September 15th, 2011 ~ paul cronin ~
2 Comments 
Below are the results of the ZT poll, and your comments are requested. #4 is particularly interesting in that directors are mandated by the ACBL to make the ZT anouncement before each session at all NABCs.
Yes% No%
(1) Do you see a ZT policy in effect at tournaments in your Unit/District? 44 56
(2) Are the directors making a ZT announcement before each session 19 81
at tournaments in your Unit/District?
(3) Have you seen the ACBL ZT policy in effect at NABCs which you 43 57
have attended?
(4) Did the directors made a ZT announcement before each session at 14 86
NABCs which you attended?
(5) Have you seen ZT penalties being assigned at club games or 21 79
tournaments?
(6) Do you know what the ZT matchpoint penalties are? 40 60
(7) Have you encountered behaviour which interfered with your 87 13
enjoyment of the game at clubs or tournaments?
(8) Would you call the director if you encountered behaviour which 56 44
interfered with your enjoyment of the game?
(9) Do you think the ZT policy in your Unit/District is effective? 20 80
(10) Do you think the ACBL ZT policy is effective? 27 73
August 15th, 2011 ~ paul cronin ~
No Comments
In addition to my Zero Tolerance poll at http://www.bridgewinners.com/ , I have created a new Zero Tolerance poll at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XGSQM3Z . Please take a few moments to answer the questions and give us your feedback on ZT.
August 4th, 2011 ~ paul cronin ~
8 Comments
My Zero Tolerance poll is at Bridge Winners http://www.bridgewinners.com/ – please take a few moments to let us know how you think Zero Tolerance is working out.
July 31st, 2011 ~ paul cronin ~
No Comments
Here is the list of current directors on the ACBL Board
Please contact them by e-mail to ask that players at clubs be given back the right to submit complaints or reports to their Unit Recorder. To contact your District Director, just click on their name in the list above.
Just ask them to please reconsider the following motion at the Seattle Board meeting:
Item 112-87 Player Conduct/Misconduct at clubs
Moved that: Player conduct and/or misconduct occurring at any ACBL Club is hereby made subject to actions by Units, Districts, or the ACBL to enforce any violations of the ACBL Code of Disciplinary Regulations. This is applicable to any actions and/or conduct in violation of the Code
July 30th, 2011 ~ paul cronin ~
9 Comments
My motion
Item 112-87 Player Conduct/Misconduct at clubs
Moved that: Player conduct and/or misconduct occurring at any ACBL Club is hereby made subject to actions by Units, Districts, or the ACBL to enforce any violations of the ACBL Code of Disciplinary Regulations. This is applicable to any actions and/or conduct in violation of the Code.
was defeated at the Toronto NABC ACBL Board meeting. The purpose of the motion was to once again give players at clubs the right to submit complaints to the Unit Recorder, as has been their right since (ACBL) time immemorial. If you think that players should once again have this right, please contact your District representative and request that the motion be reconsidered at the Seattle NABC ACBL Board meeting. The current situation of having to report complaints to club management is simply not fair, particularly in cases where players in small towns end up having to submit a complaint against the club owner to the club owner, and cannot vote with their feet if there is no other club in town.
July 15th, 2011 ~ paul cronin ~
4 Comments
Please contact your district representives on the ACBL Board of Directors and ask them for their support in getting the following motion passed at the Toronto meeting of the Board of Directors:
Item 112-87: Player Conduct / Misconduct at Clubs
Moved that:
Player conduct and/or misconduct occurring at any ACBL Club is hereby made subject to actions by Units, Districts, or the ACBL to enforce any violations of the ACBL Code of Disciplinary Regulations. This is applicable to any actions and/or conduct in violation of the Code
May 19th, 2011 ~ paul cronin ~
3 Comments
PAUL CRONIN WINS 2011 KATE BUCKMAN AWARD
Congratulations to Paul Cronin, the 2011 winner of The Kate Buckman Award. This award is presented annually to the person in Unit 166 “who adds most to others’ enjoyment of the game of bridge”. This award is named in honour of the late Kate Buckman who started and ran the highly-successful Kate Buckman Bridge Studio for many years.
We asked Paul about his early bridge career. “My first experiences with bridge were the wonderful games at “Kate’s” in the early 1960’s with bridge stars like Eric Murray and Sami Kehela in attendance, male players in jackets and ties, and everything directed by the ever-so elegant hand of Kate herself. It was while playing there one evening that I received a telephone call from the principal of Port Colborne High School offering me the mathematics headship. Those being simpler days, I just said, “Yes”, and thus began my forty-seven year sojourn in the Niagara Peninsula. It was here in Niagara that I had the good fortune to meet my future bridge partner, George Morrissey, from whom I learned much about bridge and even more about friendship and life. And my very dear friend, Ann Speedie, who “reigned” over those memorable dinner games at the Refectory, and who, sadly, passed away in 2004. Many of you will recall the fantastic tournaments held each February at “The Beacon” and driving home from same in the inevitable Sunday blizzard. These tournaments, now held at the Parkway in St. Catharines, are put on by the Niagara District Bridge Association, a body on which I have had the honour of serving for the past twenty years or so. The NDBA elected me to represent them on the Unit 166 Board of Directors and I have subsequently had the pleasure of meeting so many great people in my fifteen years on the Unit Board. Bridge “styles” have changed a great deal over the years but I continue to believe firmly in KISS. And I think bridge “attitudes” have changed also and are now much better due to the Zero Tolerance concept which I had the opportunity to co-create along with Barbara Seagram and Hans Jacob. Finding a good partner for tournaments has always been a daunting task and I hope that the “Online Partnership Desk” which I developed for the ACBL NABCs and the Unit 166 Sectionals and Regionals has been a help.
Odds and ends? I love cryptic crosswords, owned and operated the Reeb House Tavern, and ran a string of thoroughbred horses at Fort Erie, Cleveland, and Tampa Bay Downs. I enjoy taking piano and voice lessons once a week, and playing snooker twice a week. Other interests include developing web sites, travelling (I love bridge cruises) and collecting stamps,coins, sports cards, books, paintings and antiques.”
Mary Jo Crone adds, “Paul is a member of Mensa Canada and is well-read and well-spoken and is fluent in several languages. He can and does talk to everyone about anything. Paul is very interested and current in world affairs and politics. He is, indeed, a life-long learner. Paul’s interest in mathematics carries over to his love for puzzles: Sudoku, Kakuro, crosswords, and the weekend cryptics. He also has a web site where he publishes the answers to the cryptics. Paul plays to win whether it is tennis, golf, bridge, the slots, snooker, poker,or the horse races. Although winning is his priority, he is always cognizant of his partner’s and opponents’ comfort levels”.
It is always a little dangerous to ask someone’s bridge partner for input but we did. George Morrissey, Paul’s bridge partner and life-long friend, contributes the following: “Paul was and is the complete gentleman bridge player. He never shows any emotion whether he receives a good or a bad result. He makes it a point to greet players at every table and even when they continue to discuss a hand, seemingly oblivious to his hello or welcome, he persists in pleasant talk. He has a unique way of dealing politely with rudeness or lack of deportment at the table. There are few minds superior to Paul’s and yet he is always the essence of humility regardless of the result. He always compliments opponents on their good play while minimizing his own good plays with his famous quote: “Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while.” Paul is truly the “Man for All Seasons”. Few, if any people, know what he is really thinking, and I often refer to him as “Mysterium est”. He was and is one of my best friends.”
The really important things in Paul’s life? Four incredible children: Sheila, Patrick, Tim, and Dan. Eight wonderful grand children: Leah, Evan, Isabel, Adam, Maddy, Meg, Char, and Mathew. A woman he adores –Mary Jo Crone of East Aurora, N.Y. And a world of bridge friends who have added immeasurably to his life with so many memories of happy and enjoyable times together. He feels he has been truly blessed.
Fellow Unit 166 Board members count on Paul for his quiet wisdom and integrity. Paul’s dedication to the game and making it enjoyable for all makes him a most worthy recipient of the Kate Buckman Award for 2011. Congratulations, Paul, from all your friends in Unit166.
March 19th, 2011 ~ paul cronin ~
2 Comments
The motion that I submitted to the ACBL Board of Governors, namely
“Given that the decision by the ACBL to make discipline at the club level a matter for club management (except for serious breaches of ethics like cheating) has deprived players at the club level of the opportunity to submit “Player Reports” to the Unit Recorder and “Player Complaints” to the Unit Charging Party, it is
MOVED that the ACBL Board of Governors recommend to the ACBL Board of Directors that player conduct at the club level be again made subject to the ACBL Code of Disciplinary Regulations”
has been passed by the ACBL Board of Governors, and will now be sent to the ACBL Board of Directors for consideration .
My object all sublime, I shall achieve in time!
March 7th, 2011 ~ paul cronin ~
18 Comments
For a long time, players at clubs had the right under ACBL law to submit reports on incidents that occurred at their club to their Unit Recorder for investigation, further action, or filing. Similarly, they could submit formal complaints about club incidents to their Unit Charging Party for possible disciplinary committee action. Then, without explanation, the ACBL removed these remedies, and all incidents at clubs (with the exception of very serious breaches of ethics like cheating) had to be dealt with by the club management or ownership. One can speculate that part of the reason for this change was the litigious nature of American society and the ACBL’s concomitant fear of being sued. In any event, imagine that you are now playing at a club, and the club owner, who is playing in the game, subjects you to a barrage of criticism and abuse when he is at your table. What prospect of redress do you now have when you then have to take your complaint against the club owner to the club owner? And what if you live in a small town where there’s only one game, and you can’t take your business elsewhere? I believe very strongly that the ACBL should return to the previous practice of allowing reports and complaints to go to the Unit – what do you think?
February 13th, 2011 ~ paul cronin ~
4 Comments
One of our local clubs here is trying to bring in a Zero Tolerance behaviour policy,and is having, to say the least, a very hard time in doing so. One person is afraid his “enemies” will be reporting him just to get him in trouble, another that players will be reporting others for minuscule or imagined infractions, another that we must have “due process” with every complaint and take it to the supreme court for adjudication, another…….
Why do some people have such an incredibly difficult time with the concept that bridge should be an enjoyable game, and that there should be some recourse when something interferes with your enjoyment of the game? How can they look at their ever-shrinking club memberships, and the ever-growing number of people playing in non-sanctioned games, and the very large number of players in the 0-49 or 0-299 games who absolutely refuse to come out to the open games, and still maintain that it’s important for “business” to continue to cater to the ill-tempered and the large-egoed?
Folks, the game is dieing! The median age of ACBL players is now about 70, and in that group is a large number of people who won’t travel to tournaments and who increasingly don’t want to drive to night games. We need new players, and we’re not getting them because the perception is out there that they will be embarrassed and intimidated if they come out to play. If we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we offer folks an enjoyable game? What’s the problem?
Subscribe to our feed
Bridge-related