January 2012 - 24

New ACBL President seeks
team effort for bridge

By Brent Manley

n her long, successful professional
career, Sharon Anderson has
frequently - she will say "almost
always" - had jobs that she didn't
know how to do. "I have learned by
doing," she notes, "and I have hung
out with a lot of talented people."
That record of learning on the job
bodes well for the ACBL as Anderson
takes over as president in January.
Her focus, she says, will be varied
but will include helping to facilitate
an effective management team at the
ACBL, listening to members and honoring the thousands of ACBL volunteers, who she considers collectively
to be "our largest asset."
"We need to recognize the volunteers and celebrate them," says Anderson, who represents District 14 on the
ACBL Board of Directors. Elected to
the board in 2008, she is finishing her
first term on the eve of taking over as
ACBL president.
She attended St. Olaf College in
Northfield MN, near Minneapolis.
While in college, she met her future
husband, Roger. They married in 1965.
She studied math and sociology, "but
I didn't want to be a math teacher,"
so she ended up running an inner-city
program for the Minneapolis council
of the Girl Scouts of America. After
five years at that job, she "retired,"
but didn't stay out of the work force
for long. "I'm kind of hyperactive,"
she says.
Before her retirement in 2002, she
spent 25 years running a leadership
center and working at the Hubert
Humphrey School of Public Affairs
at the University of Minnesota. In her
working life, she has served on the
boards of more than 100 organizations, many of them non-profit.
She is still the District 14 secretary-treasurer, making sure the district's finances stay in the black and
24 Bridge Bulletin January 2012

that all the rules are followed. When
she was elected to the national board,
she offered to give up the district
post, but she was asked to stay on.
"I have learned how organizations
run," she says, "and I believe leadership is an important thing.
"I define it as a collective. I'm hoping I can help facilitate good leadership at the ACBL."
Noting that the organization just
hired a new chief executive officer,
Robert Hartman, Anderson says she
can provide help for the immediate
future. "I have a lot of experience
with executive transitions," she says,
noting that "transition doesn't end
when you hire someone."
Bridge came into Anderson's life
after her marriage to Roger. "He was
a player and he liked it," she says.
In those days, she recalls, "we had
no money, so on Saturday nights we
played bridge."
At one point along the way, Roger
renewed his membership in the
ACBL, which had lapsed while he pursued his career in school psychology.
He had earned some masterpoints in
college, so when Sharon joined, she
realized, "I better catch up."
She eventually started playing with
some of the experts in the Minneapolis area, including Mike Flader, now a
veteran tournament director. Continuing her pattern of learning by doing,
Anderson now has more than 7600
masterpoints.
"Sharon is quite a fine player, but
she is an even better administrator,"
says Flader.
Anderson cherishes many of the experiences she has had playing bridge.
"In my life, I've had the opportunity
to meet people I would not have met
if not for bridge," she says. The game,
she adds, "is a way to connect with
interesting, nice people."

A natural organizer, Anderson
quickly moved into bridge politics
after starting duplicate. She moved
from club to unit president and has
been active on the District 14 board
since the late Seventies.
In 1994, Anderson was co-chair of
the Fall NABC in Minneapolis. Already experienced at running tournaments - "I have run a ton of them,"
she says - Anderson looked on the
NABC as "an opportunity to recruit
and train new volunteers."
It is impossible to overestimate the
value of volunteers to the ACBL, she
says. "If we had to pay them," she
notes, "I would hate to tell you what
our dues would be."
During her time as president, Anderson says she hopes to get all the
forces pulling in the same direction.
"It's not just what we do," she says,
"it's how we do it."
She plans to draw on the talents
and experience of the many talented
people who are among the ACBL's
165,000 members. "I want to listen to
what our members are saying about
where we should focus."
Anderson says one of her key goals
is to build a leadership team between
the CEO and the Board of Directors.
"We can be a demolition derby or a
positive force for the organization."
In any event, Anderson says she
plans to follow her motto: "All of us
are smarter than one of us."
r

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2012