Report from Bill Cook, Jr.

District 10 Representative

Agreed to extend the employment contract of ACBL CEO Jay Baum for one year until June 30, 2008
Approved a contract to sell the Memphis Headquarters for $1,000,000.00 with an obligation to lease back our office space for 20 months from the Buyer. Sale may not close as Buyer has a 60 day inspection period and could walk. I am on the real estate committee that will make recommendations to the Board about a replacement site.
Deferred action until the Spring Board meeting on whether to have a month designated as Educational Foundation month with the proceeds going to the Educational Foundation.
Defeated a motion to issue ACBL Masterpoints to ACBL players attending a European Open Bridge Championship.
Defeated a motion by a vote of 13-12 to form a new 501(c) 3 Non Profit entity called ACBL Foundation. This entity would have made it possible to have a way to make tax deductible contributions for a broader range of activities not currently allowed by the Charter of either the ACBL Charity Foundation or the ACBL Educational Foundation. I supported this motion but it was defeated because of the fear that this would ultimately lead to the elimination of the Charity Foundation and the Educational Foundation and how the funds were allocated. Since the members of these Foundation Boards are also ACBL Board Members, the ACBL Board in reality, actually controls the way funds are disbursed from the Foundations and the Foundations couldn’t be merged or dissolved without the ACBL Board voting to do so.
Voted to eliminate the requirement that a club hold an annual sanctioned charity game to benefit the ACBL Charity Foundation. However, if the club elected to hold Charity games the first and every other one would be run for the benefit of the ACBL Charity Foundation.
Voted to limit the ACBL President’s expense budget to $51,800 annually plus Consumer Price Index (CPI) increases. In addition, the President would be reimbursed from this expense allowance for travel to only one bridge event outside Zone 2 per year.
Approved a balanced budget for 2007.
Reduced most tournament sanction fees by $0.18 per table with regionals being reduced by $0.26 per table.
Increased fees charged for various classes of tournament directors.
Defeated a motion to permit part-time ACBL tournament directors to serve as an elected or appointed member of a unit, District or Conference Board. Management has an employment policy that states an employee cannot serve in this way and still work for ACBL.
Approved the formation of a Board Oversight Committee consisting of the three immediate past ACBL Presidents not serving as officers. The purpose being to hear complaints brought against Board Members and to take appropriate action to discipline offenders.
Approved a special committee to review and make recommendations regarding the relationship between the ACBL and the NBO’s i.e. United States Bridge Federation, Canadian Bridge Federation, Mexican Bridge Federation, etc. This action was brought on by the World Bridge Federation (WBF) voting to increase its dues over the objections of most of ACBL’s WBF delegates, from $0.50/member/year to $1.00/member/per year over a 2 year period beginning 1/1/08.
A motion to register all US School Players for ACBL Membership was withdrawn. WBF had requested statistics from ACBL on the number of young people learning to play bridge. ACBL will supply the requested information based on the Bridge in School Program participants.
Approved a full one day program of education for the ACBL Board conducted by Board Source, a consulting organization, to be held in conjunction with the spring board meeting in St. Louis. The topics to be determined by the President and Management.

Jay Baum, ACBL CEO’s report included the following:

Beginning in 2008, IRS will require ALL non-profits to file an annual report. The $25,000 gross income receipt threshold has been eliminated.
ACBL should end the year with a net membership increase of 1,000-1,200. The number of new members is up by 227 over 2005, a good trend. Total paid membership at end of October was 151,579.
Profit for the eight months ending August 31^st was $343,000 compared to a loss of $257,000 for the same period in 2005. Management expects to end the year at a break even.
The average number of tables per regional tournament in 2006 is up over the previous year.
The average number of tables per sectional tournament in 2006 is about what it was in 2005.
Participation in the bridge tournament at the AARP annual convention in October was disappointing. However great interest in bridge was indicated by the number of people who visited the ACBL booth. AARP leadership seems to be very committed to continuing to work with ACBL to promote bridge within its membership.
The TAP program has been updated and will be tested at the Houston Regional in February. Plans are to train the TAP trainers at the St. Louis NABC in March with the goal for 2007 to get as many teachers updated as possible.
“Bidding in the 21^st Century” and “Play of the Hand in the 21^st Century” along with the teacher manuals are now available through Baron Barclay.
Rick Grady has joined the staff as our new Webmaster. New features include a searchable news archive. A new home page to reflect members interest based on search terms and page visits, is under development.
Conventional Wisdom and Bidding Toolbox are just part of the Bridge Bulletin now available on the website through the Member portal. It is anticipated that the complete Bridge Bulletin will be available online sometime during 2007.
Work is underway on a tournament ranking system based on tournament masterpoints won per tournament session played. Several models are being tested and management expects to bring options to the Board of Directors in 2007 with a 2008 completion for the option selected.