DISTRICT 6 BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
21 January 2006
The District 6 Meeting was called to order by the President at 10:40 AM at Williamsburg. Virginia
Present:
Officers: President: Margot Hennings
Treasurer: Steve Robinson
Secretary: Bette Dudka
Unit Presidents: George Lewis (109), Henny Dorseman (Proxy 139),
Barbara Moomy (146), Charles Sadowski (110),
Jim Hooven (231), Leo Cardillo (218)
Representatives: Michael Carroad, Millard Nachtwey, Bill Cole, *Barbara Doran (147), *Gloria Brown, *Darwin Afdahl (146), Don Berman, Donna Bowser (135), Doug Grove (218) (*Voting Members )
MABC Reps: Lucy McCoy, Lorraine Holub, Mark Dahl, Wyatt Mapp, Kay Afdahl
Guests: Mac Jackson Co-Chair, Williamsburg, Jenny Lin (NVBA Youth Advisor), David Banh (Former NVBA Youth Advisor), Sumner Steinfeldt (NVBA Webmaster), John Mason (NVBA Web)
Opening Remarks by the President: The President announced the resignation of the previous President, notice of which was sent by email to the Secretary on November 30, 2005. In accordance with the Bylaws, the Vice President has assumed the position of the President for the remainder of his term. After comments by various members, the President made a motion to direct the Secretary to write a letter to Andre on behalf of the District 6 Board thanking him for his past services. The motion was made, seconded, and carried.
Remarks from the Board on Andre L’Heureux’s Resignation: Charles Sadowski urged that the Board reject Andre’s letter of resignation and said he felt very strongly that the wrong person had resigned. Steve Robinson said he felt that anyone who resigns in the middle of a term or controversy is wrong, no matter what happens. There are ways to handle any situation and resignation is not one of them. We should just thank Andre for time served and let it go at that. Barbara Doran said that if someone wants to resign, they should be allowed to do so. Kay Afdahl expressed her opinion that this was an issue that no one really wants to get involved in because no one knows exactly how much fault to give to any particular person who was involved, but Andre’s resignation has presented the District with a real dilemma. Jim Hooven said he thought Andre did a great job as President, but for whatever reasons Andre thought he should resign. That’s the choice he made and we should just thank him for the work he did. He has a right to resign, he’s not done anything wrong in doing so. He does not see this as a complicated issue at all. Andre didn’t like what happened, he resigned, and that’s it. Andre did a lot of good work for the District, and he should be congratulated for that. Leo Cardillo said he regretted the resignation and the circumstances surrounding it. He stated that he though we should accept the resignation in writing and thank Andre for his contribution.
The President asked the Secretary to write a letter to Andre on behalf of the District 6 Board thanking him for past services. The request was in the form of a motion, seconded, and passed.
1. Minutes: The Virginia Beach minutes of 12 November 2005, as corrected, were approved as presented.
2. Treasurer’s Report: Steve Robinson distributed a written Treasurer’s report indicating a balance on hand as of 14 Jan 2006 of $28,272.25. The President requested that the money distributed to our District from the MABC that had been held in the December STaC account for support of future NABCs in District 6 and 7 be put in CDs to be used for the 2009 NABC scheduled for Washington, DC. The money left over from our 2002 NABC has already been put in a CD with the Northwest Federal Credit Union to be used for our 2009 Nationals. The existing CD has Margot Hennings and Ron Spieker listed as signatories and is administered by the current NVBA Treasurer, Dale Dallaire.
3. Tournament Coordinator: Millard Nachtwey reported that the dates for all District sectionals and special events in 2006 were more or less complete. A question arose as to the existence of a firm date and contract with the Williamsburg Marriott for 2008. He said he would contact the MABC President Eldon Clayman in this regard. (Note: D6 does have a 2008 contract for the Williamsburg Regional).
4. Finance Committee Report. Andre L’Heureux had been Chair of this committee and has resigned from that position as well. The President said the Committees were in a state of flux, but she was working on this and would appoint new Committee Chairmen ASAP.
5. GNTeams Coordinator: Chair of this Committee, Rae Dethlefsen, was absent. Overall D6 Coordinator for both the Teams and Pair events, Bill Cole, said he wanted to remind everyone that Flt B and C GNT District Finals would start the weekend of Feb 18-19. We need help, particularly down south, to help encourage people to form teams and play in this event as participation particularly in the south is declining. Every year participation drops off slightly from what it was the year before, so despite the fact that expenses remain constant and in some cases have increased, the event as a whole is getting smaller and smaller every year.
6. North American Pairs : Bill Cole reported that we were having NAP District Finals in Washington/Silver Spring and in Newport News/Williamsburg. We are looking for sites west of the District that would prove workable. He was asked if it were possible to move the Finals to another site. Mr. Cole said he had looked at this situation many times before and had considered it. The reason we hold the Finals up north is because typically the attendance is 75-80% higher up north and only 25% of the total players are from the south. He agreed that this has been a problem for years, but participation decreases drastically when Finals are held in the south (as was done in 2003). This discussion went on for some time and Mr. Cole said we were looking to ACBL for more flexibility, but it will take awhile to figure out what a future viable plan would be. Charles Sadowski offered to put his thoughts on this in writing and Wyatt Mapp volunteered to be on the GNT/NAP Committee as a southern representative. The President suggested that a planning committee for future competition years to include all interested parties throughout the District be held at the upcoming D6 Regional in Alexandria over the 4th of July.
NAP Coordinator Report: Barbara Doran made a recommendation that we discuss the issues we have to consider. She asked the Board to refer the final decision for the Conditions of Contest for the upcoming competition to the GNT/NAP Planning Committee in consultation with the Finance Committee, and subject to approval by the Finance Committee and the Executive Board of D6. She needs to have the Conditions of Contest to ACBL by June 1st which means they have to be approved before the Alexandria Regional. We can discuss 2007-2008 at a later date, but she needs a decision on 2006-07 before our next meeting. Traditionally, the GNT has made money, and the NAP has lost money, so the GNT has subsidized the NAP to provide the compensation for the 2d place and 3rd place NAP in every flight. This year we’re plus $740 on the Teams and Pairs combined and we still have $3,000 in compensation to pay. That’s a substantial loss. Ms. Doran said she has a couple of ideas on how we can increase revenue or decrease expenses or both. For example, the north site that has been used in the past for the final two days of competition, the rental fee costs about $2500.00 – there is a place we could get for $2100 and if we played in one place on Saturday and another place on Sunday (these places are about 8 miles from each other) – we could do it for $1150. We could also cut the compensation – Ms. Doran said she was really loathed to do that. It’s really sad, but it is an option. Right now we are giving $200 a person to the 2d place Pairs if they have their airfare paid, and $300 to the 3rd place Pairs if they don’t have their airfare paid. This year, we are looking at even lower rent. The Washington Bridge Center will probably cost about $1500. I would really like the Board to refer my recommendations to the Planning Committee. A motion was made to this effect, seconded, and carried.
Barbara Doran asked that all Unit Presidents have their NAP Coordinators contact her with their new “contact” information. This is very essential, so please see that it is done.
7. District Director’s Report: Due to the absence of Nadine Wood, there was no report.
8. Charity Report: Gloria Brown stated that at the last meeting it was decided that we would follow the set rotation for the days of the week on which the charity game would be held. This year the D6 Charity Game will be Thursday AM and Thursday PM. (Secretary’s Note: Millard Nachtwey has recommended that the D6 Charity Games (AM & PM) be held on Thursday, 16 March 2006 – Gloria Brown agreed – please mark your calendars).
9. Education Report: No report.
10. I/N REPORT: Donna Bowser stated that on Friday at this tournament, there were 18 4th graders and one young gentleman, who is in the 6th grade, who played in a special bridge game. They were on a school field trip. They all wore “Bridge” tee-shirts and all joined the ACBL, so we have 19 new members. These kids all have student memberships which are $5 apiece. Following the game, all of the kids were taken to the Hospitality Suite for a pizza party. This was really fantastic --they were a wonderful group of kids, and much credit should be given to Sam DeCross for helping to organize this event.
11. STaC Report: Doug Grove’s Report is included at the end of the minutes.
12. TableTALK: Lucy McCoy, Liaison and Coordinator of TableTALK, said she had advised the President that she was giving up her job as Managing Editor of TableTALK. She no longer has the time to devote to the job. She asked the Unit Presidents to help in finding a replacement for her. Suggestions can be made directly to Lucy or the President.
13. Webmaster: Don Berman said that the President had asked him to look into re-formatting the home page of our D6 website to make it more “user-friendly” – not only the layout but also the contents. He needs committee chairs and volunteers who hold key positions to send him their e-mail addresses, plus the TableTALK Production person, Donna Rogall, to keep Mr. Berman advised of up-coming Sectionals and Regionals. The President said she would like to set up a procedures committee to keep the website updated and to ensure that it remains updated in the future. The President has asked John Mason, the back-up NVBA webmaster, to assist Mr. Berman in this endeavor.
OLD BUSINESS:
District 6 Goodwill Committee: The President said the initiation of a D6 Goodwill Committee has been on-going for over a year. A reception to honor the inaugural inductees is finally being held tonight with the help of Carol Guy who has done a tremendous job. This is a reception for our new D6 inductees and those Goodwill Committee members on the ACBL Goodwill Committee who are, by definition, a part of the District 6 Goodwill Committee. Don Berman has posted the names of the new inductees and the traits and characteristics we are looking for in the individuals that get appointed every year. The cost today is going to be slightly over $200 and Carol has managed to put together a very nice reception – wine, cheese, sodas, fruit – which will be in Suite 111 which the Mid Atlantic graciously allowed us to use. The President also distributed a proposed design for a permanent Goodwill pin and made certificates for tonight to give to the current D6 inductees. We will probably have to have over 200 pins to give to the D6 inductees, plus the ACBL members, too. She asked for comments on the proposed pin design so she could have these pins ready to give out at the Alexandra Regional. No opinions were voiced and no one had an objection to the proposed new pin.
Distribution of ACBL Charity Funds: A Report from the Chair is included at the end of the Minutes. After the President read her report, she asked if there was any discussion and the following comments were addressed for Board consideration.
Charles Sadowski (President, Unit 110) made the following comments: “I agree that we should move forward, however, the bone that stuck in my throat is that it’s not where this money is to be spent, it’s not about whether Bridge at Schools is a great charity, it’s not about any of that, it’s not about the failures that we all participated in, but in the final end, it sounded like Andre got the deadline extended, called Nadine and said the deadline was extended, told Nadine the charities we wanted invested in, and she didn’t do it. I don’t know if this is true or not, I’m only relating what I read in the emails. I was told that Nadine was on the Board of Bridge at Schools, and it sounds to me that she used undue influence in her position to channel a whole lot of money to that charity, starting with the ultimatum that if she didn’t hear anything from D6, then she was going to donate the money to Bridge at Schools. It bothers me that her position was used and her influence was used to divert a whole lot of money to a charity where she is a member of the Board. I think you’re right, we have to find a way to move forward. But, that is why I voted against accepting Andre’s resignation, and I said it up front, I think the wrong person resigned. I understand why Andre felt that this happened on his watch, and quite honestly, I would like to make a motion and put us on record that we ask for Nadine’s resignation.” Motion seconded by George Lewis.
Discussion ensued. Barbara Doran said that Nadine was elected by the composite units of D6 and not directly by this Board per se and that such a motion was out of order. Bill Cole said that when Andre notified Nadine, he notified her by email, he never called her on the phone. Bill Cole said that Andre let the deadline pass, then he got the deadline extended, and rather than calling Nadine on the phone, and she was very reachable, he emailed her instead. The President said that this Board cannot force a resignation from a District Director because that office is not elected by the Board. The President called the question. A vote was taken. Motion failed.
NEW BUSINESS:
D6 Committee Apppointments: The President said that there were only two Committee appointments dictated by the Bylaws – the Executive Committee and the Appellate Committee. Two unit Presidents are required to be on the Executive Committee and the President asked Charles Sadowski and Skippy Callas to serve on this Committee, along with the Vice President when he/she is elected at the Annual Meeting in Alexandria. As for the Appellate Committee, Kay Afdahl, when she was President, appointed Darwin Afdahl to serve as a Co-Chair in the south and Don Hennings to serve as Co-Chair in the north. The Committee will consist of 15 members, at least one from each Unit, and no more than 3 from any one Unit. These positions are appointed by the President along with suggestions solicited from the Unit Presidents.
A complete list of other Committee appointments made by the President will be e-mailed to all D6 Board members (both voting and non-voting) in advance of the next D6 meeting in Alexandria once all Chairs and members have agreed to serve.
Nominating Committee: The President said she had appointed a Nominating Committee for our Annual Meeting to be held at the Alexander Regional on July 1, 2006. Chairman, Darwin Afdahl – Committee members, Dick Wegman and Ed Tomlinson. If anyone wants to run for office, please contact one of the above.
Mini McKenneys: The Secretary reminded everyone that she orders the Mini McKenney Medallions from ACBL for all D6 Units and has ordered these for the coming year. They are sent to the Unit Presidents and D6 pays for them. Unit Presidents were asked to please NOT pay the ACBL from their own Unit treasuries.
Recorder: Newly appointed Recorder Mark Dahl said he had written a pamphlet regarding the proper way players should act at the table. This pamphlet has been very well received at tournaments where he has presented it so far. The President asked that he have it published in TableTALK.
The President thanked Wyatt Mapp and Mac Jackson for another well-attended Williamsburg Regional which topped the attendance of two years ago!
The President called for a moment of silence in honor of Edith Dovell – longtime Williamsburg Tournament Chairman – who passed away in 2005.
Date of Next District 6 Meeting: The next meeting will be our Annual Meeting at 7:30 PM on Saturday, 1 July 06, at the Alexandria VA Regiona1. Please advise the Secretary if you plan to attend.
There being no further business, Bette Dudka moved that the meeting be adjourned. Steve Robinson seconded the motion. The meeting stood adjourned at 12:50 PM.
Respectfully submitted, BETTE DUDKA, Secretary
New Unit President:
BarbaraMoomy – Unit 146
1709 Tweed Ct.
Virginia Beach, VA 23464
757-479-2763
barbaramoomy@cox.net
Report from the Chair:
Distribution of ACBL Charity Funds
As you all are aware, the issue of the distribution of the charity funds--$20,000—from the ACBL to District 6 is one that has caused major disruption to the administrative structure and rapport of the members of this Board. It is important to ensure that this is an anomaly in our operating procedures and to work out procedures and processes that will preclude such a re-occurrence.
In the past month, I have spent countless hours wading through emails, talking to the principals and seeking advice as to the best approach to handle where we are, how we got there, and how we can go forward in a positive manner.
There is no doubt in my mind that, regarding the designation of the charities to receive the above-mentioned $20,000 distribution from the ACBL, there is ample blame to go around. The District Board—from the President to each and every one of us—did not respond in a timely manner to the announcement by the District Director that we would be receiving this $20,000 in funds for distribution to legitimate 501(c)(3) charities in the Fall of 2005. And at the end, because there was a need for haste in making the final decisions the process broke down as emails went un-received and unanswered, communications became fraught with frustration, and tempers flared.
In the end, the District Director did not follow through with the belatedly expressed wishes of this Board when deadlines were extended. Instead, she did what she thought was best and gave the majority of the funds to Bridge at Schools. Her intention to do just this if she received no other recommendations by the deadline of the end of November had been announced at the District 6 Board meeting in Virginia Beach, and the District Director had hoped that this would spur the Board to move quickly to provide its own recommendations.
By 5 p.m. on November 28, which is the date the ACBL set after the end of November had been announced as the deadline for the receipt of recommendations, $15,000 was duly designated to go to Bridge at Schools and $5,000 to the Smithsonian, which was the only other recommendation received by the District Director by that time, although others had been sent to and received by the then-current D6 President.
Whether this was an appropriate split of funds and why the remaining organizations whose names had been put forward by the constituent units of this district were not included among the designees is clearly a failure of process heightened by the emotions of person interaction—two key dynamics of what makes any organization great—or not. It is my hope that we can channel our disappointments and frustrations into a positive search for a better way of doing things in the future.
How can we do this? How can we salvage this situation and move positively to address how we can direct the funds that have been provided to our district by the ACBL? Clearly, there is no way to reverse the granting of the $5000 to the Smithsonian, which has in fact been active in offering bridge lessons to folks who have subsequently entered the duplicate world of bridge in three of our eight D6 units—but there are ways to guide the use of the $15,000 that has been given to Bridge at Schools.
Even if we do nothing at this juncture, this $15,000 portion of our charity funds has been earmarked for youth education programs in our district. This doesn’t get an allocation of funds to the Red Cross, Meals on Wheels, the Chesapeake Foundation or any of the other charities whose names had been submitted to Andre during the last few days of November, but it does keep the funds in our district to be used to foster programs that will hopefully help solidify the future of bridge throughout the states of Virginia and Maryland.
However, an equally attractive opportunity, in my view, is the promise elicited by our District Director from Bridge at Schools to distribute the entire $15,000 it received from the ACBL to our District 6 Charity Foundation for its subsequent distribution to charitable organizations it determines will best serve the interests of our district, as defined by its Charter. The problem with this is, as we all know, that this Foundation has not yet received its designation as a 501(c)(3) by the IRS. In order for this to happen, the
Bylaws of that organization had to be approved, which they recently were, and a substantial amount of paperwork has to be submitted, which is in process. However, much remains to be done and it is likely to be four-five months from the time of filing the paperwork with the IRS until such time that the Foundation Trustees are notified of the success of their application.
It is my hope that the Charity Foundation can be designated a 501(c)(3) in the very near future and that this Board can see its way to determining how, given the above two options that we will then have, we can put to good use the charity funds from the ACBL. In the meantime, prior to the designation of the D6 Charity Foundation as a 501(c)(3) organization, it is imperative that this Board actively provide recommendations to the Charity Committee for submission to Bridge at Schools for the use of the $15,000 that we have at our disposal through that organization.
Thank you.
STaC Report
January 20, 2006
by Doug Grove
In addition to being District Six President, Andre L’Heureux was also the District’s STaC Coordinator. In light of his resignation, I have prepared the following summary report to the District Board concerning District Six StaCs.
December, 2005 STaC. Final expenses are not fully tallied for this STaC, but its statistics in round numbers are available. The event drew 914 tables. The previous December STaC included both Districts Six and Seven, and thus is not comparable. In June, 2005, the District Six STaC drew 1238 tables. Most clubs that participated in June also participated in December. The attendance difference can be attributed to (1) the closing of the Washington Bridge Center, (2) one day of ice in December that cancelled several games, and (3) the fact that club attendance in busy December is typically less than it is in June.
The net profit to the District will be approximately $2500, compared to nearly $3500 last June. On a per table basis, the profit is nearly identical, at roughly $2.75 per table. As the District Board knows, District Six and Seven conducted separate but concurrent STaCs in December, run by the same tournament director. Some director sessions were allocated to each district’s STaC. If District Six’s December STaC had been conducted independently, the net profit would have been only about $1700, or about $1.85 per table.
On the subject of concurrent STaCs run by one Director-in-Charge, I offer the following comments. The concurrent administration of two medium-sized STaCs can be accomplished by one D-I-C. The recent District Seven STaC was expanded far beyond its original scope, on quite short notice, to include all of District Ten, District Sixteen, and part of District Nine. In retrospect, the District Six and Seven STaCs were an unreasonable burden for one D-I-C. However, since the District Seven STaC had the special purpose of funding hurricane relief, it seems unlikely that such a large-scale STaC will be repeated annually.
February, 2006 STaC. The initial letters to club soliciting participation have been mailed. Per District policy, the February STaC will require the use of hand records and its profits will be distributed to the participating clubs. The per table profit will be down markedly as compared to December. This STaC will be independent of other STaCs, will be subject to possible days of bad weather, and will be subjected to the 25% increase in ACBL sanction fees for STaCs that is effective in 2006. (Sectional and regional sanction fees did not increase, just those for STaCs.)
STaC Tournament Chairman. In recent conversations with District President Margot Hennings, I have advised her of the need to appoint a STaC Tournament Chairman. Since District Six is now running four STaCs annually, I believe that it is inappropriate for this to be a duty of the President as it has been for the past several years. This is not to imply that Andre did a bad job in this capacity; it is simply a recognition that the scope of the job has grown.
Just as a unit has a tournament chair for its sectionals, the District needs a tournament chair for its STaCs. Not only is this a requirement of the ACBL Tournament Department, such appointment will help the District by making its organization structure more effective.
The duties and responsibilities of the tournament chair to the District will be similar to those of a sectional tournament chair vis-à-vis the unit. These include working with the District Tournament Coordinator on date selection and D-I-C assignment, addressing Conditions of Contest issues, and administering the distribution of proceeds in conjunction with the District Treasurer. Conditions of Contest issues include, but are not limited to, the event schedule, the strata definitions, the use of hand records, and the fees charged to the clubs by the District. At the time of the appointment of the tournament chair, it will be important for the District to define which of these decisions rest with the tournament chair, and which require advance Board approval.
I have discussed with Margot some of the qualifications that I believe a STaC tournament chair should possess. Whether or not I may be assigned as D-I-C of future District Six STaCs, I am willing to assist the new tournament chair as he or she assumes these duties.