Northern Beaches Bridge news...

Over the past month or so since the 2011 Northern Beaches Pairs championship, there has been some informal discussion about how collaboration amongst local bridge clubs could be improved and streamlined.

The discussion recognised that:

• Most bridge players simply want to play their own game and not get involved in collaboration or promotion activities - the small number who are are rare and valuable
• Bridge players are gradually changing but are not at the leading edge of technology - any path towards using technology for communication and collaboration may have a slow take-up
• Despite the above such collaboration assisted by technology is important to the game's survival and growth - some activities such as learning programs and special events benefit from communication beyond the host club

It particular the following ideas have received some support and are listed here to encourage further comments as well as to indicate likely future actions:

• Extend the reach of our collaboration to include bridge clubs in the lower north shore and a little further west - perhaps prompting a change of website name - some discussions have started with Trumps and Norths bridge clubs
• Create an email discussion list so that any interested collaborator can easily communicate with others in the region - this has been done
• Add a eNewsletter to the site such that:
  >> Anyone can subscribe to receive it on a periodic basis
  >> The eNewsletter is constructed solely out of articles contributed to the website and is emailed out semi-automatically to subscribers

There was also some discussion of whether an interclub teams event would be a worthy addition to our current interclub pairs championship.

Of course this is also a general invitation to anyone interested to become involved - sweat equity is the most valuable currency in driving change and with collaboration amongst those with different skills and interests we can achieve some great things.