[SBU Board] Fwd: ACBL COVID-Related Tournament Policies

[Jeff Ford]

FYI - and I’m the person who asked about the nine foot centers.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Tim White <trkwhite at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 9:00 AM
Subject: ACBL COVID-Related Tournament Policies
To: Tim White <trkwhite at gmail.com>


D18 and D19 Board Members and Unit Presidents,

Questions have arisen concerning the status of ACBL’s use of COVID-related
metrics and associated stoplight charts in connection with its decisions on
TD staffing for tournaments.

Yesterday, Joann Glasson, ACBL Board President, met with ACBL officials F2F
at HQ in Horn Lake.  In preparation for her meeting, I asked Joann to
confirm with Joe Jones, ACBL Executive Director, the status of ACBL’s
COVID-related policies for regional and sectional tournaments, particularly
in light of the following recent advisory from Matt Koltnow, our Area
Supervisor, to a tournament sponsor in our Region:

*"As of January 1st, there is no more of the red-yellow-green system of
telling tournaments they cannot have ACBL TDs. If you sanction a
tournament, you can have a tournament. The assumption is that the local
committee will make a good decision about whether players will think it is
safe to play in a tournament. We'll let you know a week before the
tournament whether masks will be required, unless they're already required
by another authority."*


Joann reports that Joe Jones told her such notification (above) was sent
out, although not to ACBL Board Members.  Based on recent contacts with
some of our tournament sponsors I felt it would be useful to share out the
above; apologies to those for whom it is redundant.

Also, one of our tournament organizers asked me about any update on ACBL’s
policy of 9-foot spacing of table centers.  This requirement is making it
difficult for some organizers to find suitable venues of sufficient size or
floor plan shape.  With everyone vaccinated and masked, there's a
legitimate question as to whether science shows meaningful safety benefit
from 9-foot vs 8-foot table centers.  Joann reports that yesterday
Joe affirmed to her this requirement has not been changed.

For Vicky Hemry:  Please forward to U418 board members, as I do not
currently have access to an email address for U418 President.

Thanks,
Tim
Region 13 Director
206-979-9041

-- 
Jeff Ford
Redmond, WA
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.celestial.com/pipermail/sbuboard/attachments/20220218/790c8d16/attachment.html>