January 2023 - 14

Booster shot
Glasson's second term signals changing role of ACBL president
By Chip Dombrowski
T
year
* a single one-year term.
With such a large group, it was
difficult to forge consensus. With so
few opportunities to meet, progress
was slow. And just about the time
any president might get a handle on
things and feel ready to get started,
their term would be up.
Seeing the futility of trying to create
real change, some presidents contented
themselves with racking up
miles visiting regionals and talking
with players along the way.
Beginning in 2020, the Board began
removing those obstacles to change.
They met monthly, electronically, and
passed a reorganization plan that will
gradually reduce the size of the Board
to 13. Later that year, then-President
Georgia Heth broke tradition by
running for a second term, becoming
the first ACBL president to serve two
years.
She won't be the last. Joann Glasson
has been elected to a second term.
Glasson didn't go into last year
planning on serving more than one
year, but over time she came to see
the wisdom of Heth's precedent. It
would not be surprising if two-year
presidencies become the norm.
" The job has changed, " she said.
" It's not just honorary. It's become a
serious position that has a lot to do
with governing the organization.
" I think I owe another year. Believe
me, I'm tired. I've been to one regional
outside my district. I haven't had
14 | Bridge Bulletin | January 2023
he role of ACBL president
used to be largely ceremonial,
by tradition and due to
structural barriers that limited what
a president could realistically accomplish.
Among those barriers:
* a large board with 25 members
* a limitation of three meetings per
time. I've been full-time on the job. "
The Board started a number of initiatives
in 2022 that Glasson would
like to see through in 2023. Among
them:
* Boost, a joint program with the
ACBL Educational Foundation, to
help teachers associated with bridge
clubs find students interested in
beginner classes through digital
marketing.
* A thorough review of the ACBL
information technology department
that produced recommendations
which need to be implemented.
* The creation of EDGAR, software
to detect online cheating, and the
Institute of Bridge Arbitration, a body
designed to quickly adjudicate the
large number of cheating cases.
" We can't accept the
status quo. If this group of
people can't do it, it probably
can't be done. I wouldn't
put another year into this
if I wasn't so impressed
with my colleagues. When
you're a president of a
board, if your other board
members aren't enthusiastically
supportive, you get
nowhere. "
" The number one thing is the return
to face-to-face bridge and seeing
what we can do to get our teachers
teaching again, " Glasson said.
" Everything we do has to be geared
toward membership, membership,
membership. "
ACBL membership has declined
by 17%, almost 28,000 members,
since the start of the pandemic. But
the losses in membership are driven
primarily by a failure to bring in
new members at a pace sufficient to
replace normal attrition. The ACBL
gained 42% as many new members in
2022 as it did in 2019. Although that's
a substantial improvement over 2021,
it remains far below the level needed
to stabilize.
Boost started as a pilot program
with about 30 teachers who were
offering face-to-face beginner classes
this past fall. Because advertising
started so late, it generated more prospective
students for those teachers'
next set of classes than the one being
advertised. Led by Ed Foundation
President Robert Todd, the program
now supports about 60 teachers, and
advertising for classes beginning in
January is starting earlier. Refinements
are being made as Todd and
others learn what works. Plans are to
continue expanding it throughout the
year.
" Teachers are happy to see the
ACBL doing something, " Glasson
said.
The Board targeted the program
to face-to-face teaching in hopes of
getting better results with membership
numbers. " For whatever reason,
we can't grow membership online, "
Glasson said. " It's the 'stickiness' of
face-to-face, as one teacher put it -
the relationships, the buddies you
meet who get you hooked. Online is
kind of sterile. "
Boost also aims to help clubs,
particularly those affiliated with the
teachers in the program, by getting
them new members.
One of Glasson's proudest accomplishments
from 2022 is the
IT review conducted by a volunteer
committee led by Jay Whipple. Technology
issues have long plagued the
ACBL, and the issue has been prom
January 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2023
