MANAGEMENT REPORT FOR  FEBRUARY 2005

 

 

To:                   ACBL Board of Directors

 

cc:                    Linda Mamula

Peter Rank

 

From:               Jay Baum, CEO

                        ACBL

           

Date:                February 2005

 

 

1.            MEMBERSHIP:

 

            As of January 31, 2005 ACBL had 150,290 total paying members and 5,793 active unpaid Life Members for a total of 156,083 total active members.  This is an increase of 560 paying members from January 31, 2004 and a decrease of active unpaid Life Members of 285.  January 2005 saw 994 new members join ACBL.

 

 

2.            MARKETING:

 

            New member sign ups and renewals have seen a dramatic increase from our website.  New members joining increased from 455 to 744 (63.5% increase) during the November 15, 2004 – February 2, 2005 time period versus a year ago.  Renewals jumped from 1,290 to 1,945 (50.7% increase) during the same time frame.  My ACBL portal now has 50,881 members.  In addition, we have picked up over 16,000 new e-mail addresses.

 

            The project to promote bridge to youth is moving forward with additional promotion of the Collegiate Tournament and greater promotion of Minibridge.

 

            The online club director education is underway.  We expect to have a course to show in Pittsburgh.  We are working with Cyberworks an online education firm.

 

            The edited Club Directors Handbook and Duplicate Decisions will both be available on-line.

 

            New certificates for rank changes and NABC winners have been redesigned and the Emerald and Platinum certificates are being mailed this month.

 

            In case you haven’t looked on the website recently, unit and district-wide MP races are now available.  We have also announced the Jane Johnson Clubs Awards for 2004.  They are Powell River Duplicate Club, Powell River BC, Canada (1 Star); Hartford Bridge Club, West Hartford CT, (2 Star), Kate Buckman Bridge Studio, Toronto, ON Canada (3 Star); and Superiorland Duplicate Bridge Club, Marquette, MI (3 Star Honorable Mention).

 

Special Events and Marketing have begun there preparation for NAP promotion campaign for 2005:  “Join the Crowd” will be this year’s theme.

           

Our ACBL exhibits and marketing material will be on display this June in Chicago at the Rotary International Convention.  70,000 Rotarians are expected to attend.

 

 

3.            TOURNAMENTS:

 

            January table count are included.  (Exhibit 1)

 

 

4.            RESIGNATIONS:

 

We were sorry to see both of our Websphere/Java programmers move on to greener pastures in February.  Randall Smith and James Lowes did exceptional work for us.  We are currently trying to fill both of these positions.

 

We also lost Bernard Conner from sales.  He has been replaced by Patty Taylor, a very capable former part-time employee.

 

 

5.            EVALUATIONS & GOALS:

 

Management and staff have been working to finish performance evaluations for 2004 and establish goals for 2005.  We are using “Performance Now” software to help insure quality standardizations of evaluations.  All evaluations and goals will be finished prior to March 1^st.  (We use 4/1 as our starting date.)

 

 

6.         LONG RANGE PLAN:

 

In addition to other job responsibilities all managers and staff have been asked to provide their input into the Long Range Plan.  We will send management’s final proposal prior to Pittsburgh so that you will have discussion points ready for the ½ day session.  This as well as evaluations and goals, have consumed much of staff and managements time.

 

 

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ALL!