Minutes

WBL Board Meeting

April 23, 2003

In attendance: Barbara Doran, Steve Robinson, Dave Ruderman, Dick Wegman, Don Berman, Ben Laden, Fred King, Barbara Shaw and non-voting member Michael Carroad.

The meeting was called to order by President Barbara Doran at 7:27 P.M.

Barbara announced that she is giving President’s awards to Leslie Shafer, Lee Biggs, and Alice Wegman. She has purchased a gift for retiring tournament chairman Lee Jensen. The elections chairman is Jim Allen. She received a letter from Charity Sack about the free plays she did not receive for winning the Tubbs award last year. It was decided that we would print up colored tickets for free plays so that accounting would be easier for Director Michael Carroad.

The minutes were approved. Barbara was asked to bring 25 copies of the minutes from last year’s annual meeting to this years meeting.

Treasurer, Steve Robinson reported that we have $10,173.56 in our checking account and approximately $19,000.00 in the Money Market account. He was asked to bring 25 copies of the annual report to the annual meeting in May. Dave Ruderman wanted to know how much money we receive from duplicating boxes of boards. Rick Larkin duplicates boards for a charge of $12.00 per box of 36 boards. He receives $9.00 and the WBL receives $3.00 per box. Dick Wegman and Ben Laden asked that Steve list free plays for the Unit games separately in his monthly report. Both thought it would be helpful in tracking the number of free plays we give each year. The treasurer’s report was approved.

Mid-Atlantic Regional Report

It is the Mid-Atlantic’s Alexandria Regional but the WBL gets to appoint the chairman. The host Unit receives $1500.00 from the Mid-Atlantic but the amount is reduced by any late charges applied. We had a budget due to the Mid-Atlantic by March 30th which is not in yet. We are incurring late charges. Michael Carroad said that he would talk to Lee about getting the budget in to the Mid-Atlantic. Kathy Kruskal needs help getting a Volunteer Coordinator and Information Chairman.

Ben Laden reported that we have a Sectional coming up in May which will be held at the Christ the King Church on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sundays team games will be held at the Washington Bridge Center (B/C) and Laurel Bridge Club (A/X). We have two other Sectionals in October and December. The sites are not confirmed. We need 5000 sq. feet to hold up to 70 tables. There could be parking problems at the church if the game is very big. Dick Wegman said that we can not have the church on Saturday in December. Ben was asked to check again with the White Oak Armory to see what the status is currently. We pay $1590.00 rent + $800.00 for the custodian at the armory. The church rent is $50.00 per day no matter how many sessions we have.

Once again we discussed tabulating the results of the surveys. We received about 110 surveys. Dick Wegman said that we need to tabulate the surveys and publish the results. Barbara Shaw reminded the board that they have a tabled motion from last year’s annual meeting about Sunday start times at the Sectionals. That issue on the survey should be tabulated and reported at the annual meeting if nothing else. The board agreed. A committee consisting of Barbara Shaw, Dave Ruderman, Michael Carroad, Ben Laden, Don Berman and Barbara Doran will meet Tuesday, April 29th at Barbara Shaw’s to tabulate the  results of 5 selected questions deemed most important at this time. Questions to tabulate were start times and breaks, appeals, Zero Tolerance, $2.00 extra playing site charge, 17-19 suggestions. Donna Rogall will e-mail the surveys on Don Berman who will bring them to the meeting.

Don Berman asked about carpooling on the net. He said that no one has ever used the net to obtain carpools. Dick Wegman asked that we update information on the net and clean-up old information. We should take off names when the dates have past. There are about 15 names now on the net asking for partners.

Fred King, Education Chairman, reported that the teaching manuals which we agreed to purchase can be ordered cheaper by Leslie Shafer and Mary Jane Von Moss. The books will cost only $6.50. They will order 60 of the Club series and 40 of the Diamond series. The books will be delivered to Fred King.

Fred King reported on Unit Growth. He and Dick Wegman had lunch with Bob Levy from the Washington Post. Bob was interested is helping and said that he tried to get information in the Weekend Section but they were not interested. He said that he would try for the Style Section. He edits Frank Stewarts Bridge Column and said that he might be able to put in a sentence if you want to play locally go to the WBL and NVBA Web sites for information.

Fred also said that they discussed starting and interscholastic competition. Three schools would be enough to start. We could give out scholarships for winning and trophies. We need a coach for each school and a teacher sponsor. Blairs sponsor left the school that is why the program was discontinued there. Steve Forsythes lessons have between 4 and 5 tables and cost $5.00 for the game and lesson.

Steve Robinson then presented an idea for the future. Would we like to own our own building? He made a motion that we establish a building fund of $.05 per table. If something materializes then we would have some money. If not the money would go back into the treasury. Dick Wegman seconded the motion. The motion was tabled for discussion by the new board to be elected before the next board meeting.

Dick Wegman thanked Barbara Doran for her 10 years of service to the board and Dave Ruderman for his 7 years of service. Dave will be retiring from the board while Barbara will remain on for one more year as the immediate past President. Barbara has been on the ACBL Board of Governors for 19 years.

The board thanked Barbara Doran for hosting the meeting. The next meeting will be at Dick Wegman’s May 28th.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 P.M.

Respectfully submitted,

Barbara Shaw, Recording Secretary