Unit members attending the Atlanta National  

 Also attending were Richard Hartman and Dorothy Lorenz

Congratulations to the following players for achieving a new ACBL rank!

New Life Master

♣ ♦  Jim Waller♥ ♠  

New Bronze Life Master

♣ ♦ Kees Vandenheiligenberg♥ ♠ 

New Sapphire Life Master

♣ ♦  Nick Leshkow♥ ♠  

Changes to the Bylaws shall be voted on by the Membership during the Dec 3 Membership Meeting this Sunday.  Please read the proposed changes in preparation prior to the meeting.

Click here to read changes.

11/30/23 Update:  The draft bylaws include a provision in Article VI, Section 4 whereby a Director could be removed by a supermajority vote of the other Directors.  Outside legal counsel has advised us that this provision is contrary to the Virginia Code for non-profits.  A new version of the candidate by-laws that removes this provision will be posted to this website ASAP.  Several copies of the candidate bylaws will be available at the Membership Meeting.

12/2/23 Update:  The candidate bylaws have been posted under Unit Board and Business.  One version shows the changes from the previous, approved by-laws, the other is a clean version.

Congratulations to the following players for achieving a new ACBL rank!

New Junior Master

♣ ♦ Marian Sciacchitano♥ ♠ 

New Silver Life Master

♣ ♦ Judy Mannschreck♥ ♠ 

Starting on Sunday November 19th, the Sunday Unit Game will move to 1:00 PM.  During the shorter daylight months I will strive to make sure that the game ends by 4:15 PM.  We are making this change to allow our players to be able to drive home before sunset.

We will have several special games in November and December.  Sunday November 19th and Sunday December 10th will be Educational Fund games.  Sunday November 26th will be a Unit Championship Game. These games will pay 63.6% Sectional rated black points.  Please come out and play!  Remember, if either member of a partnership is not yet a Life Master both players get a $2 discount on their entry fee.

Pete Haglich, Unit Game Manager

In accordance with Section VI of the Unit 146 Bylaws, the 2023 nominating committee met on October 16, 2023.  Board members present were Kathy Haglich and Betty Willis.  Non board members present were Robert Cobb, Douglas Lahammer, and Charles Miesch.  The following are the nominees for 2024:  Louise Gordon, Peter Haglich, Wrus Kristiansen, Charles Miesch, and Judi Passerini.  The Membership may make additional nominations from the floor  at the annual meeting.  

The Unit 146 Holiday Party and annual Membership Meeting is scheduled for December 3rd at the Bridge Center. Lunch will be served and the Annual Membership Meeting will begin at 11:30. Lunch will be provided, please bring a dessert to share.
 
A pairs bridge game will follow lunch. The Membership Meeting agenda includes the election of candidates to the Board of Directors, vote on By-Laws changes, announcements, and awards.
 
Contact Pam Boyce at pamboyce68@gmail.com or 757-839-0571 if you need if you need a partner.
 
Hope to see you there!
 
Click on this link for the holiday party flyer.

Unit President Judi Passerini is convening the 4th Quarter Unit 146 Board of Directors meeting on Thursday November 2nd at 4 PM via Zoom.  Unit members are encouraged to attend and participate.  If you would like to do so, please send an email request for the Zoom link to Peter Haglich peterhaglich@gmail.com.

This year, club qualification for the Grand National Team (GNT) District
Finals is only required for the Open and A (0-6000) Flights - no club
qualification is required for Flights B and C.

Due to the scarcity of club qualifying games, the District 6 board passed a
motion that anyone playing in a District 6 Sectional Swiss will qualify to
play in the Open and A Flights of the GNTs ... players do not have to do
well, just need to play.

Please join us for our upcoming Unit 146 Sectional Swiss team game on
Sunday, October 22nd. In addition to having a fun day, you will also receive
a GNT qualification to play in the GNT Open and A Flight District Six
Finals!

A Message from the President

Greetings, all. Hope you are all doing well and made it through the last tornadic cyclone event safely. As some of you may know my spouse and I have lived in the Outer Banks for over 20 years. Our home is on the Albemarle Sound which frequently misbehaves, but the sunsets more than offset the occasional disruptions.

I want to thank Peter Haglich for his leadership of Unit 146 and know he will continue to represent all of us in his new role as President of District 6. The District is lucky to have the talents he will bring to his role.

There is a lot of exciting activity going on at the national ACBL offices. Our new Executive Director Bronia Jenkins is leaving no stone unturned in respecting the past but forging a road to a better future for those of us who are members, were members and could be members. I have participated in two of her recent meetings with Unit Presidents and have been so impressed with her listening skills, her patience, her deep love of the game of bridge and willingness to try to engage members. One of the challenges in any organization is growing the membership, as ACBL suffered mightily during and post Covid. One of the new initiatives was the mailing of thousands of postcards to lapsed members and offering the opportunity to renew their membership and in return receive $20 to play in a face-to-face game. We are trying to reach out to our lapsed members as well.

The Website committee met recently to discuss some changes and/or additions to the web page, specifically including information of member advancement and our desire to share in their well-earned accomplishments. Another area I had interest in addressing was the return of "the Dummy Speaks."  I reached out to Barbara Duer to see if she would be interested in resurrecting the Dummy, and she has agreed. If members have a topic they feel warrants asking "the dummy," please feel free to contact Barbara or myself.

My current sanctioned club is Outer Banks Duplicate which I acquired from Richard Gillespie after he and his wife managed it for 40 years. The club was not functioning post Covid, and I am pleased to report we just had our 2nd birthday. We are growing one month at a time. I recently had my former club re-sanctioned as a 0/20- 0/50 game to accommodate our players who are new to the game or striving to play in a setting which can help them earn Masterpoints a little easier rather than relying on the Open game. The game also includes a brief lesson followed by 15 board play. I am thrilled to report our first game had 5 full tables, 2 new ACBL members and 2 member renewals. This game is held monthly.

It goes without saying that I am very appreciative of the work of our board and its committee members. Please take an opportunity to thank those who strive to make playing the game we love a fun, safe and energizing activity at the Bridge Center and other venues in our Unit. If you know someone who would be interested in learning Carolyn Reigle has a class going. We are open to suggestions or areas which may need improvement.

I look forward to meeting some of you soon at the events we have planned, especially the upcoming Sectional and the Holiday party.

Judi Passerini

In a meeting at the Bridge Center today, the Unit 146 Board of Directors approved increasing Sectional entry fees to $14 per player per session.  As Unit members you deserve to know why we believe that this is necessary.  First, I'd like to point out that we have maintained the $12 entry fee level for at least 5 years.  We've been able to do that in the face of increasing costs by adjusting our meal service and running our Sectionals as Local Sectionals, which are more appropriate to our turnout.  Unfortunately, we are at the point where these measures are not sufficient to allow us to break even in our Sectionals.  The July Sectional had our biggest post-pandemic turnout of 84 tables but we ended up losing a small amount of money.  As compared with the April Sectional, which produced a small net intake for the Unit, there were two main drivers flipping us from the black to the red.  The larger driver was an increase in ACBL sanction fees by more than $2/table.  The second cause was an increase in the price of food and supplies.  Together, these resulted in an increase in our costs per table of $3.62, which works out to just less than $1 per player per session.  Given the current rate of inflation, we expect our costs to continue to increase over time.  Therefore, we decided to increase the entry fee by $2 per player per session now so that we don't need to adjust it again soon.  This increase will take effect starting with the October 2023 Sectional.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or other Board members.

Pete Haglich, Unit 146 President

Know someone who would appreciate a get well or condolence card.
Select the "Contact Us, Sunshine" from left menu and fill in form.
A card will be sent to the person by the Unit.

Many of you are receiving email from club owners about upcoming events and other bridge topics, even if you never signed up for them.  The club owners probably obtained your email from the ACBL roster.  The ACBL terms of use (found at https://web2.acbl.org/documentLibrary/about/termsofuse.pdf) allow them to send information about ACBL-sanctioned bridge events and announcements and newsletters discussing activities of the respective club, Unit, or District.  If you don't want to receive their emails then send them a note to direct them to remove you from their mailing list.  If they won't honor your wishes then let me know.

Emails from the Unit will be sent using the database we maintain on BridgeWebs, which is also updated with the ACBL roster.  If you want to opt out of those, you can either use the Contact Us form on the web page or else you can update your member profile in the Member Area (under Membership).  If neither of those work then contact the webmaster, Wrus Kristiansen, or myself.

P. Haglich

There has been some confusion in the past on the rights of the membership in regarding the participation at Board Meetings.

Article IV Membership Section 2. Rights
Each member shall be entitled to:

(a) Attend all membership meetings, meetings of the Board of Directors, and Committee Meetings with the approval of the Committee Chairman;

(b) Participate in the nomination and election of Unit Directors, and all business of the membership. Participation at a Board Meeting, by a non-board member, is limited to discussion of an issue already on the floor. A new subject may be introduced by obtaining permission of the President, prior to the Board Meeting;

(c) Participate in all Unit tournaments and other activities, subject to any proper rules that may be duly established therefore.