Future Stars -- Ocotober 2010

The reaction to the Unit's Future Stars events continues to be positive.
Richard Dunn, (the D.I.C) reports that this past weekends event had 48 Tables.
Here is a breakdown of the previous events for comparison.


Sat aft Sat eve Sun morn Sun eve Tot
May ’09 16.5 9.5 14 7 47
Apr ’10 17.5 14 12.5 9 53 !!!
Oct ’10 17 10 12 9 48


Greg Morse
As an aside, I have heard that some of the newer players are wary of playing regularly at the VBC; there is no reason for them to be worried. Encouraging them to attend a Future Stars event at the VBC would be a good way to introduce them to the site.
JGM.

Dealing Machine Arrives

Unit 430 now has a new dealing machine!! The cost is shared with the VBC (thank you Ken).
The machine will be kept at the VBC, and be available for Unit games, special mentor/mentee games, Sectionals (if required), and whichever club games Ken decides to allow.

The benefit to our members is that hand records can now be given out more easily. The benefit to our directors is that making up boards for special events and teaching hands is now much easier.

I am waiting for the final piece to arrive, and while I am waiting
I am still working through the various features of the software.

Here is a picture or three.
The top one is the full layout (CD is balanced on top of machine).
Next is a picture of the two windows that are open when the machine is dealing.
Finally the machine with the CD of software on balanced on top.

Greg Morse.

Mentee/Mentor Game Feedback.

Thanks to the interest of some people on the board in promoting and encouraging new bridge players, there has been an effort to have Mentor/Mentee games on a regular basis.
David Dilkes is the board member responsible for these games.
The following quotes come courtesy of David's efforts to obtain feedback on the latest game, a Swiss Teams event.

Greg Morse
-----------------------------From David-------------------------------------------------

Hi,

At the risk of being redundant, I want to say again that for me it was a fantastic effort on the part of our Mentors and our Mentees to turn out 84 bridge players and organize into 21 teams and to have a game which I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you all! And, a very special thank you to Cathy Miller who did a magnificent job of Directing and single-handedly managing the scoring, team movement and caddying the boards. WOW---- what an effort!

I would really appreciate your feedback on three items:

1. Your overall experience at our game on Saturday, Oct 2. (Please be candid be it good, bad or indifferent.)

2. Our next quarterly game would fall in January. However, it will not be on Jan 1, as that day is reserved for the VBC Annual Special Marathon with games all day and all of you are invited but not for a MMTG. It has been suggested that we hold our next MMTG on Sat, Jan 8, at 1 p.m. Please let me know if this will work for you.

3. Any suggestions on how we can continue to improve our MMTG,

I look forward to hearing from you. Thank You!

David

---------------------------------From The Mentees---------------------------------------------

Overall Experience

1. “From my perspective it ran very smoothly. We had good games, and

learned about Swiss Teams. It is lucky we have people like you who will put the effort into organizing.”

2. “Overall experience: very positive--efficiently run and pleasant atmosphere.”
3. “Everything ran really smoothly on Saturday. Good job!”
4. “I really enjoyed the whole event and it was very well run.”
5. “I thoroughly enjoyed the game. My mentor was supportive, positive and encouraging throughout. He also gave me some objective feedback on the strengths and weaknesses in my play.”
6. “it was a great session.”
7. “Yes, I had a really good time. you did a terrific job. It is so nice to meet and or play with the good players! The better the player the nicer they are.”
8. “I thought the afternoon was very well organized and I enjoyed it very much.”
9. “Ya done good dude. A lot of the chaos around the first game was dealt with and the new director is a real asset. The game went very smoothly I thought.”
10. “My partner XXXXXX and I enjoyed the MMTG event very much on Sat. We had such helpful mentors and it was not nearly as stressful as I anticipated.With this first experience under my belt, I really look forward to the next one.I especially want to thank Anne Smith for being my mentor. Thank you so much for all of your attention to detail.What a great job all of you did in organizing the event.I don't know how you could improve.”
11. “Thank you for your good work and also a big thank you to Cathy Miller.
12. “I enjoyed the game you set up.“It was a wonderful afternoon and I was really enjoyed Mentors Mentees Team Game. It's my first team game. I was nervous at the beginning, then It turned out fun. Of course I learned a lot from those experienced and advanced players. As a mentee, I'd like to give my Big Thanks for the mentors and those who organized this special event.”
13. “l enjoyed the game- well organized and run - thanks for the effort.”
14. “First I would like to congratulate you for organizing everything so well on Saturday. Most people had a great time and I heard several new people saying that they would soon like to play in the 'big' room. I myself really enjoyed playing with Peter, he is such a great player and he knows how to point things out in a positive way.”
15. “You're right, it was a huge success.”
16. “I was going to e-mail you o congratulate you - you did a fantastic job organizing the event. I really enjoyed it and will definitely be there again.”
17. “I had a wonderful time and a good learning experience. The event was well organized”.
18. “It is amazing that you successfully gathered so many people in a game. Your organization ability and influence over a large group of people deeply impressed me. That is a wonderful game. I met some interesting players and remembered their names.
19. “I thought it as a very good event. I appreciated the improvements in timing and organization. As usual, of course, it helped me with my game.”
20. “It was very well done and from what I noticed the mentees seemed to really enjoy it and I believe that was the whole purpose.”
21. “I enjoyed Sat very much, and I like the idea of playing less number of boards each round, as there was less time to wait etc.”
22. “The mentee/mentor games were a huge success. I hope they will continue or if not, that you will continue the Saturday games in some format.”
23. “I am sure that you know that I am a BIG fan of this game & you have already addressed some of my suggestions. "Shuffle, Deal & Play" has worked out way better than the complicated pre-set hands that were dealt to us at the inaugural game. It goes without saying that Cathy is the best director for the job. She has a sense of humour and is welcoming to new players. (Why doesn't she hire a Caddy?). Our overall experience was excellent. It is so invaluable to the new players not only to play duplicate in a "softer" setting with experienced partners but to hook up with other Mentees for future Club Pairs Games.”
24. “my general impression was that it was a well organized and smoothly run event, and more importantly, a pleasant few hours for everyone involved. i was happy to notice that all of the more experienced players were less concerned with winning (and with teaching/speech-making) than with smiling and enjoying the day. honestly, if all the bridge events i played in, club games through nationals, offered me as nice an afternoon I'd probably play at more of them.”
25. “Great afternoon yesterday, at the VBC, David. Thank you to you and your team all for all your hard work to organize an event that ran seamlessly. And, it was such fun!”

Suggestions for Improvement

1. My only suggestion is to make it a match point game with hand records.

2. You might want to try an "individual" game. In this game, The mentees all

sit south or east; the mentors sit north or west.

Each table plays 2 3 or 4 boards per round.

At the end of the round north stays, south moves up two tables, east moves

down one table west down two tables. Result every round no one is playing or defending against the same person for more than one round.It is complex for the director but the movement is in ACBL SCORE (I think)

At the end the mentees have competed against all the other mentees. And the

mentors have competed against all other mentors.

I think it is fun, you get to meet many people. If anyone is a jerk .. you

only play 1 round.

3. I think that, given the complaints about some of the "mentees", you might consider not allowing regular partnerships to play together in this kind of event - just a suggestion.