Statement of Chris Compton and Donna Compton Regarding Reply of
ACBL President Ken Monzingo to District 11 President Terrell Holt
Below find the entire email reply of ACBL President Ken Monzingo to District 11 President Terrell Holt. To explain, we have left President Monzingo’s email in Calibri Font, but we have inserted footnotes throughout his email explaining our position in Times New Roman font. Accordingly, all text written within footnotes are solely the opinion of Donna and Chris Compton, and in no way represents the opinion of either ACBL President Ken Monzingo or District 11 President Terrell Holt.
From: kenm@kenmonzingo.com [mailto:kenm@kenmonzingo.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2016 7:04 PM
To: tholt41@twc.com
Cc: ‘Beth Reid’ <breidwillow@gmail.com>; ‘Jay Whipple’ <jay3@me.com>; ‘Robert Hartman’ <Robert.Hartman@acbl.org>; ‘Bob Heller’ <hellerb@mindspring.com>
Subject: reply
Hello, Mr. Holt,
First off, I do not share your doomsdale thoughts of our great league. I am just the opposite. We are alive and well, doing fine, attendance is stable, membership is up 1200 over last year’s first quarter[1], average regionals are up 7.39%,[2] average sectionals down 3.94% and STACs are up 12.93%.[3] Finances are better than expected as our projected loss for the year is $38K better than expected, in spite of Reno NABC falling 350 short of estimates.[4] Where do you get your numbers? Are you believing unsigned anonymous, disgruntled former employees and social media posts without facts?[5] That said, I agree with you on a most items needing attention, and many of your concerns are currently in committees, or already being attended to. That ACBL should be run like a large for-profit corporation with all those strong, executive management people would be a massive change in both personnel and salary increases.[6] However, I have formed a Board Composition Committee of nine to explore exactly that. It consists of three current board members, two current management executives, two Board of Governors reps, and two outside successful business men from our ranks.[7] This committee will be exploring many avenues of composition of our board and the governance of our league.
When you refer to $2M lost last year do you have any facts or quoting some social media rants?[8] Actually, your district Director, Beth Reid is chair of the Finance Committee and could give you valuable knowledge on that. The major loss was a failed contract to improve or replace ACBLscore –a very unique program that has served us well for decades.[9] The attempt was the correct thing to do, but the product never came through and the contract was cancelled before more losses accrued. [10] Did you ever see a company that did not have a failed contract when trying to improve? Check any auto maker with lost models, and recalls. They did not close, just took a loss, learned, and moved on.[11] Also, some of our reported loss was attributed to a very important buyout of the pension plan which will reap us savings in the long run.[12] In addition, we created a Director University to train and improve the quality of our current staff, and find qualified new ones which we need. In doing so, we uncovered some unpaid benefits the directors were due which we paid [13] As far as management, Robert Hartman has weeded out ineffective positions and added much needed tech and management personnel.[14] Current we are seeking two senior-level positions, Director of Field Operations and In-House Counsel. The latter under a search committee of two management execs, one board member (Beth Reid), and two outside attorneys.[15]
As for finances, costs are constantly rising. We cannot operate at the same level forever – no business could. Where do you suggest the extra money comes from? There is only two choices: cut costs or raise rates. We do both. As president one of my four goals was to balance the budget which we have done with some tough decisions. We have cut costs across the board, including quite a bit of my board’s expense and me cutting the president’s budget by as much as $30,000. Your comments about the spouse wine and dine does not exist [16]
In Tech we have made significant improvements in TourneyTRAX,[17] just released ACBLscore 8.10[18] and converted to a new AS/400 that is faster and more robust. [19] However, you are correct that we are very behind the times. One of the major reasons is our antiquated infrastructure. We need to rebuild all our hardware and software from the ground up. However, buying a new engine is no improvement if ACBLscore does not work on it … so it’s a chicken and egg game of what comes first. And how to pay for it all (the last time we contracted improvement it cost us that $2M with a minimum return on our money). [20]
We have new personnel in place now and I am confident improvement will come. Plus, our board has a very aggressive and savvy tech committee which is staying on top and demanding progress.
To make comments such as we need to pursue youth in schools is to imply we have not. We have dumped tons of money there for no results (see my column below).[21] We have marketing departments and board committees that have worked on that for decades with very little success. We keep trying, but the reality is bridge is a senior game, and of little interest to youth who have a world of electronic and cyber games to occupy their time. Still we continue to try, although schools are almost never cooperative to our attempts.
I appreciate the confidence you have in me, and I can assure you that I have addressed each of your comments — most of which I agree with, and others I feel sad people will accuse us so quick without any idea of how much we (all 25) try to do the right thing. [22] You also are blessed with an amazingly dedicated talent in CEO Robert Hartman in management.
Thank you very much for your thoughtful, caring questions. Like I said, I agree with you a lot, but not all.
Ken Monzingo
[1] The previous 13-24 months membership was down .56% and up .78% for previous months 112 which comes to only about 300 increase in membership ~ not too good for a membership organization of 166,929 members. There cannot be a proper focus on gaining clubs while the focus of the BOD is on sectionals and regionals. Membership recruitment and retention suffer.
[2] President Monzingo verges on being disingenuous in claiming a 7.93% increase in regional table count. Regional table accounts are increasing simply because 7 day regionals are replacing six and one half day regionals. The extra session (Monday afternoon) accounts for the regional increase and is very likely tables stolen directly from Sectionals and Clubs. An accurate analysis must look at club table count and disclose the increased length of regional tournaments. The focus an ACBL BOD Member, President Ken Monzingo, is accidentally ignoring the plight of the club owner and the club player. Under the present system, Unit Board members elect ACBL BOD Members and Unit BOD Members do not represent clubs or club players; but rather, Unit Board Members represent sectionals and regionals which give their units and districts revenue. Understandable, but an institutionalized flaw hurting clubs and, in turn, harming membership recruitment and retention.
[3] President Monzingo fails to acknowledge that there were more STACS scheduled so naturally the table count increased! While STACS do increase club attendance somewhat, paying the %25 increased fee dictates an increase in table count of 25% before a club profits from holding a STAC. Ugh!
[4] Notice President Monzingo doesn’t say what the projected loss is which is important information. We believe the projected loss was originally $350,000, but we may have our years confused..
[5] Actually ACBL lost $4 Million in the year 2014 and these numbers are easily found on the ACBL’s Form 990 Return of Organization from Income Tax that is available to the public. The loss is a fact; not anonymous letters or social media rants.
[6] The reason stated for giving CEO Robert Hartman a $50,000 salary increase after year one was to be competitive with for-profit organizational salaries so as to not lose Mr. Hartman. So which is it, are we a paying lower non-profit wages or higher for-profit salaries? We hire a CEO willing to take a not-for-profit salary and then give him a for-profit salary when we could have originally advertised the for profit salary and gotten a for-profit level CEO rather than the non-profit CEO we advertised for? We should be run like other not-for-profits of our size and demographics, not like a large for-profit corporation.
[7] Our dear friend Daniel Korbel is one of the “two outside successful businessmen” on the Board Composition Committee referred to by President Monzingo. He is a great Bridge player and a successful Bridge Professional with winning personality. To describe Daniel as a successful businessman is sketchy at best. He was chosen because they desired a Canadian on the committee. Paul Lewis of Sioux Falls SD was the other successful businessmen. Paul was a fabulous choice.
[8] Actually ACBL lost $4 Million in the year 2014 and this is found on the ACBL IRS Form 990 Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax form available to the public. The loss is fact, neither “anonymous letters” nor “social media rants.”
[9] If you ask the tournament directors and club owners, they will tell you the opposite of what President Monzingo claims. The current ACBLscore has been obsolete since the mid 90’s.
[10] Since the ACBL paid Hammond Software the ACBLscore+ Contract $1.4M in full (eventually writing off $1.8M including other associated costs); then determined that the General Counsel had negotiated away the copyright; was then advised by Baker Donelson Intellectual Property Chairman to cease use of product produced under Hammond’s technology contact (which was delivered and did not fail); and have since refused to use the product. Finally, it was Hammond Services which cancelled the contract in March 2014. More losses were accrued when ACBL came back to Hammond Services and paid more money for use in Gatlinburg 2014.
[11] Apparently the ACBL has not learned from their loss because they have taken the ACBLscore project in house, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll for updates which are, so far at least, not working well at all. The $2 Million Dollar program they paid for works! Donna Compton has used it, but because the ACBL didn’t own the copyright…only had a license for use …they refused to use it. BTW, the financial terms of the license were not an issue. It continues to be used in clubs and tournaments today. History of technology issue: first, the problem is too big to be solved in- house, use Hammond Services, oops, don’t own it, don’t use, wasted a lot of money, embarrassed now, let’s do the technology redo in-house, oops, we were right to start with, it’s too big a problem to do in house. Where to from now?
[12] As is the pattern and practice of the ACBL, the Pension Plan found a loophole and was put through the ACBL’s own “open bid” practices which — although nearly always evaded through gaping exceptions in the policy – call for all contracts over $50,000 be let out for open bid. Perhaps we could have saved even more money by following an open bid process. The purchase was necessary to make up for a pension shortfall.
[13] Well, this is an interesting comment. I am not sure how one led to another but I will say that the Director’s University was received as the best thing the ACBL has done in a very long time. Unfortunately, the CEO Robert Hartman then went and fired the employee that created the program, Ms. Sylvia Hardin.
[14] In 2014 (late 2013), Hartman made his two biggest hires: Director of Human Resources Sylvia Hardin and Director of Information Bruce Knoll. Both making over 100K and both were fired in 2015. Mr. Knoll has been blamed for making things worse than they were before he arrived, and much time and effort has been spent removing the “Knoll Virus.” Literally, stripping out what Knoll put in.
[15] This General Counsel Search Committee should not have two members of Management as the General Counsel does not report to Management and, in fact, is the Board’s attorney when in dispute with Management. One member would have been sufficient, if needed.
[16] In the BOD minutes a motion failed which motion would have relieved the Host NABC District or Unit from entertaining the BOD spouses. It was intended as a statement to show that the BOD was sharing in the pain. Due to technology losses, increases did have to occur, but they were disproportionately place upon clubs, for example, dues were not increased.
[17] TourneyTrax has a price tag of $562,059 for years 2012-2014 and does not integrate with either version of ACBLscore. Yet again, the ACBL has found another loop hole in their open bid requirements.
[18] This version of ACBLscore. 8.10, has set back both clubs and tournaments in several areas of score posting, masterpoints and monthly reports.
[19] President Monzingo fails to mention the cloud experiment of moving all of the documents to the Cloud daily which has caused incremental website outages at the time of the data transfer. Links continually break.
[20] Perhaps if the ACBL had accepted the $2M ACBLscore version’s license we wouldn’t be so far behind in our efforts to improve our technology.
[21] For purposes of brevity, we have excerpted President Monzingo’s May column. It may be found in the Western Conference Forum.
[22] Based on Hartman’s own statement analysis, the BOD is not talented enough to do the right thing.
