May 2021

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes ACBL Unit 503
Thursday, May 13, 3 p. m.

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

Others Present During All or Portions of the Meeting
Dianne Giancarlo, Lisa Koh, Paul Davis, Kevin O’Leary

Call to Order

Gerry, President of the Board, served as Chair of the meeting. 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 April 15, 2021 have been approved by e-mail.

Financial Update

Marc sent his financial update via email as there were several other important items on the agenda.

IFES Lease Discussions

John Schwartz presented an update on the Bridge Center lease discussions with IFES. After a few months of discussion with the IFES, terms of a new long-term lease have been proposed. Marc provided financial analyses of the proposal, and it was noted by a number of board members familiar with commercial leasing in this area that the proposed lease terms were financially attractive for the location, size and parking availability of this location, and the good working relationship with the IFES in the past. Resolutions were passed unanimously by the board, authorizing Gerry to sign a new lease consistent with the proposal and approved by Jon Rayden, David Merenbach and Marc Cervellino. Gerry and the Board expressed their deep appreciation to John, Alan, Jon, David and Marc for their efforts.

Table Fee Discussion (Marc)

Marc presented a proposal on the table fees to be charged by the Unit to the clubs, for the initial re-opening period until August 2021. The proposal  considered the new lease agreement, the current arrangements for games played online, and the financials for the Unit. A resolution was proposed to adopt the new table fees. The resolution was unanimously adopted. John Schwartz abstained as he is a club owner.

Re-opening plans (Jon, David & Gerry)

Jon presented an update on the re-opening plans. There was a broad discussion covering all aspects of the re-opening, including:

• Updates to the bridge center – HVAC, additional air-flow equipment as needed, paint, carpets and restrooms.
• Schedule for the games.
• Requirements to attend the games – masks, vaccinations, food/drink policy (no food/drinks inside the center), reservations.
• Gerry will send out an update about the bridge center re-opening to the members with input from the re-opening committee and the board.

Gerry and the board applauded the efforts of the re-opening committee.

The board passed resolutions to support the facilities updates and the requirement for all players to be vaccinated.

The board also agreed that the PBEF would be asked to support the facilities updates.

Pianola Subscription Renewal

A motion was proposed to renew the Pianola subscription for the next year. The motion was unanimously approved.

NLM Weekend Game

Dianne Giancarlo will be chair and Lisa Koh will be the co-chair for the NLM Weekend game.

Adjourn

Having completed the agenda for the meeting, the meeting was adjourned shortly after  5 pm.