To provide a home for friendly, competitive bridge in a community of new to highly skilled players.

♥ ♠ ♣ ♦ Thank you for choosing to play at MObridge Virtual Club -- Your support is appreciated.♦ ♣ ♠ ♥    

Let’s

        CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!!!        

President’s Message – April 2021

The fight against Covid-19 continues.  Vaccinations are being given at a very high rate.  Herd immunity should be attained by September.  Those over 75 have already done so in Ontario, and all those over 40 are now eligible.  By mid-May it is forecast that everyone over 18 will have access.

We have received notifications from a number of Clubs in the US planning to open for in-person play – typically enhanced cleaning, vaccinations required and liability waivers to protect the Clubs from risk.  Eric Pinto and his team continue to monitor the situation and we are cautiously optimistic we can open in the late third quarter.  If regulations allow, we will be prepared to open earlier, although perhaps with a limited program, definitely with enhanced cleaning protocols, improved air quality and limited snack offerings.

But where will we play?  Last year we agreed with our landlord on a one-year extension expiring October 1, at our current location.  We have received their first offer, and are into a new cycle of negotiations, while keeping a watch on the market for an alternative site.

Thank you for your support of MObridge.  Our membership is up over 10% from 2019, the number of tables in the first quarter is well above 2020, partly because of our suspended operations for 3 weeks in March, 2020, but mostly because you are playing more often at our Virtual Club.   As a result, the finances are secure, and we have sufficient reserves to maintain the current schedule and support the expected re-opening expenses.  This is important, since once we open for in-person play, we are anticipating both one-time costs to refresh and upgrade our space, and increasing monthly overheads which may create a potential operating loss until attendance returns to former levels.

We are very pleased to see so many of our players online.  One of the factors has been the work of our volunteer calling committee led by Joanne Gilmore.  Building on work initiated by Patti Lee and Bev Ross, we initiated an outreach program calling MObridge members without BBO addresses. We assumed that members who were playing on BBO were doing fine.  The objective was to keep contact and offer assistance in connecting to the Virtual Club.  The response was universally positive and members were pleased that we cared enough to ask!!!  Since then, many have joined the on-line games.  The program is now complete.  Thank you to Joanne and her team: Patti Lee, Bev Ross, Jean Richards, Linda Planeta, Janet Turchet and Sherrill Bain.

BBO and the ACBL have now figured out how to host a Swiss team event.  And apparently we have all missed this format.  We proved the popularity with 2 outstanding events, arranged by Martin Hunter.  We will continue to offer a monthly game on the first Wednesday night at 7 pm.  There will be two (possibly three) flights.  As far as we know, we are the only club in our area offering a Swiss.  Accordingly, we will be allowing a limited number of guest teams to join the game.  Individual guest team members are also welcome.  We continue to follow the ACBL rules for guests, and are currently well under the 15% limit.  Thanks to Martin for making this a great success!

Our history of volunteer support continues.  We have two new co-webmasters - Jim Flower and Zack Suski have agreed to take over the role from Rick Wilson.  This is a critical element of our operation and member communications.  Thanks, and welcome to the team.

The Mentoring Program is in full swing. The Education Committee, chaired by Sharyn Rothfuss, encourages members who are interested in improving their game and/or taking their play to a new level to participate.  Details can be found on our website under the Mentoring Program 2021 tab or by speaking directly with Crystal Ingoldsby, who is currently administering this program.

We are well underway in planning the Virtual AGM on June 21, 2021.  The Agenda includes a club update, financial review, a motion to approve the engagement of Allworth and Associates to review the financials and an update to the club by-laws.  A formal invitation will be issued Mid-May including a proxy.  Please complete and submit the proxy, so we can achieve a quorum.  If you attend, the proxy will be voided and you will be allowed to vote directly.

There are four Board positions opening up this year and the Club is looking for a cross section of members of diverse talents and bridge experience to contribute to the next chapter of the Club.  The Board will propose a roster – a short resume of each will be posted 30 days in advance of the meeting, and nominations from the floor will be accepted.  Please consider doing your part.  For more information contact Linda Planeta (lindaplanetaon@gmail.com).

Stay safe everyone. See you on BBO (PINGLIE).

Paul Inglis 

President

♥ ♣ ♠ ♥ 

The Directors’ Corner (Newer points hi-lited)

• If you have a question, ask a Director ... simply send an e-mail to mail@mobridge.club, typing "Ask a Question" in the subject line and hit send.  It's as simple as that.  :)  Someone will be back to you as soon as time permits.

• We have issues with players pushing other players with "time".  This is not unique to MObridge.  It's a problem all over.  Please, if you have an issue with time, please call the Director (using the 3 bar option, as stated below). 

• During the game, when calling the Director, make sure to use the 3 bar option, typing the reason for you call in the space provided, as opposed to private chat with the Director.  Director Calls using this option allows the Director to come right to your table (as opposed to having to find you, which is the case when you use chat) and it stays in the Director Call List until the Director can get to your call (They do sometimes get more than 1 Director Call at once).  Using this feature does save time with no chance of your “call” being lost in chat.

• The Directors can’t stress enough how important it is for you to be registered for your game at least 5 minutes ahead of start time (10 minutes would be ideal).  And if you do register earlier, make sure you are back at Registration at least 5 minutes before game start time (again, 10 minutes would be ideal).  Last minute entries quite often change the setup, and sometimes without enough time to do so.  There have also been situations where players have been removed from our listing ... time is needed before game start to help out in such situations.  Unlike at the Club, where the game setup can be entered after game start, on BBO it MUST be set before game start.  Hopefully, if you have an issue, the Director has enough time to help out.

• We also add that pairs have had to be removed when not back at registation at game time.  In our Virtual World, we have to realize that players have allotted their time accordingly and may not be able to afford any extra time to their game.  This goes hand-in-hand with adding time to the rounds as well, ergo when registering, one knows the maximum time required for that game and can plan his/her schedule accordingly.  We run our OPEN games @ 6 mins./board and our LIMITED games @ 7 mins./board.

• The Directors have also noted that it’s rare they find a pair playing in our Virtual Club without a completed Convention Card.  This is was not the case a while back.  Well done MObridge players.

You may have noticed that the Director is now listed in the game’s opening comments.

Member Survey Results

Thank you to everyone that answered the survey.   We had 156 responses – and most had favourable comments and suggestions.   We give you a few quick stats from the survey:

MP Level of Respondents

75% of Respondents (and by extension, the membership) having less than 1000 MP

• 19%       0 – 50 MP
• 27%       51-300 MP
• 30%       301-1000 MP
• 15%       1001-2500 MP
• 10%       > 2500 MP

Note - rounding results in 101%

Desired or Intended Playing Frequency (Per Week)

• 1-2         43%
• 3-4         45%
• 5-7         12%
• >7          1%

Note - rounding results in 101%

LINKED games & TEAM games:  The response indicated substantial enthusiasm for these games.  As such, we are making some changes to the current schedule.  We have already added a Sunday LINKED game and have modified a couple of existing LIMITED games with a LINKED Open game. 

More opportunities for OPEN players and more opportunities for more points for ALL players.

BBO has been enhancing their virtual system to accommodate TEAM games.  MObridge is planning a trial SWISS TEAM GAME for March 17^th, St. Patrick’s Day.  If successful, a TEAM game will be added to the regular schedule.

TEAM LEAGUE:  Enthusiasm for this was mainly from the higher MP levels.  We will follow up to determine how ACBL & BBO plan to implement this.  Stay tuned for more.

SPEEDBALL pairs & IMP scored games:  The response was less than overwhelming.  Hence, no plans to add anything here.

Some of the comments received included concerns about the timing of games, the time allotted per game (6 minutes too short for some), number of games per session, cost of the online games, limited games point count, and more.  We will continue our review of this input and determine how/if we can accommodate these requests.

Thank you again for your participation and input.

Eric Pinto

This club, operating since 1984, was taken over by the local bridge community as a not-for-profit organization in 2015. We are a permanent bridge facility serving the western GTA, with a wide range of bridge games and educational offerings. 

3105 Winston Churchill Blvd, Mississauga, Ontario L5L 5S3

(905) 820-5728
mail@MObridge.club
www.MObridge.club