Board of Directors Meeting Minutes ACBL Unit 503
Tuesday, February 11, 2024, via Zoom
Directors Present
Liz Koh, Marc Cervellino, Stephanie Youngquist, DanThatte, Dana Shelley, H. Paul Davis, John Schwartz and Dianne Giancarlo.
Directors not Present
Alex Narasin, David Merenbach and Geraldine MacDonald
M/S/P = Moved/Seconded/Passed
Call to Order
Liz Koh, President of the Board, served as Chair of the meeting, called the meeting to order at 4:00 PM and announced that a quorum of the Board members was present and that the meeting, having duly convened, was ready to proceed with business. Dianne Giancarlo served as Secretary of the meeting.
Approval of Meeting Minutes
Liz K. announced on behalf of G. MacDonald who took minutes for the January BOD meeting, that the minutes of the January 14, 2025 Board Meeting were approved via email.
New Celebrity Seminar Coordinator
Liz K. reported on behalf of Dede Barsotti, the Celebrity Seminar Coordinator, that the Amber Lin seminar in January was very well received attracting about 100 attendees. There are two upcoming Celebrity Lectures: Adam Parrish who will discuss “Become a Master at Doubling” on March 1st and Barbara Seagram who will discuss “Defensive Magic” on May 24th. We will ask Kathy Harper, Frank Smoot, Phil Abrahamson and other teachers to encourage their students to attend these seminars. We are also able to offer for viewing from our website and for a fee Celebrity Lectures from the past. Dede Barsotti has asked that Board members send her ideas of other bridge experts to invite to our club.
Financials Update
Marc C. reported that table counts at weekly F2F games continue to be strong, with weekly counts at its highest in January since before Covid. We are still operating at a loss but on budget. Marc said the key to significantly lower the Unit’s projected full year net loss is tournament attendance. but Marc expects that some new sources of revenue will help to offset those losses such as the Celebrity Lectures, Marc also noted that Unit membership has dropped slightly but at a slower rate than for the ACBL as a whole.
Special event: Valentine’s Day for Palo Alto Bridge
Stephanie Y., Marc C. and Liz K. have planned a special game for Valentine’s Day on Friday, February 14th. There will be decorations and sweets to go with Kevin’s soup and salad.
Status on new initiatives (to increase F2F play):
o Find-a-Partner game on 1/15 & 1/22
o New-X game on 2/1
o Intermediate-X game proposal
o Proposal for 499er/749er Intermediate game
o GNTs on Feb 8-9
o 49er game for Thursdays from 1/16
o Rainy-Day Saturday game
Liz K. led a discussion on the status of the many initiatives that have taken place to increase face-to-face play at the club. She reported that the Find-a-Partner games were well attended and have resulted in many new partnerships who are now playing at our regular weekly games.
H. Paul Davis reported that the New-X-game was very well attended with about 14 tables of experienced players matched with newer players, about one quarter of whom were not yet ACBL members. H. Paul noted that he had expected that more intermediate players would attend these games and questioned whether the marketing put too much emphasis on newer players. He said that he is willing to run more of these games and will work on how to attract more intermediate players and perhaps hold a game specifically for 499 and 749 players. D. Shelley and others felt that we should not close the door to any particular level so as to attract as many newer and intermediate players as possible.
Marc C. reported that the GNTs held at the Club on Feb 8 and 9 were very well attended and attracted excellent competition. There were 9 A teams compared to 2 last year and 13 B teams compared to 6 last year. The D21 Board is very pleased with these results and Marc C. has asked D21 to allow us to host these games next year (on a paid basis).
Liz K. reported that Phil Abrahamson and his committee have started a 49er game on Thursdays.
Liz K. reported that there have been 2 Rainy-Day Saturday games so far. It remains unknown whether Paul Davis will continue to offer them.
Status of conversation with IFES
Marc C. reported that he has asked our landlord for a meeting and is still waiting for them to get back to him.
2026 Sanction Dates
Marc C. is working with D21 to secure our 2026 tournament dates. The Firecracker will probably take place in June 2026 rather than after July 4th due to a conflict with the NABC.
Conversation with Unit 507
Marc C. reported that he has been discussing the possibility of pooling some of our marketing with Unit 507 (Silicon Valley). Liz noted that some members of Unit 507 are concerned because some of their members have changed their membership recently to Unit 503. Liz K. has assured them that we are not actively poaching their members but we do require that players be a member of Unit 503 in order to take advantage of some of the benefits that we offer such as our mentor/mentee program.
Frank Smoot Sanctioned Game
Marc C. reported that Frank Smoot has been holding a very successful class on Thursday evenings of about 60 participants. Many of them have not ever played duplicate bridge so Frank suggested that he hold a duplicate game on the week following his last class. Frank has agreed to do this and Will Watson has agreed to direct it. There will be no fee for players and Frank will not receive a fee.
PBEF
Marc C. reported that the PBEF has agreed to fund the Unit $5,000 for the last three years of which little has been spent. Marc suggested that some of these new initiatives may be a good place to direct these funds.
Volunteers Needed
Liz K. reminded members that G. MacDonald is still in need of volunteers. She asked that members refer any potential volunteers to Gerry.
New Business
S. Youngquist reported that she is working on new nametags that will have our new logo on them.
The Board meeting adjourned at 5:20 pm.
Board of Directors Meeting Agenda
Tuesday, February 11 at 4:00pm
To be held by video teleconference
For information about how to join the call, Unit members may contact Liz Koh