Call to Order and Approval of September 14 Minutes: President Dave Puryear called the meeting to order at 3:40 pm. The minutes of the September 14, 2017 meeting were approved as submitted. Other board members present included Leslie Altick, Gill Barsley, Marolyn Imaoka, Todd Makler, Alan Polish, and John Schwartz.
Candidate Statement – Jim Leuker, candidate for the District 21 seat on the national ACBL board, joined the meeting to present his objectives as our potential national representative. Jim as served in numerous capacities at the Unit, District, and National levels. His platform focuses on improving the operational issues he sees at the national level, including finances. Dave thanked him for meeting with us.
Board Nominations– Alan reported that the Nominating Committee has completed its task and has a full slate to recommend for the November election. Next steps are to create/edit biographies for the candidates who have not yet served on the board. We need to recruit a new Elections Chair, but Dave expects to easily find a volunteer.
Volunteer Needs: There was nothing new to report o the search for volunteers to fill the Firecracker Chairman, Club Manager, Unit Games Coordinator, and Friendliness Coordinator positions.
2018 Budget: The 2018 Budget is ready for ratification by the outgoing 2017 Board. It will be a breakeven budget.
Reports:
President’s Report – Dave reported that no one currently oversees the barrel that sits inside the front door to collect food for Second Harvest Food Bank. Consequently, no food is being delivered to Second Harvest except at the time of the Firecracker. Paul Davis has volunteered to take over food delivery if the Unit is willing to shift its intra-year giving to Community Services Agency (CSA). The Unit will continue to support Second Harvest at the time of the Firecracker. The board agreed to this proposal. Separately, Paul has proposed to move the Saturday morning game to a noon starting time to be consistent with the starting time of the Unit games. The objective remains having members know there will always be a game at noon on Saturday, which may help attract a more regular patron base. Dave will contact Paul to get his input on what sort of incentives might be appropriate to encourage that game to train new directors.
Technology Committee – Dave reported for Jody that the volunteer evaluating alternate web platforms moved out of the area. Therefore, Jody and Alan Templeton will move forward with the WordPress platform that the Corvette Club has vetted.
Unit Games – Gill noted that is increasingly difficult to compare results year-over-over. The best metric that we have is average table count, which is down from 24 last year to 15. The games in total are still profitable. It’s really necessary to get a Unit Game coordinator who will make sure the games are promoted. Dave is actively soliciting suggestions for volunteers.
Treasurer – Todd reported that the balance sheet is fine but the income is currently behind expenses. This is mostly due to paying for the Bridge Mates ahead of when some income will be realized. He expects income to be in the black by year-end.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 4:40. The next meeting will be on November 9.