Major Items and Decisions

BBO Revenue

ABF Club games online were introduced in 2020 to afford members the opportunity to play and earn red and green Masterpoints. The ABF is pleased to announce BBO revenue of over $1,000,000 has been returned to clubs between May 2020 and 2021 September. Each participating club has received a portion of this revenue to reflect the number of sessions held and the number of participants.

Technology Project Update

MyABF has continued to grow and now has over 3,500 registered users. This is expected to grow as players enter the Gold Coast.

The next major release, planned for end 2021, is to offer clubs the facility to accept payments from players for club sessions via MyABF. After that the next major releases planned are:

• personalised display of player results
• integrating Masterpoint centre functionality (also incorporating member management and invoicing)
• development of an in-house scoring module

Following consideration by the Technology Steering Committee and ABF Board the priority order of the last two items has been switched from the previous schedule (this is partly, but not wholly, due to the recent masterpoint centre outage problems). A technology audit by an external party has also been commissioned and will shortly commence.

Covid vaccination status declaration functionality is now set up on the Profile page. Players are encouraged to update their profile.

 

Playoffs for 2022 and 2023 Australian Teams

Council agreed with Tournament Committee (TC) recommendations regarding Australian Team Playoffs for 2023 Open, Women’s, Seniors, and Mixed Teams. The Open and Mixed Playoffs will be eight team knockouts based on Open or Mixed PQPs earned in 2022. Women’s and Seniors Playoffs will be open entry events held in conjunction with the National Women’s Teams and National Seniors Teams respectively in the 1st week of the 2023 Summer Festival.

As there is only one event in which Mixed PQPs have been awarded in 2021, the use of PQPs to determine the 12 Pairs to compete in the 2022 Mixed Playoff was not considered viable.

Accordingly, Council accepted a TC recommendation that the 2022 Mixed Playoff remains as a 12 pair playoff with interested eligible Mixed Pairs submitting their credentials, as a pair, to a qualifying committee who will choose 12 pairs to go into the 2022 playoff. The qualifying committee’s choice will be based on the ability of the pair to finish 1st to 3rd in the playoff.

The TC will make separate detailed announcements regarding all these matters in due course.

Bridge TV

The Council agreed that the newsletter would continue to be published online. Clubs struggling financially need funding support to print copies for members locally are invited to contact ABF Marketing. The ABF will utilise the substantial savings to invest in the production of a new offering for players – ‘Bridge TV’. Bridge TV will bring players a variety of shows including interviews, congress reports, stories from around the world, director tips, hand discussion and more on a regular basis. Peter Cox, the Head of Marketing, expects to launch Bridge TV just before Christmas.

ABF Capitation Fee 2022

In 2022 the capitation fee will return to $16.10. Council also agreed to waive a CPI fee increase for 2022 on the masterpoint fees which will remain unchanged.

Plans for ABF and ABF Licensed Events 2022

The Summer Festival of Bridge will be run online in January. Details are on the ABF website

Australian Bridge Federation » 2022 Summer Festival of Bridge Timetable (abf.com.au)

The Gold Coast Congress and the Tasmania Festival of Bridge will be held February and March, respectively. Entries can be lodged on MyABF.

Feedback & Future Meetings

The Management Committee welcomes feedback and suggestions on the above matters or other subjects. The next ABF Board Meeting will be held on December 7, 2021

2020- 2022 ABF Board

Allison Stralow (President), Kim Frazer (Secretary), Ian Thomson, (Treasurer), Adel Abdelhamid, Rob Ward

Jane Rasmussen (Executive Secretary), Michael Bryan (Deputy Legal Counsel)