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Mission of the Board ...   Revisited at 10 Years

Ten years ago, the Board of Directors wrote a mission statement and some goals.  We felt 10 years was an appropriate period to revisit their work.

The current board of directors has adopted the following Mission Statement and Strategic objectives at the May 2006 meeting.

Unit 143 Mission Statement

Our mission is to promote and sustain duplicate bridge, especially tournament bridge, in the Great St. Louis Unit.  We provide benefits to members that will enhance their playing experience and skills.  We will maintain publicity that attracts and informs current and prospective members to duplicate bridge and tournament play.

7 Strategic Objectives

On-going focus:

• Continue strong tournament offerings
• Continue membership offerings of date book, directory, and website

Current focus:

• Increase retention of new members in their first 2 years of membership
• Address and enhance Unit game offerings, beginning 2007

Next year's focus:

• Enhance Publicity
• Start marketing effort of duplicate bridge
• Enhance offerings to Intermediate/Novices players, a large % of our membership

The board will write goals to measure progress in each area at upcoming meetings.

Historical Perspective

Report on Last Year's accomplishments

In the fiscal year 2003-2004, the Board generated 5 areas of interest:

1. continue to increase duplicate bridge playing population by (a) providing a method to assist the transition of "home-style" bridge players to duplicate play and (b) encouraging the infrequent duplicate players to increase their participation;

2. provide non-monetary benefits to current unit members which will enhance their bridge playing experience;

3. improve the bridge skills of the unit's members through mentoring;

4. increase attendance at tournaments; and

5. increase attendance at club games.

In 2005, in keeping with those 5 focus areas, the board took on five projects:

1. held a Unit growth seminar to bring board members, club owners, and interested members together to discuss future direction for the Unit (09-11-05);
2. expanded of team brackets in the St. Louis Knockouts and Bragging Rights;
3. took efforts to build a relationship with members of the Greater St. Louis American Bridge Association,
4. continued the successful mentoring program, and
5. finished the web site project and moved to ongoing maintenance by the designteam.

We are happy to report that ALL of these projects have been completed in 2006.