The ABF Management conducted its first virtual meeting via Skype. We agreed to hold a virtual meeting monthly during the shutdown to address urgent matters. The future of ABF events and ABF licenced events will be discussed at each of these meetings when we will have updates of Covid-19 restrictions.

Australian National Championships 2020
In consultation with the South Australian Bride Federation, the 2020 ANC scheduled for July 2020 has been cancelled. SABF will now host the event in 2022 at a date to be advised.

The new ANC Rotation agreed by all States and Territories:

2021 New South Wales
2022 South Australia
2023 Western Australia
2024 Queensland
2025 ACT
2026 Tasmania

Resignation of Chair of the ABF Tournament Committee
For health reasons, David Morgan has resigned from his position as Chair of the ABF Tournament Committee. David’s calm, unflappable nature and his ability to deal sympathetically with the many diverse and strongly held views of our stakeholders was greatly appreciated. We wish David well and hope to see him back at the bridge table in 2021. The new Chair will be announced soon.

Plans for 2020 Australian Teams
Although the WBF is yet to make an announcement on any events for 2020 that has been impacted by Covid‑19, the Management and Tournament Committees discussed the various scenarios that might eventuate if the World Youth Championships and the World Team Championships 2020 are cancelled or postponed.

The Management Committee has discussed 3 scenarios and made a decision for each of these.

1. If the World Youth Championships and World Team Championships are postponed, the 2020 ratified Australian Teams will become the teams for the postponed events if they are held in either late 2020 or

2. If the World Team Championships are cancelled, the 2020 ratified Australian Teams s will become the respective teams for the scheduled WBF 2021 events – i.e. The Bermuda Bowl, The Venice Cup, The D’Orsi Seniors Trophy and the Wuhan Cup. No playoffs will be held in 2020. If the World Youth Championships are cancelled, the 2020 team as ratified will become the team for the 2021 World Youth Transnational Series.

3. If the WBF determines it will hold both the postponed 2020 events and the scheduled 2021 events, then the currently ratified teams for 2020 will become the teams in their respective events for the postponed event.  A selection event will be held for the scheduled WBF 2021 events – i.e. The Bermuda Bowl, The Venice Cup, The D’Orsi Seniors Trophy and the Wuhan Cup. The rules for this event will be advised when further information is available.

The WBF has advised the ABF that a final decision concerning the 2020 World Youth Championship will be made by 15th April and the ABF will immediately publish and communicate this advice when it is received.

GNOT Finals 2020
The Management Committee decided that if the shutdown continues beyond the 31st July 2020, then the GNOT final scheduled for November 27th-30th will be cancelled.

Virtual bridge and BBO
The Head of Marketing, Peter Cox has been in negotiations with BBO and talking to clubs about ways the ABF can help them to get games happening online. It is progressing at the moment and he has approached some clubs to join the Support Your Clubs program. The ABF National Event Coordinators, Laurie Kelso and Matthew McManus are shifting sideways from their current role to  work with BBO to have ABF Masterpointed sessions up and running as soon as we can work through the technical issues. In the meantime we suggest players check with their club and State or Territory Association to see what current online bridge is available.

ABF Contractors and Employees
The ABF has had to act quickly to make hard decisions to ensure everyone’s safety and the support  of our employees and contractors has been invaluable. They will continue to work for and on behalf of the ABF whist we are in shutdown, although there may be some redeployment to other tasks.

Underage youth players representing Australia at international events
The ABF Management Committee ratified a policy for the supervision of underage youth players travelling to international events. The policy will be placed on the ABF website – Youth Bridge.

Feedback & Future Meetings
The Management Committee welcomes feedback and suggestions on the above matters or other subjects.

The ABF Annual General Meeting will be a virtual meeting on May 9th. As this is a voting year all ABF Management Committee positions will become vacant and an election will be held.

The next ABFMC Meetings will be 11th May, 13th June and 11th July.

2018- 2020 ABF Management Committee
Allison Stralow (President), Kim Frazer (Secretary), Roy Nixon, (Treasurer), Geoff Chettle (Legal Counsel), Dallas Cooper, Richard Wallis, Bruce Neill (President Emeritus)

Jane Rasmussen (Executive Secretary)

April 5th 2020