2009 Washington D.C. Report

Hi all.

The Washington National was held in one site the Wardman Marriott Hotel which had 3 towers and tons of space. 14,115 tables played, about 1,500 more than expected. There were many restaurants just down the hill and the Marriott had some great meals specials at the Hotel. All in all it was a very successful tournament. The hospitality and entertainment were excellent, especially the Capital Steps and the Mentalist that performed.

Our CEO Jay Baum reported we had gained 1421 new members the first half of the year, he thinks we could possible add another 1400 by year end which would make 2009 a great year for membership, and retention of members has been good at over 60% Here in District 16 we have done our part what a significant increase in membership. We think 2009 will match 2008 and likely exceed it in the number of tournament tables.

Dee Wallace the new CFO has come on board and I have high expectations for her.

The Youth NABC held at the Washington National was a huge success with many youngsters from all over attending.

The ACBL completed the lease purchase of a new headquarters in Horn Lake, Mississippi. We are starting build out and hope to move in about 6 months. Horn Lake is only about 10-12 miles from the Memphis airport I expect this to be a show place with an expanded Library and Hall of Fame that will be very interesting for members to visit.

The 2010 World Championship will be held in the US Oct 1-16 at the Marriott Hotel in Philadelphia PA. This will be the Open World Championship that is held once every 4 years so plan on attending it will be quite a while before you will another such opportunity.

The ACBL web site has a new link called NABC Winners where interested members can look up by name or event winners of all our past NABC events.

The ACBL again voted to make the first Saturday night dress-up night. Players are encouraged to participate.

Any member who pays his dues within 90 days after his membership paid-through date shall have his master points recorded free of charge, such dues payments credited from the original paid-though date, and no break in membership recorded.

A committee was formed jointly with management to examine and suggest changes to the relationship of clubs and management. Anyone with suggestions can e-mail them to me.

In addition to the ACBL financial report annually published in the ACBL bulletin the ACBL financial report presented to the Board of Governors at the National’s will be published on the ACBL web site no later than one week after the conclusion of the Spring NABC.

The 6 session Platinum pairs will start in March 2010 and the Silodor open pairs will be moved to Thursday-Friday (before the last week-end) of the Spring NABC. The Vanderbilt will start on Monday instead of Sunday.

In stratifighted and limited pair and team events, once the flight of the pair or team is determined, stratification within each flight may be based, at sponsor option, on the average master point holding of the team or pair. This option may be exercised in both club or unit games, and tournaments but not in qualifying events.

At sponsors option in bracketed knockouts for the movement of boards in three-way matches you can have North-South move he boards to the home table of the team which you have just played. This would replace the instructions that teams will take the boards to their home tables.

Units, Teachers, and Clubs can apply to get permissions to contact locally newspapers to have the FREE bridge column (Bridge Bites) inserted in there paper. This free column has a space to insert the name and number of a local contact for bridge in there area. This is a great way to create more bridge players and readers for the papers.

The fall NABC will be in sunny San Diego and it starts the day after Thanksgiving. Nov 26 to Dec 6. It will be great for some not to have the tournament over Thanksgiving.

Looking forward to seeing all of you at the tables

Dan