<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Please see Nick Tipton's email and Stanley Rpberts' note, below, concerning the Monday afternoon session at Lynnwood.<div><br></div><div>Let's plan to discuss this matter during District 19 report item on Monday's board meeting agenda. <br><div><br></div><div>Tim<br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">Stan Roberts <<a href="mailto:stan.milliman@gmail.com">stan.milliman@gmail.com</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><b>Re: Club issues with the expanded Regional schedule</b><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">September 9, 2017 6:03:29 PM PDT<br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">Nick Tipton <<a href="mailto:nick_tipton@yahoo.com">nick_tipton@yahoo.com</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Cc: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">Gay Parrish <2windstar@<a href="http://comcast.net">comcast.net</a>>, "<a href="mailto:marv.norden@gmail.com">marv.norden@gmail.com</a>" <<a href="mailto:marv.norden@gmail.com">marv.norden@gmail.com</a>>, "<a href="mailto:ralph.wilhelmi@comcast.net">ralph.wilhelmi@comcast.net</a>" <<a href="mailto:ralph.wilhelmi@comcast.net">ralph.wilhelmi@comcast.net</a>>, "<a href="mailto:dudleybrown@charter.net">dudleybrown@charter.net</a>" <<a href="mailto:dudleybrown@charter.net">dudleybrown@charter.net</a>>, Tim White <<a href="mailto:trkwhite@gmail.com">trkwhite@gmail.com</a>><br></span></div><br><div>Nick makes good points about the health of the bridge clubs. We at<br>ESBC had a large loss for the month of August. It would help if, we<br>could get Monday back. Please consider Nick's request.<br><br>On Fri, Sep 8, 2017 at 1:47 PM, Nick Tipton <<a href="mailto:nick_tipton@yahoo.com">nick_tipton@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote type="cite"><br><br>District 19,<br><br>Congratulations on a well run Lynnwood Regional. I heard many good things<br>about it from the hundreds of bridge players that I personally know who took<br>part. The exception to that were some relatively minor complaints about<br>hard copies of the bulletin. I suspect that the number of hits on those<br>pages was a bit lower than expected. There were a number of changes in the<br>event scheduling. Some were good and some not so good. One player told me<br>that the Tues-Wed morning Swiss game was cancelled due to sub-minimal<br>attendance, as was the three session morning KO on Thurs-Fri-Sat mornings.<br>I also heard many good things about the Gold Rush Pairs, and that making<br>those daily would have brought more people in.<br><br>The purpose of this email is to express my concerns for the change to<br>Monday's schedule. Adding an afternoon session Monday allowed the Opening<br>KOs to run through Tuesday night without requiring three sessions on<br>Tuesday. This change adversely affected the local clubs. I firmly believe<br>that a healthy tournament schedule is important to the health of the overall<br>bridge community. However, this must be tempered with allowing the local<br>bridge clubs to continue to exist. All bridge clubs run at or near the<br>break-even point, some even below it. Mondays are a historically good day<br>for bridge clubs. Taking at least half of our tables away on the opening<br>day of a regional is adding insult to injury when we must remain closed<br>Tuesday-Sunday of the rest of the week. Speaking for Seattle Bridge Center,<br>we lost an estimated $1000 in revenue from the week's closure. Considering<br>that a good month is anything over $200 in the black, this guarantees that<br>August is a month that requires at least 3-5 months of financial recovery.<br>I have spoken with Stan Roberts, the owner of the Eastside Bridge Center,<br>and he has indicated that he has very similar concerns<br><br>Of course Puget Sound must have an annual Regional Tournament. Please keep<br>in mind that although this is the only Regional that we must lock up our<br>clubs for, we are greatly affected by all of the local regionals, whether<br>they are in Olympia, Leavenworth, or farther afield. Vancouver, Penticton,<br>and Seaside take 30%-50% of our club players in spite of their distance.<br>Just as damaging are the twelve open sectionals (Olympia north to the<br>border) that draw down our attendance. If you put it all together, owning<br>and operating a bridge club is just barely viable. If the bridge clubs<br>begin to fail, then tournament bridge will not be far behind.<br><br>I am asking, indeed pleading, that D19 return to the normal 18 sessions per<br>Regional. It probably seems minor that we are losing one more session with<br>this change, but it truly does make a difference to the financial viability<br>of a bridge club. I understand that you cannot control any of the<br>Sectionals, and that you are unlikely to curtail the number of Regionals<br>each year. Expanding the number or the length of Regionals is a step in the<br>wrong direction.<br><br>I currently distribute fliers for all of the local and neighboring<br>tournaments, but I find myself asking why I am working against myself in<br>doing this. Is part of the District's mission statement to work towards the<br>benefit of the bridge community as a whole? I found nothing on the <a href="http://D19.org">D19.org</a><br>website that suggests that, and yet I am confident that every member of the<br>board would personally support that idea. New players play almost<br>exclusively at the club level, sometimes for years, before ever playing a<br>tournament. If all Bridge Clubs revert to non-profit, twice a week games in<br>church basements, then the available bridge classes will drop precipitously.<br>Within 2-3 years, it will be easily noticeable at the club level, and in 3-4<br>years, 199er games at tournaments will no longer get enough players to<br>guarantee a game. If that starts to happen at the Sectional or Regional<br>level, then new tournament players will be very few and very far between.<br><br>Thank you for your considerations,<br><br>Nick Tipton<br>Seattle Bridge Center<br>Alki Bridge Club<br></blockquote></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>