Minutes

WBL Board Meeting
January 16, 2002

In attendance: Barbara Doran, Steve Robinson, Barbara Shaw, Bill Cole, Michael Carroad, Dave Ruderman, Dick Wegman, Lee Jensen, Don Berman, Fred King and guests Steve Forsythe, Diane Walker, and Leo LaSota.

President Doran called the meeting to order at 7:28 P.M.

The minutes were approved as amended without objection. Don Berman will be posting the minutes on the WEB site. As of this time Don and Barbara Doran have the user I.D. and password. If anyone else wants it they can have it.

Treasurer Steve Robinson reported that we have $3149.19 in the checking account. We ended 2001 with $6249.19 in checking and $40,374.42 in our A.G. Edwards money market account. $10,000.00 goes to Margot’s Committee for Nationals.

Barbara Doran updated us on the District 6 meeting held Saturday during the Williamsburg Regional. The Hall of Fame was soundly rejected. Elections are coming up for District 6. Andre L’Heureux, Barbara Doran and Bruce Culmer are on the nominating committee. Get in touch with
one of them if you have any suggestions for nominees. Bill Cole is now President of District 6 because the previous President Jim Hooven resigned for health reasons.

Margot Henning’s Committee will receive $108.00 from the WBL and $108.00 from the NVBA to subsidize the free plays given as door prizes at the next 6 sectionals. The door prizes will be a free entry for any Regional event at the summer Nationals to be used anytime the winner wishes.
These door prizes will be given away during the Friday and Saturday afternoon events at the sectionals.

Barbara Doran also said that Abby Heitner, chairperson of the committee on guidelines for C&E Committees, suggested that we have a pool of people for pending Appeals Committees at the Unit games. She will call ahead of time for each game and designate 3 people and 2 alternates to be on potential Appeals committees for each Thursday night.

Barbara Doran also said that we are adding a 0-5 Game to the WBL Sectional schedule on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

Steve Robinson and Michael Carroad reported that they are still having trouble with the new dealing machine. Michael said we were sent a new DOS version and it still doesn’t work. Our machine reads regular cards well but jams when it is supposed to put them into the fourth slot. Steve Robinson said that he would E-Mail the dealing machine people again and ask for further help.

Lee Jensen and Kathy Kruskal will be chairpersons for the September Sectional in Clubs.

Don Berman reported that the old and new WEB sites have now been combined. The new WEB site is www.Washingtonbridgeleague.org. The old site will redirect anyone to the new site if we keep it for one year at $19.00. Done Berman moved that we keep the old site for one year at $19.00. Barbara Shaw seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. He will also point to the ACBL schedules on the WEB site.

Steve Robinson said that Jim Allen owns the Friday night Easybridge! game. The ACBL subsidized 60%, District 6 Easybridge! game 20% and the WBL 20%. Donna Bowser, Intermediate-Novice Chairperson for District 6, and Nadine Wood said if the ACBL pays then District 6 also pays its share of the Easybridge! cost. The WBL paid for the Easybridge! books. Jim Allen will refund to the WBL 80% of the cost of the books since Jim received 60% from the
ACBL and 20% from District 6. The WBL pays for supplies not salaries.

Fred King, Education Chairperson, said that Easybridge! is seen the way of getting new members into the ACBL that has been successful in recent years. He introduced Steve Forsythe and Diane Walker as certified presenters of Easybridge! Steve asked if we could leverage the Unit’s return on its investment in Easybridge! Steve suggested that we have a 0-20 game on Thursday night to get people to come to the Unit game. He also suggested that the WBL sponsor an Easybridge! 2 and 3 class. Since there is no space at the Unit game site for a 0-20 game with a mini-class before hand, it was suggested that we contact Jim Allen and see if we could rent the WBC for the 0-20 Unit game. Steve was asked to negotiate with Jim Allen reminding him that the WBL has subsidized Easybridge! 1 and we have given many free plays to the club. Don Berman suggested that whatever we pay the WBC it should be on a per table rate.

We need to get publicity in the Gazette or Journals. We should emphasize it as an Olympic sport. It should be similar to the article that appeared in the Richmond paper. Diane Walker will teach another Easybridge! 1 class at the WBC. While Steve Forsythe will teach the follow up classes Easybridge! 2 and 3 from 7:30-10:00 on Thursday nights at the WBC. We have the list of students that took Easybridge! 1 at the Smithsonian. We need to contact them. Dick Wegman suggested that we emphasize the presence of Nationals in Washington to culminate our efforts. Steve Forsythe will fill out the paper work. These games will belong to the WBL. He will talk to Edith McMullin about the cost, expenses, books, salary and marketing. Steve Forsythe was asked to give a copy of the game files to the WBL so it goes with our records. Steve will search for any Easybridge! 2 &3 books we might have. The excess Easybridge! 1 books belong to the WBL. We asked Steve to come up with a budget proposal and starting date.

Kay Afdahl said that Easybridge! is not part of Education. Therefore, the Educational Foundation will not be funding Easybridge! However, Donna Bowser said that it is part of the Intermediate-Novice program and therefore could be funded from her budget. Edith McMullin did give the WBL
credit for any new ACBL members who joined from the Smithsonian classes. Diane Walker will check other possible locations for classes besides the WBC. It was suggested that she check with the Montgomery County Department of Recreation, the Rockville Senior Center, and the JCC.

Michael Carroad told us that Marshall Kushner will be leaving us as one of our Thursday night directors. He will be going to the NVBA as their head director beginning in March 2002.

Steve Robinson reported on the Unit KO’s. Due to many complaints concerning the original format, there will be a winners and losers bracket. Teams may register with either Michael Carroad or him. Entry deadline is January 24th. It will cost $48.00 per team for the entire event.

We then discussed the trophy race problems. Don Berman received an E-Mail from Fred Steinberg that the trophy race standings are not published often enough. Don Berman
volunteered to post the standings weekly on the WEB site. He would receive the results from Michael Carroad after each eligible event and add the points won to the existing point totals and post them. Bryan Coleman would still be in charge of the official standings and continue to accumulate the totals. Before publishing them in the Bulletin Bryan could check with Don Berman’s totals from the WEB site. The two figures should be identical. If they are not then Bryan could look into why there is a discrepancy. Don Berman would simply be a back-up for Bryan and would assist by publishing the standings on the WEB site weekly.

The official eligible games are as follows:

1. All Thursday night Unit games held at the WBL site except the BAM portion of the Christmas
Party.
2. All events played Thursday at the WBL including overalls played at the WBL site. (If overalls are based entirely on tables at the WBL site then overall points count. If overalls include other sites then only section awards count.)
3. STACs on Thursday nights.
4. WBL Sectionals
a. All events including Thursday morning count.
b. If KO’s are at sectionals, the points are doubled up to 20 points. Anything over 20 points is not doubled but counts as points earned.
5. Sectional in Clubs counts.
6. WBL Round Robin counts.
7. Unit KO’s counts.
8. If a GNT or NAOP runs concurrently with a sectional the points won during the sectional
weekend count toward awards minus the points coming into the final weekend.

The Unit Championship games we are giving to the clubs are not WBL sponsored events and points do and will not count.

Dave Ruderman then discussed the Web movement on Thursday nights. He pointed out the facts that with 2 sections playing 3 boards each round the game ends 15 minutes earlier than with a Web movement. The 2-section movement also spreads more masterpoints (approximately
.5 points) to more people. There are also fewer free plays given with a Web movement. Dave Ruderman moved that we do away with the Web movement on Thursday nights. Bill Cole seconded the motion. The motion was defeated with 1 in favor, 6 against, and 2 abstaining. It was pointed out to the board that there are several people upset with the current Web movement. Two people we know specifically. Barbara Doran said she would check into the procedures and policy to see if these two people could bring this issue up for a vote at the annual meeting held in May. Steve Robinson said that he did not think the entire membership should dictate to Flight A how their game should be run. If only the general Flight A membership would vote that might be different.

Barbara Doran thanked Bill Cole for hosting the meeting. The next meeting will be February 20th at Lee Jensen’s. The April meeting will be at Dick Wegman’s. The meeting was adjourned at 10:05 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Shaw, Recording Secretary