Minutes
WBL Board Meeting
January 23, 2008
The meeting was held at Clyde Kruskal’s home.
In attendance: Don Berman, Carole Banks, Ellen Cherniavsky, Jim Geist, Fred King, Clyde Kruskal, Linda Marshall, Steve Robinson, Ellen Rosenthal; non-voting members Nadine Wood, Kitty Gottfried, Donna Rogall; and Shawn Stringer.
President King called the meeting to order at 7:55 PM.
Secretary’s Report
The Board approved the minutes from the December 2007 WBL Board meeting, provided that the person thanked for hosting the last meeting should be changed to Ellen Cherniavsky. Otherwise the minutes were approved without objection.
Treasurer’s Report
Steve Robinson reported a balance of more than $16,000 in the WBL’s checking account. The WBL has approximately $37,800 in an investment account. The Board approved the Treasurer’s report, without objection.
President’s Report
Over the last year the Unit has had a net gain of 36 members and is the largest unit in the district. This is the first time in the last three years that there has been a net plus change in membership. The average age of members in the ACBL is 68.4 years, while that in District 6 is 66.8 years.
Bridge and Bowling
Dinner will be at Sullivan’s at 5:30. Board members were especially encouraged to attend the Bowling part of the event.
Restarting the Sunday Fiesta Game
Herb Behre has had discussions with the Kensington Armory and should have a proposal finalized soon. Mark Lavine is interested in holding the game either at his house or the church in Potomac. He would like to run the game, but hire someone else to actually direct it. Finally Barry Lieberman is going to approach a couple of the Montgomery County centers to see if they are possible venues. We hope that we can have some definite proposals very soon and get this show back on the road.
Bulletin
Donna Rogall stated that the January 22 deadline had been missed and Fred King agreed to forward his President’s letter as soon as possible. Jeremy Koegel’s essay, in which he describes how much learning bridge has meant to his life, and which he submitted to college as part of his admission package, will be featured in the Bulletin. No progress has been made on collecting from the advertisers who have not paid. Steve Robinson agreed to send bills to them.
Unit Game
Kitty Gottfried discussed the need for someone to be ready to assume her hospitality responsibilities should she not be available in the future. There is a problem with not having backups for hospitality, as was exemplified when Nadine was ill and had to go home at the Sectional. Carole Banks suggested that Board members should be on rotation as backups. There will be continuing discussion of this issue at a future meeting.
●Cancellation Policy
Ted Ying has offered to set up a Yahoo group to facilitate communications
in the event the game may need to be canceled, and the Board approved.
After considerable discussion the following was agreed to:
The policy is to hold the game if at all possible. Necessary conditions: 1. Need director. 2. Need equipment (e.g. cards) 3. Site must open with heat and power. Whether parking has to be available is an unresolved issue. Decision to be made by 4:00 by the Director-in-Charge and the Unit Game Chairman. Decision to be posted on the website and programmed on the Unit phone (and if a Yahoo group has been established, there too).
Instant Bridge Player
Shawn Stringer is going to run the five hour Instant Bridge Player program at the end of March; last year it was done by Gary Grossman. Shawn expressed concern about marketing. A number of suggestions were made about places to post flyers, and it was agreed that announcements should be made at the Unit Game.
Bridge in Schools
Ellen Rosenthal reported that four of the six schools that participated in the fall program are continuing into the winter. Two schools are not, one because the school failed to tell the students they had to re-register for the activity. Ellen will look into why the other school is not continuing. Two new schools may start in the spring.
Bridge Baron is going to be given out to the students.
There is $13,000 set aside that might possibly be used to award a trip to a regional or national.
Building Fund
Steve Robinson proposed that a building fund should be started, and that the following d apply to the management of the fund: “Will held in the WBL accounts with separate accounting. Monies would be welcome as non-deductible donations. The monies would be earmarked to purchase or lease playing space for bridge activities. The monies could be used for other activities only with unanimous consent of the WBL Board. The WBL will put five cents into the Building Fund for every table held at tournaments and the Unit game starting with Jan 08. Since there were 458 tables at the Jan WBL Sectional, $22.90 will be put into the building fund. A table of naming rights will be created, with the bigger the donation the bigger the naming right.” The Board agreed to this proposal, but decided that the monies could be used for other activities with consent of 75% of the WBL Board, rather than only with unanimous consent.