DISTRICT 6 BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

1 July 2006

The District 6 Meeting was called to order by the President at 7:30 PM in Alexandria, VA.

Present:

 

Officers: President: Margot Hennings

    Treasurer: Steve Robinson

Unit Presidents:  Skippy Callas (135), Ted Adler (Proxy 146), Fred King (147), Leo Cardillo (218), Jim Hooven (231)

Voting Representatives: Rae Dethlefsen (147), Barbara Doran (147), Darwin Afdahl (146)

Non-voting Representatives:  Michael Carroad (147), Millard Nachtwey (147), Bill Cole (147), Doug Grove (218)

MABC Reps: Lucy McCoy, Lorraine Holub, Mark Dahl, Kay Afdahl, Will Williams

District Director: Nadine Wood (147)

Guests: Judith Temperley

 

Opening Remarks by the President: President Margot Hennings opened the meeting with a request for a moment of silence in honor of recently deceased past District 6 President and Secretary Bette Dudka. 

 

1. Minutes:  Jim Hooven made a motion to approve the minutes of the 12 January 2006 meeting in Williamsburg.  Lorraine Holub seconded, and the minutes were approved as presented.

 

2. Treasurer’s Report: Steve Robinson distributed a written Treasurer’s report indicating a balance on hand as of 28 June 2006 of $32,356.45. It was noted that there are still no funds being used for Education in the District.

 

3. Finance Committee Report. President Hennings presented the Finance Committee report on behalf of George Lewis who was named as Chair of the Finance Committee when Andre L’Heureux resigned from this position.

 

The report from George Lewis, the Finance Committee Chair, was as follows:

 

The committee and finance chairman were asked to render opinions on several matters, but were unable to do so because they lacked the information needed to make an educated decision.

 

I was given a password to review the bank account of the district, just never given the bank or account number.  I was asked to make recommendations to the board pertaining to the financial statements (easier to read and understand without an accounting degree), but never got our financials to see what we were currently doing.  We were asked to sign off on the recommendations of the GNT and NAP financing and did so, without any financial information from previous tournaments, but based solely on the creditability of the people chairing those committees and making the recommendations.

 

While I have no doubt that the finances of District 6 are being handled professionally and above board, I do think it is in the best interest of the district to have a Finance Committee to review those matters.  I would suggest that the District purchase whatever software necessary so that the Treasurer can keep the finances of the District in a manner that the files can be transferred electronically to the finance chairman and his/her committee.  This can be password protected and changed as often as the Treasurer wishes.  I would put this in the form of a motion, but I don't know if the district can afford to do make this purchase.

 

Finally, I would like to thank Bill Cole for the excellent report he forwarded me concerning the financing of the NAP and GNT financing. If I had this information when asked to make a recommendation from the finance committee, I would have made the same recommendation, but it would have been based on the facts and figures a finance committee needs to evaluate before responding. If his report on magazine financing and interaction of MABC and district financing are nearly as complete as his report on the NAP/GNT financing, the new finance committee and chair will be well on their way to being able to make the types of decisions they are being asked to render.

 

Respectfully,

George Lewis

(End of Finance Committee Report)

 

President Hennings noted that, as recommended by the Finance Committee, the District’s financial records need to be maintained in a format that would facilitate their review and oversight by the Committee.  The President asked Treasurer Steve Robinson and Finance Committee member Michael Carroad to work together to enter the District’s financial data into an Excel spreadsheet that could be sent electronically to Finance Committee members.

 

President Hennings also noted that the position of Finance Committee Chair is now vacant, so the next District 6 President needs to appoint a new Finance Committee chair.

 

4. Grand National Teams (GNT): Rae Dethlefsen, Coordinator, announced that there were four more teams than last year in the 0-5000 competition this spring. The round robin format using hand records for the first day of competition in this event has been popular, so it will be continued.  The committee is still looking for sites and dates for the 2007 GNT finals..

 

5. North American Pairs (NAP): Barbara Doran, Coordinator, reported that the dates and times for the NAP District Finals are set.  There will be 0-2000/NLM competitions at split sites in Newport News/Hampton, VA in October and in Silver Spring/Wheaton, MD in December.  The Open Finals will be held in the Silver Spring/Wheaton MD area only in December.  The club qualifying period began June 1, 2006 and Barbara has worked with Charity Sack to design a flyer that she is sending out to encourage the players who qualify at the club level to come out and compete in the District Finals.

 

6.. District Director’s Report: Nadine Wood mentioned some of the issues that will come up for discussion/vote at the Chicago NABC.  One proposal on the agenda is to do away with women’s events.  Nadine believes they are needed in order to qualify women for World Bridge Federation women’s events.  Abolishing appeals committees for all events at Nationals is another proposal. 

 

Nadine also talked about a new electronic method of scoring that ACBL may adopt.  It is called Bridgemate and was used at the World Championships in Verona, Italy in June.  It costs $20.00 per box (one box per table) and $400.00 for the server.  ACBL is working on programming it to use ACBLscore and plans to experiment with it at a Memphis, TN Regional.

 

7. Charity Committee Report: Millard Nachtwey spoke on behalf of Gloria Brown, who was absent.  He and Gloria were discussing when the best dates would be to hold the District 6 Charity games in 2007.  Based on Millard’s recommendation, Barbara Doran made a motion to hold the evening game on Thursday, March 22 and the daytime game on Monday, March 26, 2007.  Nadine Wood seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously.

 

8. Education Report: Kay Afdahl reported that Barbara Ames of Unit 147 requested the District pay for 40% of an advertisement that ran in the Washington Post for Instant Bridge lessons held by Steve and Sandy Forsythe in conjunction with a WBL Sectional tournament.  The Board concurred that Treasurer Steve Robinson should pay Barbara Ames what she was requesting.

 

Leo Cardillo reported on the attendance of three District 6 players – David Banh, Jennifer Lin and Robert Brady -- at the World Junior Bridge Camp in Piestany, Slovakia from July 3-10, 2006.  The District Board had voted by e-mail after the January meeting to use some of its funds from the ACBL, which had been given to Bridge at Schools for use by District 6 to promote youth bridge and for other educational purposes, to subsidize the travel costs of these three players (half of their individual airfares, up to $750 apiece).  Margot Hennings noted that two of the juniors—Jennifer Lin and David Banh—had already submitted their paperwork for reimbursement and that this had been sent on to Barbara Heller, of Bridge at Schools, to be paid.

 

9. I/N REPORT:  Michael Carroad reported that I/N Chairs Ron and Mary Ann Kral have done a spectacular job running the I/N program so far at the Alexandria tournament.  Attendance has significantly increased from that of last year’s 4th of July tournament.  The Krals credit the increase to the mailings they and Margot Hennings did of flyers and posters to tournament chairs and club managers in District 6, and to targeted mailings to District 6 players and students who attended Instant Bridge and Smithsonian bridge classes given earlier in the year, and to local area players with under 100 MPs.

 

10. STaC Report: Michael Carroad said it is time to revisit the possibility of holding a joint STaC with District 7 in December of each year.  District 7 stopped participating in STaCs with District 6 in 2005 because District 6 required the use of hand records by clubs holding STaC games.  Michael believes District 7 is interested in participating again with District 6 in joint STaC events if agreement can be reached on whether hand records are required and on how the profits are shared.  District 6 Directors have figured out a way to prepare the hand records and then send them in a file electronically to club managers who use computers.  The club manager just has to download the file, print out a master copy, and then can make copies for players at their clubs. 

 

Michael made a motion that District 6 write a letter to the President of District 7 saying that District 6 wants to maintain good relations with District 7, and to ask District 7 to rejoin District 6 in sponsoring a STaC in December 2006.  Hand records and prints would not be required.  Net profits would be distributed to the Districts based upon their pro rata share of club participation. Barbara Doran seconded the motion, and the motion carried unanimously. Michael Carroad understands that District 7 is prepared to vote on holding a joint STaC with District 6 again at their meeting in Atlanta during the Labor Day Regional.

 

Steve Robinson then raised the possibility of doing away with the Club STaC in February.  As Treasurer, he has been writing numerous checks in small amounts of $5.00 or so when the net profit of the club STaC is shared equally between the District and the clubs.  The profits have shrunk because the ACBL sanction fee doubled and participation in the STaCs has leveled out or in some cases dropped.  Kay Afdahl made a motion to discontinue sending checks to the clubs and to just hold the February STaC as a District STaC with all the profits going just to the District. Dar Afdahl seconded the motion and it carried unanimously. 

 

Michael noted that a Committee, possibly headed by current STaC coordinator Barbara Israel, needs to look at how the StaCs are organized and run to determine if there are ways to increase participation and lower costs, including reducing the costs of mailing out hand records and notices to clubs, and using electronic mail instead where possible.

 

11. TableTALK: Lucy McCoy, Liaison and Contributing Editor of TableTALK, announced that she, Bill Cole, Margot Hennings and Rae Dethlefsen had met earlier in the day with Pete Ekstrand, her replacement as Managing Editor, to get him up to speed.  Lucy made a plea to the Unit Presidents, echoed by Bill Cole, to ask their tournament chairs to get their tournament ad information to the TableTALK coordinator as soon as they have it.  Pete also needs to be notified of any changes in the tournaments scheduled on the calendar when those changes are made, either by tournament chairs or the director in charge.  Pete’s e-mail address is:  tabletalkeditor@adelphia.net.

 

12. Webmaster: No report.  Don Berman was absent. 

 

OLD BUSINESS:

 

District 6 Goodwill Committee: The President announced that the Goodwill pins still need to be ordered.  This is an action item for the next President of District 6.

 

D6 Charity Foundation: Treasurer Steve Robinson noted that there is some paperwork that still needs to be done justifying the foundation to the State of Virginia. Michael Carroad said he would look at the forms to see what is required.

 

 

NEW BUSINESS:

 

D6 Elections:  Elections Chair Dar Afdahl noted the candidates for various Board positions were posted on the District 6 website.  There being no other nominations from the floor, Dar presented the slate of Dick Wegman for President, Jim Hooven for Vice President, Barbara Moomy for Secretary, and Steve Robinson for Treasurer, and made a motion to elect this slate.  Fred King seconded the motion, and the motion carried unanimously.  The new officers assume responsibility for these positions effective July 5, 2006.

 

Contact info:

New District President:

Dick Wegman – Unit 147

Tel: 301-365-2228, e-mail: Aliweg@aol.com

 

New District Vice President

Jim Hooven – Unit 231

Acblbridge@cox.net

 

New District Secretary:

Barbara Moomy – Unit 146

1709 Tweed Ct.

Virginia Beach, VA 23464

757-479-2763

Bmoomy@cox.net

 

President’s Remarks:

President Margot Hennings noted that ACBL Board of Governors elections were held and Gloria Brown, Barbara Doran and Jennifer Lin are the District’s representatives on the Board of Governors.

 

Policies and Procedures: 

 

Margot noted that there are several areas where the Policies and Procedures need updating:

 

--How financial decisions are made

--How GNT/NAP sites are chosen

--How records should be kept

--Free Play policy

 

Margot’s term as President was ending July 4, 2006 and this was Margot’s last tournament as a Tournament Chair for the July Regional in the Washington, DC area.  Dar Afdahl thanked Margot for her excellent work as President, and the Board thanked Margot for her work as Tournament Chair all these years. 

 

Margot informed the Board that she had arranged for cards and flowers to be sent to Bette Dudka in the District’s name while Bette was still well enough to receive and appreciate them.  District 6 representatives at the meeting signed sympathy cards that Margot brought for Bette’s family and for Ron Geagley, a District 6 Director whose wife Carole, who had also done a lot of volunteer work for bridge, had passed away two weeks earlier.

 

Other Business:

President of Unit 135 Skippy Callas made a request that Unit Presidents be consulted before members of their Units are tapped for District Committee or Coordinator positions.

 

President-elect Wegman asked for Board members to give him ideas/thoughts of how the district can build membership and keep building up attendance at Sectionals and Regionals.  He noted programs that have worked during the past year for the WBL/NVBA/MBA, including Instant Bridge classes, bridge classes at the Smithsonian and bridge club programs in schools, and hopes that these can continue and expand throughout the district.  Other units’ success in building up a new player base are also commendable, and all ideas should be shared across the district.

 

Date of Next District 6 Meeting: The next meeting will be circa 5:30 PM on Saturday, August 19, 2006, at the Hunt Valley MD Regiona1.  Please advise the Secretary if you plan to attend.

 

There being no further business, Leo Cardillo moved that the meeting be adjourned. Steve Robinson seconded the motion. The meeting stood adjourned at 8:50 PM.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

Lucy McCoy, fill-in Secretary