DISTRICT 24 NEWSLETTER Alvin Levy Volume 03.3

Published after each NABC

United States Triumphs at the World Championships in Monaco

New Yorkers Jill Levin, Sue Picus, Nick Nickell and Adam Wildavsky, win medals

The United States won all the major championships at the World Championships held in Monaco, France, in early November. The United States took Gold in the Bermuda Bowl, the Venice Cup and the Senior Bowl. American teams also won the Bronze Medal in the Bermuda Bowl and the Senior Bowl. What a triumph for American bridge.

In one of the most dramatic finishes in Bermuda Bowl history, USA I gained 12 IMPs on the last board to dramatically defeat Italy 304-303. The champions are New Yorker Nick Nickell, along with Richard Freeman, Eric Rodwell, Jeff Meckstroth, Bob Hamman and Paul Soloway, with Sidney Lazard as non-playing captain. USA II, losing to USA I in the semifinals, defeated Norway for the Bronze Medal. The American team consisted of New Yorker Adam Wildavsky, along with Pratap Rajadhyaksha, Bobby Wolff, Dan Morse, Steve Landen and Doug Doub, with Ralph Cohen as non-playing captain.

The Venice Cup victory was captured by USA I, defeating China in the finals 229.3-210. The American team consisted of New Yorkers Jill Levin and Sue Picus, along with Kathie Wei-Sender, Betty Ann Kennedy, Janice Seamon-Molson and Tobi Sokolow, with Kent Massie as non-playing captain.

USA I took home the Gold Medal in the Senior Bowl. The winners are Gaylor Kasle, Roger Bates, Steve Robinson, Kit Woolsey, Garey Hayden and Grant Baze. USA II captured the Bronze Medal. Playing for USA II were Dennis Dawson, Arnold Fisher, Zeke Jabbour, Clement Jackson, John Mohan and John Sutherlin, with Carolyn Lynch as non-playing captain.

Kearse, Rubens, Harkavy and Maier in Hall of Fame

Four New Yorkers will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at next summer's NABC in New York City.

Amalya Kearse and Jeff Rubens will share the Blackwood Award. The Blackwood Award is given for outstanding contributions to bridge outside expertise at the table.

Harry Harkavy (1915-1965) of Miami Beach, a native New Yorker, and Merwyn "Jimmy" Maier (1909-1942) of New York City are co-winners of the Von Zedtwitz Award. The Von Zedtwitz Award is given to players who made their mark either as players (usually old-timers) or in other key areas of bridge. Both were outstanding players with many NABC titles.

For a complete write-up see the second Sunday Bulletin of the New Orleans NABC at

http://web2.acbl.org/nabc/NewOrleans03/bulletins/bulletins/secondsun.htm

How appropriate that these famous New Yorkers will be inducted into the Hall at the New York (District 3 and District 24) 2004 summer NABC.

See you all there to share in the celebration.

ACBL State of Affairs

The membership of the ACBL stands at over 166,500 up slightly from last year. This is a slight, but welcome change, from the 1% decline per year that we have been experiencing over the past few years.

Tournament play in North America has increased with play up 6% at our Regional tournaments, up 3% at our Sectional tournaments, and up 18% at our Sectional Tournaments at Clubs. These increases continue the trend that started three years ago.

The ACBL is in an excellent financial position, with continued increases in net assets, annual revenue and budgeted expenditures. We expect to remain in a good position by continuing our policy of using sound financial practices. On the income side we expect our tournament play to remain strong, with its corresponding strong revenue stream, and on the expense side we expect to continue our policy of investing in marketing our game and improving services to our members.

The ACBL is investing in the future growth of bridge in North America, with a policy of actively marketing bridge, with 12-15% of our budget earmarked for Marketing. We are concentrating on many areas: working with our 3000+ clubs and 10,000+ teachers to help them reach new players; developing new exhibits which will be used at "Senior Living" trade shows as well as National Education trade shows; developing a program to market bridge in schools; promoting Junior bridge; and investigating other promotional activities.

The ACBL continues to have an on-line bridge presence. We have our own on-line presence partnering with e-bridge and also sanction on-line bridge with most on-line bridge providers. We expect to surpass 125,000 sanctioned tables at our on-line site this year. While growth in our paid membership has slowed down, play continues to increase.

The ACBL has redesigned its of the ACBL website (ACBL.org), which will be released very shortly. The entire website has been reformatted for easier navigation and will include a number of new features for our members and clubs that will be more accessible and user-friendly. We expect to have one of the greatest sources of Internet bridge related information.

The ACBL is actively promoting teaching bridge in schools. We have developed lesson plans and promotional material for this purpose. Our efforts have led to a total of over 250 classes being taught in North America, mostly in middle-schools and high-schools, with over 4000 students taking lessons this year. We expect these numbers to greatly increase with our planned future efforts.

We continue to promote bridge by conducting an annual World Computer-Bridge Championship, which I originated in 1996 and have coordinated every year since. The success of this activity is due, in part, to the cooperative relationship between the ACBL and the WBF and the EBL. At José Damiani’s invitation this championship has been held 3 times at WBF World Championships and at Gianarrigo Rona’s invitation this year’s 7^th annual championship was held at the EBL’s first Open Championships in Menton. Many articles have been written, but none more comprehensive than the 14-page article that appears as the lead article in the October 2003 issue of BridgeToday.com.

New Orleans NABC where everyone carries a Go-Cup

The French Quarter in New Orleans is a great place for an NABC. It has great restaurants, art shops and music at clubs and on the streets. Many just had fun walking Bourbon Street, gathering Mardi Gras beads with their go-cups in hand. Harrah’s was within walking distance for those who like some table action.

Our NABCs are truly international with players from 27 countries. There was a large numbers from Bermuda, Japan, Sweden, Turkey, England and Italy.

Attendance was running greatly beyond expectations but fell of dramatically over the final weekend. This was probably due to the local players keeping away because to the traffic jams created by the Bayou Classic football game festivities. The final table count of 12,402.5 was still slightly above original expectations, and greater than the summer NABC in Long Beach.

At each NABC there are many educational activities for Teachers, Club owners and Directors, Unit and District officials. At the New Orleans NABC there were more excellent programs.

• TAP program. Peg Cundiff gave the ACBL’s popular 10-hour seminar for people interested in learning how to teach bridge successfully. The course features teaching techniques and course materials developed by Audrey Grant but they can be used with any materials.

• ACBL’s School Bridge Lesson Program. Charlotte Blaiss, ACBL’s Director of Junior Activities, and Julie Greenberg, ACBL’s Director of Education, presented an informative session on teaching in schools and the ACBL program funded by the ACBL Educational Foundation. Kitty Cooper demonstrates the new lesson plans for school classes. I attended this session. The ACBL is making great strides in getting bridge into middle schools. Kitty Cooper has been instrumental in making this happen.

• Reception for Teachers and Club Officials. This was the ACBL’s “thank you” reception for all the teachers and club officials who worked so hard to recruit and retain our members. All teachers, Accredited, Registered, Easybridge!, Certified, were welcome, along with club directors, managers and owners. I attended this reception and presented Barbara Seagram and Alex Kornel a special plaque in recognition of their great success as proprietors of the Kate Buckman Bridge Club, one of the top five ACBL clubs

• Easybridge! Presenters Meeting. Marti Ronemus, Easybridge! Program Director, held an informative and fun get-together for Easybridge presenters.

• Coffee with Carol. Carol Robertson, manager of the ACBL Club Membership Department, and other ACBL staff gave an update on what’s new with clubs. Club owners and managers from all over North America were present. I always enjoy listening to Carol.

• Free Bridge I/N Lessons with Audrey Grant. Teacher and author Audrey Grant offered a series of fun bridge lessons for those running I/N programs.

• ACBLscore Q & A. Rick Beye, Chief Tournament Director, and Associate National Tournament Director Guillermo Poplawsky, addressed the new and old features of this program.

• Newcomer Reception. A Newcomer Reception was held between sessions. I spoke at the reception and presented bridge reading material to many of the Newcomers.

• The Business Side of Running a Club. Successful club manager Marti Ronemus helped Club owners develop a concrete plan to bring in and keep more players and have them play more.

• Club Directors Continuing Education Course. Three sessions were held to help club directors update and improve their skills.

• ACBL Education Workshop. Unit officials, Education liaisons, I/N Coordinators and teachers attended a workshop with Julie Greenberg, ACBL’s Director of Education, gaining information on ways to promote bridge and increase participation.

• Better Bridge Certified Teacher Course. Audrey Grant has developed a new continuing education opportunity for teachers. A course on a new way to introduce bridge to the absolute beginner and modern methods for teaching “bridge brush-up” was given.

New Yorkers without NABC+ win, but gather their share of high place finishes

In a rare occurrence, although there were District 24 members finishing 2^nd in four events, there were no NABC+ wins. The results are still impressive.

Life Master Pairs. 4^th Zia Mahmood; 7^th David Berkowitz - Larry Cohen; 8^th Robert Levin; 9^th Jeffrey Rothstein.

Women’s Life Master Pairs. 14^th Gail Greenberg - Laurie Vogel.

Women’s Board-A-Match Teams. 2^nd Valerie Westheimer - Judi Radin - Lynne Tarnopol - Laurie Vogel – Jacqui Mitchell - Amalya Kearse - Gail Greenberg; 5^th Debbie Rosenberg; 10^th Sandrea Friedman.

Open Board-A-Match Teams. 2^nd Sam Lev - Brian Glubok; 5^th Jill Levin, 8^th Roy Welland - Bjorn Fallenius - Zia Mahmood - Michael Rosenberg; 13^th Joe Grue - Michael Moss; 15^th Adam Wildavsky - Michael Polowan.

Senior KO Teams. 2^nd Mel Colchamiro.

Edgar Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs. 4^th Zia Mahmood; 5^th Robert Levin; 6^th Mark Feldman; 7^th Larry Cohen; 18^th Winthrop Allegaert - Jaggy Shivdasani; 19^th John Fout; 21^st Roy Welland - Bjorn Fallenius.

Reisinger Board-A-Match Teams. 2^nd Roy Welland - Bjorn Fallenius - Zia Mahmood - Michael Rosenberg; 4^th James Rosenbloom - Christal Henner-Welland; 8^th John Fout - Aaron Silverstein; 9^th James Cayne - Robert Levin; 10^th Nick Nickell

North American Swiss Teams. 3^rd Winthrop Allegaert - Jaggy Shivdasani; 5^th Michael Polowan; 10^th Keith Garber - Robert Heitzman Jr.

Board Actions

Given our good financial picture, there will be:

No membership dues increase (last raised January 1, 2001);

No sanction fee increases for clubs or tournaments (last changed April 1, 2002);

TD Tournament Session Fees increase of 4%, significantly less than the 6.5% (3.5% salary + 3% catch-up) originally projected;

NABC entry fees will increase by $1/player/session ($4 per table) in 2004. 25% ($1 per table) of the increase will go to the sponsoring organization to be used towards hospitality. Table fees will go up at NABCs by $4, so the 2004 summer NABC will now receive $1 more per expected table. That’s an increase of approximately $13,000.

The first Youth Challenge Cup Competition will take place in New York July 13 - 14, 2004 during the Summer NABC. Three National Teams from Europe will represent Zone One, and will play against Zone Two, represented by two teams from USA and one team from Canada.

The current format of the North American Pairs (NAPs) will remain the same with some financial changes.

• At the club level only the surcharge per player will be reduced from the current $7.00 per table to $4.00 per table.
• ACBL Management will promote this event more extensively at the club, Unit, District and National levels throughout North America.
• At the Club Stage each club may hold two club qualifying per month.

· The conditions of contest have been amended to make it easier for players, units, and districts to comply. Specifically, if there is no unit final, a four-session district final will no longer be required. Also, it will no longer be necessary for a player to be a member of the unit where the NAP game is being played.

District 3 and District 24 will co-sponsor the 2004 summer NABC. This was a contentious matter where some Board members argued against District 3 and 24 co-sponsoring the summer 2004 NABC. This was over the additional suite given because two Districts are co-sponsor this NABC. Joan Gerard and I took this matter personally as it is unconscionable that others would question our motives or integrity in representing our Districts or in our Districts’ motivation for co-sponsoring this event. Many Board members expressed to Joan and me that they were embarrassed to be part of a Board that would act in this manner.

Schedule Items for Approval for NYC NABC - Summer 2004

• The Spingold game times will be 10:00A and 4:00P. The times will be 10:00A and 4:30P when screens are in use.
• Game times for the 0-5000 and 0-1500 Spingold will be 1:00P & 7:30P until the round of 8.... Then game times will be the same as the Spingold, 10:00A & 4:30P.
• On the first Thursday, July 8th - there will be a two session Regionally rated Stratified Pairs game for the benefit of the International Fund and the ACBL Educational Foundation. Entry fees/funds will be apportioned per current regulations. Proposed entry fee is $35/person.

World Bridge Federation Information

I have been elected to represent the ACBL at the Executive Council of the World Bridge Federation. My 3-year term starts January 1, 2004.

At their recent meeting in Monaco, the WBF voted to raise the age limit for Seniors effective January 1,2005, in annual increments of one year until age 60 is reached: 2005 age 56, 2006 age 57, 2007 age 58, 2008 age 59, 2009 and thereafter 60. At the 2004 spring NABC meeting in Reno, the ACBL will consider conforming to this schedule.

The 12th World Team Olympiad is planned for Istanbul, Turkey from October 23 to November 6, 2004. In addition, the 2nd Senior International Cup and 2nd World University Teams Bridge Cup (October 24- 30) and the 3rd World International Mixed Team Championships (November 1 or 2 to November 5) will be held.

Regrettably, recent events in Turkey make it unlikely that players from North America will feel comfortable traveling to Istanbul. In all likelihood the venue will have to be changed.

Regarding Brown Sticker Conventions. It appears that our players and coaches are opposed to the use of Brown Sticker Conventions in world competition. These methods are highly complex. It is my impression that they require extensive study and guesswork as to whom you might play in the late stages of competition. In addition, there appear to sometimes be used to confuse and often there is an advantage due to implications that are not completely explained. In addition, when the finals are shown on viewgraph throughout the world, it is very difficult for our players and the observing media to understand what is taking place.

Based on these reasons and the fact that our top players and coaches are opposed to their use, I would hope our representatives act jointly in the future to oppose the use of Brown Sticker Conventions in International play.

Personal Remarks as President

This year, as president, I have officially attended over 20 tournaments and many clubs throughout North America, meeting and honoring local volunteers, greeting players, and honoring the top bridge clubs. I must report to you one of my observations and one of the reasons why the ACBL has had such great success in servicing the needs of our players. The heart of our organization, the many volunteers who contribute their efforts to organizing and running the many bridge activities that take place throughout North America. This includes the thousands of volunteers who are members of the local sponsoring organizations that run our tournaments and many other bridge activities, and also the large number of “experts” who contribute their time and efforts to many areas of the game. I have included some of my observations in the July and December ACBL Bridge Bulletin issues in my column, “A Message from the President.”

As president I get to appoint members to approximately 30 positions. It’s my privilege and honor to have the opportunity to re-appoint Aileen Osofsky as the national Chair of the Goodwill Committee for a three-year term beginning January 1, 2004.

Congratulations to District 24’s 2004 Goodwill Committee Appointments:

Jesus Arias

Lesley Decker Lucas

Stephen Lucas

Congratulations to District 24’s 2004 Charity Committee Appointments

Farley Mawyer

Anne Mittman