Happy New Year District 25!

There’s Snow Business… Blizzard conditions weren’t kind on our attendance at our first Regional of the year, 70^th Consecutive New England Regional Individual that was held Jan 3-5 at the Newton Marriott. But good planning, proper caution and excellent communications resulted in not only a decent turnout, but most importantly, not a single accident reported.  

Valentine’s Hearts…Spades, Diamonds and Clubs!… Looking forward to a great turnout for our next Regional in Cromwell, CT, Feb 12-17 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Hope you all can make it to one or more of the great events planned. For schedule and room information, click here.

Two Important & Timely Messages… I want to highlight a couple of very important and timely activities that haven’t, in my opinion, been given the publicity they deserve.

1) Intercollegiate Championships Sign-up This Month.

Teams must register with acbl.org prior to February 1 in order to be allowed to compete in the Bridge Base Online qualifier on February 15^th. The National finals are at the first weekend of the Las Vegas NABC in July. Email questions to collegiates@acbl.org. 

I just got some info from ACBL HQ noting that our membership in D25 is up a little bit from last year at 7,528 members, with 18.8 years of average membership – but that our average age is 70.11 years, which is actually a little younger than the ACBL average of 70.7 years for our 166,430 members! One of the things I have been advocating to help turn this around is expanding the Intercollegiates with a much bigger scholarship award. The ACBL is considering this, but has not moved in this direction, yet. Meanwhile, if you are interested in this and may know any college players, or if you may be involved with any of your alma mater’s alumni networks, I would strongly suggest you get the word out.  

Complete 2014 conditions of contest are listed here.

2) Grass Roots Fund Games Mean Money for the District and Extra Points for You.

Special Grass Roots Funds games are being held across the District during the month of January.   A portion of the proceeds from each game  will go straight into our District treasury to help support our premier grass roots events: the North American Pairs, and the Grand National Teams. These Grass Roots Fund games are very important and very helpful for our continuing to maintain and hopefully enlarge the incentives we provide for these tremendous events. Check the schedule of your favorite clubs, and please try to participate in one or more of these games

Thanks to all of you who work so hard to make our bridge events so successful and enjoyable in our District. 2014 is truly going to be one of the best years ever for bridge in New England – culminating with the Fall North American Championships in Providence.   We still have many volunteer opportunities available to help out with the Nationals.   Click here for more info.

Mark Aquino

President, New England Bridge Conference