May 2020 - 9

A Message
from the President
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.

BY GEORGIA HETH

I struggle each time I compose this message with the fact that
it is published more than a month after I write it. It is especially
hard now, because what we are doing, what we are facing and
what you are facing changes by the day, sometimes even by the
hour. But what won't change in the month between writing and
publication is how everyone involved in the workings of the bridge
world is giving their best to survive the COVID-19 crisis.
We canceled the Spring NABC, the first such cancellation ever.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank every one of the
volunteers who worked on this tournament. It is a massive undertaking for the local organizing committee to prepare for an NABC,
and this wonderful group of people was ready to go. Their work is
no less appreciated because the tournament was canceled. If they
are still interested, we can try to return to their city in the future.
I cannot praise management and staff enough for the work they have put in. The IT department worked like champions getting the Support Your Club games up and running in days.
A few days later, the individual clubs were able to start running their games online. The next
step was to get a tournament online. Projects that we would expect to take months to complete
are being done in days. Our directing staff is helping out as well and is directing online.
BBO has been wonderful partners. They have worked with us since we made a preliminary
inquiry before clubs started closing down. BBO's capacity was initially a problem, but they
managed to increase it several times. They have cooperated every step of the way. I know they
are a business and they benefit from this as well, but that does not make their efforts any less
impressive.
The Board of Directors held its first regular board meeting online in March. Many items
that were not time sensitive were deferred to the next board meeting, but we were able to
handle the things that needed to be handled. One of our board members set up webinars for us
and handled the technology issues, as we did not want to take staff away from their work. He
went so far as "remoting" into computers to resolve issues and handling the "raise your hand"
queue for me. I am not mentioning him by name because he thinks it was no big deal, but it
was. Other members helped out too. I have never seen the board work as one as well as it did
that week.
Staff has worked tirelessly in a sea of confusion and uncertainty. Management has been
facilitating, planning, forecasting and just plain figuring out what we need to do to get through
this. I am proud that the first two priorities were figuring out what we could do to help clubs
and how we could best take care of our employees. I am also proud to have been part of the
search committee that recommended we hire Joe Jones as our executive director. His signoff
on communications during this time has been, "We will get through this together," and I believe him.
Thanks to everyone for all they have done to help us get through this. Play bridge online for
your enjoyment and to help the organizations involved survive this time. My sincere sympathies to those of you who contracted this disease, and to our members, families and friends
who did not survive the disease. And remember,
We will get through this together.
Georgia K. Heth
May 2020 Bridge Bulletin

http://www.acbl.org/boardofdirectors

May 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2020