[BunnyGo]

Hello all. I direct you to a bridgewinners article discussing a proposed change which will restrict ACBL junior discounts to only juniors with fewer than 500 master points.

I've written to my board of directors representatives and they said that the more people who post their displeasure with the proposed changes on bridgewinners, the more likely it will not be enacted.

Please write your representatives and leave comments on the bridgewinners thread.

[gwnn]

Taxing the young is how ACBL will make a lot of money

[BunnyGo]

<bump>

[ArtK78]

BunnyGo, on 2012-February-23, 07:29, said:

<bump>

Bump?

[BunnyGo]

ArtK78, on 2012-February-23, 11:31, said:

Bump?

Adding a comment to a thread to bump it to the top of the new content, thus bringing it to people's attention again.

[ggwhiz]

A very sad nickle and dime mentality. I'm pleased to say that my District rep opposes all such nonsense as a matter of course and for many years. Not so pleased that it keeps cropping up.

[wyman]

It appears mine does as well, as she posted in the BW thread. Pretty unlikely this passes imo.

[VMars]

I never really understood where this "26" comes from, except from the Junior World Championships, which seems to actually have a category for up to 28.

I was in grad school when I turned 26, and had less than 500 points, and was not magically able to suddenly pay full price for tournaments, just because I got older.

Then again, I dealt with it by working at my local clubs so I could play for free, and not going to as many sectionals/regionals until I left grad school and found a job. So I guess I was interested enough to figure out how to make it work, but several of my friends who I introduced to bridge (and were grad students) were less addicted than me, and stopped playing as much because the price went up on them.

[BunnyGo]

VMars, on 2012-February-27, 18:28, said:

I never really understood where this "26" comes from, except from the Junior World Championships, which seems to actually have a category for up to 28.

I was in grad school when I turned 26, and had less than 500 points, and was not magically able to suddenly pay full price for tournaments, just because I got older.

Then again, I dealt with it by working at my local clubs so I could play for free, and not going to as many sectionals/regionals until I left grad school and found a job. So I guess I was interested enough to figure out how to make it work, but several of my friends who I introduced to bridge (and were grad students) were less addicted than me, and stopped playing as much because the price went up on them.

Agreed, turning 27 and 28 while still in grad school made traveling to tournaments hard when there wasn't family or friends in the town who could put me up (thankfully my local club game was $3 a night for all "reasonably young" students and I only played once a week). The junior discounts were sorely missed at larger events though. I was occasionally able to get around this by playing on teams of 5 or 6 with 4 juniors. As they give a max of 4 junior discounts in that scenario anyways, it was still affordable.

[Phil]

ggwhiz, on 2012-February-23, 15:07, said:

A very sad nickle and dime mentality. I'm pleased to say that my District rep opposes all such nonsense as a matter of course and for many years. Not so pleased that it keeps cropping up.

Our District rep is on a mad crusade to end funding to the USBF and the WBF. I'd bet he is also wringing his hands at the extra cash he can get for the league by charging juniors.

[barmar]

WBF has two categories for young players: Youth (up to 25) and University (up to 28). ACBL's junior criteria seems to match up with WBF's youth category.

There needs to be some cutoff, 26 seems as good as anything else. It actually seems pretty generous -- most areas of life consider you an adult at 18 or 21, there are few discounts for anyone in their 20's.

[Bbradley62]

Is this where Obamacare got the 26 limitation for staying on your parents' insurance?

[BunnyGo]

Phil, on 2012-February-27, 19:04, said:

Our District rep is on a mad crusade to end funding to the USBF and the WBF. I'd bet he is also wringing his hands at the extra cash he can get for the league by charging juniors.

I nominate Phil to run in the next election!

[barmar]

My district rep is planning on speaking and voting against it. The thread in Bridge Winners is about 90% against the change. I predict it will fail miserably. ACBL does some boneheaded things sometimes, but I can't imagine them being so penny-wise and pound-foolish as to pass this. Anyone know who proposed it?

[Bbradley62]

BunnyGo, on 2012-February-21, 09:35, said:

Hello all. I direct you to a bridgewinners article discussing a proposed change which will restrict ACBL junior discounts to only juniors with fewer than 500 master points.

So, the theory is that young players who have played enough to win 500 mps have demonstrated that they want to play, so they will continue to play even at full price, whereas newer (or less successful) young players must be enticed with the discount?

[barmar]

It's the drug pusher theory of marketing: give it to them cheap until they're hooked, then hit them up for full price.

[Cthulhu D]

it would make more sense if they were taking it away from the 500mp crew to give a bigger discount to new juniors... Still not a great idea though.

[ggwhiz]

barmar, on 2012-February-27, 20:24, said:

Anyone know who proposed it?

Maybe we can finally tell if it's a nest of morons or a single mutant from the minutes.

[mr1303]

I used to play congresses when I was a junior. Now as a student aged 29, I just can't afford them any more, so I don't.

[Vampyr]

mr1303, on 2012-March-03, 15:02, said:

I used to play congresses when I was a junior. Now as a student aged 29, I just can't afford them any more, so I don't.

Well, you could raise the age to 30 or 35... or make it, say, 21 or anyone in full-time education.