I have read with great interest several recent notes on this web site regarding NCBC priorities, and while I usually prefer to let my actions speak louder than my words, I feel compelled to enter that dialog.

For example, Jim Somma concludes, from “...reading reading two articles on the Daily-Recap website” that “...the main objective of the Nature Coast Bridge Club is to make money.” 

As I currently chair a Board of Directors committee charged with proposing revisions to our bylaws, I thought I would check whether that is so. Interestingly I found no reference in the bylaws to profitability of the club. Instead they reflect a commitment to “promote, foster, and encourage the game of bridge” and to “provide social and recreational fellowship among its members.”

Further, the bylaws define as a member, anyone who plays in a Club-sponsored game, no matter at what level, how frequently, or how well they play. They also make clear that the job of the Board and of its agents, such as the Club Manager and any and all committees that it establishes, is to pursue those objectives in a responsible, fair and even-handed way.

So why is the Board concerned with whether the Club makes money? Well strangely enough those from whom we rent space and procure supplies expect to be paid. In addition, the ACBL for some reason requires that we pay them a fee for each player as a condition for operating under their aegis, and for them awarding those coveted master points. Adding it all together, our current operations are a few percent above break-even on day-to-day expenses, with no allowance for inevitable cost escalation or provision for capital equipment maintenance, upgrade or replacement. Suffice to say, if the Board did not pay attention to cash flow they would not be doing their job, and all of us would soon be playing in a less desirable location, foregoing amenities, and/or paying higher fees for play. The Club is a business in the same sense that any non-profit enterprise must be subject to the rules of the market and the laws of economics, irrespective of the nature of their underlying purpose for existence.

That is not to say that financial considerations should dominate our thinking on why we should bring new players through the door and encourage them to develop their skills and participation levels. Every organization, just as every one of us, passes through phases in life. Just as individuals adapt their play to changes in their physical or mental abilities, or inevitably leave the table permanently, the organization must renew itself, or experience the same loss of vitality and ability to perform. The players new to our club are not just sources of income. Nor are they just sources of enough bodies to fill out a comfortable number of tables. They are the lifeblood of a continuing organization that, if we nurture it effectively, will provide a source of satisfying recreation for generations of players at all levels of skill and commitment to the game for many years to come. That's what I believe the efforts of the vast majority of those who choose to go beyond just playing the game in order to help others do the same, are all about. 

And I believe that if every person who decides to give NCBC a try quickly comes to understand that that is what we as an organization are all about, we will have no shortage of players at every skill level.