACBL is making every effort to process new members very quickly and your assistance in mailing them to us as quickly as possible will be a tremendous help. Please include a separate check for the membership if sending it with club reports. NEWCOMER GAMES If you hold a newcomer game at the same time you hold an open or invitational/restricted game, you may add the newcomer tables to the open or invitational/restricted game for the purpose of issuing masterpoints. ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY The Zero Tolerance Policy is only mandatory at ACBL-sponsored events, such as the three yearly NABC tournaments held each year. Each club manangement determines the policy for their own club games. SERIES GAMES FOR CLUBS For Series games in clubs, four or more game sessions are required. The masterpoint bonus to the winning player shall equal .02 times the number of tables in play for all games in which he o she participated. This award cannot exceed 1.5 masterpoints for an open game or 1.2 masterpoints for an invitational game. Second place earns 75% of the award for first and third place earns 75% of the second-plce award. Clubs may use their own methodology for determining winners. Examples are: The number of masterpoints earned at the series games; The Club Manager may specify a minimum number of game sessions to be eligible. Clubs may wish to consider a proviso that eligibility requires participation with a minimum of two or more different partners. |