Board business - Board committees and appointments of chairs
and members
I called or e-mailed every Board member and obtained their
preferences for committee assignments.
In almost every case I honored their preferences. I arranged the committee schedule to
accommodate these assignments, which had some minor difficulties given our
3-day schedule. Some conflicts where
inevitable.
I believe that assignments should be made on (1) desire to
serve, (2) knowledge and (3) experience…in that order. Desire to serve will bring the best out of
the committee members, and knowledge and expertise will produce the best
results…obviously. For the most part,
the best financial people were on Finance; the best bridge people were on
Bridge, etc.
I obtained input from past presidents including ex-board
members. Committee chairs, once
selected gave input on their co-chair and sub-committee chairs.
Committee chairs were selected based on four factors: (1)
knowledge in the area, (2) ability to conduct professional and efficient committee
meetings and committee business on the floor of the board, (3) capability to easily
communicate electronically so that some committee business could be conducted
efficiently and effectively before each Board meeting, and (4) expectation to
be a take-charge and proactive chair.
The members of the Appeals & Charges committee were
chosen by politics. The members
had to have varied views and politics regarding disciplinary matters. For this committee I did not ask the chair
for recommendations as that might lead to stacking the committee.
My assessment of the committee chairs:
Finance. Richard,
new as a chair of Finance, was acclaimed for his masterful job. The Finance committee’s performance was
outstanding and changed the way we allocate funds. This resulted in lower tournament fees and annual dues that would
otherwise be required for a balanced budget.
Bridge. Joan did her
usually excellent job. She epitomizes
my previous description of a good chair.
Bridge had much on its plate and prepared ahead, except for the Fall
meeting due to the closeness of our Board meeting and the World Championships
in Monaco.
Governance. Sue did
an outstanding job. As a first time
chair she went overboard in preparation and commitment to doing a good job.
Appeals & Charges.
Virgil was an obvious choice as a fair minded and expert chair. Virgil’s health precluded him from attending
two meetings and his replacement, Jonathan, did an outstanding job. Many who observed the committee’s
performance rated Jonathan’s dedication and performance as excellent.
Marketing. Bruce
desired a change from bridge and accepted the position of chair of Marketing
with enthusiasm. His committee helped
shape and critique some excellent Marketing reports put out by management.
International and Zonal Affairs. Dan’s experience in this area proved valuable and their business
was conducted effectively.
Audit & CEO Review:
Chuck’s expertise in these areas led to the committees performing up to
par. CEO review put out an outstanding
document for future evaluation. Audit
uncovered and corrected some important problems, serving us well as a watchdog for
our internal affairs.
Appeals. Given the
recent notorious cases in Appeals, the best possible team was put
together. This was a do-or-die year as
the future of Appeals was on the line.
As Director of Appeals, Joan was low key as the Director should be, and
greatly effective. The selection of
Barry Rigal as chair was a find. The
two, working with Rich Colker, did an outstanding job and were applauded for
their efforts and success.
Seeding. Nadine and
Bruce did a fine job. It is difficult
to access the productivity of seeding, but there were few complaints, which
indicated great success.
Bylaws. The
committee headed by Nadine has an ongoing assignment to rewrite our
bylaws. While the end result is still
to be judges when finished, they have spent a great deal of time working on
their assignment.
The committee work was outstanding and the chairs were
outstanding. I take great pride in
their productivity.
On the floor of the Board I concentrated on running an
efficient and effective meeting. I
never spoke on an issue unless I gave up the chair (a total of two times in three
meetings). I took my role as presiding
officer as a sacred trust and tried to perform accordingly. I believe that I succeeded in respecting the
position. On some special matters I
tried to be level headed and do what I thought best for the body independent of
my views on the subject.
As President I tried to spread goodwill everywhere I
went...at NABCs, Regionals, Sectionals and clubs. I had great enthusiasm wherever I spoke or attended District and
Unit meetings. I spoke to Newcomers
wherever I went and encouraging them to enjoy the game by learning it
better. To that end I distributing
books and informative Internet addresses.
I encouraged youths and juniors by writing letters for achievement and
sending book and software. My efforts
in this area were outlined in my mid-year report. I honored the top five bridge clubs with plaques, which I
presented personally.
I wrote a column…A Message from the President … that
appeared bi-monthly in the Bridge Bulletin.
I believe these uplifting articles were very well received and helped to
give a feeling that bridge is Alive and Well. I continued to run the ACBL’s world computer-bridge championship,
this year as part of the European Bridge League’s first Open Championship. I continued to make friends internationally
and tried to spread goodwill as a spokesperson for the ACBL.
I thank the many Board members who enthusiastically
supported my efforts and made it a pleasure to work with the Board. I thank Dick and Jan for hosting the
Hospitality suite in New Orleans. It
was a pleasure watching them in action…and Beverly and I had a great time with
them. I thank Beverly for a great year
as first lady. Beverly was a great
visible and personable hostess and spread goodwill wherever we went…she watched
over me and worked selflessly.
Personal comments:
Board Politics.
We are a business as well as a service organization, and to
succeed we should function as a business.
Putting your best foot forward is the best way, which can only come if
we remove the politics of the Board from our business. Choosing chairs based on politics is more
than a losing proposition, it goes against our responsibility to the membership
as well as trustees of the future of our game.
We should be respectful of each other…both on the floor of
the Board and in email communication.
Our actions in these areas are often visibly to the
membership, and may either add to or detract from our reputation as a Board and
surely influence our effectiveness and success.
As Trustees of bridge in North America, we are a body that
answers to our shareholders, the bridge community. Many on the Board continue to put their Board loyalties ahead of
our Board business. One example is
“commitments.” Board members should not
make a commitment to vote for a person or for an issue, and should only vote
for a person or issue if they think it is in the best interests of bridge. We are not a club, nor a family, although we
have made many friends. First and
foremost we are Trustees of the game.