District 24 Newsletter.........................Alvin Levy, District Director.........................Volume 2010.1
Published after each NABC

The attendance at the Reno spring NABC was 12,196.5, slightly lower than expectations.  In the past, Reno has had the three highest attended spring NABCs.   The tournament site, the Grand Sierra Resort was isolated and it was difficult to eat outside the Hotel between sessions.  There were shuttle busses going downtown for those that had some time on their hands, and their were many good restaurants within the Hotel, although to get a reservation at the better restaurants you had to make an early reservation.  The ACBL is exploring a contract for the spring of 2016 in the downtown area where there are more things to do and more restaurants close by.

Membership continues to increase and stands at 159,900, 5,730 higher than a year ago.  This due to a decrease in the loss of current members and a recent amnesty promotion program that encouraged those with lapsed membership to rejoin.

2009 Regional table count was up by 1,115 to 174,510.  There were 121 Regionals in 2008 and 2009.  Sectional table count was up by 8,270 to 161,550.  There were 894 Sectionals in 2008 and 924 Sectionals in 2009.  STaC table count was up by 7,200 to 107,550, with 71 STaCs in 2008 and 65 STaCs in 2009.  Overall club games table count was up 44,600, to 2,260,060 and online club table count was up 103,320 to 584,175.

The Cooperative Advertising Program, which subsidizes advertising by clubs, Units and teachers for beginner/newcomer ad campaigns, continues to be utilized, with 357 grants in 2009.  Teachers and Clubs should take advantage of this program.  For more information go to http://www.acbl.org/marketing/coopAdvertising.html

Reno ACBL Board of Directors Actions

Special Games at Clubs (so-called triple point games) are reduced in number and awards.  Specifically... 

The month of February is reserved for Junior Fund Games, the month of April is reserved for charity games and the month of September is reserved for International Fund games and in those months any and all ACBL sanctioned club sessions may be special games for the named funds.  In the remaining nine months of the year one game per month per sanctioned session may be a special game for either the Junior Fund, International Fund, Educational Foundation or charity. 

The masterpoint rating for all of these special games will be 70% of Sectional Rating maintaining the current cap of 6.00 masterpoints.

Effective date: July 1, 2010.  This motion carried 23-2.

Finally, after many years of pushing to limit these games, Rich DeMartino appointed a committee to make a recommendation and their recommendation was approved.

Games at Clubs:  All sanctioned games held at clubs, with the sole exception of STaCs, are to be counted in Ace of Clubs masterpoint races at Unit, District and ACBL wide levels.

Super Senior Pairs: A Super Seniors Pairs (age 70+) shall be established as an NABC+ event, to be held on the last two days of the Fall NABC, with starting times of 10 AM & 3 PM.

Annual Extended Unit Team Games: The regulations on Special Unit Games were amended as follows.  A Unit may use two of its three extended team game sanctions to run a 2-stage event, with a Round Robin phase of at least 4 matches to qualify teams to a KO bracket.

Senior Age: A motion to raise the age for Senior games to 60, from 55, over a five year period was defeated 16-9.

Top District NABC+ finishers

District 24 players had their share of high finishers in NABC+ events.  Congratulations to Andrew Stark & Franco Baseggio for winning the inaugural Platinum Pairs, a six-session event restricted to players who have earned 50 platinum masterpoints over the three calendar years prior, earned at least 200 platinum masterpoints lifetime, or have attained Platinum Life Master or Grand Life Master rank.  Congratulations to Scott Levine & Judi Radin, winners of the Silver Ribbon Pairs.

North American Open Pairs, Flight A: Michael Polowan - Jared Lilienstein, 2nd; Jeff Hand - Gail Greenberg, 13th.

Platinum Pairs: Winners - Andrew Stark - Franco Baseggio; Gary Gottlieb, 2nd;  Roy Welland, 8th; Jared Lilienstein, 11th; Alan Sontag, 13th; R Jay Becker, 15th; Martin Fleisher, 22nd; Winthrop Allegaert, 26th.

Mixed Pairs: Winners - Scott Levine - Judi Radin; Susan Picus, 14th; Alison Wilson - Kent Mignocchi, 15th.

Silodor Open Pairs: Alan Sontag, 3rd; Chris Willenken, 7th; David Maidman - Marin Marinov, 16th; Marc Nathan, 17th.

North American Pairs Flt B: Jack Alhale - Rozi Alhale, 5th; Igor Milman - Oleg Rubinchik, 7th.

Women’s Pairs: Margie Gwozdzinsky, 7th; Laurie Vogel, 14th; Sue Picus, 17th.

Women’s Swiss: Debbie Rosenberg, 7th.

Jacoby Open Swiss Teams: Zia Mahmood, 2nd; Kevin Bathurst, 7th; Winthrop Allegaert - Judith Bianco - Lapt Chan, 8th; Andrew Rosenthal - Aaron Silverstein, - Michael Rosenberg, 10th; Chris Willenken - Roy Welland - Christal Henner-Welland, 11th; Melih Ozdil, 15th; James Cayne, 16th; Adam Wildavsky, 20th.

Vanderbilt KOs: Martin Fleisher, 2nd; Bjorn Fallenius, 3rd/4th; Richard Schwartz. 9th/16th; James Cayne, 9th/16th;  Joe Grue, 9th/16th; Judith Bianco - Winthrop Allegaert - Lapt Chan, 9th/16th.