Board of Directors Meeting Washington Bridge League 19 January 2000

Attendees:

Jim Allen Bob Bell Don Berman Barbara Doran Lee Jensen

Steve Robinson Barbara Rothkin Dave Ruderman Ted Ying

The January board meeting was held at Don Berman’s house. Jim Allen called the meeting to order at 7:37 PM.

SECRETARY'S REPORT – YING:

One correction was found and e-mailed to Ying. Ying presented amended minutes to the board at the meeting. Doran moved and Rothkin seconded accepting the minutes as amended. The motion passed unanimously.

TREASURER'S REPORT – ROBINSON:

Robinson reported that there was $10,511.84 in the WBL account. Robinson reported that there was approximately $1516.00 more in the account than at the same point last year. And the total does not included the unit game collected revenue for December. Berman moved and Rothkin seconded accepting the Treasurer’s report. The motion passed unanimously.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT - ALLEN:

Allen reported that the WBL was mentioned in the local Kensington newsletter. At this point, Allen and the mayor are at an impasse over some outstanding issues between the WBL and the city council. Doran plans to work with Allen to resolve our differences with the mayor and council. One issues is the parking policy. Allen had drafted a parking policy that needs to be circulated amongst the unit game attendees. Allen asked that the parking policy be posted on the web page. Ying agreed to post it.

Allen said that we currently are on a continuation of the original contract with the City of Kensington that essentially requires 3-month notice by either party to cancel our agreement. Allen said that there was some discussion about a 5-year contract. Allen and Doran would continue to work with the mayor and city council on resolving outstanding issues and to continue to discuss a potential new contract.

Allen reported that the WBL and he in particular had a good working relationship with most of the staff of the Kensington Community Center (KCC). Allen reported that he gave the KCC staff the following holiday gifts: $20 “Holiday Bonuses” were given to 7 staff members who were part of the setup crew, Chocolates were given to KCC office staff, cookies were given to the mayor, a box of auto supplies were given to Tony Luna, the manager of the Bakers’ Union to pass on for use on the car of the President of the Bakers’ Union.

Allen reported that we had a complaint from the Levine School of Music down the block from the KCC. Allen cooperated with the director of the school and agreed to allow students and faculty of the school to use the parking facilities at the KCC until 7:00 PM on Thursday evenings. This would still be early enough to allow players in the game to park there for the 7:30 PM game. Also, Allen worked with the reverend of the church down the street to come to a compromise on parking facilities for them as well. Allen said that he had been able to work very well with the president of the church group and cooperated with them on resolving the parking conflicts. The president was easier to work with than the reverend.

Allen mentioned that the WBL had made a new concession with the mayor to not use her special room downstairs (the room used by the yoga group and with the hard wood floors) unless we rent it specifically. We have access to the smaller room downstairs without additional rent. This room should be sufficient as it was recently carpeted.

Apparently local state representative, P. Cauley and a state senator have applied for state loans in Baltimore to continue renovation of the KCC. The loans would help to complete the renovation of the bathroom facilities and other projects in the KCC, possibly window treatments. Allen also suggested the WBL consider alternative solutions that the WBL board could institute to help with the renovations like the cooperation with the community to get the sound baffles installed.

Allen reported receiving the Mini-McKenney trophies from the ACBL. Allen needed to resolve two corrections to the awards before presenting them to the winners. First, Alice Johnson was not a regional master at the start of the 1999 year so was not eligible for that award. Also, although under 5 masterpoints, Hugh Grosvenor was not a rookie at the start of 1999. Allen said he would get the corrections and award the trophies to the winners.

Allen reported there was a Montgomery County-based newspaper that might be willing to do an article with photos on the WBL. Berman commented that it should be mentioned in any advertising that bridge is now an official Olympic sport approved by the IOC starting in 2000.

Allen reported some items from the MABC meeting. With rising director fees, Bruce Reeves mentioned that the districts and/or MABC might need to raise regional entry fees. The MABC approved a new rule that any partnership leading small from two small (i.e. x (x) ), were required to lead face down and have the partner of the opening leader announce to the declarer that they lead small from two small. This was approved by the MABC for all MABC events.

Allen had a question about whether the 2001 WBL sectional dates were confirmed. Jensen reported that hose dates were confirmed in 1998 and were fixed then. Allen needed to get that information to the KCC office staff to confirm our reservations for tournament weekends.

Allen reported that the district had confirmed that they would repeat the conditions of contest in the NAOP that required no unit final for Flight A.

Allen reported that due to the 2002 Summer NABC’s in Washington, that the district once again had an extra regional (like in 1993). Roanoke was being considered to host the extra regional.

Allen was currently looking for a nominee for the District 6 Hall of Fame. Bill Cole was not eligible, but Peter Boyd was under consideration.

BOARD REPORT – ROBINSON

The round robin was completed. The COLEMAN team was Flight A and was runnerup to FEETHAM in Flight X.

Robinson was still adding e-mail addresses to his mailing list. The mailing list has been quite popular. Anyone getting any additional e-mail addresses for WBL members or players interested in getting information about WBL events should give the addresses to Robinson.

BOARD REPORT – ROTHKIN

Rothkin reported that she had updated the Club listing. Ying asked for an electronic copy to post on the web. Rothkin agreed to send an electronic copy to Ying.

Rothkin was still attempting to contact Leslie Shafer to get an update on the EasyBridge program for the board.

Rothkin was considering running another 49er championship game in early summer, possibly advertising it as the “End of the Season” or “Last Chance” championship since our season runs from September to May each year. Rothkin proposed adding this to our May sectional.

BOARD REPORT – DORAN

Doran reported that the 2000-2001 District 6 NAOP would have no unit finals. She was still trying to schedule the 2000-2001 district finals.

Doran reported that she was the election chair for District 6 for this year. Anyone with interest in serving on the district board and willing and able to attend to the district meetings at District 6 regionals should contact Doran for consideration to be on the new slate.

BOARD REPORT – JENSEN

Jensen reported that the January sectional had 399.5 tables. The next sectional tournament would be the first weekend in March.

Allen asked who to contact for getting the free plays for the annual trophy winners. Jensen informed him that Jeannie Stenger handled those free plays and would award green free play slips to the trophy winners and the winners should contact Stenger to receive the slips.

BOARD REPORT – YING

Ying reported that the web site was being updated regularly once again and the statistics for the web site were on the rise once again. Statistics would be available for the next board meeting.

BOARD REPORT – BERMAN

Berman had no report.

BOARD REPORT – RUDERMAN

Ruderman requested the snow policy for the unit game due to the reports of a large amount of inclement weather approaching the area. The policy was set such that the Unit Game Chair (Ruderman) and the Unit Game Director-in-Charge (Michael Carroad) would decide if the weather necessitated canceling the unit game. If the unit game was cancelled, Ruderman was responsible for contacting Shirley Watson at the KCC office and having her update the answering message there. Ruderman was also responsible for contacting Ying so that he could update the web site. In the event that the unit game was cancelled, the GNT Club qualifier for 20 January 2000 would be moved to the following week, 27 January 2000. The GNT qualifier could be rescheduled if the unit game itself were cancelled, or in the event that too few teams showed up to compete.

Ruderman reported that the Christmas party was a success. The only problem associated with the Christmas party was the setup of the room. The room had to be rearranged that day to accommodate the party and game. There was a discussion about room setup procedure. Carroad was planning on generating a map of the room setup to give to the setup crew. Another suggestion was to put tape marks on the floor to mark where the tables were supposed to be set, however, this was considered not to be useful as other groups might use the room and the tape marks might be moved or removed. Jensen said that there was a table pole that measured the distance between the tables that was brought over from the Silver Spring Armory. The WBL needs to locate that pole and instruct the setup crew on using it.

BOARD REPORT – BELL

Bell mentioned that the CNE hearing was schedule for the evening of 22 January 2000 after the session at the site of the Richmond District 6 NAOP district final.

Bell reported that a novice newsletter went out and that it was good and well-received.

NEXT MEETING

The next WBL Board meeting will be Wednesday, 23 February at Lee Jensen’s home. Directions are included at he end of this message

The March board meeting is tentatively set for 22 March 2000 at Kathy Kruskal's house. The April board meeting is tentatively set for 26 April 2000 at Jim Allen’s home. These will both be confirmed at the February board meeting.

Directions:

Directions to Lee Jensen's home:

From the Beltway: Take Connecticut Ave (185) north to Independence (about 5 miles). Turn left on Independence.

Go three blocks. Lee is on the left at 4206 Independence.

For those preferring the back way, take New Hampshire to Bel Pre Rd. Turn left and go to Connecticut. Turn left. Independence is about 3 lights down. Turn right.

Allen thanked Berman for his hospitality. Rothkin moved and Ying seconded adjouning the meeting; the meeting was adjourned at 9:10 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Ted Ying, 20 February 2000