Re: Is this the way the ACBL should be governed?
- From: John Blubaugh <jblubaugh@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:55:48 -0800 (PST)
On Jan 26, 6:31 pm, Stu G <st...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jan 26, 5:06 am, Hank Youngerman <dontspa...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jan 24, 8:37 pm, John Blubaugh <jbluba...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Is having 25 board of director members spend $500,000 per year having
three meetings at NABC sites the best and most efficient method of
governing the ACBL? This does not include sending five members of the
Board to every WBF championship to attend meetings. There are also
many more expenses that are hidden elsewhere in the books that relate
to Board expense including managing the Educational Foundation and the
Charity Foundation.
Is this the best way to spend the member's money or does anyone care
what the Board of Directors does? I suspect that no one does care.
Would the ACBL be better served to use this money for recruiting and
training new players? How about using it to get younger players? It
seems like everything we do in this area only results in producing
young professional bridge players.
This was my main cause for many years and I only touched the surface
of uncovering the spending habits of the Board. I know much more now.
If you care, feel free to comment. If you don't care, you may still
feel free to comment.
JB
John, your constant sniping at the ACBL is getting tiresome. Can you
give it a rest? The fact that you personally are at war with the ACBL
doesn't make factual statements you make false, but let's be
realistic, they are tainted.
The one Board member I know best, Nadine Wood, both before and since
being elected to the Board, was also a very active volunteer in
running sectional, regional, and even NABC tournaments. I think that
Bill Arlinghaus, the board member from Michigan, was also one of the
chairs of the Detroit NABC. So at least in these two cases, I'll say
that we have people who clearly are not in it for the money.
My opinion, based on minimal information, would of course be that we
don't need as many in-person board meetings for as long as we did,
say, 15 years ago, due to better communication on the net. I don't
know how much they use that. As for meeting in Memphis, how many
people reading this thread who actually GO to NABC's, have ever said
about an NABC "I would never go there again, the hotels/restaurants
were inadequate?" I know the old ACBL building is near the airport.
While my personal experience in staying in Memphis is limited to times
I've been stuck there due to bad weather (I used to fly a lot on
Northwest through their Memphis hub), I can tell you that the area
around the airport isn't someplace I would especially want to spend a
lot of time in.
The real strength of the ACBL is its volunteer culture. If you want
to see what happens when you don't have that, look at the (non-
existent) backgammon touranment circuit and sanctioning body.
I can't imagine any set of circumstances under which I'd want to be on
the ACBL board. Just going to the meetings would kill off every
vacation day I have from work.- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
Well said. Some addtions to you comments:
Board meeting take place for 3 straight days prior to each national.
The agenda is supported with volumes of information, some 200 pages
worth. Board members are expected to review that material ahead of
time; probably not all do.
They have to do this because they refuse to delegate any power. If
they would divide into different committees for each area and let
those committees make the decisions in those areas, they would lighten
the work load. But this might lessen their sense of power so they
refuse to do it. In fact, only a few members are well versed on
everything. Several are just there for the perks and they vote the way
they are told (I have seen this in action).
If you are not retired, you have to be prepared to take significant
time off your job.
Most of these people are already independently wealthy. The few who
are not use this as vacation time and it is quite a party.
The board gets airfare and 3 days of hotel comped (4 days if they
attend the Board of Governor's meeting). The rest of the nationals is
their expense. They do get $1000 miscellaneous expense money for each
trip and can take their spouses to a national on expenses once per
year.
Virtually every member of the Board who wants to stay gets a job for
the rest of the tournament and they stay. For instance, Nadine does
seeding (or at least she used to do that). The Executive Committee of
the Board must stay the entire tournament in case they are called to
meet. So, reality, they get about 14 days worth of rooms and meals.
When it comes to the WBF events, even directors who are not on the WBF
Counsel, ask for jobs and get all of the perks.
Board members who do a consciencious job probably earn minimum wage or
less for the actual time they expend. I do know they communicate a lot
via email between meetings, a lot of which is committee work. Of
course, if they would go to each national regardless of their board
status, they do save travel expenses.
Again, a former President of the ACBL said it was like having a tax
free $30,000 per year job. Hardly a volunteer.
As for the funds allotted the ACBL President, the goodwill he can
spread by travelling around North America is well spent.
The money would be much better used for recruiting new members and one
of them almost died from alcohol poisoning during his year and he
spent considerable time in the hospital. Others have been close to
this.
Reducing the number of board members may be a nice idea. I am trying
to do a similar thing for our district board (D21). We have 2 board
members from each of our 22 units, so the meetings are large by any
standard. Our D21 board meetings are also 3 times a year, but only
for 2 hours each time. Oh yes, the board members are not paid
anything by the district for their efforts; it is strictly volunteer.
Wait, they do get coffee and a danish at each regular board meeting.
It just doesn't seem worth the effort to become a board member for the
money.
Power maybe, pushing your personal agendas possibly, doing what you
think is right for bridge in North America, surely. Whether it is
right or not is another matter!
Power is the key and if this were such a bad deal, no one would want
the position for 20 to 30 years. Some who are criminals, develop
considerable income from their home district from hotels and book
sales.
JB
-Stu Goodgold
San Jose, CA- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
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- References:
- Is this the way the ACBL should be governed?
- From: John Blubaugh
- Re: Is this the way the ACBL should be governed?
- From: Hank Youngerman
- Re: Is this the way the ACBL should be governed?
- From: Stu G
- Is this the way the ACBL should be governed?
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