2004-04 - Home of Calgary Duplicate Bridge Association

President’s Message
Before starting to write this message, I reviewed the two messages that I wrote for the Kibitzer in June 2002 and
August 2003. My first message started with an optimistic goal oriented viewpoint that I drew from my previous
experience. With every other position I’ve held, my approach was framed by asking what I could do to improve bridge
and its administration within the scope of my responsibilities. This was sometimes surprisingly easy.
In my first position (in 1984) as assistant tournament chair for the Edmonton Unit, my tenure started a week before a
sectional. Upon my arrival at the sectional, Phil Wood pointed out that we had insufficient paper supplies to hold the
events scheduled. When he asked whether we could locate any more pickup slips, I asked him, “What’s a pickup slip?”
After the tournament’s completion, I immediately set to work ensuring that we had a five-year supply of everything
we needed. A box for each upcoming sectional was packed with that tournament’s requirements. To my consternation,
in the last sectional before I left Edmonton in 1990, things had turned full circle. The new tournament chair had the
same problem!
This highlights what is an important factor in the success of any volunteer organization: volunteers who ensure that
the necessary tasks are done combined with a collective organizational “memory” that ensures that such tasks
continue to be remembered (and policies are applied consistently).
Since becoming president, I’ve determined that there is another side to having a successful organization and I found
that this was often a difficult role to fill. In my career as an auditor, (and this has been reinforced by all the recent
scandals in the corporate world) its been pointed our repeatedly that an auditor must be aware of how their work is
important to various “stakeholders”; the shareholders, management, employees, customers and perhaps a dozen other
interested parties. The importance of this was often forgotten in recent years.
The same situation exists, in microcosm, within the local bridge community. The interests of new players verses the
more experienced, club owners verses tournament organizers, social bridge verses highly competitive, all stain the
cohesiveness of the association. Effectively handling the conflict between the interests of various groups is an
important part of the president’s responsibility and it often results in none of the interested parties being truly
satisfied.
My term has been punctuated by long, difficult debates of the board in its attempts to reconcile conflicting interests
or find appropriate policies to resolve problems. I have found this role draining and frustrating at times. My time was
taken up with these issues rather than the types of things that I wanted to do. I need a break from this and am
looking forward to becoming past president. In this role, I will still be a member of the board but I plan to work
towards important but less contentious issues.
Two such contentious issues are outstanding as this is being written and it is my intention to attempt to resolve them
before my term is up. The first involves allegations of unethical behaviour and how these are dealt with. The other is
the CBF’s determination to hold a “no frills” fund raising regional in Calgary next winter.
I have become aware and increasingly concerned about comments being made by members about the ethics of other
players. Making such comments is an extremely serious breach of the rules of bridge and can result in severe
penalties. Not addressing this can have a corrosive effect and result in people leaving the game. If people have
concerns about unethical behaviour, the ACBL has procedures in place to deal with these concerns. The Board wants to
inform all members about their options and responsibilities in such situations and it is our plan to do this by the
summer.
The CBF regional is a concern for both the clubs, who stand to lose considerable revenue, and our regional organizing
committee that is concerned with how a “no frills” regional might hurt our hard earned reputation. A meeting on April
21 heard their concerns.
My time on the board has been an excellent experience and I hope to see as many of you as possible at the Annual
General Meeting on Saturday May 22.
Steve Lawrence