WORLD BRIDGE FEDERATION

Anna Maria Torlontano
WBF Women Committee Chairman

Proposal to the WBF and the EBL from the Women's Committee

The aim of this proposal is to provide services that will assist Zones and NBOs in the promotion of Women's bridge without it being a large cost to the World Bridge Federation or its member NBOs.

We asked the NBOs to tell us what they needed from us, explaining that it would not be possible to offer them any form of financial assistance; nor would we be able to supply them with materials free of charge, but that we would seek to give them all the logistical help we could.

We had a number of responses, some of which were extremely helpful in suggesting things that we might be able to do in order to assist them. Obviously there is some cost involved in the production of the original material, but there is no reason why such material should not be adapted for use by other sectors – for example the Seniors or Juniors. Initially, however, we propose producing material aimed specifically at Women's bridge.

We then looked at what the NBOs had requested. Some ask for details of conventions, which is a matter of creating a more “user friendly” version of the WBF Conventions Book which is already available. Some wanted Convention Cards – already in existence. They wanted more information added to the teaching site, which would be no problem, and the Spanish translation to be made available. This translation has been done, and needs the final work to put it on the website. Ideas for competitions were asked for, information about suitable movements – especially for individual events which seem to be favoured at the start of a “women's weekend” so that the players get to know each other.

We then started to consider what other material we could provide, and we felt that the following could be very useful for the less developed NBOs to adapt to their own requirements:

• Designs for posters to advertise events
• Sample Press Releases
• Sample Newsletters
• Sample Invitations
• A calendar of Women's events – preferably one that the NBOs can put their own details on so that it is easily maintained

Obviously in most instances these would require translation into other languages (initially we suggest French, Italian, German, Spanish and Chinese) but we have friends in these countries and this could probably be achieved for little or no cost provided no one person is asked to do too much.

Our proposal is that this material should all be Internet based, so that it can be accessed by anyone needing it – whether they are a Zonal President or a member of a small club in rural America. The important thing is to make as much material as possible available. We believe that it is very important for the World Bridge Federation to be seen to lead the way in this regard, and to provide as much as it can within the necessary financial constraints.

In addition to this, I believe that this website could provide the following features:

• An “address book” for the board members in the NBOs responsible for women's bridge – it will be necessary to have permission from these individuals to publish their details in this way and it is probably best if it is kept to email addresses only, with the full contact details available from Anna Gudge on request
• A section devoted to great women players, past and present, to encourage women to develop their bridge and to give them “stars” to admire and seek to emulate
• A section telling them how they can keep details of the women in their country and how they can encourage them to participate in their own events.
• When a Championship such as Montreal is held, we should seek to encourage more women to enter the women's events, by making sure they are contacted directly, and perhaps by informing them of what other attractions there are in the area for them to enjoy.
• A quarterly newsletter (or perhaps even a monthly newsletter) for which women can register, giving them information about updates to the site, about other sites they may find of interest, news about other women players world wide, about events … there is a great deal of information we could send out in these newsletters. They should be aimed at the “rank and file” players rather than the top internationals, although of course they can be sent to anyone. A system can be set up so that they can register themselves for these newsletters.
• An Internet Discussion Group could be set up, where Women's Delegates to the NBOs could be given a password and they could discuss the problems that they have. This group should be kept reasonably select and monitored carefully, giving a feeling of community, where they can discuss bridge development, work together and help each other.

As far as the Newsletters are concerned, these should also be translated into as many languages as possible – it would be necessary to involve the delegates here. They should not be too long, and the translations could be put on the website, so that the English version would be sent out to everyone, but the first link would be to the page on the website that contains the translations so that women from other countries can find the “right one” for them.

We should invite contributions from other sources (obviously giving credit to whoever is the provider). We should also provide a set of Links to sites with other material that could be of use for future development. Sites could be invited to submit their website as a Link, but this particular site should only link to those providing material that would be of use to bridge development. The WBF could consider charging sites to have their links included as advertisements on these pages in the future.

Providing the material on Internet is the ideal medium – all Federations have internet connectivity now, as do many of the individuals on the Board of each Federation. If there are files they cannot manage to access we can, of course, still send them by post, as we can also send CDs with the Teaching site on them. But in real terms, once the material is on a Web site then it available at any time for any one. And it can stay there indefinitely for little cost – just the cost of the actual site name and perhaps a charge for bandwidth depending where it is hosted. Certainly you are looking at a minimal amount for maintenance.

Another advantage of providing the material on Internet is that it can easily and quickly be updated and added to – if we get another item of information, it can be put on the site.

Some material is already available, but some would have to be sourced or created. Anna would be able to organise this, getting an assistant who would type up necessary material, and prepare it for the web. It might be necessary in some instances to pay individuals to provide some special material, and it will certainly be necessary to adapt some of the material we already have to make it Internet-friendly.