January 2025 - 9

Hennings puts focus
on tournaments in second term
A
t its meetings at the Fall
NABC, the ACBL Board of
Directors reelected Margot
Hennings of Annandale VA as ACBL
president for 2025. Hennings, who
represents Region 4 of the League,
is the third consecutive president
reelected to a second term, a trend
in the post-COVID era. But unlike
her immediate predecessors, Georgia
Heth and Joann Glasson, Hennings
now heads a smaller, 13-member
Board, the result of a years-long organizational
streamlining, and she faces
novel challenges - as well as opportunities
- in the wake of the pandemic.
At the beginning of her tenure in
2024, the Board identified a number of
strategic priorities to which Hennings
allocated significant Board resources
to address through the task forces she
created.
" The Board's chief concerns have
been membership recruitment
and retention, financial oversight,
improving our information technology
(IT), analyzing our relationship
with our main online provider
(Bridge Base Online) and the balance
between online and face-to-face
clubs, and confronting online cheating, "
Hennings said.
" Executive Director Bronia Jenkins
has been effective in leading ACBL
management to tackle these thorny
problems, working closely with the
Board on the task forces, and there
has been much success in each of
these areas, though all are ongoing
challenges for the League. "
Hennings recently surveyed her
fellow Board members to get a sense
of the progress the Board has made
since 2019, and which issues should
take priority in 2025. She used the
same survey questions as in 2019,
but when a 25-member Board was in
effect and a different management
team was at the helm.
" It's clear from the comparison of the
responses that the Board wanted (and
needed) better information to make
decisions, including financial oversight,
which is one of the key responsibilities
of a Board, and better
coordination and collaboration with
both management and staff, and that
significant strides have been made
in these areas since 2019. "
Jenkins, who was hired in April
2023, agrees.
" The relationship between Board
and management is constructive
and positive. And I strongly
believe that continuity in Board
leadership - our presidents
now serving two one-year
terms - is a significant
strength for the ACBL.
Together, these things
allow management the time required
to implement solutions to complicated
problems. "
Based on the results of the survey,
membership recruitment and retention,
financial oversight, and improving
the League's IT remain top-tier
issues for the Board. With the online
provider contract up for renewal in
June 2025, negotiations are underway
to achieve an agreement that will
meet the ACBL's needs in the future.
And as the League's computer-based
cheating detection system (EDGAR)
is now increasingly automated, the
Board will shift its attention to a new
topic in the new year: tournaments.
" In 2024, a task force focused on the
'NABC Business Model,' surveying
the membership and working with
management to develop creative and
flexible thinking for NABCs going
forward, " Hennings said. " Building on
this, tournaments in general will be a
primary focus in 2025. An all-Board
task force will hit the ground running
at the outset of 2025, with Board
members reaching out to tournament
organizers to identify specific issues
and solicit potential solutions to the
problems they face. At the Board
meetings in Memphis this coming
spring, there will be significant staff/
management/Board collaboration on
the issues critical to finding pathways
to success for our tournaments. We
will aggressively look at ways to help
the sponsoring units and districts
who run our sectionals and regionals
focusing on staffing, scheduling
(how many and when), and schedules
(events to help maximize attendance
at small and large tournaments). "
The new terms for Hennings and
her fellow Board members begin
January 1. 2
January 2025 | Bridge Bulletin |
9
January 2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2025
