ACBL is Lost Letter
This letter addressed to the ACBL President was posted Wednesday during the Reno NABC in the post An Unsigned Letter to the ACBL on Bridge Winners. Polly Siegel, a direct recipient of a paper copy, asserts that it was mailed from Reno on . The original link is to an image based PDF file. The version posted below has been converted to HTML via OCR and as such is suited to cut-and-paste and indexing by search engines. Paragraph and list item elements include HTML id tags for directly referencing paragraphs and list items (Regret, Financial, Tournament, Leadership, Lack, Tried, Dismiss, CEOsearch, NewCEO, Interim, Sylvia, IT, Marketing, Pleas). Note: typos in the original, e.g. BridgeWiiners, have been preserved.
An addendum to the letter was posted on March 23, 2016, again as an image based PDF. This addendum is included below following the first letter.
Mike Giesler, a member of both the D4 and U141 boards, has also written a letter to Ken Monzingo, addressing similar issues, following and referencing the release of the ACBL is Lost letter.
To: Ken Monzingo,
From: Employees who care about the ACBL
Re: The ACBL is Lost
Mr. Monzingo,
We are a small group of employees, Horn Lake and the Field, but we represent a silent majority who care about the ACBL. We are writing to inform you about the real state of the ACBL. Put succinctly, it is an organization in free-fall, with no strategy, no operational effectiveness, erratic decision-making and very limited management talent. In almost every area, we see no hope for the future of bridge with the current management team. The demographics continue to seriously impact the popularity and success of the ACBL and these organization problems compound this bad situation.
We write this letter with both deep regret and fear. Bridge is a very small world and going public this way is not something we do lightly. In fact, we are saddened that we have been unable to find another way to express our concerns. But, all previous attempts to improve the organization by working within have resulted in no improvements.
As bad as things have been for many years, they are now so much worse, and in every area:
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Financial — We have wasted literally millions of dollars on consultants and dead software projects, to a point where we have to raise fees substantially just to maintain the organization at its current level. Additionally, there is a real need for investments in major infrastructure projects, such as software development, director development, training staff, etc.
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Tournament organization — It is now common for events at NABCs to start late, sometimes very late. We have, basically, lost operational effectiveness and cannot run an excellent bridge tournament, a very sad indictment of the national bridge organization. Even our most senior directors have been responsible for events that start 20, 30 or more minutes after scheduled starting time. 20 years ago, this would have been an isolated disaster; now, it is a semi-regular experience. This is not good customer service and alienates our most dedicated customers.
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Employee morale — Across the board, among the field directors and home office staff, morale is as low as it has ever been. More and more, people are just “marking time,” doing the minimum to get by and waiting for retirement age and Social Security eligibility. Directors who even 2 let alone 5 years ago, said they would direct until they die have now left the organization, frustrated with the incompetence they have to deal with on a daily basis.
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Leadership — Simply put, there is none. Communication between the field and Horn Lake is almost non-existent. If someone in the field asks a question, they are more likely to get ignored than even get a meaningless answer. A valid answer is the rarest of gems. And, when communications do come out, they are more than likely to be new and unfair policy changes, designed to negatively impact already discouraged employees for the benefit of the organization and its bottom line.
While no organization can get to this low level based on only one episode, the reason for this is straightforward—a complete lack of competence and direction from senior management. An organization is only as strong as its people and it is clear the ACBL has not recruited strong talent. For example, Robert came on board with acclaim from his former position for his outstanding management there, and, at first, seemed to be willing to “make a difference,” but he has clearly given up. He now appears to do nothing more than marking time, like many other employees, and enjoying a good salary to travel around on ACBL expense money and play bridge. The depth of talent under him is also extremely weak. They lack knowledge of bridge (our organization’s product) and do not understand what happens at bridge events. As a result, they are incapable of making informed decisions and do not seek advice from those with knowledge. Sadly, it seems Robert does not know or care about this situation.
There have been individuals who tried to bring process and organizational excellence to the ACBL but these individual do not last long and disappear quickly and quietly. Two of them have been managers, Kathy Byford, Manager of HR, and Sylvia Hardin, Senior Director of Field Operations. We respect the effort Sylvia made; she was appointed to lead the Field organization, almost two thirds of the employees, despite having no knowledge of bridge administration. However, she made initial progress, with new training, clarity of organizational responsibilities and better communications. Now, she is gone. Individuals can decide which is more representative of Robert’s managerial limitations, the promotion of such an untrained, uninformed individual to a senior management position or her dismissal without even the time to overcome such hurdles. But, either in her hiring or her firing, Robert has shown a compete disdain for organizational success.
Sadly, this has been repeated over and over, whether in the on-again, off-again situation with ACBLscore, the gigantic sums of money spent on TourneyTRAX, with no resulting savings in administrative costs, or ACBL Live, to compete with another offering, Fast Results, rather than partnering with them, and the continued employment for years of Bruce Knoll, a very weak IT Director, only to finally replace him with Mitch, a clear improvement but still someone totally inexperienced in software development methodologies. Alex Turner is in charge of Marketing, which appears to be defined as one email, to an untargeted audience, for each tournament. Even Joe Jones, while clearly the best of the senior management team, is suffering in his expanded role after Jeff Johnston’s passing, spread too thin and asked to work on projects and issues that he is totally unqualified to lead.
We are asking you to take immediate, emergency actions on the following topics:
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Dismiss Robert — While clearly a friendly person who means well, he has demonstrated a complete inability or disinterest in making things better. In fact, his complete disregard for everything that is wrong just leads to further problems. Whether Robert was always ill-suited to be the ACBL’s CEO or has fallen to this state because of other problems since he came on board, he clearly has no ability to turn things around.
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As part of a selection committee to find a replacement CEO, put at least two or three employees, from both the Field and Horn Lake, on the search committee. These should be non-management employees, individual contributors who understand the needs of the organization and can articulate them in ways that managers, particularly non-bridge experienced managers, cannot.
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Target a replacement CEO to be on board in no more than 4 months, hopefully, before or just after the Washington NABC.
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As interim management since no member of Robert’s team is qualified to run a bridge organization, set up a team of 3 BoD members to provide leadership to the senior managers until a new CEO is hired.
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Attempt to bring back Sylvia Hardin. While certainly not an outstanding manager, unlike the other members of Robert’s team, she was starting to show some gains and making improvements in her department. Given her complete lack of knowledge about bridge or the ACBL when she started, this is a sign she can grow into a valuable leader. At the very least she can continue her work on major projects, such as director training and development.
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Make IT a significant priority with a much increased focus on the software the organization uses and the resources need to develop or purchase and deploy it. While Mitch may well have a role with the ACBL focusing on its hardware infrastructure, the software we use is clearly the backbone of our organization and Mitch just does not understand the software arena sufficiently to lead the ACBL in this endeavor.
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Significantly increase the efforts and focus on Marketing, with a Marketing Director who can be innovative in the ever-changing world of social media. The success of BridgeWinners is demonstration that there is much interest in bridge but that new methods need to be developed and exploited to reach these audiences. Doing the same things we did 10 years ago and expecting significant improvements is just not reasonable.
Please understand, these are not demands. These are pleas, from desperate employees. We love bridge and we love our jobs making this great game successful for all our players, clubs and volunteers. But, without the tools we need to succeed and the leadership to take us forward into the 21st century, with new technologies, new social customs and new players, the end for bridge as we know it cannot be far away. Right now, we have neither the tools nor the leadership, and, without the latter, nothing else matters.
cc:
All 25 BoD members
Robert Hartman, CEO
Richard Anderson, Chair, Board of Governors
Richard Popper, Vice-Chair, Board of Governors
Sandra DeMartino, Chair, Aileen Osofsky Goodwill Committee
BridgeWiiners.Com
To: Ken Monzingo
From: Employees who care about the ACBL
Re: The ACBL is Lost—Addendum
Dear Mr. Monzingo,
We would like to follow-up to a number of issues since we sent our original letter.
The letter was sent to members of the Board and others as guests of the Silvery Legacy in Reno. Apparently, they were not delivered. It is being sent to the recipients at their home addresses.
There have been some rumors, as well as comments on BridgeWinners, questioning the authenticity and validity of such a letter when sent anonymously. These comments are, quite correctly, critical of such unsigned actions.
Sadly, direct reports by those of us writing this, and many other employees, of these and many other problems have been totally ignored by Management. Some references have been made on BridgeWinners concerning ACBL non-retaliation policies, which should free employees to report problems. Sadly, employees who had believed in these policies have been harassed, seen their careers harmed and advancement opportunities blocked and, in rare cases, treated so hostility as to be driven from the ACBL.
As such, bringing this to the attention of the Board, particularly a Board that knows the accuracy of many of these problems but has chosen to ignore them or to blindly accept the many lies told to them by Robert and other members of his management team, is extremely dangerous to us. Many of us have worked for the ACBL for 10, 20, 30 or more years, and depend on the ACBL for employment and benefits. Subjecting ourselves to direct retribution, particularly with no past indication that the Board would do anything other than ignore or pay lip service to these issues, would be professional suicide. Anyone suggesting that it is necessary to take such action to “be credible” is either naïve or independently wealthy.
But, even if you believe the method of communication is wrong, that does not invalidate the observations. You may believe we are cowards, but that does not mean we are wrong in what we have seen and reported. Failing to investigate and take action on these issues, based solely on the fact that they were brought to the attention of the Board anonymously, would be highly unfortunate and a serious blow to the future of the ACBL. We do believe, if the Board took definitive action to investigate these problems, and publically promised non-retaliation against those who spoke of the problems exhibited by the current management team, many, or at least some, including some of us, would come forward and identify themselves.
In Reno, once again, ACBLscore has proven itself to be the aged, decrepit tool that it is. Several years ago, after canceling the multi-million dollar project to rewrite ACBLscore using current technologies, Robert told everyone that the existing ACBLscore was “a gem” which, with little work, could provide for all our tournament needs long into the future. It has been almost 18 months since the masterpoint formulae changed, and still ACBLscore cannot reliably produce the correct results, so every event has to have its masterpoints checked, and often corrected, using a manual, external spreadsheet. When will the ACBL technological incompetencies be addressed?
Finally, a follow-up to the “Sylvia Hardin” issue. On the first Friday of every NABC, there are meetings with all the directors assigned to work the tournament. As part of these meetings, it is normal for members of the management team to address the directors, and Robert did so in Reno. In this address, he told the directors that Sylvia’s departure was long-planned as the end-result of her responsibilities with the ACBL. He said that she was responsible for putting in place new programs and, with that done, it was always intended that she would move on so others could be brought on to maintain those programs.
There is no other word to describe what Robert said—it was a lie, in fact, a very brazen, very big lie, told to employees who must be able to have complete confidence in the honesty of their management, but no longer can. “Planned exits” from companies do not occur on Federal holiday weekends (President’s Day), with no advanced notice. When people leave a company after they have completed their assignment, management sends out a “Thank you” letter. Colleagues are notified weeks in advance, so a “Good Bye” party can be held. Even if employees want to leave quietly, it just doesn’t happen this way. Anyone who has ever worked for any operation larger than a corner candy stand knows this.
Even worse, several directors pointed out that Sylvia had travelled to the Houston regional a week before she left. Why would Sylvia take such a trip, and, even worse, why would Robert authorize the expense of such a trip, if he (and she) knew she would be leaving the ACBL a week later?
Despite these continuing problems, even at the Reno NABC, we remain optimistic that the ACBL Board will Investigate and take action to address these issues. We believe that they can be resolved and the ACBL can move forward positively and constructively and improve its service the bridge community.