EUROPEAN BRIDGE LEAGUE

Anna Maria Torlontano
EBL Women Committee Chairman

Turin, October 2002

For the EBL NBO Officers' Seminar
For the EBL Teaching Seminar

Women's Bridge

Dear friends,

Welcome to this meeting during which we will be discussing many aspects of Women's Bridge .

First of all I would like to introduce myself to all of you who still don't know me; my name is Anna Maria Torlontano, and my role in the EBL is: Chairman of the Women's and Protocol Committees.

Anna Gudge is the secretary of this Committee and indispensable collaborator in our sector. We are going to work with you in what we hope will be pleasant atmosphere and to be… not too boring!

This meeting is for us a very important occasion to meet you and speak to you personally. I have written to many of you, on a number of occasions, to ask your collaboration and now, at last, I can talk to you personally.

Of course our principal argument today will be women activities, to let you know first the development in this sector. But, the most important thing is to hear from you, one by one, to know the situation of the Women's Bridge in your country, the way in which you improve it, your suggestions, your needs that means how we can help you - this could be also very useful to all your colleagues who attend this meeting and hear what you say.

So – I would like to set the ball rolling by pointing out, as I have done in the past, the policy of the I.O.C. about the Women ;

“ Bridge is a sport and as such, your place is here, like other sports ” disclosed the past President of the International Olympic Committee, Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch, at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne

“Bridge is a sport” and I would like to mention here a phrase written in the Olympic Charter: “ Olympics is a philosophy of life, exacting and continuing in a balanced whole to the qualities of body and mind.”

The principle on which is based the future of the Women's Bridge is that within the Olympic Movement nearly all sports are divided into separate events for men and women. Therefore it is very important that the women develop in their own field, and so it should be within our Bridge family. But the policy of the IOC is not based only on the practice of the sports. The IOC is very interested in promoting the integration of women into the decision-making process, in the field of public relations, in the administration of the sport organization, exactly at the same level as men, so as the tournament directors, as teachers.

I am sure that among your players and ladies who are involved in bridge in your country, some of them are well known for their talents, their attitude in the in the management. Please take these values into consideration and give these women the right role in the administration and management of your NBO. They may be the right people to develop the Women's Bridge for you.

To end, I would like to read to you the letter that Marc Hodler, vice president of the IOC and Anita De Franz responsible of the Women in the IOC, sent to me and that I copied to all the World NBOs, appreciated by them very much indeed. I said “WORLD”, because José Damiani appointed me chairman of the World Women Committee, to take care of the Women Bridge in the world.

Although, as you probably know, now in the first step, Bridge and chess have been declared ineligible, according to the Commission for the Olympic programme. This has still to be officially endorsed by IOC session in Mexico and Prague . But we are, in any case, a Sports Federation, and will be working very hard to reach our goal!!

And more, please concentrate your efforts to increase the number of teams in the European Championships. Even if it is not possible to increase the budget allocated to the Championships you could try to transfer some of the funds assigned to the participation of men in the Open pairs and Teams Championship, to the Women: women deserve to participate !

As you know, the events organized for the Women, in Europe are three:

• The European Women Pairs Championship, every two years
• The European Women's Teams Championship held every two years in the even numbered year
• The Ladies Bridge Festival/Jamboree; every two years

Some words about these events:

The Women's Teams Championship will be held in 2004, in Malm ö , Sweden . Nothing to say specifically: just again running the risk of being boring; the strong recommendation to send to our Championship a woman team.

Some innovation in the Women's Pairs Championship . As you could see, the Championship was not held in June in Salsomaggiore, in conjunction with the teams, as happened for 8 editions. We will hold it next year in Menton. The event will be Transnational and will be played in the context of the mega-galactic event in the European Open Championships for the first time organized together with the Open and Seniors pairs.

I think that it will be a great success and the women will have the opportunity to play with players coming from all over the world. But at the same time I would also like to maintain the image and the tradition of the past Women's Pairs Championship held for 8 editions when it was not transnational, so, at the end of the Championship, we will take the first 3 European pairs in the general ranking of the final of the “Open Women's Pairs Championships”

The first pair will win a challenge trophy: the Anna Maria Torlontano Cup which will go to the Federation to which the winners belong, the players will get the replicas. Also the 2 nd and 3 rd classified pairs will receive cups.

The winners of the Transnational Women Pairs Championship will get the medals and the title. Master points will be allocated according to the scale of the general ranking in the final. Quite surely I will be able to get some prizes (not money prizes of course) to be presented to the first 3 pairs in the European classification.

The Women's Bridge Festival is an event , as you well know, for the medium ranked Lady players who would be unable to participate in an international championship. This year, it was held in May, in Palermo , an Italian island in Sicily and was a great success. The atmosphere created by all the Ladies who attended was fantastic. We were so happy to be together, really together!

“To socialize” is also a very important factor to stimulate other players to join us. It is a big promotion for Women's Bridge and for the increase in the number of the players.

In any case I attach my report on this event which is too long to be read now, but I would very much appreciate if you could read it when you have a free moment.

And now, some words about the promotion and the communication, both very important for Women's Bridge.

First of all, we got the addresses of all the Ladies who participated in our Championships. So, it will be very easy to send them personally our brochures and information, above all by e-mail .

Second, Anna and I studied a new proposal at this purpose that I am sure you will like very much. Anna will explain it to you in detail because it is very important that we have your input and support for this plan as it is one that we really hope will benefit you and your players.

Anna Maria Torlontano