District
12 Director,
American Contract Bridge League Board of Directors District
Directors set policy for the entire
organization at the North American level. Individual districts
have their own government for more local self-governance. Some
function in a "central" manner in which the District controls funding
of tournaments and such; others function in a "distributed" manner in
which units within the district control funding of tournaments and
such.
District 12 is organized as a "distributed" network with a "central" website. Many thanks to Alan Bau for his outstanding D12 webwork! Please see that site for local or regional bridge matters. This site is devoted to displaying national-level activities of this Board member. |
||
minutes | full committee lists | duties | milestones | atlas | home | ||
Spreadsheets; many have multiple
sheets. |
Terminology:
The District 12 Director is the representative of District 12 on the
National Board of Directors of the ACBL. The business of the
national Board is ACBL business. As with any corporation, the
Board of Directors sets policy for the entire organization. One
member of the Board of Directors is elected
President of the organization on an annual basis. The CEO is
staff and is a paid position at Headquarters;
that tenure may span many years. The ACBL pays for the first week
(roughly). Because I am involved in numerous committees, and
because I think it is important for the District Director to be present
throughout the entire NABC to represent the District and become
well-known, I choose to stay for the entire time (the last week at
personal expense). |
|||||
2012 Attendance at
NABCs
|
2011
Attendance at NABCs
|
||||
2010
Attendance at NABCs
|
2009
Attendance at NABCs
|
2008
Attendance at NABCs
|
2007
Attendance at NABCs
|
2006
Attendance at NABCs
|
2005
Attendance at NABCs
|
Thus, I have attended all NABCs in 2005, 2004, and all but one in 2003. This pattern has given me a fine advantage because as a new National Board member in 2005, I already knew all the National Board members from having attended half of the National Board meetings of the previous two years and having been at other Nationals that enabled me to get to know Board members. |
|||||
Broadly
speaking, the
American
Contract Bridge League (ACBL) is a non-profit 501(c)4 tax-exempt
organization
in the entertainment sector of the business world. Its
headquarters
are housed in Horn Lake, Mississippi, a suburb of Memphis, TN. A
large staff, headed by a CEO, oversees the
daily
functioning of the business (and includes a full-time professional
event
planner who oversees the running of all NABC tournaments).
This
staff makes most of the decisions about implementing policy that is set
by a 25 member National Board of Directors. Each of these 25
members
represents one geographic "district" of the ACBL. To see how North
America
has been split into 25 districts, follow the "Atlas" link on this
website. Thus, the District 12 Director is the member of
the
National Board of Directors of the ACBL from Michigan/Northern
Ohio.
It is the mission of District Directors to help to set policy for the
entire
ACBL and to do so in a manner that is consistent with the best
interests
of bridge players at large. The President of the ACBL is one of
the
25 members of the Board of Directors and is elected by that
Board.
Unlike the CEO, the President is not involved in the daily functioning
of the ACBL of Memphis. That
description, in a nutshell, gives a brief idea of what a District
Director
does: he or she functions as a member of a National Board of
Directors
of a large corporation involved in the setting of policy for the entire
corporation.
Beyond that nutshell, however, there is good reason also to look at how the corporate structure and associated policy translates to the local bridge-playing environment. The geographical arrangement of the ACBL is hierarchical in nature. There is the national organization at the top of the hierarchy. Directly under that, there are 25 mutually exclusive Districts that cover the entire ACBL. Within each District, there is some number of units that also are supposedly mutually exclusive and that cover the entire district. While the ACBL and its Board of Directors set policy at the national level, that action certainly has impact upon individual districts and units although the national organization does not typically insert itself into local matters. Generally, any single district will have a district board of directors, including a President and other officers to oversee the internal, local affairs of the district. Also, each unit will have a unit board of directors, including a President and other officers to oversee the internal, local affairs of the unit. Members of these boards elect some member of the district to serve on the National Board of the Directors holding the position called "District Director." The functional organizational structure within districts varies by district and seems to follow, nationally, one of two models.
|