The ABF Management Committee is currently holding monthly meeting to reconfigure and readjust our response in real time as Covid-19 restrictions are tightened in some States and eased in others.  Our thoughts are with our Victorian members and their families who have recently gone back into lockdown.

The ABF Management Committee thanks the retiring Accountant Sue Nixon for her nine years of service, especially for being diligent with the record keeping and the balancing of the books.

A number of clubs returned to face-to-face bridge in June. The Management Committee discussed the continuation of ABF and club on-line bridge in the future. A meeting will be held with the National Event Coordinators, the Head of Marketing and the Secretariat, to discuss the logistics of overseeing on-line games.  Clubs, States and Territories are advised that from August 1st, it is expected that masterpoints will be issued for all on-line sessions regardless of whether these sessions are free of charge to the players.

The Management Committee accepted the recommendation from the Tournament Committee to cancel the Playoffs scheduled for November, December 2020 and January 2021.  The current 2020 teams will represent Australia in 2021.  If no WBF Championships are held in 2021 the rights of the current Australian Teams will terminate and not be carried forward to 2022.  If this is the case, the ABF will look at ways of recognising the current Australian Teams by sending them to compete in an appropriate event.

The Management Committee also agreed in principle to the current PQP cycle ending with the Canberra in Bloom Bridge Festival in October 2021, but decided to delay a decision on awarding PQPs to events where travel is restricted until we have a clearer picture of what scheduled PQP events are able to run. The resumption of national events remains uncertain and we will continue to monitor the situation closely before making a decision about the Summer Festival of Bridge in January.

To all of the Australian Bridge Community, take care, stay resilient and keep safe.

Allison Stralow
ABF President
12 July, 2020