The Australian Government has released this report and what it shows for the Australia of 2055 includes:

• the number of over 65s will more than double
• life expectancy will increase to 95.1 years for men and 96.6 years for women
• the number of over 85s will increase to 4.9% of the population (nearly 2 million people)
• over 40,000 people will be aged 100 years
• over 65s will increase participation in the workforce to 17.3% from today's 12.9%.

Wow, our senior events in future should be well attended!

This promotion was included in the February issue of the Rotary down under magazine, distributed to 36,000 Rotarians in Australia.

Richard Giles, President of the Ballarat Bridge Club, subsequently approached all seven Rotary Clubs in Ballarat offering to supply a guest speaker to discuss bridge and the facilities of his club.

To date, three Clubs have responded and taken up the offer.  Their next challenge is to convert the interest into learners attending their classes!

If your club chooses to do something similar, you may wish to access the ABF Resource Kit - information for Presentations to assist in putting together a presentation.

Good luck!

A great way to improve the marketing and communication capability of your club is to have an effective management 'tool' like Pianola.

A recent presentation of this product to the ABF Management Committee impressed given its potential to provide important and interesting information and analysis to both club administrators and their members.

Pianola offers:

• membership management
• email marketing/communication capability with your members
• a partner finder;  and
• results (with automatic emails and analysis of performance).

If any club has other tips for improving club management and member service please let me know!

Details about Pianola can be found here or contact John McIlrath at john@johnmcilrath.com.au .

Click here for an article about a University of Southern California decades-long study of health and mental acuity activity in the elderly.  It is not a recent article (published 21 May 2009) but it is interesting.

There is quite a bit of evidence now suggesting that the more people you have contact with, in your own home or outside, the better you do mentally and physically.  Interacting with people regularly, even strangers, uses easily as much brain power as doing puzzles.  Bridge provides both kinds of stimulation.

Check out the 23 February 2015 91.7 ABC Gold Coast interview with 12 year old Jack Luke-Prady - Gold Coast kid comes up trumps at National bridge competition.  

It's great to see younger people playing and enjoying bridge, especially at a major event like the Gold Coast Congress!

If your club is interested in attracting youth players, you may be interested in an article offering 7 good reasons to teach children bridge. It can be accessed here.  Good 'marketing' messages, especially for their parents!

Analysis of research undertaken with super-novice players (ie 0 - 20 masterpoints) at the 2015 Summer Festival of Bridge can be accessed here.

Interesting outcomes include:

1. confirmation that the most common way for people to be attracted to bridge beginner classes is via the recommendation of a friend or family member;
2. the majority of the respondents play more than one session of bridge each week;  and
3. what they like about bridge is (1) the mental challenge and (2) the social aspects of the sport.

The latest issue of Audrey Grant's newsletter for bridge teachers features an article about the ABF's National Teaching Coordinator, Joan Butts, teaching bridge in Australia.

It is wonderful to see Joan (and the Australian bridge scene) getting positive coverage in such a prestigeous publication.

Check out the article here.  (Registration is free)

All promotional activitiy must be reported to the ABF National Marketing Officer as soon as possible.  This is a critical brand management issue for the Australian Bridge Federation.

You can either email marketing@abf.com.au or ring Sandra Mulcahy on 0417 920 816.