MANAGEMENT REPORT FOR
AUGUST 2003
To: ACBL Board of Directors
cc: Don Mamula
Peter Rank
From: Jay Baum, CEO
ACBL
Date: September 3, 2003
1. MEMBERSHIP:
The period ending August 31, 2003 showed a total membership of 166,483. This was a net loss of 329 members for the month, but still show a net gain of 508 for the year. (Exhibit 1)
2. MARKETING:
Clubs and Membership - Renewal forms for clubs have been updated, and the mailings to each club for its renewal will go out this month along with the trimester Club Managers newsletter.
We no longer need to print hard copies of membership forms when a member joins online through our web-site. That data is stored using the imaging system. This is the last piece of the membership data storage to be finished in order to eliminate hard copy printing.
We are working on resolving a few unit territorial conflicts. If a conflict is in your District, we have made you aware of the problem and are requesting Unit Presidents to provide us with zip codes for their Unit. If you know of any conflicts in your District for which WE haven’t been the source of your information, please let Carol Robertson know.
Education – Star Teachers and Master Teachers have been requested to send us their information so that it can be posted on our web-site.
New classes and photos have been added to the school gallery web page on the ACBL web site. The parent letter for the School Bridge Lessons Series has been updated, and classes are being formed. This is very early for fall classes. A full report on number of classes (we have approximately 45 to date) will be released in late October. We are continuing to work with Kitty Cooper to complete an updated set of lesson plans.
The seminar schedule for New Orleans has been updated and posted on the New Orleans web-site. Our theme for the New Orleans education program is “Jazz Up Your Bridge Life”.
The ACBL juniors that participated in the World Championships give us reason to have pride in our young members. USA II (Joel Wooldridge, Kevin Bathurst, Joe Grue, John Kranyak, Kent Mignocchi and John Hurd) finished 3rd after being defeated by a ½ IMP in the semi-final. Canada (Gavin Wolpert, Vincent Demuy, David Grainger, Daniel Lavee, Ian Boyd and Charles Halasi ) finished 8th and USA I (Meredith Beck, Joon Pahk, Robert Glickman, Xing Yuan, Lisa Burton and Lindsay Pearlman) finished 13th. Very good showing by all 3 teams, but the report on the demeanor and attitude by all the members of these teams gives us the real reason for our pride. Special thanks to the coaches (Shannon Cappelletti, Andy O’Grady and Ed Antoza) and captains (Mike Cappelletti, Robert Rosen and Martin Hunter) who worked tirelessly with the teams.
We have Unit Growth and TAP programs in North Bay, Tunica, Lake Geneva and Ottawa during September and October.
This week is the AARP annual convention in Chicago where ACBL is exhibiting. We will report the results next month. A big “THANK YOU” to Harriette Buckman for all her help.
Another of our exhibit booths is enroute to Washington for a Senior Wellness Convention. Our hope is to take our product to as many sites as possible, including a number of state and province Senior games.
New member and renewal application forms are ready for distribution with the fall club mailing. The new forms distinguish between new member applications and renewal applications. This should eliminate the confusion that has existed with the previous forms. All new member applications are instant memberships with temporary membership cards incorporated into the paper stocks.
Any non-member who played in Long Beach has been sent a perspective member packet. This is now standard practice after each NABC.
Marketing is developing a survey for clubs and teachers to go out this month. This will be done online with a quick turn around in order to help develop any additions or deletions to the budget.
The web site re-development is well under way. We still project there to be a full presentation in New Orleans.
3. TOURNAMENT
Table Count: (Exhibit 2)
The appeals cases from Long Beach (37) and USBF events (3) have been sent for commentary.
Zero Tolerance penalties in Long Beach numbered 19. Rick Beye attended the St. Louis Regional and the Fort Worth Regional. This enables face-to-face contact and allows great teaching opportunities for some very good part-time TDs.
Some Board Members have asked about sponsorships/concessions by host cities for our NABCs. This year we have received:
· $11,000 cash payment from CVB
· 80 hours complimentary information desk staffing
· $11,000 convention center discount
· $10,000 paid against conventions rental
· Exhibit hall chair rental and set-up
· ($20,000) waived
· complimentary information desk staffing up to 8 hours
· two complimentary plane tickets for site inspections.
For the three sites selected in the last 18 months we have been given:
· Airport greeters
· Street banners
· Airport and retail signage
· Promotional materials (city guides, etc.)
· 1 plane ticket for site inspection
· Rental fee of convention center paid by hotels, after discounts from the Convention Visitor Bureau (CVB)
· Set-up and removal of up to 400 tables
· Chair rental and removal waived
· 100 five-gallon water containers provided complimentary (total of $25,000) from CVB.
· 80 hours complimentary registration staffing
· $15,000 paid directly to ACBL 90 days in advance of tournament
· Six comp round-trip airline tickets
· Promo booth and giveaways at St. Louis NABC
· Dinner or reception for 45 ($2,500 value)
· 1 plane ticket for site inspection
· All meeting space rental waived.
· Airport banners
· Complimentary information desk staffing
· Restaurant reservation desk.
4. HUMAN RESOURCE:
25 employees have completed telephone customer training from Nancy Friedman, founder of the Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training program. Ongoing training for other employees in need of this type of education will be scheduled.
Four H.R. employees have participated in an audio seminar concerning the new HIPPA laws which go into effect in Spring 2004.
The 401k program will have a new service provider (ING) effective November 1, 2003. Big “THANK YOU” to Dan Morse, Al Levy and Jack Zdancewicz for all their tireless work on this important benefit. Also, a real salute to Brenda Atwill, who assisted the Board of Trustees and put in many extra hours and weekend days.
H.R. has been very busy with personnel changes in the last six weeks. Following are people on the move at Headquarters:
1. Rena Hetzer has taken the position of Executive Assistant to Gary Blaiss. Rena’s primary duties will include ACBL discipline and all International Bridge functions, including USBF, CBF and WBF.
2. Galen Hardy will be a full-time Executive Assistant to Jack Zdancewicz.
3. Randall Smith has been hired as a new programmer in the Computer Division.
4. Mary Oshlag formally the USBF coordinator (part time) is moving to fill a part time position in the Education Department.
5. Jo Anne Collins has been named Special Events Manager. Jo Anne was previously in the Accounting Department.
6. Pam Clouse has been promoted to Membership Coordinator taking Jo Anne’s duties in Accounting.
7. Mable Wilkes is moving to accounts payable/administration assistant and will replace Pam Clouse.
8. Dave Smith is moving to the Tournament Division to assume most of the duties of Mable Wilkes (scheduling) and will retain his duties from the help desk.
9. Jean Patterson is leaving the Marketing Department to assume the position of Customer Service Manager. Jean will take as many live calls as possible and also respond to voice-messages and other duties. Her role will be similar to that of an “OMBUDSMAN”.
Beginning September 8, 2003 all
published ACBL phone extensions will begin with the number 1. For example, if you want to dial extension
237, it now will be 1237. This is
consistent with the phone system installed at the ACBL, which requires that
callers dial "1" before dialing the extension. This created confusion for callers who knew
an extension but did not realize the "1" was necessary.
This change will enhance the service
for callers to the ACBL over time, but it will take a while for all
publications to reflect the new extensions.
In the meantime, callers who use the three-digit extension number will
be forwarded back to the operator.
Notices are being placed in the Bridge Bulletin and on
the web site. The telephone-answering
message will be changed.
Attached is a new employee phone directory with the new
extension numbers. (Exhibit 3)
5. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:
We have researched the cost of backing up our power source to insure the web site can operate in the event of a prolonged power failure similar to July’s outage. No final decision has been made. However, services from one of the local phone service providers may prove to be the most efficient.
Terry Norton discovered a use for a tape drive no longer needed for the AS400. The tape drive, which was a $10,000 item, will now backup all our network severs. This will also give us much better protection than we have had in the past. (Terry will get a steak dinner).
Three major application projects have been completed.
1. Charity Event Sanctioning application: Created an Internet based application to gather sanctioning applications for charity events. This replaces the need for mailing out applications, mailing out sanction notifications, and manually processing the received application.
2. Unit Sanction application: Modified the existing application to send sanction notifications and application forms out via e-mail. This replaces the current process of printing notification letters and mailing them with the result forms.
3. Address change request application: Currently, members fill out a form on the web-site with their address change information. This generates e-mail to the Club Membership department. They receive around 30 such e-mails a day. Club Membership then looks up the members current information and re-enters the information from the e-mail to the AS400. The new application will accept and validate the submitted address information, e-mail address, and phone numbers, then automatically update the members address information on the AS400. This process is very similar to what we are currently using with the Post Office and should save a significant amount of work for employees in the Club Department.
6. OTHER ITEMS:
The October issue of the Bulletin will include the product catalog. We will be anxious to see the increase in sales this generates as well as the actual cost savings vs. Previous years.
The Logan case has been sent for a summary judgement.
We are awaiting word on the Blubaugh case and our request for summary judgement.
We are setting up some experimental spades games in a very limited number of clubs to test the reaction to a duplicate game and look for possible crossover scenarios.
We are finalizing an agreement with Office Max Document Services/Copy Max that will provide many benefits including a 15% discount for our members and the League. The entire program will be released in the November issue of the Bulletin.
7. CANADIAN EXCHANGE RATE:
The current exchange rate is set at $1.34. For the month of September it will be $1.40.