So, one of the regular Cedar Rapids players who plays both evening and daytime bridge asked. “What will you do differently?”  She was referring to the upcoming switch-over of manager duties from Greg Slager to Jim and me. 

I don’t want to mess too much with success, but there are a few things I will change. Using hand records is at the top. We have a dealing machine that can deal the cards for us and produce hand records. Several people have expressed a desire for hand records. Those who have played regularly in other clubs where they use them are especially eager to see them used in the day games. 

Happy Bridge Club? Where did that name come from? It says so little. I spent some time and even enlisted some help from friends in coming up with a more interesting and descriptive name. I think I have a list of about 80 name possibilities. After all that, I decided to close the struggling evening game and switch that name to the Happy side. Happy Bridge Club will be Build Better Bridge Club (BBB for short) starting on July 16. The other two names will remain the same.

I will encourage friendliness, fun and learning. I hope to have some before-the-game mini lessons in the fall. Those of you who care about master points will see a difference in your winnings. I am doing a couple of things to enhance the points per game. The big one will be that there will be more special games. Those cost the club manager more but will never add to the $6 fee that you currently pay. 

Oh, and the food. People have told me that this would be a good opportunity to cut out the food. I can’t picture the Monday club without food. But I don’t have a spouse to spend Saturday in the kitchen like the last two managers. It will be simpler. I want to concentrate on better bridge, not better eats. 

Those are the changes that we will start with. I am open to suggestions if you would like to try anything else different. We are excited about the opportunity to take over these already successful games. Our first Thursday game will be July 12 and our first Monday game will be July 16.