Volume 58, No. 4
July/August 2026
President’s Message
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By Jamie Southerland President District 16
ummer is here, the air conditioning is humming, and across Texas and beyond, bridge players are finding their way to the table. Whether you’ve been playing for decades or just discovered duplicate bridge this spring, welcome – and let me take a few minutes to give you the lay of the land. One question I often hear from newer players is some version of: “Wait, who exactly is in charge of all this?” It’s a fair question. When you sit down at your local club on a Tuesday afternoon, you’re connected to a remarkably well-organized world that stretches from your neighborhood all the way to Lausanne, Switzerland – a series of concentric circles, each one containing and supporting the one inside it. Club The club is where most of us start. Your local club is chartered and sanctioned by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), which means it meets certain standards and is authorized to award masterpoints. Clubs in District 16 range from small community groups to large bridge centers, but they all serve the same essential purpose: regular play, masterpoints, and a place to fall in love with the game. Unit Surrounding your club is the unit – a regional grouping of clubs in your area. District 16 has 18 units
Scorecard July/August 2026
across most of Texas and all of Mexico. If you’re in the Austin area, that’s Unit 207, the Texas Capital Bridge Association. Your ACBL membership is held through your unit, and units do far more than manage rosters: they run sectional tournaments (a step up from club games in both size and masterpoint awards), support charitable activities, and advocate for bridge in their communities. District Those units, in turn, belong to District 16 – our district is one of 25 in the ACBL. The district is governed by a board of directors elected by the units, and the president is elected from that board. (That’s me – Hello.) Districts run regional tournaments, larger still and richer in masterpoints, and publish resources like the Scorecard you’re reading right now, the I/N Newsletter, the website and the emails you receive. ACBL All this lives under the umbrella of the ACBL headquartered in Horn Lake, Mississippi. With roughly 120,000 members across 25 districts in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Bermuda the ACBL sanctions clubs, maintains the masterpoint system, sets ethical standards including the Zero Tolerance Policy, and runs three North American Bridge Championships each year: Spring, Summer, and Fall. continued on 6