BridgeMate for a small Club

[LauraB]

I would like to know whether others would consider it worthwhile purchasing BridgeMate for a small country club, ignoring the initial outlay.  Do you think there is merit in the system for a Club with just under 70 members and regular session tables normally between 7 and 9 (very occasionally less - or more).

At the moment we operate happily with Scorers assisting the Directors and the results usually get posted to our website with a couple of hours of finish of play.  Yes, we do get traveller errors - occasionaly numerous but generally just a couple which are easy to deal with.  Our Club has a lot of 'older' members and not a lot of computer expertise.  I assume with BridgeMate that Scorers may be superfluous - or do Clubs allow them to use the system at the Director's direction?

Also our Directors would also need to be Playing Directors.  At the moment one may get 'called to a table' where one can sort out a problem, hopefully in a short period of time.  I wonder whether with BridgeMate when a 'Director is called' this might turn out to be a lot more time consuming for the Director, therefore holding up their game for a longer period of time.

Also does BridgeMate need a lot of Trouble Shooting?

I guess there are a lot of other issues I haven't mentioned, but any thoughts that anyone might like to share with me would be appreciated.

[dreddel]

I belong to a club of about 60 home club members and we have used them for several years.  The only times they are not used is when our directors are unavailable and one of our members that doesnt have the knowledge to run ASE 8 with the bridgemates is running the odd session.   These are then scored manually.

Yes If you can afford them and have a few members with basic computer knowledge, I would recommend you purchase and use them.  The results will be up on the net within 5 minutes of completing a session and your scorers will be unneeded except for the odd occasion.  Your older members will soon get use to them, ours did. 

[MIP]

From the TD's standpoint electronic scoring is a boon and as Dave says, everyone gets used to them and when they do they love them. However, I urge you to proceed with caution. There are 3 different systems on the market, Bridgemate, Bridgepad and BridgeScorer. The Bridgepad unit is probably the least friendly but the software is really good. The Bridgemate is very popular and is good from the players' viewpoint but it seems to me that the software is much more complex. I know little about BridgeScorer except that the unit seems easy to use.

I recommend that you have a thorough demonstration of each system before you make a decision, and ensure that you completely understand the software. It's also important that all your directors are properly trained in using the system, especially in how to get out of trouble because these things often go wrong. Other things you must be comfortable with are how to correct mistakes like wrong board number or wrong number of tricks or wrong declarer, and how to change the movement once the system is up and running, and what happens if the PC crashes during the session.

I don't know whether you ever run a teams event but if you do you should ask how the system handles triangles.

You won't need travelling scoresheets and the TD will have fewer calls because there will be fewer scoring errors.

Good luck!

[pwg]

We've been running them for several years now (about 100 members - playing director - sessions of 8-14 tables).  Members love to have the results immediately.  We generally put results on the web, complete with travellers and hand records, as generated by the scoring program (we use ScoreBridge with BridgePads).  Players love that too.

Still, I think that dealing machine & hand records are more important for your players (if you don't already have them).  The Bridgemates (BridgePads, BridgeScorer) really are good for the director, and make the end of a session a breeze.  As Mike remarks, the worst issues are when you have to make a change to the movement or things go wrong, but that seems not to happen often at all.  Your scoring program must work well with them, and allow the director the needed control.

Peter.

[Chez Rands]

We have 111 Members - average age "mature" and 99.1% love them.  Scoring is a breeze and error free.  We have also eliminated wrong boards and / or wrong players at wrong table.  Play is faster!  We have a Scorer in charge of the units so the playing director does not have any additional responsibilities - this is working very well. 

We have prepared a "How to" for BridgeMates in conjunction with ScoreBridge so if you choose to go that way you don't have to stumble through the introductory steps.   I agree with Peter that given a choice I would go with dealing machine before BridgeMates.

Leslie HNBC 2092

[LauraB]

Thanks for all your responses - appreciated - Laura