[SBU Board] Board of Directors Election

[Jeff Ford]

Greetings, Seattle Unit Board.

As you know, I am running to be the District 19 representative on the ACBL
Board of Directors. I'd like to share some about why I'm running, as well
as a little bit about me for those of you who don't know me that well. I’m
happy to answer any follow-up questions you have, and I hope that I can
convince you to give me your vote.

I started playing bridge in graduate school. I had always been a game
player, but had never been introduced to bridge. I studied computer
science, where people are notoriously introverted, so the department gave
us free donuts once a week if we would come out of our offices to eat them.
Someone there taught me enough to know that I wanted to learn more, and I
convinced my wife to take a beginner course. I was hooked (and she was
mildly interested…), and I’ve been playing as much as I can fit in ever
since.

In 2006 I moved to Redmond for a job with Microsoft. At that time I
realized that in addition to playing bridge I very much wanted to give back
to the community. Since then I have helped run a bridge club, directed club
games, served on the Seattle unit board, including four years as President,
edited the Seattle Unit Newsletter, co-chaired Seattle Sectional
tournaments, served on the ACBL Board of Governors, and served on the ACBL
Competitions and Conventions committee. Bridge service is partly about
working hard to get things done, and partly about gathering information and
making good decisions, and I have spent a lot of my time on both of those
aspects.

I am particularly interested in running the best tournaments we can. About
five years ago I helped form a committee to revamp our Seattle Sectional
schedule, leading to some unique events in the area that have proved highly
popular, the BAM Teams at our Memorial Day Sectional, and the Qualifier
Pairs at our Fall Sectional. We also vastly increased the number of 0-750
and 0-2000 events on the schedule. Many less experienced players have
expressed their appreciation about having so many events where they can
play against their peers.

At a national level I am on the Competitions and Conventions committee,
where I have served the last two years. The purpose of the committee is to
advise the Board of Directors on what events we should have, how they
should run, and what conventions should be allowed at what levels. It’s a
fascinating group with great players on it – I was on one subcommittee
working on a potential new national event schedule where Jeff Meckstroth
and I had to decide which of us got to be “Jeff” on the conference calls
because it was too confusing to have two people with the same name. To my
great surprise I got to keep “Jeff” and he goes by “Meck”. I have tried my
best to make this committee serve not just the experts, but players at all
levels, particularly providing input on things like Flight B and Flight C
of the North American Pairs and Grand National Teams.

My day job is as a software developer, something that I have been able to
use to good effect for bridge. I helped with a complete revamp of our unit
web site, making it much easier to find information that people want,
particularly information about clubs and information about tournaments. I
also organized a push for electronic delivery of our unit newsletter,
something that is saving us hundreds of dollars per year. Members can still
get a paper copy, but most now receive an email link to the web site. In
addition I upgraded our club results to send out electronic hand records
and scores within just a few minutes of each game ending. If you’re
interested, you can see these at
http://www.bridgeinseattle.org/mercercrest/results/. Make sure to click
where is says “Full results are available here.”

When I first joined the Seattle unit board I started receiving an
occasional “Mamula Report”. I very much appreciated being informed about
what was going on at the national level, and how it affected our district.
I miss this regular communication, and it’s something I promise to bring
back (perhaps with a different name…) if I am elected. It’s not enough just
to get reports after the fact, though. I will actively solicit opinions on
matters that will be coming before the national board as well as
suggestions on things that I should bring to the board from the district.

The two things I most want to work on at the national level are technology
and recruiting. You may know that the ACBL recently wrote off a million
dollar plus loss on their ACBLScore project. I’m writing from Chicago where
for the first time results are being regularly posted shortly after game
time. As this demonstrates, things are getting better, but the ACBL has
been too slow to make improvements. My experience in the software industry
in general, and with the pieces of bridge software currently available will
be great assets in continuing to modernize ACBL technology.

I feel like the ACBL has basically given up on any membership recruitment
for working class people, positioning the game as one for retirees. I think
that this is a great game for all ages, and it doesn’t make any sense to
limit the people we try to bring into the fold. The club I help run has a
weekly game on Tuesday nights, and we make it a priority to make it a good
game for people with jobs by providing food for people who don’t have time
to stop before the game, and by making sure the game ends in a timely
manner. Most of our players come to the club after a full work day, so I
know that it is possible to recruit these people.

I ask for your vote in this election. If you have any further questions for
me, please reply to this message and ask. Please also let me know if there
is a better address, or if you would prefer to receive communication by
letter. I will also be available at the Lynnwood Regional on Saturday,
August 22 near the partnership desk before the afternoon session to chat
with anyone who is interested, and of course I will be at the unit meeting
next month. I look forward to continuing to serve District 19.
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