How Bridge NSW supports clubs and players
Bridge NSW is responsible for the management and development of bridge in New South Wales. It provides programs and services to support clubs and players throughout the state, and contributes to national programs run by the Australian Bridge Federation (ABF).
Each member of a bridge club pays an annual affiliation fee to Bridge NSW. (This is separate to the annual capitation fee charged by the ABF to fund national programs.) These affiliation fees currently account for 80% of Bridge NSW’s income. Other income and its rough contributions includes Spring Nationals entry fees (10%), Masterpoint levies (5%), and licence fees for gold point events and clubs hosting state events (5%).
Bridge NSW provides the following services to clubs and the playing community.
Supporting clubs
- Convening Presidents’ Days at clubs across the state where club leaders from a surrounding area are invited to learn more about how Bridge NSW can support them, to receive their feedback, and to discuss collaboration with other local clubs.
- Hosting free webinars throughout the year on key subjects such as teaching, marketing, MyABF, directing, player development, and delivering lessons.
- Supporting beginner lessons through comprehensive lesson plans and direct support, and customised marketing materials.
- Helping clubs to retain beginners by offering regular Online Supervised Play sessions, particularly benefiting clubs that are unable to run supervised sessions.
- Delivering and supporting other events and activities organised by the Bridge NSW Clubs and Community Committee that exists to help all clubs.
Helping to insure and protect clubs
To help protect clubs from financial liabilities, the Australian Bridge Federation (ABF) holds the following policies that Bridge NSW contributes to:
- Management and Professional Liability Insurance – protects directors and committee members of clubs
- Public and Products Liability Insurance – covers injury or damage at club events
- Voluntary Workers Insurance – safeguards voluntary workers, directors, and committee members.
Growing the Director pool
Bridge NSW is responsible for the accreditation of Directors below the level of National Director and do this by:
- Maintaining comprehensive support resources on its website
- Conducting regular workshops to develop club and congress Directors
- Hosting webinars on specific directing issues
- Providing support to clubs on law interpretation and technology.
Supporting masterpoints
The ABF runs a national masterpoint scheme which supports players to measure their development and ensures more equal competition in some events by allowing entry based on the number of masterpoints.
Clubs receive support from Bridge NSW’s State Masterpoint Secretary in:
- Setting up eligible events
- Applying national (ABF) regulations
- Ensuring results are processed accurately, so players receive the points earned
Fostering an active community
- Hosting and maintaining an up-to-date event calendar to easily support clubs and players to register for events; and linking to results and other key event information.
- Connecting potential new players with links to local clubs and lessons and providing information to help them learn more about bridge.
- Promoting club beginner lessons to attract new players.
- Providing resources to clubs to support management and growth, hosting a congress, teaching, and directing.
- Hosting regular webinars and an online library of past webinars on key topics to support clubs.
- Providing the monthly Bridge NSW newsletter – the leading communication channel for the community.
- Sharing the latest news and events through the Bridge NSW Facebook page.
Running state and large tournaments
- Running Interstate Team Selection (ITS) events that give players the opportunity to represent NSW at national events.
- Delivering the State Championships (Pairs, Teams, Statewide Pairs and the Under 100 Masterpoint Pairs), which includes allowing clubs to host state championships.
- Convening the annual Sydney Spring Nationals, a Bridge NSW-licensed gold point event, and the Les Longhurst Teams of Three. Licensing and supporting the Central West Festival and Coffs Coast Gold Congress.
- Licensing clubs to host a variety of congresses and state championships.
- Managing the calendar of congresses across the state to avoid clashes.
Running online tournaments
- Delivering Monday night online events for players to improve their skills against strong competition. The following events are currently run by Bridge NSW:
- Online Pairs League (OPL) which encourages players of all levels to challenge themselves against people of a similar skill level.
- Online Teams League (OTL) which provides players high-level competition in a teams format.
Managing volunteers and staff to support the community
- Recruiting and organising community volunteer committees to support clubs and players, and grow and develop the game.
- Employing part-time staff to support Bridge NSW’s large volunteer community and help deliver strategic priorities. These part-time roles are:
- Executive Director, who manages other Bridge NSW employees, supports chairs and committees with strategic and commercial decisions
- Executive Officer, who provides event and administration support, calendar management, and acts as a committee liaison
- Marketing and Communications Officer, who provides marketing support, manages the monthly newsletter, website news and content, and the Facebook page.
- Accountant, who manages invoicing, receipts, reporting and budgeting.
Success for the community is significantly dependent on volunteers at a personal, club and state level. Bridge NSW will explore how clubs and players can be active partners in growing our community.