Running a congress
Tournaments
Organising a Congress
The following document is provided to assist organisers in the running of a congress.
Organising a Congress Updated 5 October, 2023
Contacts
- Congress and State Events Coordinator – Mel Miante ✉ office@bridgensw.com.au
Contact Mel for all queries relating to the calendar. - NSW Masterpoint Secretary (Congresses and State Events) – David Weston ✉ masterpoints@nswba.com.au
Super Congresses must be approved each year by the State Masterpoint Secretary.
Congress Directors
Congress events require a director of Grade C1 or higher. Super Congress events (Grade B3 masterpoints) require a director of Grade B or higher.
Applications, Conditions, Fees and Masterpoints
Clubs are invited to apply for congresses, holidays or cruises in the year preceding the date of the event. The forms are completed online and submitted to the Congress Coordinator. The Congress Conditions and the instructions for payment of fees and submission of results for masterpointing are detailed in the Congress Conditions letter.
The Application Letter, Online Application Form, Congress Conditions and Congress Report Form are available at:
Organising and Running an Online Congress
The dates for all online congresses must be approved by the Congress Coordinator. In case of clashes, priority will be given to clubs that had a face-to-face congress scheduled for the same date.
Following ABF guidelines, the NSWBA has published regulations governing the running of online congresses.
NSWBA Rules for Online Congresses Updated January 10, 2022
The ABF has published regulations for all online players.
BBO
BBO has a maximum section size of 49 tables in Swiss Pairs. If there are more than 49 tables BBO will split the field into two sections causing a problem with Masterpointing and Scoring. Swiss Pairs events should be limited to 49 tables or steps taken to run separate events e.g. Open and Restricted. Please contact Ronnie Ng for advice.
Note that scheduling a lunch break using BBO is not trivial – make sure your Director is au fait with how it’s done.
Approvals for Bridge Holidays outside NSW
It is a requirement that when a bridge event, including a Bridge Holiday, is to be held outside the state from which the event is being organised, that approval must be obtained from both the originating and host state’s Association/Federation.
For example if a Tasmanian organiser wishes to hold an event in the Northern Territory, approval of the TBA and NTBA must be sought.
- Approval of events originating outside NSW rests with the Chairman of the Bridge NSW Events Committee.
- For events originating in NSW but held outside NSW, it is the organiser’s responsibility to gain permission from that State’s designated Authority.
Brochures
Brochures for congresses and holidays must be mailed or emailed to the office of Bridge NSW. Also, original versions of the brochures, e.g. Word, Publisher or a PDF file from your printing firm should be emailed to webmaster@bridgensw.com.au for inclusion on the Calendar page. Scanned copies of brochures in jpg format or similar will not be posted.
eCongress News
Bridge NSW supports the congress scene with a newsletter.
Please send stories about your congresses to office@bridgensw.com.au
Past issues of the NSWBA eCongress newsletter are available here.
Entries
All entries should be displayed online. An online entry facility that was previously provided by the NSWBA is no longer available. It is now recommended that clubs use the facilities provided by My ABF.
Results
The event director should upload full results to the Congress website or a similar site or, if that is not possible, email them to webmaster@bridgensw.com.au. The link to the results should also be added to the relevant Events Calendar page.
Player Behaviour
Congress players are expected to be ethical and courteous at all times and as such are subject to the NSWBA’s Congress Disciplinary Regulations. Reported breaches of acceptable behaviour are investigated and dealt with by the Congress Disciplinary and Ethics Committee (CDEC) committee drawn from a panel representing each zone in the state.