Tournament Oversight Committee Guidelines

Our primary purpose is to ensure that volunteers, who might not have a lot of experience in running regional tournaments, will be helped to avoid some of the pitfalls that could hurt attendance and avoid losses due to overspending. Our role is to provide guidance in accordance to district guidelines. This document outlines those guidelines and may be revised at any district meeting.

1. The host unit is responsible for organizing the tournament, including the appointment of the tournament chair, the recruitment of volunteers, and all of the local operations associated with putting on the tournament.

2. The contract with the playing site must be submitted at least 24 months in advance. The contract must include room rate, comp room policy and playing space charges.

3. The budget must be submitted 12 months in advance. The budget must account for registration gifts, daily bulletin, hospitality, advertising, novice/IN program (including trophies for all strata, a party, lectures and a room for the novice/IN coordinator), caddies, and any other expenses associated with the actual play(director’s fees, sanction fees, hand records, computers, supply fees, etc.). The tournament coordinator will supply estimates of the actual play fees based on projected table counts. Note: Overall and section top prizes are suggested but no longer required.

4. The schedule must be submitted 12 months in advance.

5. The financial report must be submitted 2 weeks after completion of the tournament.

6. The committee will not approve a schedule that has two regional championships starting opposite the first or second round of a knockout when the total expected attendance is fewer than 1400 tables.

7. A full novice/IN schedule must be provided and highlighted separately in all ads and flyers.

8. Per person, entry fees are $11 per session except for under 100 MP games ($8) and for district 10 residents 21 years of age or younger ($5). The oversight committee may grant exceptions.

9. The host unit may grant free plays to its volunteers, but they will be debited against the host unit’s share of the profits.

10. District fees for single site regionals are ½ of the net profit, and for split sites, $1 per table. One half of the collected District fees are distributed to all units not hosting a full or split regional within the year, based equally upon unit membership and unit participation in that years district regionals.

Additional items which have been designated by the district board of directors include:

Handicapping the top bracket knockout events is required for Regionals, other than Tunica and Biloxi, using the rule that if the last team had less than 20%MP than the top team, the bracket will be handicapped. Tunica and Biloxi have the option to follow this rule if the chairman so choses.

If ACBL Mid-Chart Conventions are allowed, it must be stated on the tournament program.

The Treasure of D-10 will reimburse Host Units of D-10 Regionals for novice promotion expenses up to $1500 for each regional(full or split).

There will be no D-10 regional scheduled less than six weeks between another D-10 regional. However this may slide to as few as four weeks if the Tournament Co-coordinator and the district oversight committee agree.

Target profits for regional will be between 5 and 18%.

Only indirect costs that are directly traceable to “traditional tournament expenses” are chargeable to a regional. Items purchased by a unit which might be used at other times are NOT approved as expenses of district sponsored tournaments. For example, this policy allows for renting tables but not for buying tables or bid-boxes (Units are encouraged to share bid-boxes for district regionals).

Current Chair: Clay Hall

Current members: Art Lowen, Jack Tidball