Natura Abhorret Vacuo
[ Observations of Michael Bela Kassay about the conception, birth and raising of the Unit 102 Child, writing / acting as a private historical (some would call it hysterical) observer, not as a functionary nor official of Unit 102. ]
You see, you speak Latin fluently, had no problem translating the title. Why this title was chosen is the answer to the question asked by many and repeatedly ... why did some trouble-makers start Unit 102 in the first place, why could they not stay complacently wherever they were.
They were not troublemakers, but astute observers of a curious phenomenon: the West Coast of Florida was a hotbed of avid tournament players condemned by geo-graphical inertia to travel great distances to play in tournaments (most of the time) or to forgo that painful pleasure. Somehow the Sarasota & environs area was falling through the cracks of the schedulers' baskets. We had nowhere to go to play !
The First Challenge to meet: A vacuum must draw in substances to fill itself, directs Mother Nature. Her hand-maidens were our Patricia Samuels, ci-devant President of Unit 128, who resigned from that Unit's Board to assist starting this one and Gen Geiger, (formerly of France & Unit President, Hawaii). They recognized the need, and drew together all those, complaining separately, into a con-federation of secession i.e.: self-determination. Hence the SunCoast Bridge Association.
I was one of the complainers, bending the ears of my two winningest partners (won about 200 events together in 15 years) both in the governing body of the Unit I've fallen into, when coming to Sarasota. Both agreed, that something should be done, but could not bring anything to fruition.
Therefore, when on a rainy Fall day in 1999 I was invited to join the Committee to Form a New Unit, I jumped in head-first. My Bridge-Scrapbook contains a cherished paper slip, a receipt signed by Gen Geiger (as president of that Committee) for $120.00, my tithe to the "War Chest" (all armies float on money), redeemable by the new unit if a success. Was allowed to keep it anyway, upon redemption of the pledge.
Would you like to learn the names / details of this Committee, visit "... now there are Five" on Page Letters-To-Us, by our Pat Samuels.
Have you ever seen a forest fire start ...
... from a single neglected piece of ember; never in real life of course, but on the Great Fake Educator, Television. The ember touches one dry leaf, a little flame springs up, a neighbor catches on, and the next one too, a strip of fire, another ... on and on, we are all engulfed in flames in no time. Exactly that happened, once the word got out. Volunteers everywhere, willing to do what-ever asked, such as standing outside (when not welcome inside) bridge-clubs collecting signatures for a petition to be submitted to ACBL, " … to secede" .
One interesting aspect of this phase is, that while the opposition (for reasons truly hard to fathom) to our secession was quite fierce, and the stories about the adversities suffered could be quite extensive (will not be recounted here as it would serve no purpose); the self-same opponents, with no exceptions became good friends or neighbors. Myself, I am truly amused by the fact, that someone of the opposition, whom I described in my report to the Committee (about a meeting I attended as a representative), as "a rabid running dog of ...", became a very good friend of mine, with respect mutual.
The Second Challenge: Recognition by ACBL as Unit 102 (in late 2000), becoming thus the Fifth Knight at the Round-Table of District 9 (ACBL of Florida) meant, that we had to meet the obligation of filling the tournament vacuum. Having not "shut up" (demanded by others) we had to "put up".
The very first event was our "Birthday Party" a Swiss Team Unit Championship on 2.4.2001 (by strange coincidence my birthday). 69 Teams came, overwhelming the facilities: Murphy was the assistant organizer, i.e.: the back-up space remained locked, because the people we rented it from blithely did not show up. About 11 tables were playing outdoors in a shopping arcade. Sheer luck: neither the police nor the rains came. This Birthday Party is an annual traditional event of ours, attendance consistently climbing.
The nature of the beast was such, that we could have no Sectional Tournament in the first year of our existence. Filled the void with Unit Championships, Pairs and four more Swiss Teams and as if we had built a better mousetrap, the players just kept coming. Next year, our first Sectional (in January 2002) with 371 tables was one of the largest Florida events in so many years, surpassed easily by the twelwth one of January 2004 with 419.5. Could this go on ? Oh, yes it could, The fifteenth in January 2005 had 25% more or 528.5 tables! One shudders to think of this trend continuing: … we all saw science-fiction movies, where the alien organism form "outer space" overruns Mother Earth.
The harbinger of this "Menace From Briggidda" (the Planet-Goddess of the Game) was our Regional in February 2004. Time was to head for the hills; to wit.:
The largest Regional in Florida for the last twelve years, with 3,320.5 tables in play; the U.S. record of 293.5 I/N tables; 2,496 participants form 41 States, Canada and benighted places i.e.: Overseas; 723 partner requests of which over 600 were met; and 1,076 prizes (excluding Sunday) given out. The second challenge was amply met both in number of events and count of participants, would you not agree? Thus the question at the beginning: the why, has been fully answered.
The LZ (Landing Zone) for the Menace (Briggida' s) has been found already. We have a site for our 2006 Regional (that is the next one we can have - well, we are a small Unit, asking for one every year is uppity), a hall large enough to accept twice the visitors of the last one, all games will be under one roof; with absolutely, positively unlimited parking around it. Eliminating thus deftly the two valid criticisms levied against our last one; (we run out of space Tuesday in 2004). Admit we were not perfect: after all it was but the first try and the response was overwhelming.
In fact the road was not so smooth for our war-wagons (would you like details?), but whenever stuck, there were ample willing hands to help, shoulder to the wheels, an almost unheard of phenomenon. Single out just one: people standing at the entrance of the full parking field, directing "late comers" to alternate sites, foregoing their own opportunity to play !
Even myself with a lifetime of scientific and military experience, knowing well the apothegm: "never volunteer" , foolishly offered up myself. In this case becoming a Web-Master, without knowing anything whatsoever about how to make a WebSite. Would you be interested about this sorry subject, read the "Tale of the Web and the Spider" on the Letters Page.
High point of my misadventures is the very name of our WebSite. I was such a virgin in the bed of WebMastering, that I chose ".com" for our address, having witnessed the success of various "dot-com-s" ; while the proper tag of ".org" sounded too much like abbreviating orgy, or worse (having heard a lot about the successes of pornographic sites). Our WebSite is the only bridge spot receiving E-Mail (Spam) offering to double-or-quadruple our sales volume and the like.
The Third Challenge is very long-range: to improve the social quality and atmosphere of the games played on our SunCoast, to make playing bridge a pleasant experience there. We are working on it as hard as we all can, difficult as it may be; especially as this kind of dare always starts at home …
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