[SBU Board] ACBL BoD Material

[JC Chupack]

Adding Tim.

On Fri, Feb 28, 2020 at 10:42 AM JC Chupack <jc.chupack at gmail.com> wrote:

> First, Tim, thanks for sharing.  Always great to know what's going on
> "above".
>
> The data and assumptions in this presentation raise some flags for me. The
> presentation overindexes on aging membership as a root cause and yet shows
> no data that supports that it is specifically a loss of members aged 70+
> contributing to the decline.  Slide 4 asks several good questions, but the
> presentation focuses on the last bullet (age) only.
>
> Further, there's nationwide data that strongly contradicts the "older
> people travel less" hypothesis, so if that is a trend, it may be limited to
> the ACBL (which calls more into question the choices of locations or
> overall interest in bridge rather than being a behavior of the segment).
> Here's one example found with a quick Google:
> https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-aging-changes-the-way-we-travel-2017-03-10,
> but the AARP and AAA have both published studies showing that travel as
> well as activity generally is up among retirees, not declining. The age of
> diminished activity is increasing as well. (Caveat: health care is a big
> factor...and if the US health care system continues to decline in
> availability and continues to increase in costs, that will be an impact on
> seniors most of all.)
>
> Slide 6 is deceptive in a vacuum as well. We know from Slide 6's data only
> that age is correlated with lower regional attendance. We don't know that
> age is the cause vs. factors like distance to regional, availability of
> alternative entertainment, etc.  It also doesn't show whether this has
> changed over time or was always the case.  If this distribution has always
> been true vs. being a recent change in behavior, then it is less likely to
> be the reason for the decline.  (And again, if it *is* a change in
> behavior, it's likely unique to the ACBL vs. being a common behavior of
> individuals 70+.)
>
> I'd like to see this committee provide data specifically on segmentation
> of the members that play once and don't return by gender, age, masterpoint
> level, and years of ACBL membership.  Who are the players that arrive and
> don't return?  Do those players continue to be active at the club level?
> Has the committee reached out to a sampling of the "didn't return" segment
> to ask why they came once and not again?  Even just having a phone call or
> email with 20-30 randomly selected "tournament abandoners" would likely
> yield valuable insight.
>
> I'll also note, IIRC, Seattle's unit has one of the lowest average ages in
> the ACBL (SFBay/Mountain View beats us, maybe a couple others). Yet, we are
> still seeing declines. If the same is true of other "low avg age" areas,
> that further supports that age is not the (sole) limiting factor.
>
> Has the committee looked into the number of tournaments and count of days
> of tournaments being offered in the decline period?  I believe there was
> some data pulled by the ACBL that showed that the number of days of
> tournaments offered in the past 5 years has increased sharply. That is,
> it's entirely possible that people simply have more tournament days to go
> to and thus a fixed size market is being spread more thinly across many
> days of play.  While no region may like it, it may benefit the financials
> of all tournaments if we simply offered fewer and/or shorter tournaments.
>
> tl;dr - If this is a starting point rather than an ending one, that's
> great..but if it was intended as a conclusion, I think it's missing the
> mark.
>
> --JC
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 1:03 PM Tim White <trkwhite at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Colleagues,
>>
>> I will be filling in for Julie Smith as D19 representative to ACBL Board
>> of Directors and various committee meetings in Columbus.  I have begun to
>> participate in preparatory teleconferences and have begun to receive
>> various pre-coordination materials.  Where I come cross something I feel
>> might be of interest or value to U446 board members, I will send it your
>> way.
>>
>> One of the committees Julie works on (as vice chair) is the Strategic
>> Tournament Task Force.  I am attaching a .ppt file I recently received
>> reporting on developments with this committee.
>>
>>  I understand Julie plans to share this file with the D19 board.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Tim
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
>
> --
> JC Chupack
> * Seattle ACBL Unit 446 <http://www.bridgeinseattle.org> President,
> Web/Email Admin, & Publicity Chair
> * Lead Technical Product Manager, Zulily <http://www.zulily.com>, Inc.
>
>

-- 
JC Chupack
* Seattle ACBL Unit 446 <http://www.bridgeinseattle.org> President,
Web/Email Admin, & Publicity Chair
* Lead Technical Product Manager, Zulily <http://www.zulily.com>, Inc.
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