Minutes

WBL Board Meeting

December 6, 2006

The meeting was held at Don Berman’s house.

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

President King called the meeting to order at 7:58 PM.

Secretary’s Report

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

Treasurer’s Report

Steve Robinson reported that the WBL had $11,570.17 in its checking account, and approximately $40,000 in an investment account. It was noted that the Treasurer’s Report included entries totaling $145 in bad checks, and there was some discussion regarding the reasons for the bad checks and what was being done to collect. Fred King noted that Shawn Stringer has not yet submitted a bill for her services as the school bridge coordinator. Steve Forsythe has not yet submitted a bill for October or November 2006. Without objection, the board approved the Treasurer’s Report.

President’s Report

Fred King listed the following topics that should be included in the President’s report, reviewing 2006: (1) sectional attendance and playing site; (2) unit game attendance and playing conditions; (3) Steve Forsythe’s games; (4) the school program; (5) the round robin and Unit Knockout; (6) directors and staff; (7) the overall financial situation of the WBL; and (8) membership trends.

January Sectional

Nadine Wood stated that we need to verify the list of new life masters for the cake honoring them. There will be a panel show on Saturday. She said that she needs to figure out a theme for door prizes to be awarded at the Sectional. She also discussed the apparent lack of interest in the daily bulletin at the Sectionals. They appear to take more effort than they are worth. The Board agreed to discontinue printing daily bulletins at the Sectionals.

Calendar of Obligations

Don Berman reported that he is attempting to computerize the calendar of obligations so that there are reminders, notices go out automatically, etc. He will try to add in the additional dates as discussed in previous Board meetings. Fred King said that we need to determine the trophy race winners. The Unit Knockout and Round Robin events still are not finished, however, so the winners are still undetermined.

Awards for Past Three Sectionals and Plans for 2007

Fred King explained that the WBL obtained trophy plates and made presentations at the March 2006 Sectional for overall sectional point winners in the January 2006 Sectional. Then, the Board decided to award trophies only for the second and third strata (not the open strata), and for some reason no trophies were awarded for the March or August 2006 tournaments. Fred asked whether those awards increased attendance at the Sectional, and speculated that they probably did not.

Ellen Cherniavsky pointed out that novices do appreciate the trophies. Richard Ferrin added that while it is unlikely that few novices come to the tournament specifically because of the possibility of winning a trophy, when a novice does win a trophy, it can really excite him or her and boost attendance in the long run.

Nadine Wood stated that the WBL should at least award the rest of the 2006 trophies, since the Board had committed to do that in 2006. Fred King asked for a volunteer to handle procuring plates for the last three tournaments in 2006, and getting the plates engraves. Don Berman volunteered to handle those tasks. All of the plates those last three tournaments in 2006 will be awarded on Sunday of the January 2007 Sectional.

Fred asked the Board what awards, if any, should be given for 2007. Richard suggested awarding trophies for non-life master categories. Donna Rogall noted that the current strata for the awards are Open, 1500, 500, and 100. Dick Wegman suggested awarding trophies only for the 100 masterpoint and under level. Fred asked Don Berman to check the number of participants in this category, and unless it is really small, award the plate to the 0-100 category. Certificates for award winners in the other categories should suffice.

Dealing Machine

Fred King reported that Lee Jensen unsuccessfully attempted to fix the WBL’s dealing machine. Lee contacted the manufacturer, who has not been particularly cooperative. Ellen Cherniavsky passed out a table that summarizes the options and costs of new dealing machines from various suppliers. She said that somebody in Florida has a spare dealing machine that the WBL can use while the WBL’s machine is in Australia being repaired. It would cost less than $100 to ship the machine in Florida to Washington, and delivery should take about two days. The Board authorized Ellen to proceed with that plan.

Conditions of Cards and Boards

Fred reported that the cards for the Unit Game have now been replaced. The WBL has 13 sets of boards. He noted that Barbara Shaw cleaned the bidding boxes. The Board agreed in principle to award an unspecified number of free plays to Barbara as a token of appreciation for her hard work washing the bidding boxes. Fred added that Allen Crank agreed to repaint the metal boards (for vulnerability and direction markings).

Bridge in Middle Schools

Barbara Summers suggested sending a letter to the ACBL President recommending that the ACBL set aside money for supporting after-school bridge programs. The $300 stipend the ACBL currently awards is inadequate. Barbara’s proposed letter would recommend that the ACBL shift funds from charity games to the after-school bridge programs boost ACBL membership.

Nadine Wood confirmed that the ACBL’s current program allows a $300 stipend, plus provides teaching materials. The ACBL’s Junior Fund goes to purposes other than school bridge programs, such as international tournament travel for the Junior teams.

Fred King asked what the WBL’s school program would need from the ACBL. Dick Wegman noted the WBL current runs programs in six area schools. Based on one hour per week, and 16 weeks per semester, Dick estimated that the WBL would need approximately $10,000.

Nadine Wood suggested that a better approach would be to write a letter to the editor to be published in the ACBL Bulletin. She expressed serious doubt that the ACBL would re-allocate funds as suggested in Barbara’s letter. Dick Wegman asked whether the letter should instead be directed to the Mid-Atlantic Bridge Conference (“MABC”), since they have such a large fund. Nadine replied that the MABC is worse than the ACBL in responding to initiatives of this kind. She added that the ACBL’s Education Department is now gone, for all intents and purposes.

Fred closed the discussion by suggesting that the Board get feedback from Shawn Stringer on the needs of the WBL school program, and the WBL can draft a new letter.

Bridgemate

Nadine Wood stated that Bridgemate, the company that makes new electronic, wireless table-score-entering devices, made a presentation to the ACBL Board. The Bridgemate boxes were used at the World Championship in Verona and were well-received. At the July 2006 ACBL Board meeting, there was interest in introducing the devices to ACBL clubs. The plan was for Bridgemate to develop software for ACBLScore and test it, but that did not happen. The ACBL also claimed that an additional group was developing a similar system. ACBL director Rick Beyer said that the WBL could test the new system when ready. If the WBL wants to proceed, Nadine said that she would investigate further.

The consensus of the Board was to ask Nadine to investigate further. Shlomit Rind mentioned that a director in a club in Blacksburg ordered the system, and she will confer with him about his experience using it.

Bridge and Bowling

Fred King reported that certain “serious bowlers” despise the lanes at the bowling alley in Laurel. Since the Bridge and Bowling event will be occurring soon (February 2, 2007), we need to find a bowling alley in the next week or so. Close proximity to the bridge site (in Laurel) is desirable, but not essential. Shlomit suggested that the “serious bowlers” who complained should find an alley for the event. Fred King agreed to assemble the teams for the bowling event. Fred also agreed to confer with David Milton and Brad Theurer about alternative alleys that could handle the WBL/NVBA group. The bridge event will begin at 7:30 in Laurel.

Round Robin Committee

Steve Robinson reported that the Round Robin Committee decided to change the format of the Unit Knockout from a double-elimination to a single-elimination event. The concern was that the event took way too long to complete, overlapping with the Round Robin. The bracket will be seeded based on results of the GNT Swiss already scheduled for Thursday, January 25. Participants do not have to play in the GNT Swiss to play in the Knockout, but they will not be seeded as high. The entry fee will drop from $50 to $30 per team. The scheduling deadlines will be enforced more strictly, with the assistance of a mediator. Byes will be used to reduce the field to a power of two.

Don Berman stated that Alan Kleist complained about the location of the matches for the event.

The Board agreed to the following: (1) a single-elimination knockout; (2) a system to ensure timely play; (3) a $30-per-team fee; and (4) use of byes to reduce the field to a power of two.

Other Business

Steve Robinson stated his opposition to continued scheduling of a barometer pairs event for occasional Friday night sectional games. Steve said that the barometer event is expensive because an extra director is needed, and there is an additional cost for making more sets of boards. Steve said that the event does not attract enough additional people to justify the expense and trouble. Several other board members, including Nadine Wood, Richard Ferrin, and Dick Wegman disagreed, both with Steve’s claim of the need for an additional director for the event, and with the alleged lack of membership interest in the event. The Board agreed not to make any change at this time to the scheduling of barometer events occasionally at the Friday night sectional game.

Discussion of the WBL’s financials and report of the WBL Schools Coordinator were postponed to the next Board meeting.

The next WBL Board meeting will take place January 17, 2007 at Ellen Cherniavsky’s house. Richard Ferrin will host on February 28.

The board thanked Don Berman for hosting the meeting. Whereupon, the public portion of the meeting adjourned at 10:12 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

99900.004194 WASHINGTON 650321v1

Richard Ferrin, Secretary