Re: A new way to become a Grand Life Master
- From: Hank Youngerman <dontspamme@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:21:52 -0700 (PDT)
On Sep 19, 3:09 pm, John Blubaugh <jbluba...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sep 19, 1:10 pm, Hank Youngerman <dontspa...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In exploring the ACBL website, I found a new way to become a Grand
Life Master.
Die.
I'm not kidding. You have to die.
Among the 296 GLM's are listed a number of deceased players. That's
good, no question, that deceased GLM's should be listed.
However, at the bottom of the list there is a notation that in order
to be listed, you must be a dues or service-fee paid member. I am
going to take a wild guess that the dead players don't have to keep
paying their service fee. So if you don't pay and are alive, you're
not a Grand Life Master, but I guess that if you're dead, you are.
For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about........
Until about the 1970's (I think), when you became a Life Master you
were made a life member of the ACBL, and were exempted from paying
dues for life. In the 1970's sometime they instituted a "service fee"
which was a few dollars less than regular dues. If you did not pay,
you no longer received your ACBL Bulletin or monthly masterpoint
confirmation card. At that time, they also provided that all new Life
Masters would get five years exemption from the service fee. I think
that sometime in the 1990's they eliminted the five free years, and a
few years ago they no longer made new LM's life members.
However, what they also did was get extremely heavy-handed about the
service fee. It was no longer just the bulletin or masterpoint card.
You have to pay extra to play in tournaments, you cannot serve in an
elected or volunteer capacity, you cannot even PLAY in the national
championship events, you are not recognized in masterpoint races.
In other words, you're a member with absolutely none of the rights and
privileges of membership. I don't know if they've taken away the
right to vote in ACBL elections or not.
At the time the ABCL instituted the service fee, a lot of LM's
protested against having something taken away that was promised. The
ACBL simply said "We have more and more LM's, we need the money." In
fairness, even at $32 or so a year, for most LM's it's a tiny fraction
of what you spend on bridge in a year.
But this is really totally over the edge. How can being a Grand Life
Master depend on payment of a fee? What's next, if you don't pay your
fee they kick you out of the Hall Of Fame?
I am quite confident that I will never have to worry about this. Even
if the heavens open up and the almighty implants the hand records for
a national event in my brain, I won't play enough to get 10K points.
But how can it be right to say "You aren't a Grand Life Master now,
but if you die, you will be."
I am curious. What makes you think you have any rights or benefits if
you are a member? What are these rights? I think you will discover
that you have no rights at all. Paying the membership fee just gets
you the Bulletin, allows you to play in national events and absolves
you of paying the extra fee to play in other events. I believe you
also have to be a dues paying member to have bridge articles published
in "The Bulletin."
Let me give you an example. You join the ACBL and they discover that
you are a disciple of Mohammed. The ACBL decides they no longer want
you to be a member and they suspend you permanently. What can you do
about it?
JB- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
John, we all know that you feel you were denied fairness in your
dispute with the ACBL. But I think it's a bit much to bring that
issue into this thread. Unless you conclude that there is some GLM
that the ACBL doesn't like and is going to exclude from the list and
then claim "You never paid your dues" even though they have the
receipt.
A more interesting question of course is what would happen if someone
were suspended, and let's say it is for behavioral, not ethical
issues. I win my national championship and my 10,000 monsterpoints,
the next day the director refuses to seed me, and I haul off and slug
him. Am I now not a Grand LM? Do I become one when my (presumed)
suspension is over?
.
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