MANAGEMENT REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 2004
To: ACBL Board of Directors
cc: Don Mamula
Peter Rank
From: Jay Baum, CEO
ACBL
Date: September 2004
1. MEMBERSHIP:
Membership Statistics – We had 150,129 dues-paying members at the end of September. This is an increase of 675 members, or 0.5%, over the 149,454 dues-paying members in September 2003. ACBL total membership, which includes 17,780 unpaid Life Masters, is 167,909 and that represents an increase of 1,337 members, or 0.8%, from the same period last year. (Exhibit 1)
2. TRIMESTER FINANCIAL REPORT:
ACBL Operating Results – Eight months excess revenues of $104,000, or $78,000 less than the $182,000
excess revenue amount reported during the first eight months of 2003. The $104,000 amount is $231,000 greater than the budgeted negative $127,000. A complete management discussion of these results will be included in the
next packet mail (mid-October).
3. CUSTOMER SERVICE:
In September 2004, 509 phone calls were received by Customer Service, less 126 hang ups = 383 calls distributed during the 21 business days in the month.
Areas receiving the highest number of calls from the ACBL’s toll free line:
Member services 79
Club 74
Address change 60
Membership 49
Customer Service e-mails: 217 received and distributed. 26 pertained to the opt out of tournament notification program. The number of opt out requests decreased from 60 received in August. The decline is attributed to fewer tournament e-mail ads distributed in September compared to August.
Areas receiving the highest number of e-mails from the customer service mailbox:
Member service 39
Club 29
Opt out (Data Entry
and customer service) 26
4. MARKETING:
Privacy – Attorney Betty Steele met with a group of ACBL managers this month to discuss our privacy rules. The meeting was very encouraging. Essentially, she said that we can distribute most information (other than financial and medical data) freely as long as that is clear in our privacy policy. She will edit the policy and get back to us with some answers to issues such as information on minors and more restrictive Canadian laws.
Web site – We are in the Quality Assurance phase for both the new Join/Renew and Opt-Out functions. These will be online in October. A few interesting results from September: The home page logged 87,019 visits averaging 1:19 minutes. This is very positive, meaning people are reading the news items. Learn to Play Bridge logged 6,463 visits. The new Conventions and Carding definitions received 1,166 visits averaging 3:55 minutes, and the Introduction to Duplicate Bridge page had 1,160 visits averaging 2:32 minutes. These two pages ranked #36 and #37 of the most frequently visited. The school bridge site was #49 with 805 visits.
Bulletin – The proposed new bylaws were published in the October Bulletin (pg. 72 – 75) without an accompanying story and explanation. This is being clarified on the web site and will be fully explained in the November issue.
AARP – Some staff members leave Oct. 12 for the AARP Convention in Las Vegas. The convention will feature two stage presentations on online bridge with Fred Gitelman and Sheri Winestock.
School Bridge PR Project – We are expecting three proposals for school bridge promotion beginning
in 2005. Meanwhile, information on our school bridge program has been posted
on a home schooling site (homeschoolfunzone.com/math.htm) and (lessonplanspage.com).
Online Club Director Education – We are researching online education vendors to begin club director and
club director refresher courses in 2005. Guillermo Poplawsky will be the
liaison with the firm selected.
Editorial Department – For the second year in a row, we printed the Sales Department’s product guide (32 pages) and made it part of the October issue of the Bridge Bulletin. This saves money on printing and postage. An additional 50,000-product guides were printed at the same time and delivered on Wednesday with the October magazine.
Clubs – Club game renewals for 2005 have been mailed to each club along with an application for One, Two or Three Star Club status and the Jane Johnson Club of the Year nomination information. Please encourage the clubs in your District to participate. The application can be viewed on-line at:
http://www.acbl.org/documentlibrary/clubs/starapplication.pdf
and nomination information at:
http://www.acbl.org/documentlibrary/clubs/Jane%20Johnson%20letter.pdf
A list of 2005 schedule of ACBL-wide events, Fall Club Manager's newsletter,
chart of club games and flyer explaining changes in club games was included
in your September packet mail. You may also view the newsletter on-line
at:
http://www.acbl.org/documentlibrary/clubs/ClubManagerNewsletter/currentCMN.pdf
Units – The Units have been sent (via e-mail to each Unit Electronic Contact) their annual unit roster of members, the third quarter QUIP report, the Mini McKenney and Ace of Clubs quarterly update, reimbursement report and a list of unpaid Life Masters with no activity for two + years who were transferred to the holding Unit 777. The attached document is the cover letter that was sent with the Unit's "In and Out" report. We have also asked the Units to encourage the clubs to participate in the star club program. (Exhibit 2)
5. TOURNAMENT:
Orlando – We are currently at 112% of our room block at the Marriott World Center. As of Friday, they've processed 1989 reservations for Orlando (this includes
the Marriott and other hotels.)
For reference these comparable tournaments had the following number of reservations:
Reno - 1790 reservations on Feb 1
2022 reservations on March 1
14,954 tables
New Orleans - 1772 reservations on October 1
1922 reservations on November 1
12,402 tables
NAP Games – Participation was way up, revenues were slightly down. Our club revenue was $152,189. This compares to $160,998 last year. A total club report will be available in Orlando.
Tournament tables – Regional table counts remained strong despite three fewer tournaments year-to-date. Total regional tables reached 138,679, an increase of 3.6% year-to-date. Regional tournaments are averaging an increase of 100 tables per sanctioned tournament.
Sectional tournament tables are down slightly. 115,640 tables is a decrease of 2.8%. Per tournament tables are off 3 tables per sectional sanction. The number of sanctioned sectional tournaments is down 1%.
STaCs – Tables are up 3%, though tables per sanction are flat.
A complete summary is attached. (Exhibit 3)
6. TELEVISION AGREEMENT:
We have reached an agreement with Edge TV for televising of a bridge program. Programming will begin in mid-2005 with a minimum of 14 hours.
No details of format have been agreed upon, however, discussions are centering around a format of non-tournament play.
We are very optimistic about the opportunity to get bridge televised in the homes of millions of people.
7. ORLANDO PLANNING SESSION:
You will be receiving a short survey early next week. Even if you can’t be at the sessions, please take a few minutes to complete the questions. A complete and final agenda will be sent the week of October 20th. Our facilitator will be Mr. Joe Lathrop, President of OCG (Orlando Consulting Group).
8. HURRICANES:
With the exception of one club in Florida (Lee County), very limited damage was incurred by clubs due to the hurricanes. We will see negative effect on club tables for September but are pleased that all clubs are back in operation and no serious injuries to our members have been reported.
9. HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY to Dick, George and Jonathan.