The club manager does what is needed to run the games. You have to deal with scheduling the games and interacting with members, directors, and the club’s board of directors.
The list here describes many of the duties, but flexibility is needed to handle the situations that may arise. It is split into sections for:
· Schedule – schedule the events held at the club
· Weekly Duties – things you have to do almost every week
· Monthly Duties – things you have to do almost every month
· Supplies – purchase of the supplies needed to run the club
· Website – maintain the club’s website
· Email – deal with email received by you and the club
· Equipment – maintain the equipment used by the club
· Miscellaneous – other things
The manager creates the schedule of events. This includes deciding what events are played on which days and assigning directors to run the games. There are a variety of different events. The ACBL provides many events, most of which provide extra points at an extra cost. There are also District events, such as a STaC or a Regional. The manager also has some discretion on choosing events.
The ACBL determines when certain events are played. For example, January is Junior Fund month, where any day in January can be scheduled for a Junior Fund event, charging an extra $1 per player. There are also months where part of the month can be scheduled for an event. For example, NAP Qualifying events are held for two weeks in each of June, July, and August. Some events can only be done one week a year, or once or twice a quarter. The manager has to determine when to do these. The ACBL also has periodic special events, such as the ACBL-wide Instant Matchpoint Game, which must be held on specific days. The manager must register for those in advance.
The District schedules Sectional Tournaments at Clubs (STaC). These provide silver points to the players and results are compared across the entire District. They also schedule Regional tournaments. The club usually closes for most events when the Regional is played in King of Prussia at the end of June. We may also play a reduced schedule for the Regional near Lancaster at the end of October.
We are not required to do these events, but most of our players prefer to do them. It is useful to keep track of local tournaments and the national tournaments and avoid scheduling special events when they are running.
The club also schedules its own events. Currently we do Handicap Teams the first Thursday of the month, the Four is Enough game the following Wednesday, the Swiss Teams for 0-500 players the Friday of the next week, and the 0-99 game the following Wednesday. We also do the Robot Individual Online once per month.
A preliminary schedule should be made about 6 weeks before the month. It should have the events and how much we are going to charge for them. Directors need to be scheduled for the events. The Schedule.xlsm file has spreadsheets holding the schedules. It has a macro to put the schedule in displayable form. Once the preliminary schedule is done, it should be sent to the directors to make sure they are available. Once the schedule is finalized, copies of it are posted in the club, on the Website, and in the Weekly Newsletter. The sign-up book is updated with the events using the Sign Up Merge.docx file. A copy of the schedule is put on the directors’ desk.
We may also periodically schedule a special event such as a Sectional or NAP game for the Unit or District. These are one-off events that can bring some money and notoriety for the club. Information on these games is provided in our Website.
These mostly consist of setting up the events for the next week, so they are best done on the weekend preceding the games.
· Set up the Gamefile directory with the Common Game .pbn and .pdf files or with the STaC or other special event files you are running
· Copy the Gamefile to the archive
· Replace the price card on the directors’ desk with appropriate ones
· Use the Common Game utility to exclude games we don’t want
· Provide any needed Conditions of Contest for special games to the directors. Usually a printed copy goes on the desk and email may be sent
· Make any schedule updates needed and repost them as necessary
· Make sure the Prior Games folders are up-to-date
· Check Email and any Phone messages
· Make sure the directors’ desk has financial recap sheets
· Provide input for the Weekly Newsletter and update the Website with a link to the last newsletter
· Make sure the restrooms have supplies and check on the status of Supplies in the storage closets and cabinets
· Update the bulletin boards as needed
· Make sure Cleaning is paid
· Make a backup of the main computer (see Computers)
Some of these are done at the end of the month, and some may be done at any time
· Update the ACBLscore database (see Computers)
· Pay the ACBL charges for last month (see ACBL). The ACBL gets part of the proceeds from every game. Go to Live for Clubs to pay the charges for the month and download a list
· Provide the treasurer and president the list of charges, fees due the manager, fees due for online game direction, or anything else of note
· After the sixth of the month (when the ACBL updates its masterpoint records), update our database with the new totals. This is done using ACBLscore. Update the database for districts 4, 6, 9, and 99. We have players in all those districts. Do NOT do this in June, July, and August because NAP qualifying is based on the totals as of May.
· Update the Website with a list of players that achieved a new ACBL rank and put the list in the next Weekly Newsletter
· Remove old files from the Gamefile directory after archiving them
· Remove old results (older than 3 months) from the Prior Games folders
· Clean coffee pots and do needed maintenance on equipment (such as dealing machine)
· Order Supplies
· Once a year, get sanctions from the ACBL for all of our games
· The manager is automatically appointed to the Board of Directors and attends their meetings about every 6 weeks. The manager is expected to give a report at those meetings.
The club uses various supplies which must be ordered and stocked. They tend to fall into three categories, Consumables, Office Supplies, and Bridge Supplies
These are the items we use up on a regular basis, primarily food and restroom supplies. Items such as paper towels, restroom supplies, coffee and such are ordered from WBMason. Some food is purchased from local groceries, and places like Target. It’s better to purchase some items directly if delivered items may be left outside (candy can melt). The club has an Amazon account. Some things can be found cheaper there. For example, ordering cups in bulk from Amazon saves money.
These items are usually ordered about once a month. It’s best to order at the beginning of the week to avoid deliveries on the weekend. The Shopping List.xlsx file has a list of consumables.
These are standard supplies such as pencils and paper. Staples will deliver boxes of paper. We use a lot of toner for our Printers. It seems best to keep spares under the printer table. Staples will recycle the old one.
These are convention cards, score sheets, and the like. They are ordered as needed from BaronBarclay.com. Making fewer large orders will save on shipping costs.
Our website is www.bridgewebs.com/northpenn. We purchase rights from bridgewebs and they provide (somewhat limited) tools to maintain the site.
· Update the home page with items of current or long-standing interest
· Update the calendar with the schedule
· Update the Newsletter section with links to the Weekly Newsletter. These are links to ConstantContact.
· Results are mostly done automatically after the directors upload them to ACBL Live for Clubs but occasionally they may need to be updated.
· The Lessons and Online Bridge sections are updated as needed.
· Member Achievements is updated monthly after the ACBL updates it masterpoint list. You can see new rank changes through the District4 website. You also get a list from the Common Game. Cross-check the list with our Membership List to find our members.
· Update our links for online payments as needed. We provide links to pay dues and charitable donations. We use PayPal for online payments and that site can provide links back to them to handle payments.
· Include information on any special events we host. For example, for the Sectional we provided our address, addresses of local restaurants and hotels, and links back to the ACBL.
· Information for Directors can be put here
Although the tools for entering information can be limited, the site does allow you to view and edit the source directly. A rudimentary knowledge of HTML is useful for this. In particular, it helps to improve styles (such as updating a link with style=”color:blue”).
Our email address is northpennbridge@gmail.com. The manager needs to read and respond to these messages. Sometimes you respond directly and sometimes you forward them to someone else. Be careful of spam, we get messages wanting us to pay for things we didn’t order. At one point we also used northpennpartner@gmail.com as a place where people could find partners but we moved away from that. The manager also has to maintain several filters on our email. They send copies of financial information to the treasurer and copies of membership information to the membership chair.
The manager also gets mail to their personal email account. You can expect to receive mail from club members, the ACBL, other clubs, you name it.
The manager has to maintain and occasionally replace the equipment used by the club.
There are two computers, the main one used to run the games, and the one used with the dealing machine.
The main computer is connected to the monitor on the directors’ desk and the monitor on the wall. The main computer has the ACBLscore software available from ACBL. This software is used to run the games. The main directories it uses are Gamefile, which has the information for the current games; DBase, which has player information; and MOV, which has external movement files. The Gamefile is updated weekly and should be saved frequently. The DBase is updated with player information after every game. ACBLscore may be used to update player and game information. MOV has external movement files that provide game movements not programmed into ACBLscore. Additional movements can be added through ACBLscore. There is a binder on the desk next to the computer that describes any movements.
The main computer also has software to run the Bridgemates, a Bridge Timer to time hands, and printer drivers for the Printers.
The computer used with the dealing machine also has all this software. It is a backup to the main computer and should be used if it fails. The database may not be up to date but should be sufficient to run the games. It also has the Dealer4 software used to run the dealing machine. This software uses the .pbn file for a game to deal the hands. Directors and volunteers deal the hands for each game. The manager has to make sure the hands are dealt.
There are two printers. The main printer is on the desk next to the main computer and the second printer is on the desk with the dealing machine. The main printer is a color printer used for almost all printing, the second is just used for emergencies. Paper and toner must be bought with Office Supplies.
The Bridgemates are used by the players to enter their scores. There is a Bridgemate server connected to the main computer. The server must be moved to the other computer if needed to run a game. The Bridgemates have to be cleaned periodically. They run on AA batteries which must be bought with Office Supplies.
These are the most common of the other tasks that must be done.
The manager provides information for the newsletter. It is common to provide information on upcoming games and any special results, but you can put in anything you want about the club. A schedule of the next several weeks is provided as described in Weekly Duties. You should review this information before it is released. The Website is updated with a link to the newsletter every week.
The club is cleaned every week on either Thursday night or the weekend by Kathy Swindell (kittend1979@hotmail.com 267-372-3172). The current rate is $100 per cleaning. We leave cash in an envelope in the closet next to the directors’ desk. You may need a second cleaning when we host a special event on the weekend.
The American Contract Bridge League is the governing body for our games. You will notice a Club Manager section added to your MyACBL page. Go through there to provide club information, including a list of directors who can post your results, and request sanctions for your games. You may also have to contact them directly to get request answers to questions (you may get a response).
The ACBL also schedules periodic (about once a month) online meetings where you can get answers to questions and hear what they are doing.
Currently we do the Robot Individual online once per month. The date is picked as part of the Schedule. There is a separate account for the club manager on BBO. It is used to set up the online game. The payment to the online director is reported to the treasurer as part of Monthly Duties. There is a section on the Website describing the online games. It was used heavily during the pandemic but not as much now.
Leave an appropriate announcement on the phone for when people leave messages and deal with any messages that are left.
The club is closed occasionally due to some emergency (usually bad weather). Put a notice on the Website, send out a message with ConstantContact, and leave a message on the Phone. Remember to reset the message when reopening.
The manager has to deal with the physical plant such as replacing light bulbs, fixing plumbing, and whatever else arises. The landlord may be responsible for some HVAC problems, but the rest is up to the club.
This file contains the Schedule.
This file has a list of Consumables to be purchased.
This file is used to generate the sign-up sheets that go in the book from the Schedule.
This file is maintained by the Membership chair and is provided for your use.