I wrote about the future of the Pasadena Pomona Downey VBC in this
month's edition of the Southern California Bridge News -- which has
been completed but there hasn't been an email about it yet.
I wanted you all to get to read the column. It will appear as the
Pasadena San Gabriel Unit column.
Some changes are in store! I need a vacation. This month marks the
one-year anniversary of the Pasadena Pomona Downey VBC (virtual
bridge club). It's been a great support to our closed clubs, and has
certainly kept me busy. Between teaching and directing games, it's
been a full time job for me.
I haven't really had anyone to whom I could turn over the
management, and I know that the players want to keep playing.
I have an agreement in principal to pool our three-unit online
club with the Unit 556+ virtual club in the neighboring Santa
Clarita Valley area. Their pool includes the Glendale Verdugo unit,
and our player group includes a considerable overlap already.
This appeals to me because it's very different from the huge
cross-country "alliance" pools, where you're not likely to run into
any old friends. It will still be small with a pretty familiar
player group. You might think of it as the "North Los Angeles County
VBC" (plus a small unit in Baja).
Basically it comes down to merging our management. Paula Olivares
can give me a vacation, and I can give her one as well. I'll return
to directing games for the club after a little time off.
Over the month of May we'll be ironing out a game schedule to keep
our local online games running (most likely) through the end of
2021. We'll be looking at how to merge the six weekly games of Unit
556+ with the nine weekly games of PPDVBC. Both groups have similar
table counts and player counts, so it seems like a good match.
My last bridge classes for this season are winding down. I'll pick
up again with all the series in the fall.
We have some great rank changes from our novice/intermediate group!
New Junior Masters: Jon Fuhrman, Susan Kane, and Sara Shapiro. New
Club Master: Uma Shrivastava. Congratulations all!
Post-publication addendum: At this time, Paula believes she can
find directors to keep all of the current PPDVBC games on the
schedule, assuming the attendance stays in place. We hope to have
at least a draft schedule available soon.