31st January 2018
This newsletter is tinged with some sadness but also a real commitment towards the future. On Sunday the 21st the Board regrettably accepted the resignation of Alan Dormer as Chair.

Alan was hopeful that his recovery would be speedy and that he would be in a position to commit fully to the task of Chair. Unfortunately Alan has hit a few road bumps and has concluded he has not got the strength to continue. The Board was united that Alan’s health and recovery must come first.

Due to continuing ill health Alan Dormer, chair of New Zealand Bridge is tendering his resignation. Having made such a promising start to reviving confidence in the Board, Alan is sad that he must step down. The full text of this announcement is in his letter attached below. We thank Alan for his efforts to date and wish him well.

Alan CelebratesYes - it's true. There is an award for Services to Bridge and Tauranga's Alan Turner has been officially acknowledged. Full coverage is given on the Tauranga site.

It's pretty quiet this time of year but there is a sense of anticipation about several things as we look forward to the start of the new season. Amongst other things:

An innovative tournament format was played at the Huntly Christmas Party; the last event on the Waikato-Bays calendar for the year. The field was split into three groups according to perceived stage of advancement. The highest rank group played a 7-table Howell in the morning while the other two groups faced off in a 13-table Mitchell. After lunch the highest ranked group was unleashed to savage the middle group in the Mitchell while the others played amongst themselves in the Howell.

The season draws to a close and the IT Manager's thoughts inevitably turn to getting things set up for 2018. There are a couple of new tools to make the job even easier this year.