Making Progress, Not Without Speedbumps

We will be hosting Charlottesville's first ever regional tournament at the DoubleTree Hotel on the north end of town. This part of Charlottesville has seen explosive growth over the past five years, and to keep up with the Joneses, the DoubleTree is doing some major renovations.

This has been kind of a headache when it comes to the planning. Until yesterday, we hadn't really gotten a straight answer from the staff about what parts of the hotel we'd get to use. Some of the rooms designated in our signed contract don't even exist anymore. Nice. But McKenzie and I swung by yesterday for a tour with a very helpful service manager, and we made some good progress in our planning after spending about an hour at the hotel.

We are confident that we will have plenty of space, though one of the ballrooms is only accessible via the indoor pool if you're in a wheelchair. That's not going to be fun. We're going to put the I/N games down there, probably, because it's the smaller of two large ballrooms we get. We're also getting eight conference-sized rooms, four of which are way out of the way and not really big enough for bridge anyway, so we'll make those the offices. Directors, caddies, and prizes, probably, unless we decide to just do a prize desk up in the main ballroom, which might be better. These rooms are really out of the way.

One big headache we've had already is the hospitality. This hotel has been adamant that we must use their catering services exclusively and we MAY NOT BRING ANY OUTSIDE FOOD OR BEVERAGE INTO THE HOTEL. Only guests can do that, and only hotel food can be served in the common areas, including any tournament rooms. So even though we've got these eight rooms that would be great for hospitality suites but not much else, we can't serve food there. For a while, it looked like most of our budget would go to hotel catering. After all, the MABC has an excellent reputation for hospitality, and we are not going to let anyone down.

However, after a nice long discussion with the managers yesterday, we worked it out that we will be permitted to rent a suite upstairs and bring in our own food and beverages for that room. It's not ideal, because it's several floors up, and not very large, but it will save us a lot of money to be able to do hospitality this way. Scott Tumperi has generously offered to manage the hospitality efforts, so he'll be the friendly face up there at the end of your day, ready to pour you a drink or hand you a piece of cake. He'll need assistants, of course, including people who are willing to cook and/or prepare food each day.

What we want to do is ask each local club to take a day during the regional to be responsible for hospitality. Club members will bring in homemade goodies and help Scott with preparations on their day, and then Scott will supplement the things that are brought in with things from Sam's Club, which is conveniently in the same parking lot as this hotel. I'm really relieved that we were able to work this out with the DoubleTree, because it will save literally thousands of dollars on hospitality, and we'll have plenty of wiggle room in the budget now. We're definitely going to feed these bridge players well, though. No one cooks like the ladies from Unit 139!

We also discussed the parking situation. Unlike many regionals, parking here will be free, but there are only a handful of handicapped spaces, and even those are sort of down a hill from the entrance, which I predict will draw complaints. The hotel does have a little roundabout right in front of the entrance where folks could be dropped off, and I asked if we could provide our own valets. The hotel doesn't do valet parking, but they said they would permit us to do that for our players. I think free valet parking would be a really nice touch, if we can get the volunteers and also permission from the MABC. I'm not sure what, if any, liability issues might get in the way, so this may not happen, but I do think it'd be nice.

If you've signed up to volunteer with the tournament, look for an email in the next few days. McKenzie and I are on our way to Oregon right now (typing from an airport lounge) and will be out west for a month, but we should be able to manage a lot of the planning online. We also hope to get all the committee chairs assigned in the next week or so, so the committees can go ahead and get moving on their own. If you haven't signed up, but would like to volunteer, please drop me an email at Meg@DoubleSqueeze.com and I'll get you on the list. All volunteers will be welcome in the tournament suite (snacks and drinks each night for volunteers and staff) and free plays will be distributed for anyone who contributes significant time and effort.

One thing we'd appreciate all our members to do is to start inquiring about and collecting door prizes from local businesses. We'll want to give out a few nice freebies each session, which will mostly be free dinners at local restaurants. Other gifts and services might be appropriate, too, though -- really anything that would make a nice prize for someone who's in town for the tournament. Also, we're still taking suggestions for registration gifts and prize ideas!

I know we've still got a lot to do, but I feel like we got a lot of questions and concerns settled yesterday, and things are looking good for now. Thanks to everyone who's been helping already, and to those who are waiting eagerly for something to do -- you'll get your chance very soon!