April 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
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.

A Message
from the President

BY GEORGIA HETH

I was surprised at the response I received
to my February President's Message.
I would like to clarify one thing from that
column: I hope that ACBL membership
grows by leaps and bounds and that tournament attendance stops its decline. The Board
and management are working hard with
those goals in mind.
What I was proposing in my February
message was "concurrent planning," a term
I became familiar with in foster parenting:
what you do if A happens and what you do if
B happens. One of the attributes management is looking for in our new director of
marketing is the ability to increase awareness of bridge, to make it easier to recruit new members. One of our members sent me a letter with many suggestions on how to increase awareness
of bridge, which I forwarded to the marketing department. It will be given to
the new director when they are hired.
We have two task forces making presentations in Columbus. The Transition Task Force is looking at how to take non-core committees away from
the Board of Directors and, subsequently, how those committee issues
should be handled. (Core functions of the BOD include governance, finance,
audit and strategic planning.)
The Tournament Task Force is looking at what can be done to help sponsors run successful tournaments. Last year, the task force reviewed information compiled by David Rodney using ACBL data. David is a volunteer
from Fairfax VA who is working with the task force. Analyzing the data, they
saw how tournament problems differ around the ACBL. This year, the task
force is working to develop strategies using that information.
We also set aside a full day to discuss the restructuring of the Board of
Directors. The Board of Governors sent the motion that failed last fall back
to be reconsidered, with permission to make all of the changes necessary
because of the timing. That was done. The new motion was on the spring
Board agenda. It is my hope that we either passed the motion, or determined
a plan that can be passed, or determined that there are not the necessary
votes to pass a reorganization motion so that we can stop the BOD's effort
to reorganize and leave it to others if they want to do so. I will update you on
what happened in my next column.
I have been to three tournaments so far this year and have had a great
time meeting people and playing bridge. Thank you to all the players who
have been so friendly and welcoming!

April 2020 Bridge Bulletin

http://www.acbl.org/boardofdirectors

April 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2020