DISTRICT 6
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
28 May 2005
The District 6 Meeting was called to order by the President at 10:40 AM at Richmond, VA.
Present:
Officers: President: Kay Afdahl
Vice President: Margot Hennings
Treasurer: Steve Robinson
Secretary: Bette Dudka
Wyatt Mapp (Proxy 110}, Wrus Kristiansen
(146)
Guests: Nancy Witschey, MABC VPres, Jacki Shuman, TC, John Mason (218)
1. Minutes: The minutes of 6 November 2004 were approved as presented.
2. Treasurer’s
Report:
Steve Robinson distributed a written copy of the Treasurer’s report and
pointed out that our current balance was $33,022.49 – of which $8,000 is
earmarked for the GNTeams trips. The
President noted that “0” amount had been spent on Education and encouraged the
Presidents to utilize the fund.
3.
Tournament Coordinator: Millard Nachtwey stated he was hoping to have
the 5 southern unit sectionals finalized for the 2006 schedule and needed an
input from the Presidents at this tournament.
Arlington, Washington, and Baltimore are all in place and will not
conflict with the 5 southern sectionals.
He said he would finalize a tentative schedule for the Secretary to send
out with the minutes.
4. Finance Committee Report: Andre L’Heureux stated that the Committee did not meet in full as a group, but he would report as Chair on the following matter.. As everyone is aware, the FinCom is still going through the process of filing a 501c3 form required for a D6 Charity Foundation. Steve Robinson is in the process of filing all the paper work. Also, the IRS charges a filing fee of $500.00. Mr. L’Heureux made a motion that the FinCom be granted $500 for this purpose The motion was seconded, and carried. The Secretary reminded Mr. L’Heureux that a couple of years ago, Joel Weintraub wrote a set of Bylaws for the D6 Charity Foundation and she still had them. Steve Robinson said he was working on this at the moment and the District was in good shape.
5. GNTeams Coordinator: Rae Dethlefsen said the Teams had just about wrapped up. She reported that the Flight A (0-5000) attendance was abysmal this year. Last year, we had 23 teams – and this year only 11. Despite that, attendance of District 6 teams in all 4 flights was good and we still have one of the largest attendance records in the country. Ms. Dethlefsen said she had not heard one word from the GNT Coordinators from MBA, Richmond, or Roanoke. Roanoke has not held a single club qualifier for the last two years – Jim Hooven is the Coordinator – but no word from him. The President asked if something could be done in the other direction like Doug Grove did for the StaCs – to personally contact each Unit President via letter. The President said it was a thoughtful thing to do and she would like to commend Mr. Grove. He sent a letter to each of the Unit Presidents recommending that they encourage attendance because there is a good reason for this attendance – the money is going to come back to the Units, and the Units need to support it.
6. North American Pairs Coordinator: Barbara Doran informed the Board that ACBL was thinking about eliminating this event. They have put together a committee of Board of Governors members along with ACBL Board of Directors members and Ms. Doran is a member of the committee. She asked that anyone who has suggestions to communicate with her so she could pass it along. The NAPairs start June 1. Mr. Nachtwey said that this year for the District finals, we are going to have split sites for the B & C Flights on October 8 and 9 in Williamsburg, and the A Flight is only in Arlington along with Flights B & C.
7. District Director’s Report: Nadine Wood said she really had nothing of substance to report, but that she had been appointed to two committees which are very interesting to her. One Committee is on scheduling of Regionals and defining what a conflict is. Right now, that is what she is working on – trying to define what a conflict is and set procedures for resolving that conflict. The other committee is redistricting – which comes up about every 5 years.
8. District 6 Charity Repot: No report.
9. STaC Report: Andre L’Heureux said the STaC would be held 13 through 19 June 05. He said he agreed with the President that Doug Grove had done an excellent job of promoting the STaC. Club managers are satisfied that we are having hand records. Mr. L’Heureux said that after a StaC is held, he gets a letter from ACBL asking how the STaC was run, how the directors performed, and any other pertinent information he would like to submit. He said he always answered these letters. It was asked if the STaC game had to be an open game. Millard Nachtwey said “No”, but if it is not an open game, it has its own set of overalls and players would have their own set of rules. If an invitational club or a 0-300 game is held, Sectional silver points would be awarded. Michael Carroad reported the last StaC in February was 890 tables. Players don’t want to pay the extra money and the clubs don’t want to participate. The June StaC is going to be profit sharing for the Units so they are pushing the clubs.
10.
Novice/Intermediate Program: Donna Bowser stated attendance at Richmond
was good. She stated players had
inquired about having another Directors’ Update Course. So far, 4 or 5 people were interested in
attending. Ms. Bowser suggested having
another course at the Alexandria Regional – but to publicize it
extensively. Put up “sign-up” sheets and
hit for the date of Sunday, 3 July 05, in Alexandria. At least 12 should attend.
OLD BUSINESS:
District 6 Goodwill Committee: Margot Hennings stated the President had asked her about the possibility of establishing a Goodwill Committee for D6. She spoke with Bob Heller (District 7) whose wife, Barbara Heller, was instrumental in getting the D7 Goodwill Committee started. D7 plans to have an inaugural meeting in Atlanta this summer. The way they set it up, in general, was that any Unit that had fewer than 1,000 members can appoint one Goodwill member a year – Units between 1,000 and 2,000 get 2 members, 2,000 to 3,000 get 3, etc. For the inaugural year, every Unit gets a bonus member to get the Committee started. Ms. Hennings is going to contact Barbara Heller and will present a more concrete report at the meeting in Alexandria.
Bylaws: Margot Hennings distributed written proposed new Bylaws to the Board to peruse and make suggestions before voting on new Bylaws. Doug Grove has submitted his thoughts on the subject and Bette Dudka has submitted hers, also. The two biggest things we were asked to look at are still not resolved – the first is the proportional representational vote. We have weighted votes – a certain number of votes based on Unit membership. Standing rules: These rules are more procedural – i.e., communicating and voting by e-mail, if you have a vote in your own right then do you get another one by serving as a proxy or because you’re on the Board of Governors?
NEW
BUSINESS:
ABA Bridge: The President asked Krus Christensen if anything new had happened with our planning with the ABA. Not at the present time, Mr. Christensen reported, but he is working on it. The President stated we were fortunate in having Rita Reddick, a member of Unit 146 and the ABA-MABC liaison to work with. Ms. Reddick attends the ABA National meetings and hopefully things will materialize a little faster.
Mini McKenney Medallions: Bette Dudka advised the Board that for 8 years or so, by board direction, she had been ordering all D6 Units Mini McKenney Medallions and having the bill sent to our Treasurer, Steve Robinson, for payment. In the last two years, ACBL has balked at doing this and last year did not do it at all! Ms. Dudka said she did not mind ordering them, but maybe the Units would rather order their own and present the bill to Steve Robinson for payment. After discussion, the Board voted to continue with the policy of having the Secretary order the McKenney Medallions.
District 6 Foundation: Andre L’Heureux said the D6 Foundation was in a state of organized chaos right now. In May 2002, Steve Robinson and Joel Weintraub put together Articles of Incorporation and the Foundation is registered in the State of Virginia. To make things easier at the time, not realizing the ramifications, what was then the Bylaws of District 6 also became the Bylaws of the Foundation. We had a couple of meetings back then and officers were elected. ACBL came back and said we are going to be giving money back to the District for their charity, etc. so that gives us the impetus to get our D6 Foundation going at little bit faster. What we have now is 12 members of the original Foundation, a set of Bylaws that are really not good Bylaws. So far, Mr. L’Heureux has gotten together a subcommittee of people and gone over the Bylaws we have for the Foundation, cleaned them up, and have a final draft which will be sent to the original members for approval, so we can have an active, viable set. We hope to have this done in August so the new people will be able to call their first meeting in Hunt Valley.
Nominating Committee: The President appointed the following members to the nominating committee: Darwin Afdahl (Chairman), Nadine Wood, Andre L’Heureux, and Patricia Wilson.
The President thanked and congratulated George Lewis, Jacki Shuman and their staffs for hosting another well-attended and enjoyable Richmond Regional.
Date of Next District 6 Meeting: The next meeting will be the Annual Meeting . -- a breakfast meeting on Saturday, 2 July 2005, at 10:30 AM at the Alexander Regional. Please advise the Secretary if you plan to attend.
There being no further business, Steve Robinson moved that the meeting be adjourned. Margot Hennings seconded the motion. The meeting stood adjourned at 12:15 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
BETTE DUDKA, Secretary