Board of Directors Meeting Washington
Bridge League 10
March 1999
Attendees:
Jim Allen Don
Berman Bryan Coleman Barb Doran Davide
Genné Lee Jensen
Kathy Kruskal Steve Robinson Ted Ying
The March board meeting was held at Don
Berman's house. Jim Allen called the
meeting to order at 7:37 PM.
SECRETARY'S
REPORT - DETHLEFSEN:
The unit secretary was unable to attend
the March board meeting. Ted Ying took
minutes of the meeting in her absence.
The secretary's report and the minutes to
the February meeting were to be distributed by e-mail to the board on Thursday,
11 March 1999 before the unit game.
Board members were asked to review the minutes via e-mail and to report
any corrections to the secretary at the Unit game.
TREASURER'S
REPORT - ROBINSON:
Robinson reported that the Unit checking
account has a balance of $10,146.72. The
proceeds from the last tournament had been received and deposited, but the Unit
had not paid rent for the Kensington Community Center (KCC) yet.
Robinson presented a draft of the annual
report to be presented at the annual meeting in May. Comments, corrections, or questions were to
be directed to Steve Robinson.
Doran moved to accept the treasurer's
report; Kruskal seconded. Motion passed
unanimously.
PRESIDENT'S
REPORT - ALLEN:
Allen reported that he had one more key for the KCC for anyone who needed to open up the building. He also reported that we are allowed to duplicate the key; however, we have had difficulty in finding a locksmith or keyshop that has the correct blanks needed to duplicate the key. If anyone can find a shop that has the blanks, we can have additional keys made. We would then need to report the list of names of keyholders to Shirley at the KCC.
Allen wanted to publish several items of
information prominently in the next newsletter:
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the
phone number of the phone behind the snack bar for emergency purposes,
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the
address of the new WBL web site
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the
phone number at the KCC to contact for inclement weather closings
Allen reported that he had a meeting on
Friday, 12 March 1999, with the major of Kensingon. Allen proposed to discuss with the mayor the
following items of concern in the KCC: hot water in the facility, the condition
of the rest room facilities, the condition of the walls (i.e. scheduling of
painting of the walls), general condition of the facilities, and janitorial
support before and during our functions (like tournaments). Any other issues of concern should have been
presented to Allen before the Friday meeting.
Allen submitted the Unit GNT report to
Cam Cameron, Special Events coordinator, at ACBL headquarters.
Allen announced that he would handle the
publicity for the upcoming Non-LM sectional in June and the upcoming EZ Bridge
classes run by Leslie Shafer.
Allen reported that there were two workshops
scheduled at the Vancouver NABC for Marketing and for Educational Liasons. Robinson and Doran volunteered to attend
these meetings while at the NABC’s and to report back to the board.
Allen reported that District 7 had suggested that District 7 clubs might not partipicate in our upcoming STAC. Allen sent a note to Mike Kavoucic, the District 7 president, regarding our upcoming STAC and District 7 club participation.
Robinson reported that the ACBL credited teams in our annual Round Robin event for masterpoints in the X strata. This was popular and Robinson reported that we will include an X flight in future Round Robins.
The WBL March sectional had a total of 513.5 tables. It was a good turnout.
Jensen reported that Bill Pettis recently
became a Grand Life Master. A roast will
be scheduled for him at the May sectional.
An impromptu meeting was called on Sunday
after the evening session to discuss the number of Strata-Flighted (SF) events
versus the number of Stratified (Str) events scheduled for our Thursday night
unit game. Jensen raised the topic at
the board meeting and reported that we currently try to hold 4 SF events for
each Str event. We can try to schedule
more, but there are other concerns about when to incorporate SF events (e.g. SF
events should not be held against out-of-town regionals and NABC’s). The issue will be discussed at the next
meeting of the scheduling committee for future years. Jensen said that he did not think it urgent
enough to change the current Unit game schedule in the middle of the year. Robinson volunteered to convey this
information to Earl Glickstein who originally raised the issue.
Jensen urged the board not to plan
impromptu meetings of the board and/or concerned members after the Sunday
evening session of a sectional. The
tournament co-chairs (both board members) and other interested members might
not be available due to the amount of work that needed to be accomplished at
the end of the tournament.
Genné reported that he had contacted Edith McMullin regarding the EZ Bridge program. There were three main problems that needed to be addressed:
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Advertising
for the upcoming EZ Bridge lesson programs was needed. Allen reported that he was handling the
advertising; postcards had already been mailed out to many potential
students. Genné reported that he had
worked with Leslie Shafer to send information to various clubs; he reported
that he wanted to schedule time to canvas the local Kensington area
door-to-door to encourage participation in EZ-Bridge from the local community.
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The
program needed additional funds to cover additional expenses. The EZ-Bridge program had already used the
funds given to the program by District 6.
Genné reported that he would research what had been spent and how much
more was needed. He proposed to send an
e-mail by 18 March 1999 to the Unit board members with a proposed budget and
request for funding from the Unit 147 board.
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The
program needed additional volunteers to help with various aspects of the
program. Ying suggested asking Barbara
Summers, who was a very capable and willing volunteer to help. Genné said he would contact her.
Kruskal reported that her committee for the Non-LM sectional scheduled in June was scheduled to have their first meeting 2 weeks after the board meeting.
Kruskal reported that Frances Burke did
not have the correct address to send a cheer & sympathy card to Hanna
Schepps. The card sent was returned
designated incorrect address.
Kruskal reported that the Unit GNT final was completed and the full report was submitted to the ACBL by Allen.
Kruskal reported that the unit was
running out of the mugs and glasses used as Novice prizes. Genné volunteered to look into ordering
something new for Novice prizes.
Coleman
announced that the next deadline for the WBL
Bulletin was 1 April 1999. The next
issue of the bulletin will be out before the May sectional.
Coleman
called attention to the fact that currently subscriptions to the WBL Bulletin (for non-members of the
unit) never expire. Robinson reported
that whenever he receives a check for a subscription, he forwards the
subsciption information to Nadine Wood for inclusion in the address label
list. Subscribers are never removed from
the list; hence subscriptions never expire.
The issue of advertisements in the bulleting was raised. Genné volunteered to show the bulletin to local Kensington businesses while canvasing the area to encourage Kensington businesses to purchase advertising in our bulleting.
Berman reported that the next charity game was scheduled for 18 March 1999. After that, the next charity game was scheduled for 6 May 1999, the annual meeting. The March charity game would be an ACBL-sponsored charity, but we had no designated charity for the annual meeting. Berman moved that we select the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad once again for our local charity; Doran seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
BOARD REPORT – DORAN
Doran reported that the owner of the Café Monet restaurant down the street volunteered to open her shop for extended hours during sectionals if she was given advance notice. Doran suggested putting flyers out on the flyer table near the restaurant guide and other advertisements during the next sectional to advertise that they had extended hours during our sectionals.
Doran reported that the first version of the local Kensington restaurant guide had been completed in time for the March sectional. Mostly only local Kensington restaurants were included. Doran and Kruskal intend to expand the restaurant guide to include some Wheaton and Rockville restaurants by the next sectional.
Doran reported that the tournament advertisement for our May sectional was missing from the MABC insert in the ACBL Bulletin. Our advertisement would be included in the April issue of the MABC insert
Doran then raised the topic of a Fast Pairs event. Doran moved that we run a fast pairs event once per month scheduled as a separate section of the scheduled Stratified Pairs event; Kruskal seconded. The fast pairs event would use the same hand records, and would only post leader boards until the secitons playing at regular pace completed play; at which point, full recap sheets would be made available. Recap sheets and results would be available on the web site and by contacting a point-of-contact, or would be available the following week. The fast pairs section would be restricted to using GCC conventions with exceptions made to include any NT defense. Doran proposed using the schedule sent out by Michael Carroad to the Unit board via e-mail. This assigned games through the end of 1999. The board decided to run the games through June 1999 and revisit the topic again at that time. There were five votes for, one vote against, and two abstentions; motion passed.
Proposed dates include Mar 25, Apr 15, May 27, June 17, Aug 19, Sep 2, Oct 21, Nov 18, and Dec 23 (no game scheduled in July due to the regional).
BOARD REPORT – YING
Ying reported that the new web site was up and running. Among the services that the new web site offers is the availability of up to five additional e-mail addresses at your web address. Robinson moved that we use the addresses info, editor, and membership for the first three; Doran seconded. There were five votes for, one against, and two abstentions; motion passed.
Ying reported that OKBridge sent a request for advertising of the OKBridge service on the Unit Web site. In return the Unit would be paid a commission for each subscription that was purchased by a user passing through our web site. The board was hesitant to approve advertisement on the web site but suggested that we try the idea out for a limited time. Ying was to contact OKB and to try to arrange a limited trial arrangement.
The board decided that all future advertisement proposals would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
NEW BUSINESS
Earl Glickstein sent a request to the board to consider returning the Thursday night unit game to 2-board rounds. Robinson moved that we ask Michael Carroad, the Chief Director and club manager of the unit game to consider trying 2 board rounds again; Kruskal seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
Allen raised the topic of the matching formula for Swiss team events. Allen mentioned that there had been several complaints from lower-strata teams in stratified Swiss team events that were matched against two top-ranked events due to the random-draw. Allen proposed that we consider matching the first match randomly within strata (‘A’ teams playing other ‘A’ teams, ‘B’ teams playing other ‘B’ teams, ‘C’ teams playing other ‘C’ teams) and the second match randomly. Discussion ensued but no motion was made.
Allen reported that the unit had not received a check from the ACBL for any second year membership renewals/
Allen discussed the upcoming elections. There was one candidate for President, one for Vice President, two for secretary, and one for Treasurer. There was one candidate for three open Board positions. Additional candidates were needed.
NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, 21 April 1999, at Barb Doran’s house, 1107 Dale Drive, Silver Spring, MD. Barb’s phone number is 301-608-0347.
Directions from East:
Take the Capitol Beltway, I-495, to exit 30, Colesville Road. Follow Colesville Road south to the second traffic light at Dale Drive. Turn right onto Dale Drive and go 2.5 blocks. 1107 is on the right just over a small hill.
Directions from West or North:
Take the Capitol Beltway, I-495, to exit 31B, Georgia Avenue, South. Follow Georgia Avenue south to the second traffic light at Columbia Road. Turn left onto Columbia Road. Follow Columbia Road about 1/10 of a mile. Columbia Road will bear off to the left and Dale Drive will bear off to the right. Bear right onto Dale Drive. Go about one mile and 1107 will be on your left as you near the crest of a small hill.
Allen thanked Berman for his hospitality. The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Ted Ying, 18 April 1999