Jill's Bridge Connection

Suggested mentoring program:

• commitment of a mentoring pair is 5 games of any regular weekly game
• partnerships can be arranged by the two players, or by me (Jill)
• if interested in being mentored, contact to Jill by email is best ([email protected])
• if interested in mentoring, please contact Jill
• a $50 mentoring fee from the mentee will be held by Jill to go to the mentor at the completion of the 5 game commitment
• if for whatever reason the partnership dissolves partway, Jill will determine how to allocate the $50.

For instance:

• if the mentor has not fulfilled her obligation to be kind and let the mentee direct the learning, the money will be returned to the mentee.
• if the mentor did his job but the mentee got cold feet, the mentor will be paid in full.
• if someone suddenly got sick or left town, the money will be split according to how many sessions were fulfilled.

In addition…

• mentee will pay for her/his own game (paycard is fine) plus for the game of the mentor. To help keep costs low for the mentee, the club will absorb $5 of the fee for the mentor, and mentee will pay the other $5. (For the club to absorb the $5, the pair must be officially registered, signified by the $50 deposit made for the mentor.)

So… mentee will pay $15 for the game in total, plus the $50 set aside for partner for after 5 games have been played.

How should the learning process work?

• at the table, very little should be said.
• If there is something SO DYNAMITE that it just can’t wait, 10 words or less (is a good goal 😃), no negative emotion involved.
• if there is time at the end of a round, a little more detail may be added.
• learning works best if the mentee asks the questions, but sometimes the mentee won’t know what to ask- a helpful tip on what we know will be a recurring matter is sensible.
• DO NOT give tips on items that are unlikely to repeat themselves in the near future, or that cannot help the mentee.

• “The ♦️7 in dummy was a winner didn’t you know?” is an example of a useless tip. Find a way to say more eloquently “I’ll help you work on memory and tracking cards.”
• Another useless tip is “you led the ♠️A, that promises the king.” Not always! Be careful of catchy phrases like ‘ace from space’, cuz sometimes a player is just stuck for a lead. If time allows, better to give the reason why we prefer not lead ace from space (right after you find out her hand wasn’t ♠️A432 ♥️Q32 ♦️A32 ♣️A32 on lead against 4♥️.)

An additional feature to our MENTORING PROGRAM…

On Sunday evenings at 7:00, mentoring pairs will be offered an opportunity to play on BBO in some competitive style - the exact set up will depend on how many mentoring pairs are interested on a particular evening.

• there is NO COST to exercise this option
• there is no ongoing commitment… just let Jill know by Sunday at noon that your partnership is in for that evening
• there is NO WORK involved for the mentor, just the sheer pleasure of playing with someone whose best interest is in your heart.
• 12-16 hands is the suggested limit. This takes roughly an hour, depending…

- If there is only one pair interested for a particular evening, Jill will get a partner, and will be your opponents.

- If there are 2 pairs involved, you’ll be set up at the same table in casual.

- If 3 pairs are involved, Jill will find a partner to become the 4th pair, and we can hold a team game style operation.

If 4 pairs are involved, Jill will set it up for the 2 table team game.

The operative words are:

• FREE
• FUN
• NO WORK
• NO ONGOING COMMITMENT
• JILL will handle the organizing.

All you have to do is:

• make sure you have a BBO handle, and pass it along to me
• submit your mentorship’s request to participate as soon as you know you want to play
• be ready on BBO by 7:00 that evening to receive your invitation to join the table.

Put your feet up, sip your tea in your jammies, and relax!