[SBU Board] Winter sectional thoughts

[Eng, Kim]

Seattle Bridge Unit Board Members:

First, I wanted to thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to making bridge in Seattle awesome. As most of you know, I served 6 years on the board and it was sometimes a thankless volunteer job. But at the end of the day, I know that you all make decisions based on the good of the entire unit, which is comprised of various skill levels, which can sometimes make your decisions extremely difficult.

I wanted to give you some feedback about the winter sectional at Vasa. I realize these are just my opinions. I am hoping that other unit members have shared their thoughts with you all so you can make informed decisions moving forward.

Not sure how to organize this so I will start with the good…

  1.  Hospitality as ALWAYS was fantastic. I don’t know how Ann does it, but she lays out a great spread. In order to play Friday with the new start times, I had to wake up at 5am and work until 10am and then headed to the tourney. There was no time for food. Hospitality saved me.
  2.  Directors. I thought all of the directors did a nice job. Even poor Bob who was taking a hit for the pace of the fast pairs Friday night was very professional and understanding of our frustrations. I also thought that MK seemed happier to be there than in the past and I enjoyed his sense of humor. Perhaps the break was good for him.
  3.  Board members. Every one I ran into seemed cheerful and happy to be there. You all represent our unit well.

The not so good…

  1.  Start times on Friday- yuck. Man are those hard for the working crowd. I experimented with it (along with the board) by working super early and then trying to play 3 sessions. If attendance skyrocketed, I would totally get making the move. However, it seemed like a slap in the face to people who work to have such early start times on Friday and a message was sent that our attendance wasn’t important to you. I recall when I was on the board that a survey went out and a good chunk of people wanted the early start times. I think it would be nice to note if they actually came to the sectional. I think opinions of people who actually play in our tournaments should weigh heavier than those who may or may not play.
  2.  Fast Pairs. I am sure you have heard plenty about this but I will go on record saying I was extremely frustrated. I would not have played in that event had I known it wasn’t actually going to be a fast pairs event. Perhaps the minutes per board should be on the flyer so we can judge accordingly if we want to play. I have played Fast Pairs in the past and it has always been 11 minutes for 2 boards or 16 minutes for 3 boards. The clock was set at 19 minutes.
  3.  There needed to be more time between sessions for food, especially given the location of the tourney. The whole weekend felt rushed and not relaxed. That coupled with 24 boards per session Saturday felt like we weren’t getting a good bang for our buck. As a director, I know that is directly related to the table count and what movement makes the most sense. However, others may not realize this and have a bad taste in their mouths.
  4.  It seemed like we had too many strats on Saturday and Sunday. Consequently it felt like we had a bunch of “bad” events instead of some good quality events.
  5.  Ray may have passed this message along, but when at the Vancouver regional this past weekend, I learned of a man who emailed the partnership email 2 weeks before our tourney looking for a partner. There was no response. He emailed again on the Friday before and said something to the affect that “you could at least have responded to me” and the response he got was “sorry, we have been busy”. That hurt to hear. May I suggest sending him an apology and offering him a free play at our next sectional so he knows we care about our potential patrons? He lives an hour out of Seattle.

It is not in my nature to complain and not offer solutions or suggestions. Please feel free to contact me if you want to chat about anything further. Happy to help any way that I can.

Thanks,
Kim

Kim Eng
Director of High School Athletics
Forest Ridge School
425-679-0106 | www.forestridge.org<http://www.forestridge.org>
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                 GO RAVENS!!!
                      [logo with no FR gif]

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