July/August 2023 Volume 55, No. 4
President’s Message By Betty Starzec President District 16
J
uly 2023: As I write this post, it is mid-June and I am getting excited about the San Antonio Regional, July 3-9. Even if you have not yet booked your reservations, I would still like you to consider coming to San Antonio to play in the tournament. While many players still have not returned to face-to-face play, we need to recognize that the contracts for most of our sectional and regional tournaments were negotiated pre-Covid. This means that our units are facing significant losses due to failure to meet room requirements. So, again, I am asking you to consider going to San Antonio (and other tournaments), especially if you have not yet returned to face-to-face play. The new Executive Director for the ACBL, Bronia Jenkins of Vero Beach, Florida wants, “Bridge to be fun at whatever level it’s played,” and has started some initiatives to make that happen including reconnecting with lapsed members and encouraging a return to face-to-face play. This initiative will include a follow-up at the unit and/or club level for a personal touch. For me, playing face-to-face and seeing friends in person at the table is worth its weight in gold. I look forward to seeing many more positive initiatives from Bronia.
Scorecard July/August 2023
At the time this is printed new ACBL Online Community Games for players with fewer than 50 masterpoints will have taken place on June 20. Obviously I cannot tell you how successful this was, but the ACBL recognizes that it is difficult for clubs to have successful games for the 0-50 crowd. What makes this special is that it starts with a quick bridge tip, followed by 12 boards played on BBO and finishes with a Zoom mini-lesson. Let’s hope these community games (0-20 and 0-50) will find a regular place for our newcomers in their schedule. To me, the end game, of course, is to make them comfortable playing in our face-to-face clubs with more seasoned players. Obviously, this post has focused on the return to face-to-face play. We need our clubs and tournaments to be successful but it all begins with you! Looking forward to seeing many of you in San Antonio at the Fourth of July Regional!
♠♥♦♣