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Director's box of tricks


nige1

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At the Lady Milne (Women's International), Brian Short listed essentials for a non-playing captain (below)

 

What tools of the trade should a director carry around? Start with some serious possibilities for his lap-top:

  • The law-book, local regulations, local interpretations, Ton's examples and WBF minutes (as local documents in case there's no internet access).
  • Scoring programs that can handle printers and bridge-mates.
  • Appeals-committee booklets with a global index of key-words .
  • Flow-chart/expert-system to help ensure that all relevant and only relevant laws/regulations are considered.
  • Copies of common basic convention cards (e.g. 2/1, Precision, Polish club, Acol). To give to first-time partnerships and players without cards.

What items should be on the director's check-list?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPDgTI5n9xQ

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In contrast to Nigel's idealised director's box of tricks, this is the contents of my practical directors box of tricks. Most of it fits in a metal box with "stuff that doesn't go anywhere else tin" on the lid.

 

  • rubber bands
  • little plastic pots of blu-tack
  • door stop
  • pens for players
  • marker pens for instructions for players
  • PASS / ALERT / STOP! cards
  • name badges (so I know who I am)
  • memory sticks
  • electrical tape and gaffer tape (duct tape)
  • penknife
  • stapler
  • bottle of lens cleaner

  • Upvote 3
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I think it would be great if someone compiled all the minutes pertaining to Laws and their interpretation into one document (I am not volunteering -- I do not even know how to find the minutes).
Even better if all corrections and clarifications were inserted (high-lighted but seamlessly), in place, into an on-line version of the law-book (with a dated change-log of corrigenda as an appendix).
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Even better if all corrections and clarifications were inserted (high-lighted but seamlessly), in place, into an on-line version of the law-book (with a dated change-log of corrigenda as an appendix).

 

No, this would not be better, because an on-line version of the law-book is not what people use when making rulings. The relevant minutes need to be in a form that can be physically inserted into a law-book.

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So, where do you find:

 

- Appeals-committee booklets with a global index of key-words .

- Flow-chart/expert-system to help ensure that all relevant and only relevant laws/regulations are considered.

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In contrast to Nigel's idealised director's box of tricks, this is the contents of my practical directors box of tricks. Most of it fits in a metal box with "stuff that doesn't go anywhere else tin" on the lid.

 

  • rubber bands
  • little plastic pots of blu-tack
  • door stop
  • pens for players
  • marker pens for instructions for players
  • PASS / ALERT / STOP! cards
  • name badges (so I know who I am)
  • memory sticks
  • electrical tape and gaffer tape (duct tape)
  • penknife
  • stapler
  • bottle of lens cleaner

 

Has visions of a player the directors have got fed up with being found gaffer taped to a chair in a back room, 3 days after a tournament somewhere.

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Gaffer tape is not quite the same thing as duct tape. The backing and adhesives are different. Gaffer tape is more expensive, probably primarily because there's a smaller market for it. There is also "speed tape", which has a strong adhesive and an aluminized backing, and is used for minor emergency aircraft repairs. Travis Taylor, who is a bona fide rocket scientist, in his collaboration with John Ringo about the ASS (Allied Space Ship) Vorpal Blade (a US SSBN converted into a starship) posits "space tape" which is like speed tape, only better, since it works in vacuum. It also costs about US$100K per roll.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Does it contain all the minutes? I am pleased to hear it.

I believe the minutes are used in the production of the document; perhaps you would prefer the unadulterated minutes themselves, from which you could redo the work that the authors of the White Book think they have done.

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As part of the 2013 White Book review, Robin went through to check that these minutes were being correctly quoted.

 

Some of the law references have been updated to refer to the 2007 Laws and presumably any minutes no longer relevant to the current Laws are not there. But otherwise, the minutes should all be in EBU White Book.

 

You can also locate the minutes on the WBF website, but there they are filed by WBFLC meeting rather than by Law, which is rather less helpful for most people.

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  • 5 months later...

[*]Appeals-committee booklets with a global index of key-words .

 

I can't see any use for this at all at a tournament. Apart from anything else, the booklets have no force of law or precedent. And it's a director's job to know how to run an appeal (which he should already) not how to rule at one.

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I can't see any use for this at all at a tournament. Apart from anything else, the booklets have no force of law or precedent...[sNIP]
OK. Does that argument also apply to Ton's commentary and local law-interpretations like those in the White Book?
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