How the ACBL Board of Directors Operates 

By Bruce W. Blakely 
District 21 Director 

 

The ACBL is an amazing organization. We have tournaments in all 50 states, in Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda, and even some overseas in Europe. We have over 159,000 members, operate through 3,200 clubs and put on over 1,100 tournaments a year. The league has 170 tournament directors who travel all over North America and 75 employees in the home office in Memphis, with a budget of $16,000,000 for the overall league as a whole (not including the budgets of the 25 districts, hundreds of units, and thousands of clubs). 

How does this highly decentralized system work? Since I just attended my first ACBL Board of Directors meeting in Boston, in November, I thought I would try to give a short summary of the workings of the Board and its interplay with League staff. 

Most players are aware that there are 25 geographic districts in the ACBL. The districts vary in both geographic size and population. Some are located entirely within a single state, such as District 23 (Los Angeles County) and District 24 (Long Island and New York City). Others cover a many state area, such as District 19 (Washington, British Columbia and Alaska) and District 25 (the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont). District 9, the largest district by population, with over 18,000 members, is comprised of the entirety of the state of Florida. The average district population size is about 6,360 members. 

Each district has one director on the ACBL Board of Directors (colloquially called the “national board”). Elections are staggered, with roughly one-third of the 25 directors elected each year for a three-year term. Four districts are located wholly or partly in California: District 20 (extreme Northern California, Oregon, Hawaii, and parts of Nevada), District 21 (the Bay Area, Sacramento Valley, Monterey Bay and Northern Nevada), District 23 (L.A. County) and District 22 (Southern California, excluding Los Angeles). Currently, there are three ACBL District Directors from California, two from New York state, and two from Illinois, with the rest coming from 15 different states and three Canadian provinces. Each District Director has one vote, with 25 total votes. It takes 13 votes (how appropriate for a bridge league) to carry a motion. 

One of the 25 District Directors is voted by the Board to be the following year’s president. The immediately past president becomes the Chairman of the Board. In 2008, the President of ACBL was Dan Morse from Texas, and the Chairman of the Board was Sharon Fairchild from Ohio. As of January 1, 2009, Jerry Fleming of New Mexico will become president and Dan Morse will be elevated to chairman. You will have a chance to meet Jerry at our Monterey tournament in January. 

We are in District 21, which until spring of 2008 was wholly located in Northern California. Last spring, at the request of the Carson City and Reno Units, those parts of Northern Nevada joined our district. We are one of the smallest districts in geographic size, but fifth largest in terms of population with 8,189 members. 

The Board meets three times a year at the host hotel of the North American Bridge Championships. The board meetings last for four days with the last day taking place on the first day of the NABC. The 2008 Boston board meeting took place on Monday through Thursday, November 17 through 20, 2008 at the Westin Copley Place in downtown Boston. 

In attendance at the board meetings were the 25 board members; two incoming (non-voting) board members who will begin their terms on January 1, 2009; CEO Jay Baum; his assistant, Kelley McGuire; the Chairman of the Board of Governors, Linda Mamula; League Counsel, Peter Rank; and about a dozen staff members from league headquarters in Memphis who work in the accounting, education, elections, club operations, marketing and other league departments.  

Different meetings take place on each of the four days. Monday morning, November 17 was a general meeting. ACBL President Morse welcomed the Board and the primary activity was to receive the CEO’s report on the League. Issues discussed included marketing, membership, online bridge game increases and financial impact, youth recruitment, electronic bridge scoring, tournament personnel and the anticipated relocation of the League’s headquarters. The Board was introduced to Vicki Campbell, the new Director of Marketing, who has been on staff since September 2008. Vicki will try to generate publicity for the League and for the NABCs, and to increase our membership. 

The CEO reported that the ACBL will be opening a new website, “Bridge Teachers For Youth,” www.btfy.com

The League is considering whether to invest in BridgePads, BridgeMate, or some other electronic scoring system. The CEO advised us of an exciting new product, the “Bridge Spinner,” which could eliminate traveling boards and pre-duplication entirely. All that would be needed at the table would be a radio-controlled spinner and two decks of cards. The spinner would act as a remote controlled personal duplicating machine at each table, enabling all tables to play the same boards simultaneously. We also received a report from the League’s counsel. A vote took place for two of ACBL’s five representatives to the World Bridge Federation. Jonathan Steinberg of Toronto (District 2), and Georgia Heth of Morton, Illinois (District 8) were elected. 

After the general meeting, the Board broke into committee meetings for the rest of the day and all of Tuesday, November 18. 

There are many committees of the Board of Directors which address a myriad of issues. These include Finance and Budget and Conditions of Contest (meeting Monday morning); Juniors, Marketing, International Federations, and Board Operations (Monday afternoon); Audit, By-laws, and Tournaments (Tuesday morning); Governance, Appeals and Charges, and Bridge (Tuesday afternoon). A few of these committee names need a bit of explanation. Board Operations defines the duties and responsibilities of the members of the Board of Directors. Governance considers administration of the League and its subparts, including clubs, allowable events, and voting rules. Tournaments decides what kind of events are allowed at NABCs and the number of masterpoints to be awarded in national events. Appeals and Charges is an adjudicative body that hears appeals from the Ethical Oversight Committee, district disciplinary hearings and complaints brought against districts. Bridge decides rules of the game, sanctions, fees, masterpoint awards, STAC charges, and the like. There is some overlap between the committees’ responsibilities. 

All motions must be submitted to Memphis a month before the Board meets so they can be compiled into the “Journal.” In Boston, which other board members told me was a light meeting, the Journal outlining the motions to be decided was approximately 200 pages long. In committee, the chair presents and the committee discusses and votes on each motion presented to it. Motion language may be modified in committee. 

On Wednesday, the full Board meets again. Each committee chairperson outlines the issues brought by motion before his or her committee, any change made in committee, and a committee recommendation. The full Board then discusses each issue (some at great length) before the vote is called. Votes are taken by roll call in district numerical order, starting with a random number that changes with each vote. The votes in favor and against are counted, and each district director’s vote is recorded and published on each motion. Thursday’s meetings proceed in the same manner with committee chair presentations, Board discussion and roll call voting on each motion, until all committees have reported and all motions have been resolved. 

A recurring theme is the amount of direction to be given to management. Some directors favoring a hands-off approach, feeling that the Board’s mandate is to set policy and to allow the League’s CEO and full time staff to run the League. Others contend that it is the duty of the Board to ensure that the League runs well and suggest that it is necessary to take a more active role in directing staff. Some directors feel that management is doing well, while others contend that we can’t trust them to make the right decision or to run the League capably. This leads to a good bit of tension between Management and the Board, and among the directors. 

Three days later, on Sunday, the Board of Governors meets. The name of this body is misleading since it is neither a “board,” nor does it “govern.” Rather, it is a counsel of over 125 members, five from each district plus some lifetime members, who listen to a condensed report of the week’s votes and may ask questions about League operations. The BOG makes no decisions of its own in running the League but may require the ACBL Board to reconsider an issue voted upon. When the ACBL Board reconsiders the issue, it is not under any obligation to change its prior decision in any way. 

The Board of Governors’ meetings are open to the public. The Board of Directors’ meetings are closed. No Board of Governors members may attend Board of Directors meetings with the exception of the Chairperson. The name of the “Board of Governors” is quite confusing since it might appear that there are two boards operating concurrently making policy decisions, which is certainly not the case. It is the Board of Directors which sets policy, issues rulings, makes decisions affecting the league, and directs Management. 

At the Summer 2008 NABC in Las Vegas, the Board of Governors had requested that the ACBL Board reconsider two prior votes. It sought a change of the Board’s rule disallowing attorneys from attending disciplinary hearings to represent an accused violator; and the BOG also requested that the Board impose an additional requirement that a player must earn some gold points in pairs events to become a Life Master. In Boston, the Board of Directors had spirited discussions on both issues, as well as many others. I will discuss the key votes, including those motions in which I was on the outvoted minority, in my next article, scheduled to appear in the February Forum

To whet your appetite, I am pleased to report that the Board of Directors voted to have a third (experimental) Youth NABC in the summer of 2010 at a site and time to be determined. The first Youth NABC took place this past summer in Atlanta, and the second Youth NABC will be in the summer of 2009 during the Washington DC NABC. I personally feel that bringing in younger players and getting university students interested in bridge should be an essential goal of our League.