Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, who was one of the most influential early WBF administrators, died on January 4 at the age of 82. Patiño served as WBF president from 1976-1986 and was influential in the development of Systems disclosure forms as well as developing methods to promote good ethics at the bridge table. He will be sorely missed.

You can read Jose Damiani's tribute to Patiño on the WBF website

The USBF Board, with the assistance of its Counsel, Martin Harris, has been reviewing the USBF Bylaws this year. The Board proposes to adopt several amendments to the Bylaws at its meeting on December 28th. These Amendments resolve issues in the former Bylaws and don't make any substantive changes. The Board is also considering amendments to the Resident Member section of the Bylaws, which some may consider substantive. The Board has not yet reached agreement on how that section should be amended; as soon as a consensus amendment is available, it will be posted for your comments.

Changes that are being proposed at this time are:

1. A slight expansion of the organization's purposes, to make it clear that the USBF sometimes selects teams for international events that are not World Championships, and may do so other than by holding Trials.

2.  Clarification that a person must be an Active or Resident Member of USBF in order to vote for USBF Board members, participate in USBF Trials or represent the United States in a World or Olympic Championship. Note that "World Championship" is defined as a Team event for which the United States is entitled to one or two teams, so does not include the Rosenblum year events or Transnational events in other years.

3. Correction of a numbering error in the Resident Member section that made it unclear whether a "grandfathered" resident  member needed to continue to meet the conditions for Resident membership each year.

4. Addition of specific references to powers of the Board that have been assumed to exist.

5. Clarification that elections for the Board may be by email as well as written ballot.

6. Clarification the procedure for filling a vacancy on the Board.

7. Removal of the requirements that USBF committees have a certain number of Athlete Members.

8. Addition of a provision allowing the Board, by unanimous vote, to waive the 30 day notice provision for amending the Bylaws.

Click on the blue words to read the proposed Bylaws or a "red-lined" version which highlights the changes made in PDF format. If you have any comments on any of these proposed amendments, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and she will pass them on to the full Board for their consideration.