Page 7 - ABF Newsletter June 2024

It is hard to believe that I have been in my role with the ABF for more than six months already! I know that time is meant to be a constant but it certainly feels like just the other day that I signed up! Since our last newsletter I have attended both the Autumn Nationals in Adelaide and the River City Gold in Brisbane. Both of these ABF-licensed events were very well run and the tournament organisers deserve a lot more credit than we tend to give them for all the hard work they put in to ensuring we enjoy ourselves. I remarked to someone that the River City Gold reminded me of the country congresses I used to attend in my youth. Everyone was so friendly and the catering was amazing, the scales at home im- plied that I enjoyed the food way too much! If you would like to see some photos from these events then search for us on Facebook (or LinkedIn). If you would like to get a piece of this action then in June and July we have three more gold point events coming up: the Victor Champion Cup in Melbourne, the Western Seniors Pairs (for players born before 1 January 1961) in Perth and the Australian National Championships (ANC) in Orange in July. The ANC this year incorporates the inaugural Central West Festival of Bridge, so even if you don’t want to play in the championship events, there are a wide range of options available. Details regarding all of these events and more are available on MyABF. I would like to thank all of the Australian bridge play- ers who encouraged their young family members or friends to sign up for our online lessons for 14 to 24 year olds. We had over 100 potential youth bridge players register for the lessons which ran through- out May. Hopefully, you will start to see some of them playing at your local club soon. Please be sure to welcome them and encourage them to continue on the path to becoming regular players. In May, the World Bridge Federation (WBF) hosted a two-day seminar in Bangkok for officers of National Bridge Organisations from across Asia and the Pa- cific regions. Jenny Thompson and I represented the ABF and we had the opportunity to not only learn a lot about the WBF, but we were also able to network with representatives from New Zealand, Thailand, China, Chinese Taiwan, Malaysia, Jordan, Palestine, Morocco, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan and the Philippines! The topics covered included youth bridge (Jenny and I presented on the ABF’s online lesson program), women’s bridge, recruitment of new players, ethics, online bridge and unfortunately, cheating in bridge. There was a lot of sharing by the delegates of both their challenges and the successes. In addition, the WBF facilitators shared with us a lot of very useful resources that have been developed in other parts of the bridge world. I am looking forward to investi- gating the adoption of some of their practices. Our youth teams (Under 26 and Under 26 Women’s) will be heading off to Poland in July. I wish them all the best of luck for both the pairs and teams events. To keep up with their progress, you can either look on the WBF’s website or watch out for our posts on social media. Finally, by the time you read this article, Margaret Cusack will have started in her role of ABF Executive Administrator, taking over from Jane Rasmussen, who is retiring in July. When you get the opportunity, please be sure to wish Jane well in her retirement and welcome Margaret to her new role. PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT For all your professional and personal insurance needs, including travel insurance. Check out their web site at www.tbib.com.au TONY BEMROSE INSURANCE BROKERS Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: June 2024 Page: 7