Minutes

WBL Board of Directors Meeting

November 10, 1999

In attendance: Jim Allen, Bob Bell, Don Berman, Barb Doran, Lee Jensen,

Kathy Kruskal, Steve Robinson, Barbara Rothkin, Dave Ruderman

The meeting was called to order at 7:45 by the President, Jim Allen.

The minutes of the October 12, 1999 were approved with the following

corrections:

(Insurance Report - Becker, Summary) "DNO" to be changed to "D and O."

(Tournament Director Report - Nachtwey) in regard to motion that Nachtwey

contact the parties involved as an ACBL Field Officer and to caution the

offending pair to be more aware of their ethical responsibilities regarding

full disclosure of special agreements: The motion passed 5 in favor, 4

against.

Treasurer's Report (Steve Robinson)

We have a balance of $7,123.86 in the checking account.

The Tournament in Clubs netted $2,667.16 for the WBL.

New checks have only one line for signature. Steve will check with the

bank to determine if the account was set up for two signatures. Our

Constitution currently states that all checks require three signatures,

the Treasurer, the President, and the Secretary. After discussion of

the Board, there was a consensus that checks require only two signatures.

Barb Doran made a motion to change the sentence in Article VII,

Paragraph 6, Duties of the Treasurer to read, "All checks drawn on League

funds shall bear any two of the signatures of the Treasurer, the

President, or the Secretary." Lee Jensen seconded the motion. The

motion passed 6 in favor, 3 opposed. Barb Doran will draft the amendment

which will be published in the March 2000 Bulletin.

President's Report (Jim Allen)

NVBA is hosting the Club Breakfast on Saturday, November 13, 1999. Six

members of the WBL Board will be attending.

Jim has been coordinating with Margot Henning, President of NVBA, for

joint WBL/NVBA events. This includes Board Members of both Units

receiving the other Unit's Bulletins. WBL Board members who are not

currently receiving the NVBA Bulletin are Barbara Rothkin, Barb Doran,

Bob Bell, and Don Berman. Jim will ask Margot to add these names.

Kathy Kruskal will contact Nadine Wood to get the list of current NVBA

Board Members and coordinate adding these names to the WBL Bulletin

distribution list as well as deleting NVBA names who are no longer on

the NVBA Board.

District 6 approved a Hall of Fame. This requires a lot of work, and

may never come to fruition.

District 6 approved having as many GNT games at the club level as a club

desires.

Three Districts should participate in the STAC for the benefit of the

2000 summer Nationals that are to be held in Washington.

The District's Educational Policy will be passed out at the Club

Breakfast.

Rent of the Kensington Armory for the NLM Sectional tournament in

March/April 2000 will cost $2,600 for the three-day tournament. We

have asked for the endorsement of NVBA, which should give us greater

attendance. We are not asking for a profit/loss split.

Lillian Howard from the ABA is interested in a joint WBL/ABA event in

March or April 2000. The possibility of this being held during the

NLM Sectional was discussed. The event would be a Charity Game with

$2.00 of each entry going to a WBL and/or an ABA Charity. WBL would

pay the cost of the rental of the playing site; WBL and ABA would

split the cost of a Director and refreshments; and WBL and ABA would

split any remaining profit. The discussion was tabled.

We have ordered the Mini McKinney awards.

The ACBL grew by 1.44% in the last quarter.

WBL membership appears to have dropped in the past year. This is due

to the ACBL creating an "inactive" Unit and transferring inactive WBL

members into this inactive unit. In addition, the ACBL is

automatically transferring membership to NVBA when a player sends in

an address change with a former Maryland address and a new Virginia

address.

Dave Ruderman

The Unit Game is running smoothly. However, we are not getting

"corrected" scores, and we should put the corrected scores from the

prior week onto our bulletin board. Dave will speak to Michael

Carroad about getting the scores from the prior week posted.

Dave will write an article for the next Bulletin regarding the Unit

Knock-Outs, which will begin in January.

Don Berman

Don volunteered to help Ted Ying with the WBL web site, but is not

getting any information from Ted.

Steve Robinson

The Round Robin is still in progress. Four matches remain to be

played.

Lee Jensen

The proposed year 2000 schedule for the WBL (and NVBA) was presented.

Lee suggested that the schedule be printed double-sided on two sheets

of 8 x 11 paper, which allows room for larger fonts and additional

information. The schedule was amended to reflect several capitalization

omissions. Barbara Rothkin moved and Kathy Kruskal seconded a motion

to approve the schedule as amended and with the provision that Lee has

the authority to make additions and/or changes as necessary up to the

date of publication. The motion passed unanimously.

Barb Doran

Barb met with Lee Jensen to discuss the scheduling of Fast Pairs.

There are ten of these games scheduled as stratified events in 2000,

generally at a Unit game that corresponds to a Regional tournament in

the District or general area. Barb will put a notice in the next

Bulletin for an "e-mail sign up sheet," and players signing up will

be notified by e-mail several weeks before each Fast Pairs game.

Bob Bell

Roy Becker, our insurance agent, has asked to be an ex-officio member

of the Conduct and Ethics Committee as he has concerns about insuring

a group that can ban or expel a player. It was decided that this is

not necessary because the first line of appeal is to the WBL Board,

who has never expelled anyone.

Should such occasion arise up, we will then get close to the issue.

Kathy Kruskal

The GNT schedule for clubs will be publicized in the next Bulletin.

Flight A players who qualify at the club level do not have to qualify

at the Unit level. A Unit qualifier will be held for Flights B and C

(and Flight A if we so choose). February 13, 2000 is the date for

these Unit qualifiers. As no locations for the games have been

finalized, the Bulletin will give only the date with the location to

be announced.

The deadline for the March Bulletin is February 3.

Barbara Rothkin

A motion was made by Barbara Rothkin and seconded by Bob Bell that

prior to the end of 1999 we purchase 100 Easy Bridge 1 books and 50

Easy Bridge 2 books at a price of $6.00 per book as prices will be

$13.00 per book after January 1, 2000. A discussion ensued regarding

teaching Easy Bridge vs. other novice teaching programs. We can get

money from the District for innovative teaching programs. A motion

to table was made by Steve Robinson and seconded by Kathy Kruskal.

The motion passed unanimously.

Barbara will look into alternatives for a teaching program for

novices and present the alternatives at a future Board meeting.

Because of the success of the 0 - 49er Trophy Championship game in

October, Barbara is exploring another 49er Trophy Championship Event

for the April or May Sectional.

Miscellaneous

Jim thanked Dave for his hospitality.

The next Board meeting will be held on December 15 at Frances

Burke's house (directions to be provided at a later date). The

January Board meeting will be held on January 19 at Lee Jensen's

house.

The tentative dates for the subsequent three Board meeting are

February 13, March 22, and April 19.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Rothkin for Ted Ying,

Recording Secretary