The ACBL Board of Directors held its fall meetings face-to-face (F2F) Monday, November 20 through Wednesday, November 22 in Atlanta. 

The Board, task forces and committees continue to meet regularly through Microsoft Teams.  

Respectfully,

Cindy Shoemaker

Region 10 (District 17) Director

ACBL National Board

Region10director@acbl.org

The 2024 operating and capital budgets were approved. Budgeted revenues for 2024 total approximately $16.4M while estimated operating and administrative expenses total approximately $16.7K; an estimated loss of approximately $313K.  It is believed that the revenue derived from 2024 online games will substantially reduce the loss. The capital budget totals $543K, the majority of which will be spent on the modernization and migration of applications that reside on the AS400.  

The United States Bridge Federation (USBF) receives $50K annually from the Junior Fund to send junior and youth teams to international competitions. Item 233-FN01 moves to increase this amount to $65,000 to cover the increased cost of travel. 

Carried: 13-0-3. Three representatives were absent at the time the vote was taken.

Effective: Immediate. 

Item 233-MTF01 moved to amend the Codification, Chapter III - Administration of Operations as it relates to the 11 percent full dues payments and life master service fees allocated to Units. Per the motion, Units would receive 5 percent of the payments/fee allocation to build and retain membership. ACBL management would then develop a program to enable Units to earn up to an additional 10 percent based on reducing the percentage of Unit members that lapse during each calendar year and increasing the percentage of new Unit members recruited during each calendar year.  

Carried: 15-2-0.  

Effective: March 31, 2024.

As a result of this motion, ACBL has developed the 5/5/5, a Unit-level membership building and retention program that will launch April 1, 2024. Units will automatically receive a base of 5 percent for the intended purpose of building and retaining membership. Units will then have the opportunity to earn an additional 10 percent -- 5 percent for renewing lapsed and at-risk members and 5 percent for recruiting new members -- a total of up to 15 percent.  ACBL is providing the tools, training and resources necessary for success. Communication opportunities primarily to Unit Presidents during Unit President meetings are ongoing.  

At this meeting, as part of its continuing effort to streamline Board processes and procedures, Governance developed four “housekeeping” motions that addressed the responsibilities of the Audit Committee (233-GV01), deleted unneeded content from the Codification regarding Audit procedures (233-GV02), summarized rather than specified terms of the Executive Director employment (233-GV03), and deleted employee and consultant policies having to do with employment constraints, recognition awards, retirement policies and educational and health benefits (233-GV-05). The first three of these items were on the Consent Calendar, having passed unanimously in Committee with no non-Committee members objecting. GV-05 passed unanimously during Full Board 16-0-0 with one member absent. All are effective immediately, i.e., on the date of their passage - November 20, 2023. 

An Action Item was approved to ensure the regulations regarding employees and consultants were added to the ACBL Employee Handbook.

Item 233-GV04 proposed changes to the motion passed in spring 2023 that reduced the number of Goodwill Receptions from three annually to just one, which would alternate once every three years in each of the three geographic areas in which NABCs are held: East, Central and West. The original wording of this motion for Atlanta was to hold that reception every year in the spring, but further discussion during our Full Board meeting resulted in the once-a-year reception that honors the Goodwill Member of the Year, the Volunteer of the Year and the Honorary Member of the Year being held in every summer at the location of that NABC. Summers are traditionally the best-attended NABCs and provide the most opportunity for Goodwill Members throughout ACBL to participate in extending our appreciation for these special Volunteers. 

Carried: 10-5-1-1. 

Effective: January 1, 2024.

An Action Item was approved to request management and committee chairs to develop procedures to transcribe their meetings electronically and archive them for the Board of Directors to access for information as needed. As Advisory Council members and other Volunteers are added to Committees and Task Forces and all continue to interact with Committees comprised of primarily non-Board members, accurate summaries of topics discussed will be increasingly important to foster communication and coordination of strategic and business initiatives

The Appeals and Charges Committee reported on hearings it held since its last report to the Board in October 2023: Seven reviews of negotiated resolutions and four Automatic Reviews. Hearing reports are available at the Ethics & Disciplinary area of the ACBL website: https://www.acbl.org/ethics/

Item 233-BR01 moved that Codification, Chapter IX - Regionals, A Regional Tournament Sanctioning and Scheduling be amended, stating that the ACBL Tournament Department will use distance as the criteria for determining whether there is a conflict (overlap) with any previously scheduled sectional or regional (or traditional date regional). 

Who will resolve conflicts within the same District, between different Districts within the same region and between different Regions was defined. The distance between tournaments will be further defined during an upcoming online meeting of the Board. 

Carried: 16-0-0.

The Dallas (Texas) Hyatt Regency was approved as a non-agenda item by unanimous vote as the location for the 2027 spring NABC. 

Joann Glasson, District 4, was certified as having been duly elected to the Board to represent Region 3 for a three-year term, January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2026.   

Margot Hennings, Region 4, was elected as ACBL President for a one-year term, January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024. 

Cindy Shoemaker, Region 10, was elected as ACBL Vice President for a one-year term January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024. 

David Lodge, Region 11, was elected by acclamation as ACBL Treasurer for a one-year term January 1, 2024.  

Paul Cuneo, Region 9, was elected by acclamation as ACBL 401K Trustee for a one-year term January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024 to complete the term of Carlos Munoz, former ACBL Board member. 

Joann Glasson, Region 3, was elected by acclamation as ACBL 401K Trustee to complete the term of the vacant position immediately through December 31, 2026. 

Danny Sprung, Region 10, was appointed by ACBL management as the 2024 ACBL Honorary Member of the Year. 

Carried: Unanimous. 

Judyann Schnorf, District 7, was recommended by the Goodwill Committee and approved by the Board of Directors as the 2024 Goodwill Member of the Year. 

Carried: Unanimous.