DISTRICT 6 BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

24 May 2003

The District 6 Board of Directors meeting was called to order by the President at 10:35 AM at Richmond, VA. Present:

Officers: President: Bill Cole

Vice-President: Kay Afdahl

Treasurer: Steve Robinson

Secretary: Bette Dudka

Unit Presidents: Lynn Rattinger (231), Pat Wilson (Proxy 135), Mike Fine (109),

Fred King (Proxy (147), Margot Hennings (Proxy 218), Nancy Tobin

(Proxy 110), Wrus Kristiansen (Proxy146), Ed Tomlinson (139)

Representatives: Anne Duty, Barbara Moomy, Jennifer Christman, Darwin Afdahl, Gloria Brown (146), Michael Carroad, Rae Dethlefsen, Barb Doran, Millard Natchwey, Charity Sack, Donna Bowser (147), Ron Spieker (218).

2. Treasurer’s Report: Mr. Robinson distributed a written Treasurer’s Report indicating a checking account balance of $24,365.44. We have one outstanding big expense - cost of the GNTeams we are sending to Long Beach CA. The cost will be around $11-12,000.00. The NAPairs lost $4700.00. We still have the 0-5000 report to come in, but it will be close to breaking even or maybe making a small plus. The Insert is a big budget item. After all the bills are paid, we’ll probably have $6,000 left in our Treasury, and with our yearly Regional income from MABC it will probably go up to $l0,000.

3. District Coordinator’s Report: Millard Nachtwey said the Units have been very cooperative in getting 2004 dates into place. In the next couple of weeks we will begin preliminary scheduling for 2005. The TC of Unit 110 is the only TC whose dates (2004) are not confirmed and Mr. Nachtwey needs confirmation of the hotel space. He said he would give a list of the dates to Nancy Tobin to take to Wyatt Mapp. Kay Afdahl asked about ABA conflicts. Mr. Nachtwey said he had given the dates to ABA and had not received a reply. He said they do not schedule as far in advance as we do but they, too, would like to avoid conflicts.

4. Charity Game: Gloria Brown stated we had 312 ½ tables in play which is up over 100 tables from last year. We raised $1879.00. Ms. Brown suggested that since we were so successful, we should continue with the Wednesday AM - Thursday PM schedule next year.

6. GNTs Coordinator’s Report: Rae Dethlefsen reported that GNTs were just about finished. This year, we had no participation from the south for the 0-5000 Flt and we are going to eliminate it next year. Only the north will hold the 0-5000. We have our representatives from the Open, Flt B, and Non-LMs.

7. NAPairs Coordinator’s Report: Barbara Doran said the Pairs were just beginning and go through June, July, and August. Ms. Doran said she needed to know if any Unit Coordinators had changed.

8. District Director’s Report: No report.

9. Education: The President advised the Board that the start-up program is in place. It could be Audrey Grant, Easybridge! or any other program, as long as it is specifically for new bridge players, not a teaching program for beginners. Its sole purpose is recruiting new players into the game. District 6 policy is that we will pay for the space, pay for the teachers, but we won’t pay for materials unless the materials are used by new players. We will be paying a significant amount of money. Remember, our goal is to bring new players into the game.

10. STaC Report: Michael Carroad stated we had a very successful StaC this year, the total profit was around $4,000. $2400 was returned to the clubs and $1600 to the District. Mr. Nachtwey said we had the 2004 District StaC tentatively scheduled for February 23-29.

District 6 Magazine: The President showed the Board examples of the D7and D6 magazines The D7 magazine is smaller in size and is an up-graded version of the old MABC insert in the Bulletin. The MABC pays for the cost of the magazines and permits each District to design their own magazine. The President welcomed discussion on which magazine would be preferred. Feed-back from the Board indicated that everyone liked the D6 magazine in its present form and would not like to see it changed.

At a meeting last night, Margot Hennings (Committee Chair for Advertising & Publicity) said that a couple of points were made when the Committee was looking at the effectiveness of the magazine. She pointed out in particular the Across the Border ad. It is very difficult to get this information from our tournament chairs. It’s to every ones advantage to have this information as extensive as possible and she urged the TCs to get this information to the magazine editor as soon as tournaments are scheduled to assure they will appear.

General Liability Insurance: Mr. Afdahl said he thought the District Board had voted to approve getting the insurance. The President said the main thing he was worried about was whether the policy included coverage for C&E Committees that are off-site? For example: You have a C&E Committee at a Regional or some other place and the case is appealed to the District 6 C&E Committee. Those committees are not always held at tournament sites. I want to make sure that we have coverage for people who serve on these committees. As most of us realize, this insurance is almost never needed, but we do have C&E Committees at the District level and sometimes they are not on site, so we want to be protected. Bette Dudka said the minutes did not reflect that the purchase of the insurance was approved. The President said he would look into the matter and report back.

NEW BUSINESS:

Proposal to Add Another Regional to the District 7 Schedule: This will come up for a vote by the ACBL Board at the Nationals in Long Beach in July. If approved, this would give District 7 six Regionals a year counting Gatlinburg. District 6 has four per year. The President asked for the Board’s opinion as to whether this would affect D6 Regional attendance. For instance, our Williamsburg Regional in January would have D7 Regionals 3 weeks before and 3 weeks afterwards. Millard Nachtwey stated there would clearly be some impact, especially on the Williamsburg tournament because of the D7 New Years Regional. The D7 proposed new sites are Charleston SC and Myrtle Beach SC. After a lot of discussion, Barbara Doran made a motion that the President write a letter to ACBL expressing District 6 concern, not opposition, but concern. Seconded. Carried. Bette Dudka made a motion that Unit Boards be consulted and that the subject be brought up again at the July Regional. Most of the Board members felt that Sectionals would be more affected than Regionals. The President agreed and said if we did not hear any objections before the July meeting, we would not bring it up again.

Report on 2002 Nationals: The President thanked Margot Hennings and Ron Spieker for all their hard work in making the 2002 NABC a success. Ron Spieker distributed a financial statement which showed $28,572.53 receipts over expenses. Mr. Spieker suggested that we hold the money and keep it for the next Nationals. The President stated that since we just heard about this, that everyone should think about it and he put the subject on hold for discussion at a future Regional. Steve Robinson said the President should appoint a Committee to look into the different ways we could use the money and report in Alexandria.

Appellate Committee: The Secretary said D6 policy was that each Unit appoint one member to serve a 3-year term, and two members to serve a 1-year term on the D6 Appellate Committee. Our Appellate Committee needs to be up-dated, and that new 1-year term members should be designated. Mrs. Dudka said she would send each Unit President a form to accomplish this. The President also needs to appoint an Appellate Committee Chairman. Steve Robinson made a motion that Units nominate 3 members, one for a 4-year term, one for a 3-year term, and one for a 2-year term. These members would all serve until 2005. In 2005 the 2-year member would be replaced, in 2006 the 3 year member would be replaced, etc. Motion carried.

Elections Committee: The President said he would appoint a Committee shortly and notify the Unit Presidents. The elections will take place at the Annual Meeting in July. The four officers are up for election, plus the 10 District 6 MABC representatives. (Secretary’s Note: Andre L’Heureux was appointed Chairman).

Williamsburg/Roanoke Regionals: Millard Nachtwey said the MABC Site Selection Committee in Gatlinburg stated that if D6 wanted to rotate the Williamsburg and the Roanoke Regionals they would not have to come back to the Site Selection Committee for approval. The President said he would talk to both the Williamsburg and the Roanoke people to see what they thought of this suggestion.

I/N Report: Donna Bowser stated the weekend before the Richmond Regional we held a Club Directors Course and passed 15 new certified directors. Everyone enjoyed the course. Ms. Bowser handles all the accounting and there is no cost to the District. Records show we broke even. 8 people have to attend if we are to break even. If we want to hold this again in Hunt Valley, we should get out the advertisements now and get things rolling. Ms. Bowser commended the Richmond Unit and their Easybridge! program. They were the No. 1 Unit signing up new members last year.

The President thanked and congratulated Nancy Thompson and her staff for hosting a very successful and hospitable Richmond Regional -- one that everyone enjoyed.

Date of Next District 6 Meeting: The next meeting will be the Annual Meeting at the 4^th of July Regional in Alexandria VA on Saturday, 5 July 2003. This will be a breakfast meeting starting at 10:30 AM.