Regional Director's Update

By Paul Cuneo District 15, 16 Regional Director

Bynow you’ve seen that Bronia Jenkins, Vero Beach, Florida was selected to be the next Executive Director of the ACBL. I was very pleased with the Search Committee’s presentation of Bronia’s background and their assessment of skills as well as her presentation and interaction with the board. I’m helping with her transition and confident that she’ll be successful.

In the past few months we’ve seen some exciting trend changes:

Our membership decline is slowing. This slowdown is driven by fewer members leaving, members rejoining the league, and increases in new member recruiting. I’m more optimistic than ever that we’ll be able to stop the decline and then begin to grow.

• Tournament attendance this year is better than 2022, and more tournaments are being held.

• Face-to-face club tables jumped by 12,000 in March. This increase bodes well for future tournament attendance and provides clubs with funds to spend on new member education and recruitment.

• The New Orleans NABC was a success with 7125 tables. Congratulations to James Zhan and Ying Peng, both Sugar Land, who won the North American Pairs Flight B!

• And congratulations to all the D16 winners and top finishers.

Here are some significant board actions from the New Orleans meeting:

• Approved the Capital and Operating Budget which showed net income from operations at $100,000

• Allowed tournament sponsors to set their own vaccination requirements beginning May 15.

• Proposed a Bylaws amendment to specify that bridge disciplinary hearings will move to the Institute for Bridge Arbitration rather than the American Arbitration Association. While both groups fall under the Federal Arbitration Act, the IBA is better suited for bridge hearings as bridge players have been trained as arbitrators.

I enjoyed my time filling in as the Interim Executive Director for ACBL and am looking forward to resuming my retirement with significantly more personal travel and bridge play.