The club manager does what is needed to run the games. You have to deal with scheduling the games and interacting with members, directors, and the club’s board of directors. Volunteers from the club will do some of the tasks and you will have to coordinate with them. This is a paid position.
The list here describes many of the duties, but flexibility is needed to handle the situations that may arise. It is split into sections for:
· Schedule – schedule the events held at the club
· Supplies – purchase of the supplies needed to run the club
· Website – maintain the club’s website
· Email – deal with email received by you and the club
· Equipment – maintain the equipment used by the club
· Miscellaneous – other things
The manager creates the schedule of events. This includes deciding what events are played on which days and assigning directors to run the games. There are a variety of different events. The ACBL provides many events, most of which provide extra points at an extra cost. There are also District events, such as a STaC or a Regional. The manager also has some discretion on choosing events.
The club also schedules its own events. Currently we do Handicap Teams the first Thursday of the month, the Four is Enough game the following Wednesday, the Swiss Teams for 0-500 players the Friday of the next week, and the 0-99 game the following Wednesday. We also do the Robot Individual once per month.
We may also periodically schedule a special event such as a Sectional or NAP game for the Unit or District. These are one-off events that can bring some money and notoriety for the club. Information on these games is provided in our Website.
The club uses various supplies which must be ordered and stocked. They tend to fall into three categories, Consumables, Office Supplies, and Bridge Supplies
These are the items we use up on a regular basis, primarily food and restroom supplies. Items such as paper towels, restroom supplies, coffee and such are ordered from WBMason. Some food is purchased from local groceries, and places like Target. It’s better to purchase some items directly if delivered items may be left outside (candy can melt). The club has an Amazon account. Some things can be found cheaper there. For example, ordering cups in bulk from Amazon saves money.
These items are usually ordered about once a month.
These are standard supplies such as pencils and paper. Staples will deliver boxes of paper.
These are convention cards, score sheets, and the like. They are ordered as needed from BaronBarclay.com. Making fewer large orders will save on shipping costs.
Our website is www.bridgewebs.com/northpenn. We purchase rights from bridgewebs and they provide (somewhat limited) tools to maintain the site. You will primarily be updating the home page and the calendar.
Our email address is northpennbridge@gmail.com. The manager needs to read and respond to these messages. Sometimes you respond directly and sometimes you forward them to someone else. Be careful of spam, we get messages wanting us to pay for things we didn’t order.
The manager also gets mail to their personal email account. You can expect to receive mail from club members, the ACBL, other clubs, you name it.
The manager has to maintain and occasionally replace the equipment used by the club.
These are the most common of the other tasks that must be done.
The manager provides information for the newsletter. It is common to provide information on upcoming games and any special results, but you can put in anything you want about the club.
The club is cleaned every week on either Thursday night or the weekend.
The American Contract Bridge League is the governing body for our games. You will notice a Club Manager section added to your MyACBL page. Go through there to provide club information, including a list of directors who can post your results, and request sanctions for your games. You may also have to contact them directly to get request answers to questions (you may get a response).
The ACBL also schedules periodic (about once a month) online meetings where you can get answers to questions and hear what they are doing.