March 2021

Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting ACBL Unit 503
Thursday, March 11, 2021 3:00 p.m. PT 

A regular meeting of the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of ACBL Unit 503 (the “Unit”), was held by video teleconference at the above time pursuant to notice duly given to all members of the Board and the Unit.

Directors Present

Geraldine(Gerry) MacDonald, President
Marc Cervellino
Charlene Friedman
David Merenbach
Jon Rayden
John Schwartz
Dan Thatte
Stephanie Youngquist

Others Present During All or Portions of the Meeting

Paul Davis
Kevin O’Leary

Call to Order

Gerry, President of the Board, served as Chair of the meeting and acted as Secretary. Gerry called the meeting to order and announced that a quorum of the Board members was present and that the meeting, having been duly convened, was ready to proceed with business. Gerry confirmed that all participants could hear one another.

Approval of Meeting Minutes

The Board noted that the minutes of the meeting held on Feb. 11, 2021 have been approved by e-mail.

Financial Update

Marc presented his regular financial update. He noted that the directors have been running virtual games for 48 weeks now, starting shortly after the club closed one year ago. Tables counts have been consistent, continuing the help the club pay our monthly rental commitment. There was a strong turn out for the first Friday night Swiss team game on Feb. 26, 2021. More will come in the future including a Unit Swiss once a month.

We have applied for a small business grant designed for non-profits. As this point we are waited listed for further action.

Planning for Bridge Center Reopening

Marc provided us with an excellent set of bullet points to begin considering reopening needs and requirements. In front of all the physical facilities issues is identifying when Santa Clara County will lift its restrictions on indoor group gatherings. After much discussion from the board one early action item will be to consider using a consultant to recommend physical facility changes/requirements. It was also suggested that we may define reopening as a series of stages i.e. number of people, reservation requirement and food. Jon Rayden and David Merenbach will look into this an other issues, along with Kevin O’Leary when necessary.

District 21 Issues

Gerry reported that Lori Spaeth is now our District 21 representative along with Kip Kado. There are several organizational issues occurring at the district level and we will try to keep a close eye on things as they affect our club operations.

Robert Todd Seminar

The Robert Todd Seminar was big success with about 125 attendees. The feed back is extremely positive. There are some administrative details that will need to be reworked before future seminars are offered. Many thanks to Alice Smith and Shankar Iyer for making this event happen again in the future.

Survey Update

David Merenbach reported on the member survey sent by email to approximately 90 members. The returns were not large enough to draw any statistical conclusions. Some of the individual comments we all about returning to in person play, find partners and wanting more beginner games.

Other Misc Items

The social bridge round robin knock-out is doing very well. Again the feed back is very positive. Teams are having lots of fun. Thanks for Marc and Shankar for organizing these games.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 pm