Members have their say 2014You selected a great SET team who enjoyed working for you and with you. That is the premier trait of the best CEO:). Thanks again for the things you do. ...for your wonderful ability to select great organizers! Your SET are the best ever!! They are a pleasure to work for and this years Marathon seems to run like clock work (easy to say when I can't see what is happening behind the scenes !) But you sure know how to pick them !!! Thank you !!!!! Thank YOU, Maureen, for starting BIL. Have you ever thought how many people's lives you have changed? Really is amazing. And so are you. No retiring, you do know that, right? :) I personally thought it was the best Marathon so far. Everyone was in a good mood; lots of chatter and jokes and my two hour hosting went without a hitch. For the first time, I actually sat down and played 68 hands. Congratulations to you, the organizers and the hosts who made the 2014 Marathon a smashing success! I look forward to being involved again next year Thank you for the BIL. Unlikely I would be enjoying the game or making progress without it. I rave about it and you to every player I meet who finds the Main room unfriendly and unsupportive Overwhelmed by great reporting and all the amazing happenings during Marathon 14---looking forward to and hoping to be an active player 2015-- I really appreciate what you have created with the BIL. The marathon was the first time that I played live - other than Bridge 101 and 102 lessons - it was a big leap! Now that I feel more comfortable I am starting to attend the practice sessions, which I am learning a lot and will try the tournaments. The Team Match sounds interesting, as another beginner I've played with wants me to join her. I am finding that practice is needed, and once I become more comfortable with the system I will start to relax. Thank you Maureen, I logged on successfully. It is like being given the key to Aladdin's cave. I will be exploring lots in the coming days and weeks. If I may say, your BIL is an amazing source of much enjoyment and no little fun. Family difficulties prevent me from being as regular as I would like but it seems to be part of my life now. Thanks for all that you do and your easy friendliness which is well regarded by all. Thank you also for all your efforts in maintaining this wonderful program. Enjoy the lessons given and look forward to using it in the coming year Many thanks as well to you for all the terrific BIL courses and lessons, including the Precision course itself. Those of us who belong to BIL and receive great benefit from the friendship and instruction - thank you for this wonderful site I really want to give you feedback on my BIL membership! I joined in January, and am really thrilled with everything BIL has to offer! I have learnt an ENORMOUS amount from your great website. Congrats on keeping it uptodate and so informative and user-friendly. There is soooooo much available, for me to read and learn! And of course, my weekly lessons with Anneke are wonderful – she is a great mentor, and a fantastic teacher. I have learnt so much from her and I am so appreciative of her time and interest. Thank you so much for linking me up with her. Thank you so much for a wonderful ‘club’ – it certainly caters for those still learning the game. Thanks and bless you for your wonderful WONDERFUL BIL!! Joyce has been an inspiration to me and has helped me immensely with my game. She is kind and patient with my shortcomings. Thank you, Maureen, for your dedication and for giving us a marvelous source of learning. As I have told you before, BBO and the BIL have almost literally been life-savers for me. Every time I play at the club, I rave about the site - and try to get beginners and intermediates to take advantage of the play and fantastic lessons. Thank you for all you do who would organise something for the whole world? Keep going we do appreciate it. First thank you so much for your support in my problem. As it turns out, it was my error, and I am now able to log in and explore to my hearts delight. Thank you again for caring..... Thanks Maureen! With all that you have to do each day, I appreciate the prompt correspondence. I think you are Brilliant, you do so much for Bridge Thank you so much for your fast and detailed response. The link is working now and exactly what i was looking for is in that page! Although i was reluctant in the first place about joining your community, your professionalism and personal approach has definetely earned you a happy (and permanent) member/fellow bridger. Thanks again for all! You are the best! You are loved and cherished by many people whose lives, like mine, you have changed for the better. I won twice in a row at our local club recently with two different partners! In general I’m so impressed with all you offer, and all you have developed in this wonderful bridge club. There is hardly a day that I don’t visit and play on the Bill. It changed my life and my friends complain that I have no time for them. LOL I hope people tell you often how wonderful the BIL program is., Btw, I heard recently from my former mentee Soap4U (Darlene) that she's become a Life Master. Another success story for your archives. Thank you. I also wanted to say that Mark has been a great Mentor and teacher. I have learned so much from him. I really feel that I have come a long way since I joined the bil last July. I don't think I would have stuck with bridge if I had not found the BIL. Bridge really is a fun and challenging game and I appreciate all that you do. Thanks again, Thank you so much, Maureen, for the amazing mentoring program. Wanted to let you know - Mark's class was OUTSTANDING - his delivery was awesome - concise, direct and to the point. without BIL that would NOT have happened - so TY Maureen!!!! Met some wonderful people in the BIL I really admire you for your great work, understanding ;considering the people. Do want to thank you! Thanks again for being considerate!! I just wish I would have found you sooner! Thank you so much for everything you do! Enjoy your programs. They are really enjoyable. Thanks you for all your time. All of the people working on this deserve a huge THANK YOU I am enjoying the non-intimidating venue to play with others who are learning. Also, playing with a mentor offers an optimal learning experience. I certainly want to thank you for the wonderful way you have structured and improved the BIL. I've had many of my friends to join BIL as a result of the good things I have said about BIL. All the credit for this marvelous site belongs to you. All the time and effort you have put into making it what it is today is so much appreciated by us all! Thank you so very, very much! i am very grateful to you and BIL for my excellent mentor, my mentor is patient, kind, knowledgeable, a gifted teacher. i enjoyed learning and profited a lot from my lessons. a great program and a wonderful MENTOR! CJ's Coaching class. She is so fantastic as an instructor. Her presentation of the material is so thorough. Her personal manner is so good. I give her the highest marks possible in evaluation of class thoroughness. She is a jewel for the BIL. She is my favorite! my mentor,Gad Chada I looked him up, he is a writer player par excellent! How ever did he volunteer to mentor! He is so nice to me. And I learning things I didn't know and should have. Thank you for sending me to him. I love the BIL, so many great teachers and students. My mentor was unbelievably wonderful. He has sets of hands and we just say, please throw us squirm in your seat 2/1 hands and he would bring them up. Robert was always kind and gentle and provided honest and complete responses. Thank you for assigning us together. What a delight. I would like to thank you for your many kindnesses to me and the group. You have made the BIL a bridge accomplishment to be proud of. Good luck in your future BIL endeavors. I'm so thrilled to be working with Joe. His sessions have been awesome! I'm learning/practicing/reinforcing/building on so many concepts/conventions and he is a great presenter and logician. He communicates the "Why", not just the "How". Thank you for signing me into Fred Nlobe's mentoring sessions last semester. He is an excellent bridge teacher who knows how to make us understand the concepts of bridge playing. He does this by giving many examples, explanations and often uses colorful idioms, metaphors, and sometimes mantras to make his teachings interesting and meaningful. He gives freely of his time and sends complete transcripts of his sessions with homework which are all very helpful. He also includes written homework answers and encourages us to question anything we don't completely understand. He is the best bridge teacher I have ever had. I very much enjoyed being a part of the BIL community and have very much appreciated all the hard work you have done over the yrs. Thank you very much All you do on BBO to promote bridge with zero tolerance is most appreciated. I have promoted the Bilies to all and any of our newer players at the club who are interested in learning. Tomorrow am going to Barbara's ( kindlyso) home to assist her in finding her way around on the site and get her acquainted with the retreat. When I saw your name on the list attending the Bilies get together was excited to get to meet you FTF. Then saw that you would not be attending. Perhaps you will make it to New Orleans next March? All down to your enthusiasm, and the support BIL gives. thanks, Maureen, for making all of this possible! We certainly would not have gotten acquainted and most likely would have never gone to a NABC without the BIL and the learning opportunities there. thank you for all you do for the BIL and the game of bridge - you are truly valued I am grateful to you for all I have learned since joining BIL. You and your work are invaluable to players like me! Many, many thanks! The opportunity for another mentor was gratefully received by myself and I wanted to let you know what an enormous plus working with Fred has been. His approach of material, options and the whys of taking the options are just a great way to expand and finesse the game of bridge for the beginner attempting to find their way. He uses repetition to plant this material so that it may become a natural part of our bridge play. He has the patience of a saint, working with a group of beg/early interm. Again, thank you for giving me this opportunity and any mentee would be very fortunate, indeed, to have this opportunity of working him As I always tell my mentees, the real credit should go to you, for the thouands of hours you must put in to organize and maintain this program. I am grateful to you for all I have learned since joining BIL. You and your work are invaluable to players like me! Many, many thanks! Well, if They (BIL Volunteers) are the "Rock" .. then YOU are the Mason that PLACED them .. you are an Inspiration to us all Maureen thanks, Maureen. you're still the greatest. i'm having a wonderful time trying to soak up all the instruction you offer. As I do more I am very impressed and happy with BIL Bridge. I have a wonderful mentor, who has helped me immensely,, and I am so thankful for that. And the library and newsletters are fantastic sources of information. There is so much information between the two websites. It’s truly quite amazing! You are one in a million. Keep up the good work for bridge. thanks again for all you have given us. — makes everyday seem like a birthday!!!! Thank you so much for this program! Anneke has been helping me tremendously. I'm seeing big improvements and it really makes the game so much more fun. Now that I have a regular partner, Anneke has taken on the task of helping us sync up our partnership. Rich's class on 2/1 is very good. I have never attended class by Rich and his teaching methods are straightforward and logical. He seems very mindful of not embarrassing students while they sit at table and the content of the class is great.What a lot of great opportunities we have to expand our knowledge and the mentor I have Fred Nbole is outstanding in his teaching. Bilbridge is what got me started in the right direction. You've made a great contribution. I love watching her , nice lady and very friendly write down what she says thank Maureen for giving us such beautiful bridge teachers and wonderful bridge players could give you a list but it would be to long again thank you for BBO I may never be over good at bridge but enjoy the friends I have made over the yrs Thank you so much. I am not on BIL much but do manage sometime every week! Can't forget what I have learned! It is such a wonderful place to go...like being at home! Thank you for all your hard work and to those who assist you. It is a wonderful club and I am thoroughly enjoying the classes provided and my mentoring session. I do not know how you manage but those of us who benefit from your work will be eternally grateful. Bridge this,bridge that,to some it's new,to others,old hat! One doesn't realize how little one knows,until you come up against an expert or a pro. American Thanksgiving, I give thanks to Maureen,she's more a friend than the Bridge Queen. The game goes on,we get better,never perfect,altho we try,lessons and practice,some day it will pay off thanks to Maureen and her assistants. Blessed Thanksgiving what ever country you are in. Joan Blocher, BILHost19, lizabc Barbara (onlyyuman) has been a most wonderful mentor, she is such a wonderful teacher and mentor. I have learned so much and my bridge has greatly improved. I am a first year member of BIL and it is such a lovely experience. I have also taken the defensive course and Bergen bidding by Rich (rich_a) and have enjoyed those classes so much. He is a wonderful caring teacher and is very polite and patient On this snowy Thanksgiving Day here in the US, one of things I am thankful for this year is the BIL. I have met so many wonderful friends and learned so much for our teachers. In appreciation to you Maureen on this day of reflection. . I had a wonderful experience with my mentor, pradver.. I was really confused with overwhelming bits and pieces of knowledge. I wasn't really a beginner but I wasn't an intermediate. So in his wisdom he took me back and helped me build a much more solid base for my game. Since then learning has been much easier because I have had a foundation upon which to build. I think perhaps the most important piece was focusing on the logic of bridge and teaching me to think things through by very good questions. This is the hallmark A very good teacher. Thank you thank U thank U thank U My mentoring sessions have, unfortunately, come to an end. With that, I want to thank you so much for sending her my way. I could not have asked for a better matched I have no words to tell Maureen how gratefull I am to be able to have become member of the most succesfull bridge Club in the World. You remain one of my true inspirations. Just wanted to thank you for all everything you did to make the BIL Marathon a success. From my perspective as a BIL Hostess, there was nothing you could have done to make it better! Communication was awesome, from early recruiting, to responses to questions, to providing background information, to training opportunities, to providing training materials, to having everything ready timely....! Support on the job was great too. I couldn't believe how "present" all of you were over the course of the Marathon! Were any of you able to get any sleep? When I was there, I appreciated the messages of support I received, ideas to help keep things going better and you "pinch hitting" where necessary when I got swamped. We were a team and it was an awesome experience for me. I just loved being part of it, being able to do this and working with all of you! I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all the help you have given to me and wish you a great year. The biggest, hugest thank you goes to you for the countless things you do for BBO. Many thanks to you and your team, especially Babs, Sandy, Tjtoo and Learning, for the wonderful New Year marathon. It was truly amazing, with so much positive energy and enthusiasm created by ‘The Team’. I am sure it was tough for them to continually motivate and enthuse the players…. they did a fantastic job. We all felt very welcome, and part of the celebration. It was special to experience the excitement everyone conveyed, as the many countries moved into 2015. And so much friendship and support shown by all the players…. It’s great to be reminded that the world actually IS a friendly place! Thank YOU for making the BIL a reality. It has been a great source of pleasure for me since the Fall of 2012 when I discovered it i really enjoyed helping out as eventhst25 . The marathon is a wonderful event and it is fun playing with the mentors , teachers and stars. Have always loved the BIL, the people in it and admired all of those who volunteer to make it such a wonderful place to play bridge. Your kindness to thank me for my tiny effort once again shows how special you are and how special your creation is. I enjoyed my Marathon time immensely. Returning a special ''Thank You'' to you Maureen and all of the other volunteers who make the BIL such a special place to play and learn bridge. I hope you know how much we appreciate all you do for us in BILies Retreat. It is a great place to learn and be safe in our mistakes. I am an ACBL Director I love bridge and the BIL Club which is where I got my start ! When I started playing on BBO and learning several kind players told me to join the BIL Club . I lovbed learning in the BIL Club. Everyone was patient, the quality f the lessons were great and you could play with other players who were just learning . I am so happy to have found the BIL and you. It’s a great place to be. I am honored to be a member of BIL. I have learned a lot as a member. As long as I am able, I will support BIL and you in your efforts. Still smiling
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