Board of Directors Meeting Washington
Bridge League 19
May 1999
Attendees:
Jim Allen Bob
Bell Don Berman Frances Burke Bryan Coleman Barb
Doran
Lee Jensen Kathy Kruskal Steve
Robinson Barbara Rothkin Ted Ying
The May board meeting was held at WBL
Unit President, Jim Allen’s house. Jim
Allen called the meeting to order at 7:49 PM.
SECRETARY'S
REPORT - YING:
The secretary's report and the minutes to
the February meeting were distributed via e-mail by outgoing secretary,
Dethlefsen, several days before the board meeting. Board members were asked to review the
minutes via e-mail and to report any corrections to the secretary either via
e-mail or at the next Unit game.
Amendments were forwarded directly to Dethlefsen. Berman moved and Bell seconded that the
minutes be approved as amended. Motion
passed unanimously.
TREASURER'S REPORT -
ROBINSON:
Robinson reported that the Unit checking
account has a balance of $6,384.95. The
WBL has $10,000.00 of funds from the MABC for the regional. The WBL also has $2,000.00 in a CD for the
regional.
Robinson reported that for historical
reasons, the WBL had an old Crestar account.
Originally this account was with Citizen’s Bank, which was bought out by
Crestar. For simplicity, Robinson closed
that account and deposited those funds in the primary bank account. The WBL now only maintains one checking
account.
Doran moved to accept the treasurer's
report; Kruskal seconded. Motion passed
unanimously.
PRESIDENT'S REPORT - ALLEN:
Allen welcomed new board members, Bell
and Rothkin to the board. Allen extended
thanks to outgoing board members Rae Dethlefsen (Secretary) and David Genné.
Allen reported that he and Doran had
reviewed task appointments and assigned tasks to each board member. The new assignments can be reviewed in
Addendum 1 (included at the end of the minutes). Beth Palmer resigned as the WBL Unit Conduct
& Ethics (C&E) committee chair; she accepted the position as the
District 6 C&E committee chair. Bob
Bell, who was the District 6 C&E committee chair accepted the position as
WBL Unit C&E committee chair. In
effect, the unit and the district traded committee chairs. Allen reported that the WBL board needs to
hold elections for new C&E committee members. There were three out-going committee members that
need to be replaced. The three committee
members that have one more year to their term include Clyde Kruskal, Ron Spath,
and Dick Wegman. The three out-going
members were Barbara Ames, Bryan Coleman, and Abby Heitner. Elections were held later in the meeting.
Allen asked Ying if he would create new Unit officer and director contact information slips. Ying agreed to do so.
The issue of the new ACBL policy regarding members in good standing was discussed. The ACBL instituted a policy that non-Life Masters (NLM) who have not paid their membership and Life Masters (LM) who have not paid their LM Service fee be charged an extra dollar for entries at ACBL sanctioned games. If the unit collects this dollar, then the unit can keep the dollar. If the unit fails to collect the dollar, then the unit will be charged an additional dollar per player. The new ACBL policy takes effect July 1. Our regional is not affected as our regional starts prior to July 1. However, subsequent Unit games, sectionals, and regionals will be subject to this fee. The ACBL plicy also suggests adding a director on staff at specified games to cover the work needed to check for membership status after the start of the game and to charge those players who are not members in good standing after the start of the game. A grace period is included for members whose membership/service fee has recently lapsed, but will be renewing their membership/service fee.
The WBL board discussed the issue and the
pros and cons. Robinson had sent a
letter to the ACBL editor regarding this and a copy was presented for board
members to review. Arnie Frankel had
sent a letter to Allen
PRESIDENT'S
REPORT – ALLEN (CONT):
who presented the letter to the board. Both letters were discussed. The board deliberated and decided not to
support the ACBL policy, not to charge the players an extra dollar, and to pay
the extra dollar if billed by the ACBL. (POLICY)
Allen reported that the WBL had a new
liability insurance policy in effect.
The new policy is for $3 million and was provided for the WBL by Roy
Becker.
Allen contacted the ACBL Membership
officer, Margie Lenthrip. She was
informed of the change of officers and has the list of current officiers and
directors of the WBL. She can be
contacted via e-mail at info@acbl.org.
Jim will also order 4 additional copies of the ACBL Rules and
Regulations as were ordered last year for the board. One of these copies will be placed in the
storage cabinets at the Kensington Community Center (KCC) for reference as
needed. Two of the copies will go to new
board members, Bell and Rothkin. Allen
will keep the fourth copy.
Allen reported that the charge for the
long distance phone call on the snack bar phone was paid by the WBL. At some point during the last tournament, the
phone cable was again switched from the jack with no long distance service to
the jack that has long distance service.
Allen asked board members to help patrol the phone and ensure that this
is not done and if possible to find out who is switching the phone cable.
Allen reported that Dar Afdahl has been
elected as first alternate and Steve Robinson has been elected as second
alternate to the ACBL Board of Directors.
At the end of the President’s Report, the
board held elections for the C&E committee members. Election votes were recorded by the
secretary. The following three people
were nominated for the WBL unit C&E committee: Ellen Cherniavsky, Mickie Kivel, and
Elizabeth Nelson. Bell will contact the
three nominees to see if they will serve.
In the event that one of these nominees does not accept the nomination,
Josh Sher is the first alternate and will be asked to serve in their stead.
The WBL had a very good May Sectional tournament. The May sectional had a total of 436.5 tables.
Jensen reported that he has been asked to
co-chair the 2002 Summer NABC’s in Washington DC with Margo Hennings. The 2002 Summer NABC’s will be held at the
Marriot Hotel on Connecticutt Avenue in northwest DC, the same site as the
successful 1993 Summer NABC.
Allen reported that he had scheduled all
of the sectional tournaments for the 2000 calendar year with the KCC..
The next Bulletin deadline is 3 June 1999. The following deadline is currently tentative but will be in the late July-early August time frame. Coleman urged any members submitting information to please submit before the deadline.
At the last board meeting, the Par Game was rescheduled for 14 October 1999 to allow time for publicizing the game. Coleman said that he still needed a write-up about the Par Game to publish in the Bulletin. He wanted to announce the game in the next issue of the Bulletin and the format as many players are not familiar with a Par Game event..
Burke reported that letters to new Unit
members (e.g. members who move into our Unit or transfer from other units) had
been sent for the previous quarter.
Burke contacted the ACBL to inform them that the new members had been
contacted.
Burke reported that Barbara Summers is
also calling new Unit members..
A sympathy card was sent to Pearl
Rubenstein for the death of her husband, Norman Rubenstein.
The NLM Sectional tournament was three
weeks after the board meeting on 3-6 June 1999.
Kruskal’s committee had things well in hand for the tournament.
Ying had nothing to report. No new statistics on web usage were available. Ying reported that he would try to e-mail statistics to the board or bring them to the next meeting.
.
BOARD REPORT – BERMAN
Berman reported that he was still awaiting the Charity money report from Michael Carroad for the last Charity event held at the KCC during one of our unit games. The charity game benefitted the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad (VFD/RS). As per the last time that we ran the charity game for them, Berman plans get the total charity donation from the report, get a check for said amount from Robinson, and personally deliver the check to the VFD/RS.
Berman reported that the job of Recorder was going smoothly. Approximately 3-5 recorder forms are submitted in a month (5 is a lot). Some minor patterns are starting to develop, but nothing serious or worthy of a C&E committee hearing. To date, Berman has been able to handle all outstanding problems presented to the Recorder.
BOARD REPORT – BELL
Allen welcomed Bell to the board.
Bell reported that he had attended the monthly bridge game at Saint Elizabeth’s (St. E) institution. The St. E’s game is in need of donations. Bell asked Berman to talk with Steve Czecha regarding what donations the St E’s game needed. Since the amount is typically small, the WBL can help with a donation to support the St. E’s game. The next St. E’s game is scheduled for Monday, 21 June 1999 at 6:30 PM. It is at the John Howard Pavillion at St. E’s. If anyone is interested in supporting the St E’s game, they should contact either Steve Czecha or Bob Bell.
BOARD REPORT – DORAN
Doran reported that she had reviewed the treasurer’s bookkeeping and that the books were in order. Doran receives copies of the bank statements and periodically reviews the treasurer’s books to ensure that nothing is amiss.
Doran reported that District 6 has decided to eliminate the unit level qualifier for the NAOP event (all flights). Players will qualify directly from the club to the unit level. The district is conducting this as a one-year trial and will review this again next year.
BOARD REPORT – ROTHKIN
Allen commented that he had appointed Rothkin as the Education chairman. He really wants to push the E-Z Bridge program and wanted Rothkin to move forward on this.
Rothkin suggested encouraging the clubs to participate in the Rookie 49er NAP event. One possibility was to suggest that any pair that scored a 50% game or higher could qualify for the Unit level NAP event. The
BOARD REPORT – ROTHKIN (CONT)
qualifiers would be invited to attend a Unit final held at our October sectional on Saturday afternoon. The winners of this event would get free plays usable at our WBL Sectional tournaments. Allen said that Rothkin needed to put together a plan and proposed budget for this event and report at the next meeting.
BOARD REPORT – ROBINSON
Robinson reported that the round robin was underway. There were 16 teams in the Flight A/X event and 3 teams in the flight B/C event. The A/X event had two leagues each of which would qualify 4 teams for the knockout phase.
NEW BUSINESS
Allen had an update from the MABC and District 6 boards. The district board needs to elect a new delegate to the MABC board. Allen requested any interested parties to contact him. One requirement is that the delegate must attend MABC regionals as the MABC board meetings are held during the regionals.
Robinson proposed reviewing and revising the election procedures. Robinson will start the discussion via e-mail with interested board members.
Ying asked Allen to reaffirm his stance on e-mail discussions of outstanding issues. Allen stated that topics that require extensive discussion should be first proposed to the board via e-mail to allow much of the initial discussion to be held before the board meeting. The discussion would then continue in the board meeting and any motions would be entertained at the board meeting. This would help keep the board meetings shorter.
NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will tentatively be held on Wednesday, 16 June 1999, at Dave Ruderman’s house. The board meeting was subsequently relocated to Don Berman’s house. Don resides at 13707 Engleman Drive, Laurel, MD 20708. His phone number is 301-776-3581. Allen is planning on inviting Michael Carroad to attend to discuss some issues regarding the Unit game.
From the Beltway: Exit North onto 95 (toward Baltimore). Go to second exit (Route 198) and take East toward Fort Meade. Stay on 198 for a few miles. After crossing Route 1, proceed over the bridge and make a right turn at the first traffic signal onto Route 197. At the fourth light, turn right onto Briarwood. Follow Briarwood about .5 mile and turn right onto Engleman to the third house on the left (white mailbox has house number on it).
The July board meeting is tentatively set for 13 July 1999 at Frances Burke’s home. The August board meeting is tentatively set for 11 August 1999 at Ted Ying’s home. These dates will be confirmed at the next board meeting.
The board thanked Allen for his hospitality. The meeting was adjourned at 9:33 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Ted Ying, 13 June 1999
Addendum 1: New Appointed Tasks
WASHINGTON BRIDGE LEAGUE
May 12, 1999
President: Mr. Jim Allen
10029 Maple Leaf Drive
Montgomery Village, MD 20886-1131
301-590-9250
Vice President: Ms. Barbara Doran
* Secretary: Mr. Ted Ying
13203 Claxton Drive
Laurel, MD 20708-1807
Treasurer: Mr. Steve Robinson
Board Members: Total of 10 including officers
Mr. Lee Jensen
Mr. David Ruderman
Ms. Kathy Kruskal
Mr. Don Berman
Mr. Bob Bell
Ms. Barbara Rothkin
* Disciplinary Commmittee: (Conduct & Ethics)
Chairman: Mr. Bob Bell
2302 41st St, N.W.
Washington, DC 20007-4965
202-337-0296
Recorder:
Mr. Don Berman
* Education Committee:
Chairman: Ms. Barbara Rothkin
5225 Pooks Hill Road
Bethesda, MD 20814-2059
Membership Committee:
Membership Secretary: Ms. Frances Burke
* Publicity Committee:
Chairman: Jim Allen, J677330
Tournament Committee:
Mr. Lee Jensen
Charity Committee:
Chairman: Mr. Don Berman
13707 Engleman Dr.
Laurel, MD 20708
301-776-3581
NAP and GNT Unit Coordinator:
Mr. Kathy Kruskal
6514 40th Ave
Hyattsville, MD 20782-2152
301-927-1023
* Novice Committee:
Chairman: Mr. Bob Bell
Unit Game Coordinator:
Dave Ruderman
Unit Game Manager:
Mr. Michael Carroad
Bulletin Editor:
Mr. Bryan Coleman
* Omsbudsman:
Mr. Ann Lindley
Hospitality:
Ms. Kitty Gottfried
Prizes:
Ms. Rosemary Marks
Partnerships:
Ms. Madge Gallant
* - Indicates change from last year