At the first 2025 meeting of the Unit 146 Board the following Unit Officers were elected:

♠ President - Maureen Brines

♥ Vice President - Kathy Haglich

♦ Treasurer - Louise Gordon

♣ Recording Secretary - Kerry Weil

♠ Membership Secretary - Wrus Kristiansen

If you see them please congratulate them and show your support.

Please join us for our Winter Sectional January 24-26 at the Bridge Center.  Click here to see the flyer.

We will have our usual schedule, with Open Pairs Friday and Saturday at 10 AM and 2 PM and two session Swiss Teams Sunday at 10 AM.  Lunch will be served between sessions.

Congratulations to our Unit Masterpoint winners at the Charleston New Years Regional-
 
          49.73 H Joel Weintraub, Norfolk VA
          49.73 Brian Schoenfeld, Virginia Beach VA

Sign up now for the New Unit 146 Mentorship Program starting in January 2025!

 Great News for our unit 146 non-life masters: An opportunity to play and learn from a Life Master (sponsored by the Unit 146 Board). 

 Details of the Mentorship Program are in the Attached PDF’s:

·      * Mentorship Benefits_Tips_Laws (created by ACBL)

·      * Mentor_ Mentee Registration Form (adapted from ACBL forms)

Unit 146 will pay the entry fees for mentors playing with NLM students on the first Sunday, second Monday, second Wednesday, or second Friday of each month.

For those of you who are not Life Masters, if you want a Mentor please send your filled out form to the Unit Mentorship coordinator, Maureen Brines (contact details below).

 Please contact a Unit 146 Board member or Club Director if you have any other questions.

Maureen Duke Brines, Mentorship Chair

757-778-4800

Mduke11@msn.com

You are probably familiar with Barbara Duer's "The Dummy Speaks" column.  I've decided to add one of my own related to the rules of the game, titled "On Further Review".  You'll find both of these columns in the left hand menu under "Columns and Features".  The first installment of "On Further Review" covers tapping the pass card, when it is appropriate to ask during the auction, and rules for opening 1NT.

11/20/24 Update:  Added information distinguishing rules for 1NT overcalls vs 1NT openings

Pete Haglich

Open Letter to the ACBL Unit 146 Membership

Greetings,

It has been a while since I last provided an update on the status of the Bridge Center (BC).  To dispel rumors to the contrary, I can tell you that the Bridge Center finances are stable.  Our bank balance is currently at the same level as it was at the BC Annual meeting in February at about $32k.  We can sustain operations at our current location if there are no annual increases in rent (unlikely over any extended period of time).  Alternatively, we will be exploring other locations in the same centrally located area.  In the meantime, we can stay at the current venue at the current rent on a month to month lease but are subject to being forced with just 30 days notice which is not ideal.

Although we are looking at other options, including space provided by VB, nothing promising has surfaced as yet.  I will keep you updated as solutions develop; in the meantime, please enjoy your bridge competition at the BC.  The MWF games are all doing well and the new twice-monthly NLM game on Tuesday continues to grow.

I am pleased to report that Jennifer Douglas has begun a class for beginning players on Friday mornings that has attracted 6 new players who, hopefully, will graduate to live games on Tuesdays.  I believe that Carolyn is planning to start a series of lessons as well.  Keep an eye on this site and the BC bulletin board for updates as these classes are scheduled.

Upcoming are the Fall Sectional on 18-20 October and the Holiday Party game on Sunday, December 8th.  I look forward to seeing you at the bridge table and hope you find the game as challenging and fulfilling an activity as I do.

If you have ideas on how to improve the experience at the BC, please let me know, and I will look into how we can implement them.

Very Respectfully,

Tom Hirsch

Know someone who would appreciate a get well or condolence card.
Select the "Contact Us, Sunshine" from left menu and fill in form.
A card will be sent to the person by the Unit.

Many of you are receiving email from club owners about upcoming events and other bridge topics, even if you never signed up for them.  The club owners probably obtained your email from the ACBL roster.  The ACBL terms of use (found at https://web2.acbl.org/documentLibrary/about/termsofuse.pdf) allow them to send information about ACBL-sanctioned bridge events and announcements and newsletters discussing activities of the respective club, Unit, or District.  If you don't want to receive their emails then send them a note to direct them to remove you from their mailing list.  If they won't honor your wishes then let me know.

Emails from the Unit will be sent using the database we maintain on BridgeWebs, which is also updated with the ACBL roster.  If you want to opt out of those, you can either use the Contact Us form on the web page or else you can update your member profile in the Member Area (under Membership).  If neither of those work then contact the webmaster, Wrus Kristiansen, or myself.

P. Haglich