CEO Report to ACBL Board of Directors
February 2003

ACBL has 86.48 full time (FT) equivalent employees at the start of 2003. Last year, we started with 86.08 FT equivalent employees. The Field staff is 115.32 vs a 2002 figure of 117.11

For 2003 a new compensation program has been put into effect. The pay increases given in 2003 will be performance based. This will enable managers to reward their better performing employees and give all employees an incentive to perform at higher levels.

Education

The second Learn to Play Bridge program will be delivered in March. Discussions on how best to market this new product are ongoing.

The ACBL Club Director's Handbook is finished and available. We will be using this material for the first time at the Club Director's course in Philadelphia.

Web site

We are com[pletely overhauling the navigation ahd commissioned creation of a new front page. If you wish to preview the navigational work in progress go to www.acbl.org/peter/index.html . This is the beginning of the navigation work only. Ignore the "look".

ACBL Online

The projections for membership and sanctioned tables for 2002 did not meet expectations. Membership was 5% less tjan projected, whilce sanctioned tables were 9% below expectations.

We think these variances were due to the instability of the old software, new software that took a month to stabilize, various hardware malfunctions, human errors and Internet provider problems.

While the membership of ACBL Online at year's end was 1866, 2003 is looking better as there has been about a 5% increase in membership over the first seven weeks of the year. The membership total was 1942 on February 24.

Hall of Fame

The Hall of Fame pages on ACBL's web site have been redone and update of member information is an ongoing process. The new inductees are: Fred Hamilton, Steve Robinson, Ed Manfield, Jacqui Mitchell, Tobias Stone (Von Zedtwitz Award) and Henry Francis (Blackwood Award).

Membership Renewal Statistics

Membership statistics through February show 148,686 dues-paying members in 2003. This is 2,403 members fewer (1.6%) than the 151,089 members reported in February 2002. Total membership, including unpaid Life Masters, of 165,423 members if 1,846 members (1.1%) fewer than the 167,269 total members on this date last year.

Bulletin

The new format of the Bridge Bulletin has been well received. To date we have had 211 members express their opiinion. 79% of the comments were favorable.

Bridge Week in North America

We had some very good results at the clubs across the continent. 229 ACBL clubs participated. Our table count for the same week vs last year were up 12 1/2%. Plans are being made for next year's theme. The week will remain the same
 (January 5 - 11).

Comments from Shirley Seals, District 9 Director to Jay Baum:
Request this event be scheduled one week earlier or one week later in 2004, since this date is in direct conflict with the largest Regional in District 9. Most clubs in District 9 were not able to participate in this event in  2003 because of the conflict with our January Regional. It is felt that this scheduling is unfair to the large number of ACBL members who reside in
District 9.

USPC UNITED STATES PLAYING CARD COMPANY

United States Playing Card Company (not our current vendor, although they will be bidding on our new card contract) put a card set in a number of stores, including a test group of WalMarts. The card sets include a mention of how to contact ACBL with every deck, plus a set of reles that credit ACBL.

The follwoig is from our USPC sales rep: "We have sold 160,000 card sets, so the ACBL advertising (membership) cards
are in the hands of 320,000 new potential members. the ad card will remain in the next production run of the Hamilton Bridge sets which is scheduled within the next weo weeks."

School Lessons

There were 274 programs signed up for the Fall of 2002 and approximately 4,800 students participated last year. Between 3,000 adn 5,000 young people annually for the past 15 years have taken bridge lessons at their schools. We have increased our publicity for the program and hope to increasse participation even more this year. After years of trying, ACBL succeeded in starting a bridge program at a local Memphis School - St. Ann's. We're excited about the opportunity to watch these children as they learn the game.
 

Jay Baum

      ACBL CEO