The ABF Masterpoint Scheme is intended to:
The Masterpoint Unit is the principal administrator of the Scheme.
This Unit is responsible for the proper maintenance of the Scheme, has the authority to provide any necessary interpretation of the rules applying to the Scheme and is authorized to make any minor amendments to the Scheme. The Unit is also the normal channel by which proposals for major amendments to the Scheme are brought before the ABF Council.
Each State Association has a State Masterpoint Secretary who is responsible for administering the Scheme within the State. The responsibilities of the State Masterpoint Secretary include supervision of the allocation of masterpoint awards for all events within the State, ensuring that all relevant data are forwarded to the ABF Masterpoint Centre, and recommending to the State Association the authorization of Congresses within the State.
Each club should appoint a club masterpoint secretary to administer the Scheme within the club. The club masterpoint secretary is responsible for the allocation of masterpoint awards for club events at grades F, E and D and for completing and submitting the returns to the ABF Masterpoint Centre. The club masterpoint secretaries also advise the Masterpoint Centre of changes to player details, new members, and membership non-renewals. The club masterpoint secretary is expected to act as the go-between the club members and the ABF Masterpoint Centre
Members of clubs affiliated to the ABF (via their State Association) are recorded as participating in the Scheme upon payment by the club of the annual capitation fee (and any other fees which the ABF may from time to time decide upon) to the ABF through the ABF Masterpoint Centre. Such players are known as ABF player members (or home club members) and each is issued with a unique ABF number (see Appendix A).
Membership of the Scheme is renewed annually (on March 31st). Players belonging to more than one club must nominate which club is to be considered their principal (home) club for the purposes of payment of the prescribed fees.
Members become non-financial (inactive) if their home club cancels their memberships before April 1st. Clubs may only advise the Masterpoint Centre once a year of their inactive members. This is carried out by either going to the Player Cancellations section of the Centre web site, or else completing the special form produced by the Masterpoint Centre for that purpose (see Appendix C). Players who later rejoin the Scheme will have their original ABF numbers restored and their home clubs will be charged the prescribed capitation fee.
Masterpoints earned during the period of non-registration, apart from those earned in the quarter of renewal and the quarter immediately prior to renewal, will not be credited.
Visiting overseas players may be allocated masterpoint numbers and become members of the "Foreign Players Club", the "NZ Players Club" or the "English Players Club". For Scheme purposes they are treated in the same manner as other registered players, although no capitation fees are levied. Membership of these clubs is not available to permanent or temporary Australian residents.
Overseas players who become permanent Australian residents, may, on application to the ABF Masterpoint Centre (with the appropriate documentary evidence), be granted the minimum points necessary for them to achieve a similar ranking, with a maximum of Grand Master, to that achieved in their home country. Points subsequently earned in Australia are separate from this calculation.
Overseas visiting players with significant top level experience will be allocated sufficient masterpoints to give them a Grand Master Ranking,
New Zealand players who take up permanent Australian residency shall be given a minimum of one Australian gold point for each New Zealand A point.
On application, masterpoints earned in New Zealand or Great Britain will be credited to Australian players using the following formulae:
NOTE(1): Players who take up permanent residence in Australia will, on application, be granted an equivalent ranking as specified in clause 1.3.3 - the formulae in this clause will not be used for this purpose. However, New Zealand players taking up permanent Australian residence will be granted a minimum of 1 gold point for each NZ A point as a part of their total.
NOTE(2). There will be instances where immigrants come to this country with no masterpoint history either because their country of origin has no such scheme, or because all their records have been lost. In such circumstances a nominated person from the State Association may determine that the player’s level of skill and experience are such that they should be awarded sufficient retrospective masterpoints to give them immediate National Master, Life Master or Grand Master status. When such a decision has been taken the player concerned should be advised, while details of the assessment should be forwarded to the Masterpoint Centre so that the player record can be properly amended.
Notes (1) and (2) of section 1.3.4 above shall also apply to players transferring in from non-affiliated clubs.
Players under the age of 26 as at the 1st of January can obtain free registration with the ABF for the coming year, through membership of the Youth Players’ Club. For scheme purposes they are treated in the same manner as other registered players, although no capitation fees are levied. The membership records of this club are managed by the ABF Youth Coordinator or his delegate.
Youth players are de-registered at the end of the year in which they turn 26, unless they have joined another registered club .
The Masterpoint Scheme is managed by the ABF Masterpoint Centre, which is responsible for:
Any changes in club membership (registration of new players, deaths, activations, name and detail changes, inter-club transfers, etc) are reported to the Centre using one of the prescribed methods in Appendix C.
Details of player membership non-renewals are also advised to the Centre, either on special player schedules (which are distributed to the clubs by mid-February of each year) or online (see also Appendix C). These details must be advised to the Centre by midday March 31st - membership cancellations received after that time cannot be accepted.
Club masterpoint awards can be submitted by mail or online. See Appendix E for details.
Masterpoints awarded in Congresses, State, and National events are reported
to the Centre following the procedure detailed in clause 5.4.1.
Daily : Reports from Congresses, State and National events as they are processed, together with the appropriate invoices. Registration cards for new players and players whose details have changed. Supplies of various forms and computer files as requested.
Monthly : Details of masterpoint credits earned by home club members in National, State and Congress events processed during the past month. Promotion certificates and a newsletter. A schedule of home player promotions is also provided.
Quarterly : Player ranking reports, giving details of the masterpoint totals of all home club members and alternate members of the club. Invoice and statement detailing the masterpoints submitted by the club during the quarter and the total fees and levies outstanding. Numerous other reports are also produced.
Annually : A schedule of all registered home members as detailed in clause 1.4.2. Player registration cards, valid for the current membership year only (April 1st to March 31st) are issued each April. Details of the masterpoint levies and capitation fees (determined each year at the ABF Annual General Meeting).
Note: From January 2012 clubs with email access will receive their quarterly reports as Portable Document File (PDF) email attachments. Clubs without email access will receive printed output, all of it on A4 pages.
The Masterpoint Centre maintains an Internet site at www.abfmasterpoints.com.au/ . By accessing this site users can record player changes, upload credit files, download various files, view results and obtain important information. The site also provides several comprehensive help files and a unique provision for creating detailed Player Awards Statements. See Appendices C, E & F for further details.
Player masterpoint details are also available from the Masterpoint Centre website, by clicking onto "Masterpoint Lookup". These files are updated whenever processing takes place, however ranking promotions only happen once each month.
All such inquiries should be directed initially to the club masterpoint secretary. It may in turn be necessary for the club masterpoint secretary to pass these queries on to the State Masterpoint Secretary, or to the ABF Masterpoint Centre. The Masterpoint Centre is unable to accept queries from individual players.
Tournaments are divided into several grades, as detailed in the following table. Awards in all grades are multiples of the award for a Teams event at the base grade E (weighting factor 1.0).
Tournament Grades
| Grade | Type | Grade Weighting Factor | Description | |
|
|
Pairs | Teams | ||
| F | Green | 0.75 | 0.5 | Supervised play |
| E | Green | 1.5 | 1.0 | Club events |
| D | Green | 2.0 | 1.5 | Club Championships |
| C | Green | 2.5 | 2.0 | Regional Championships |
| B4c | Red | 2.5 | 2.5 | Special Club events |
| B5i | Red | 2.0 | 2.0 | Interclub Tournaments |
| B4s | Red | 2.5 | 2.5 | Special State events |
| B5 | Red | 2.0 | 2.0 | Congress minor events |
| B4 |
Red | 2.5 |
2.5 | Congress Championships |
| B3 | Red | 3.75 | 3.75 | Super Congress Championships |
|
B | Red |
5.0 | 5.0 | State Championships |
| A2 |
Gold | 5.0 |
3.75 | ABF Super Congresses |
| A2 | Gold | 5.0 | 5.0 | National minor Championships |
|
A | Gold |
10.0 | 10.0 | National Championships |
The scheme recognizes 6 levels of Director’s accreditation:
All Congresses (apart from Bridge Tours and Cruises), State Championships and National Championships must be run under the control of a non-playing accredited director, approved for the relevant level of tournament.
Clubs may elect to run the following events under the control of a playing director:
The Scheme recognizes three types of masterpoints, distinguished by colour:
Gold masterpoints, available in certain ABF sponsored events and issued under the direct control of the ABF Masterpoint Unit. The Unit may delegate this responsibility by nominating a special officer of the Scheme, the Goldpoint Coordinator.
Red masterpoints, issued by State masterpoint secretaries or their nominees, available in State sponsored events, Congresses and a limited number of club and interclub events.
Green masterpoints, issued by club masterpoint secretaries for events held in their clubs (grades E and D) and by State masterpoint secretaries for Regional Championships (grade C).
Green masterpoints, which may be issued to players in supervised duplicate sessions (often before they become registered players) - see clause 2.2.
These awards, for players winning the most green points at their home club during a calendar year (within that club's category) were discontinued from January 2012.
This trophy is awarded annually to the player winning the most masterpoints during the calendar year.
These awards are presented annually to the player in each master ranking group (Gold and Silver Grand Masters are combined into a single category) winning the most masterpoints during the calendar year. Player ranking groups are determined by their master ranking at the start of the calendar year. Registered foreign players (ref. clause 1.3.3) are excluded from these awards.
Players who have moved to Australia from overseas are not entitled to win McCutcheon awards for the rankings beneath Life Master if they have already achieved an equivalent or higher ranking in their former country.
Masterpoints won by players over their lifetime are used to determine each player’s master ranking. There are currently 21 different ranks ranging from Graduate Master to Diamond Grand Master. Players receive an official certificate with each Scheme promotion. Master ranks may be used to determine seedings in tournaments. In addition, master events may be held in which entry is restricted to players of the specified masterpoint ranking(s).
| Rank | Minimum Requirements | Notes | ||
| Total | Red & Gold | Gold | ||
| Graduate | 2 | |||
| Club | 5 | |||
| Local | 15 | |||
| Bronze Local | 25 | |||
| Silver Local | 35 | |||
| Regional | 50 | |||
| Bronze Regional | 100 | |||
| State | 50 | 25 | ||
| Bronze State | 100 | 50 | ||
| National | 150 | 75 | ||
| Bronze National | 200 | 100 | ||
| Silver National | 300 | 150 | ||
| Life | 300 | 180 | 30 | (1) |
| Bronze Life | 400 | 240 | 40 | (1) |
| Silver Life | 500 | 300 | 50 | (1) |
| Gold Life | 750 | 450 | 75 | (1) |
| Grand | 1000 | 700 | 200 | (2) |
| Silver Grand | 2500 | 1900 | 600 | (2) |
| Gold Grand | 5000 | 4000 | 1400 | (2) |
| Emerald Grand | 10000 | 8500 | 3000 | (2) |
| Diamond Grand | 15000 | 13000 | 5000 | (2) |
(1) The minimum gold point requirement, and the minimum red and gold point total requirement, will be reduced by 20% of the red points earned prior to 1982 (the year of introduction of gold points).
(2) The minimum gold point requirement, and the minimum red and gold point total requirement, will be reduced by 40% of all red points earned prior to 1982. As an example, a player being assessed for the various Life Master rankings (with 175 red points earned prior to 1982) will need 35 mp fewer than the shown red and gold point total, and 35 mp fewer than the shown gold point total. The reduction in these requirements increases for the Grand Master rankings from 35mp to 70 mp. These pre-1982 allowances cannot be used towards player total requirements.
When players earn a total of 1,000 masterpoints they become members of the One Thousand Club. There are no red or gold point requirements.