July 2022

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes ACBL Unit 503
Monday, July 11, 2022 via Zoom

Directors Present

David Merenbach, Marc Cervellino, Dianne Giancarlo, Gerry MacDonald, John Schwartz, Eli Wismer, Stephanie Youngquist

Others Present During All or Portions of the Meeting

Carl Baeuerlen

M/S/P = Moved/Seconded/Passed

Call to Order

David Merenbach, President of the Board, served as Chair of the meeting, called the meeting to order at 4:00PM and announced that a quorum of the Board members was present and that the meeting, having duly convened, was ready to proceed with business.

Approval of Meeting Minutes

Eli W. announced that the minutes of the June 13, 2022 Board Meeting were approved via email.

Firecracker Sectional Update

Marc C. and Gerry M. presented an update on the status of the Firecracker Sectional held in July. It was a very successful event by all measures.  Thanks to Marc and Gerry for heading this up, and to the 40+ volunteers who supported the tournament. There were 403 tables over the 5 days.

Financial Update

Marc C. presented an update on our Finances.  There was a Net Operating loss and negative Cashflow for both June and the first six months of the year.  These results are better than the budgeted plan to date. Marc also showed a chart of our Unit membership and ACBL overall membership.  Unit 503 has 883 members, down 6% since the start of the pandemic.  ACBL as a whole is down 15% in the same time period.

Replacement for District 21 Representative

David M. announced that Kip Kado has resigned as our District Representative.  We will actively seek recommendations for a replacement person for this position.

Newcomer Games

Marc C. led a discussion on trying to increase participation in our club games by our newer members.  Currently 52% of our members have fewer than 200 MP’s.  We discussed ideas on how to best serve this large portion of our membership.

October and November Sectionals

Marc C. led a discussion about upcoming Unit 503 Sectionals.  We have two Sectionals scheduled for October 15-16 and November 5-6.  The October tournament was originally planned to be a Non Life Master event and the November tournament to be an Open event.  Based on the success of the Firecracker as an Open event, it was recommended and a motion made that we now make the October tournament an Open event.  M/S/P.

Surrounding Units to Play at PABC

Dave M. led a discussion about reaching out to members of surrounding units who either have no F2F games now, or limited games, and seeing if their members would like to play in our club games.  Dave M. will reach out to the President of the Silicon Valley Unit to ask if we can send an email to their members to play here.

Celebrity Lecture

Dave M. announced that Robert Todd will be in our area in September, and would we like to ask him to give another class for our members.  Dave will discuss with Kathy Wheeler.

District Elections

Dave M. discussed the upcoming District 21 Election.  Our Unit’s votes will be cast by our Board Members.  There are 3 candidates running for President.  Dave M. will arrange for each of the three to address our Board during our scheduled August Board Meeting.

Reserved Parking Spots

Dave M. raised a request by one of our club members to provide a dedicated parking spot for club owners.  In our lease we share the parking lot with IFES, and are not permitted to assign parking places.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:23PM.