Minutes

WBL Board Meeting

October 18, 2006

The meeting was held at Clyde Kruskal’s house.

In attendance: Don Berman, Ellen Cherniavsky, Richard Ferrin, Fred King, Clyde Kruskal, Steve Robinson, Barbara Summers, Dick Wegman, and non-voting members Donna Rogall and Nadine Wood.

President King called the meeting to order at 8:00 PM.

Secretary’s Report

Without objection, the board approved the minutes, as amended.

Treasurer’s Report

Steve Robinson reported that the WBL had $8,584.55 in its checking account, and approximately $40,000 in another account.  Without objection, the board approved the Treasurer’s Report.

October Sectional

The Board discussed the layout and content for the Thursday bulletin for the sectional.  A new WBL Life Master list has been generated, and Richard Ferrin agreed to assist with printing for distribution at the sectional.  Nadine Wood stated that she needs help with putting old bulletins on poster board for display, in commemoration of the 75th anniversary.

Don Berman suggested calculating overall point winners from the last tournament, and awarding trophies at that time.  The Board decided to continue to award all of the point race trophies in the January sectional.

Next Year’s Schedule

The Board discussed corrections, and contact information in connection with the 2007 schedule.  The annual Bridge and Bowling event will be held the day before the Superbowl.  There are two Thursdays for which Christ the King Church is unavailable.  Bill Cole is working on arranging an alternate location for those dates.

Don Berman asked whether the WBL still wants the District 6 district-wide charity race to count only WBL overall point awards, and not district-wide overall point awards, for purposes of the Lovenberg trophy.  The Board decided to hold over this issue to the next meeting.

Condition of Cards and Boards

Fred King updated the Board on efforts to replace worn cards and boards.  Steve Robinson stated that Lee Jensen is discussing with the manufacturer the problem with the dealing machine.

Web Site

Following a recent unit game where Mike Carroad substituted for Ted Ying as director, several players e-mailed Ted with score corrections.  The Board agreed that Ted should inform Don Berman in advance when another director substitutes for Ted, so that Don can adjust the link on the WBL web site to report scoring corrections.

Entry Fees and the WBL’s Financial Position

Fred King reported that the Northern Virginia Bridge Association (“NVBA”) is considering raising entry fees by $1 per player to cover a significant increase in rent for the Knights of Columbus hall.  The NVBA would like the WBL to follow suit so that area sectional tournament fees are uniform.  However, the last time that the WBL raised its sectional fees, the NVBA did not follow suit until nine months later.  Fred did note that the WBL has assumed increased financial obligations, including subsidizing a new Sunday novice game, and fixing the dealing machine.  Nadine Wood noted that the rent for the Schweinhaut Center will increase slightly next year.

Dick Wegman said that if it was up to the WBL alone, he would prefer no change the WBL’s sectional entry fees.  The issue, however, is maintaining comity with the NVBA.  Nadine Wood commented that eventually the WBL will need to raise fees anyway, because it barely breaks even on sectional tournaments.  The WBL should do it now in a spirit of cooperation.

Steve Robinson disagreed, explaining that the WBL shouldn’t charge $10 per person table fees for sectionals, since that is the same price as for Mid-Atlantic regionals.  Barbara Summers stated that that nobody will notice that NVBA fees are higher than WBL fees, and that to the extent that they do, it will not deter people from attending the NVBA sectionals.  Barbara stated that she is opposed to raising fees unless it is necessary for the WBL.

Following further discussion, the decision of the Board was to wait and not raise sectional fees now, but the WBL will look at its financial position at the end of the year, and revisit the issue at that time.

Bridge Barons

Fred King stated that the company that makes Bridge Baron programs has leftovers of old versions to give away to people who wouldn’t otherwise purchase them.  The company is willing to give several to the WBL for distribution, but the company does not want the WBL to give them out to all novices, because those are people who might normally purchase an updated version.

Bridge at Schools

Dick Wegman reported on the hard work of Shawn Stringer to coordinate the school program.  Clyde Kruskal explained that they have enough people to teach bridge, but Mark Rosen told him that there was a lot of red tape in working with the schools.  Dick Wegman suggested inviting Shawn to report on her progress at the December Board meeting.

Bulletin Deadlines

Donna Rogall asked if there would be any changes to the stratification cutoffs for Thursday night.  The Board decided not to change the strata.

Nadine Wood asked for suggestions for the Friday night game of the January sectional.  Donna Rogall suggested a Swiss pairs/teams combo, which is run like a combo pair/BAM event, except it is scored by IMPs.  Richard Ferrin moved to make the Friday night game of the sectional a Swiss pairs/teams combo, and Ellen Cherniavsky seconded.  The motion passed unanimously.

The board thanked Clyde Kruskal for hosting the meeting.  Whereupon, the meeting adjourned at 9:45 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Richard Ferrin, Secretary