[mike777]

Double !, on Jul 29 2005, 02:25 PM, said:

mike777, on Jul 28 2005, 06:28 PM, said:

Here are a few facts, I let you draw the conclusions.
1) Recent poll done over 3-4 months to 3,500 south calif. dues paying members. Only 51 bothered to take the poll.

Sorry, not a lot of numbers, and is this (Southern California) really a representative sample of the total population of targeted "consumers". (Come to think of it, who exactly are the targeted consumers in this survey and campaign?) Did they actually go out into schools including in the inner cities, and survey these populations? I work in an inner-city middle school in the northeast USA, and I have yet to meet any student or more than a few parents, and not that many adults in general who know what Bridge is, much less whether or not it is cool and could lead to a career in the NBA! I suspect that, to this potential consumer group, Bridge is something you have to pay a toll (or take a crowded subway) to cross.

OK, fine, refer this to the acbl education department.

1) The poll was conducted by local southern calif zone. It only concerned southern calif. marketing issues, not your home town.
2) The survey was sent to 3,500 ACBL paid up members in southern calif.
3) Only 51 bothered to responded over a 3-4 month period.
4) My point being that only 51 active, money paying, bridge playing, members bothered to contribute their input on matters directly affecting them.
5) I note I never responded since I live on the East Coast even though my money still goes to LA.
6) The marketing poll referred to by the ACBL CEO was a nationwide poll.

[uday]

So what is it that can be done to attract younger players to our game? Do we have any ideas that don't cost an arm and a leg?

[McBruce]

Uday, you and Fred and Sheri, with some help from all of us together are doing a great deal. Players play online and then they look for club or tournament bridge in the area. It takes time, often years, but it does happen. The hardest part for young players is fitting in to the older crowd that plays at clubs these days. But that is not our problem: we who play and promote bridge online are doing our part.

[keylime]

Gotta promote the friendly competition angle of duplicate. The fact that the ACBL decided to target both the kitchen bridge crowd and us youngins is just nuts.

Bridge is Cool. This is definitely the kind of cheese you spray from a can.

BBO has done more to promote junior bridge in a year, than the ACBL has in 50. I rather play on BBO than at the club a lot of the time, because of the demographic here and the better environment here.

[Echognome]

Schools programs are definitely a big help. I know that our university club is running fairly well and I believe that our numbers have increased over the past couple of years.

I think having local clubs reaching out to schools is critical. Anytime you have a bridge club in a school, you are going to generate some interest among that age group. It may not be a whole lot, but it certainly helps.

Around here locally, I know that the clubs are fairly willing, but it is very difficult unless you have a person at the school willing to organise or coordinate it.

Financially, students have very limited budgets, so offering reduced table money or eliminating it all together will of course help. I know when I lived in Washington, DC the local unit helped out a local highschool's club and the members of the club helped on certain club nights with collecting scoreslips and passing around the boards etc. Seemed like a great idea to me.

My opinion on making bridge more fun for the younger crowd is to add some more variety at the club in terms of bridge. Duplicate pairs every time seems a bit dull. Why not have a once a month speedball (fast pairs) or an "anything goes" in terms of conventions night? Or a board-a-match session? I mean anything to spice up the usual session. Our university club has both an annual individual tournament and a crazy pairs tournament and they are both very popular with the students.

[keylime]

Matt,

Well said - the local clubs here only know MP pairs. No concept of originality offered in format.

[slothy]

'Bridge is Cool' sounds more like something Huggie Bear would say after Hutch seduced some hot chick in hot pants (she was wearing the hot pants NOT David Soul...)

(Ah the nostalgia of real-life 70s cop shows)

But i suppose it is better than 'Bridge is Awesome'....a non-descript universal adjective i notice Justin uses a lot hee hee

If they really want to curry Street-Cred they gotta have 50 cents (49 cents more than he is worth in my opinion) or Eminem jive some rap and have it broadcast oN MTV and have them slapping their fingers together and rattling their bling-bling.....

or even have the Teletubbies (British kids program featuring overweight gibbering pseudo-marsupials running around aimlessly which makes me wonder how British kids ever grow up to spell or string together a sentence with well-formed grammar) play rubber bridge on the lawn and explain Morton's Fork á la Dr Seuss

Well just a thought

[Double !]

Here's a thought.

How much modification would it require for school educational departments to progressively integrate the basic and then more advanced concepts and principles of bridge into their Math and/or integrated curricula? Think about it: addition, subtraction, division/percentages, probability, problem-solving, planning and anticipating, etc., etc. (Maybe not bidding- haven't thought that much about bidding. Perhaps that could come under some communication rubric. After all, bidding and signalling are forms of communication/ language.) Could do this without ever mentioning the word "card", or any suits. Kids would be learning the game without even knowing it over a period of several years, and it wouldn't even cost school departments a penny more.

[hrothgar]

Double !, on Jul 31 2005, 08:48 AM, said:

Here's a thought.

How much modification would it require for school educational departments to progressively integrate the basic and then more advanced concepts and principles of bridge into their Math and/or integrated curricula? Think about it: addition, subtraction, division/percentages, probability, problem-solving, planning and anticipating, etc., etc. (Maybe not bidding- haven't thought that much about bidding. Perhaps that could come under some communication rubric. After all, bidding and signalling are forms of communication/ language.) Could do this without ever mentioning the word "card", or any suits. Kids would be learning the game without even knowing it over a period of several years, and it wouldn't even cost school departments a penny more.

While I like the idea, its never gonna happen in the US...
Public schools are all "teaching ot the test". You might be able to pull this off
in a Montossori School or some such.

Back when I was an Associate Instructor for Intro to Probability and Statistics at IU a truly remarkable amount of the course work dealt with Blackjack... Sadly, I had to remove the problem sets when some parents complained. Sigh

[hrothgar]

Double !, on Jul 31 2005, 08:48 AM, said:

Maybe not bidding- haven't thought that much about bidding. Perhaps that could come under some communication rubric. After all, bidding and signalling are forms of communication/ language

On the bidding front, there's very good reason's why well designed relay structures are based on Fibonacci Sequences...

[Double !]

hrothgar, on Jul 31 2005, 01:13 AM, said:

Double !, on Jul 31 2005, 08:48 AM, said:

Here's a thought.

How much modification would it require for school educational departments to progressively integrate the basic and then more advanced concepts and principles of bridge into their Math and/or integrated curricula?  Think about it: addition, subtraction, division/percentages, probability, problem-solving, planning and anticipating, etc., etc.  (Maybe not bidding- haven't thought that much about bidding.  Perhaps that could come under some communication rubric.  After all, bidding and signalling are forms of communication/ language.)  Could do this without ever mentioning the word "card", or any suits.  Kids would be learning the game without even knowing it over a period of several years, and it wouldn't even cost school departments a penny more.

While I like the idea, its never gonna happen in the US...
Public schools are all "teaching ot the test". You might be able to pull this off
in a Montossori School or some such.

Back when I was an Associate Instructor for Intro to Probability and Statistics at IU a truly remarkable amount of the course work dealt with Blackjack... Sadly, I had to remove the problem sets when some parents complained. Sigh

I work in a middle school in the inner city in a different state not too far from you, but I also know the Mass. Dept. of Ed. and the Mass. Ave/ Mem. Drive area quite well. I spent a lot of my life in the Boston area.

Trust me, I know all about teaching to the test (the pressures to get scores up and consequences for nonsuccess) whether they be the MCAS or whatever they're called, or various state and/or city-wide tests. Not a bridge-related topic (except for Mass ave bridge, perhaps?).

I just seem to recall the acbl looking for ways some time in the past to initiate teaching bridge in schools (as an elective/ after school) or at least exposing more kids to the game at a younger age. I guess I had a delusional epiphany in thinking that it might appeal to more people/ kids if it was associated with the idea that many aspects of the game were things that they had been learning all along.

[mike777]

hrothgar, on Jul 31 2005, 01:13 AM, said:

Double !, on Jul 31 2005, 08:48 AM, said:

Here's a thought.

How much modification would it require for school educational departments to progressively integrate the basic and then more advanced concepts and principles of bridge into their Math and/or integrated curricula?  Think about it: addition, subtraction, division/percentages, probability, problem-solving, planning and anticipating, etc., etc.   (Maybe not bidding- haven't thought that much about bidding.  Perhaps that could come under some communication rubric.  After all, bidding and signalling are forms of communication/ language.)  Could do this without ever mentioning the word "card", or any suits.  Kids would be learning the game without even knowing it over a period of several years, and it wouldn't even cost school departments a penny more.

While I like the idea, its never gonna happen in the US...
Public schools are all "teaching ot the test". You might be able to pull this off
in a Montossori School or some such.

Back when I was an Associate Instructor for Intro to Probability and Statistics at IU a truly remarkable amount of the course work dealt with Blackjack... Sadly, I had to remove the problem sets when some parents complained. Sigh

I went back to school in the middle of my life to get an MBA.

After watching Jay leno segment "jaywalking" I asked a bunch of these young grad students some basic questions.

1) Who fought in our civil war?
2) What century?
3) How long for the earth to rotate once around the sun?
4) How long for the earth to rotate around its axis?
5) Do you know what the heck the axis is ?
6) How long does it take the moon to circle the earth?
7) Ok the last question was a trick one, we all know the earth circles the moon, right?

For more see Jay Leno, jaywalking.

Of course almost none of these grad students got these right.
Why confuse them with fib....sequences, let alone T-statistics, Durbin-Watson, multiplication, division and critical thinking?


Teach them bridge, most of them have no idea who Walt Whitman is. good grief.

[Double !]

[quote name='mike777' date='Jul 31 2005, 01:44 AM'] Sigh [/QUOTE]
I went back to school in the middle of my life to get an MBA.

After watching Jay leno segment "jaywalking" I asked a bunch of these young grad students some basic questions.

1) Who fought in our civil war?
2) What century?
3) How long for the earth to rotate once around the sun?
4) How long for the earth to rotate around its axis?
5) Do you know what the heck the axis is ?

Of course almost none of these grad students got these right.
Why confuse them with fib....sequences, let alone T-statistics, Durbin-Watson, multiplication, division and critical thinking?


Teach them bridge, most of them have no idea who Walt Whitman is. good grief. [/quote]
two comments in response

1) Serious Congrats in getting MBA- a lot of time and work put in, I suspect.

2) Why don't the results of your little survey surprise me? (What's an "axis"?, asked the spin-doctor. Isn't the term "civil war" an oxymoron? Wasn't Walt Whitman the guy who created all of those over-priced chocolate candy sampler packages and, as tokens of appreciation, had schools name after him?)