District
Twenty-Two
Organization
of Bridge Units, Inc.
Dec 2006 Forum- Presidents Column
“Prez Sez”
IT’S BEEN A PLEASANT EXPERIENCE
Well folks, as a lot of you know, Arden and I are moving to Hot Springs Village, Arkansas sometime after the first of the year. Hot Springs Village is a “gated” community in between Little Rock and Hot Springs. Of course, they do have a large Bridge Club there. (That’s one of the first things we checked out.)
Although I have one year left on the District 22 Board, I will be resigning immediately after our Board meeting in Palm Springs on Dec. 15th. As I write this, people are investigating potential candidates to replace me for the year 2007. We do hope to be able to have a recommendation ready for the 2007 District 22 Board at the Palm Springs meeting.
Arden and I plan to come back often because of family, commitments and friends. Therefore we plan to keep our house in Murrieta for the time being. We hope to do a lot of traveling in the Midwest and Eastern US from our home in Arkansas.
For the most part, being on the District 22 Board has been a pleasant and enlightening experience. I got to observe and participate in some of the “behind the scenes” activity that goes on. Most of the work is done by the Tournament Committee. They start planning the Regional tournaments years in advance. The most difficult task is finding a suitable location at the times needed and at a price we can live with. Once a site is contracted, a Tournament Manager is selected about 1 year ahead of the event. From that point, the Tournament Manager(s) start implementing a detailed plan which includes publishing brochures, getting volunteers, working with the site management, negotiating room allocation, negotiating with vendors, etc. Some of you may not realize that during a Regional tournament, the Tournament Manager stays at the host hotel for the entire duration of the tournament, putting in long hours, taking care of the numerous “little problems” that always occur at one of these events.
Because District 22 is hosting the 2009 National tournament in San Diego, work on that started last year. Although it is sponsored by ACBL headquarters, most of the work is done by our own volunteers in District 22. Jim Kirkham and Ken Monzingo are co-managers. They have already put in place the key volunteers for this one.
My key observation of all this activity is:
THE HARD WORK PUT IN BY THE VOLUNTEERS.
Thank you Jim Kirkham for all time you’ve put in as a Board Member, National Director, Tournament Manager and all the behind the scenes time you’ve put in all these years. Also, thank you for all the advice and counsel you’ve given me during my tenure on the Board.
Thank you Al Shuster for all the hard work you put in as a board member and being Tournament Manager for ALL the District 22 Regionals for a while and for being Western Conference Representative during most of that time.
Thank you Ken Monzingo for stepping in at a late hour to be Tournament Manager for the San Diego Regional in 2005, and being manager for 2006.
Thank you Gayle Andrews for being a demanding tenacious and thorough Treasurer and a Tournament Manager for the District. (Gayle is also our Western Conference Representative and new 1st Alternate National Director.)
Thank you Richard Meffley for being a board member and our GNT/NAOP coordinator.
Thank you Teri Atkinson for being a board member and one of the best Intermediate/Novice coordinators. Teri also puts on a fine education and lecture programs at our Regionals. Because of her excellent work, Teri has been invited to do this outside of District 22 and at the National Tournaments.
Thank you Hal Binder for being an excellent Tournament Committee chairman and Tournament Manager. I hope the future brings you bigger and better things. Hal also put in a lot of time organizing and publishing a Tournament Management Guide, outlining a lot of the details required to put on a tournament.
Thanks to all of the other Board Members and Volunteers who I haven’t mentioned by name.
Thank you,
Dennis Boomgaarden