February 2020 - 9

The American Contract
Bridge League
President
Georgia Heth
Chair, Board of Directors
Suzi Subeck
Executive Director
Joe Jones
Chair, Board of Governors
Richard Popper

Board of Directors
District 1 * Leo Weniger
District 2 * Paul Janicki
District 3 * Carlos Muñoz
District 4 * Joann Glasson
District 5 * Brian Ellis
District 6 * Margot Hennings
District 7 * Mike Kovacich
District 8 * Georgia Heth
District 9 * Jeff Overby
District 10 * Ned Irving
District 11 * A.J. Stephani
District 12 * Dennis Carman
District 13 * Suzi Subeck
District 14 * Sharon Anderson
District 15 * Warren Smith
District 16 * Paul Cuneo
District 17 * Cindy Shoemaker
District 18 * Claire Jones
District 19 * Julie Smith
District 20 * Laurie Rowe

A Message
from the President

BY GEORGIA HETH

This is my first president's message, and as
I haven't even taken office yet as I write this, I
thought I would just share some of my thoughts.
Of concern to me is that when I started playing
bridge at age 23, I was a young bridge player, and
now at age 63, I am still a young bridge player. One
of the things greatly affecting the League is how
the increase in the average age of our members
has resulted in a corresponding decrease in the
attendance at our tournaments. There has been
much discussion about this and the decreasing
number of members of the ACBL, all centering on
how to increase both sets of numbers.
Some of the questions I would like to see discussed are: What if this
is not reversible? How do we modify our tournaments to make them
successful with lower table counts? How does the League function with a
membership of 120,000, or 140,000, instead of 160,000? I would like to see
membership and tournament table counts grow, but we need to be ready if
they don't.
The availability of volunteers is also affected by the increasing age of our
membership. At some point, our volunteers decide they are too old to keep
helping. Some jobs require an agile mind while others need a strong back.
We need many hands to help so the burden is not too great on any one
person. I asked a unit president who had recruited many new volunteers
how she did so. Her answer was to ask specific people to do specific things
she knew they could do. She said this was much more successful than
making a general request for volunteers. Bridge as we know it would not
exist without our volunteers. If we had to pay for all the work done by our
volunteers, entry fees would be unrealistic.
Bridge and bridge-related volunteer work have been a large part of my
life for almost two-thirds of my life. I am really looking forward to getting
to play bridge as I travel around to different tournaments this year, and
to getting to meet and honor our many volunteers. Please join me in
supporting the greatest game on Earth.

District 21 * Jacqueline Zayac
District 22 * David Lodge
District 23 * Kevin Lane
District 24 * David Moss
District 25 * Bob Bertoni
To contact a district director,
visit acbl.org/boardofdirectors.

February 2020 Bridge Bulletin

9
http://www.acbl.org/boardofdirectors
February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2020
