The Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino hosted the Fall NABC. Attendance was 10,301 tables and was our largest NABC since COVID. ACBL continues to have a great year financially with total net income from operations projected at $1.45 million. The board approved a balanced budget for 2025 which has significant upside potential if a new contract with Bridge Base Online (BBO) goes into effect prior to July 1, 2025. I am optimistic that will happen relatively early in the new year.
Membership
Membership continues to decline at a slower pace than in recent years. The main issue is that we are not recruiting enough new members. Although member retention increased significantly in 2024, new member recruiting dropped about 7% from 2023.
ACBL Clubhouse
The ACBL Clubhouse will operate with a full slate of games at all levels in 2025. ACBL’s portion of the income from these black point games will be distributed to recruiting clubs and teachers as well as to F2F clubs where the online players have played in the last 9 months. This should provide a significant incentive for both clubs and teachers to recruit new members. There is no cap on how much can be rebated. The ACBL Clubhouse will host all the online special games that award silver and gold points in 2025 other than the online tournaments which are run by ACBL.
Education Foundation
The ACBL Educational Foundation supported Patty Tucker’s Jump Start Bridge with about $100,000 in 2024. This program reaches gifted and talented school teachers by attending state and regional conferences and providing materials to teachers who introduce these students to bridge during their classes. Since November 2023, 146 new programs have been started and 5470 students have started learning bridge in 20 states and two provinces.
The Foundation has committed $250,000 for this program in year 2025 as it continues to grow rapidly. Not all states have gifted and talented programs, so Patty will begin attending mathematics teacher conferences in those areas. Total estimated cost for the program in 2025 is more than $500,000, and Patty is working with ACBL and the Educational Foundation to raise the additional $250,000.
Charity Foundation
In October I agreed to join the Board of Trustees for the ACBL Charity Foundation. I see this as a good opportunity to help the foundation as it works on its vision and strategy now that it is independent from ACBL. The primary work of the Charity Foundation focuses on disaster relief and providing rotating grants to ACBL districts to be distributed to charities in their areas.
Passing the Gavel
My term on the ACBL Board ended December 31, and I have been replaced by Rebecca Brown of Lakeway as Region 9 Director. Read the article introducing you to Rebecca on this site. I enjoyed my time on the national board and am convinced that ACBL is in a better position today than it was when I began serving in 2017. Thanks for all the support I received during my time as your representative!