December 2016

Call to Order: Dave Puryear, President, called the meeting to order at 3:34pm. Other directors present included Leslie Altick, Gill Barsley, Peggy Chen, Paul Davis, Jim Harris, Marolyn Imaoka, Todd Makler, and Jody Williams. John Prior also attended. The Board approved the minutes of the November 10th meeting as submitted. Dave welcomed incoming board members Alan Polish, John Schwartz, and Susan Zhang. He also thanked outgoing members Peggy Chen, Jim Harris and Paul Davis for their contributions.

Election of 2017 Officers: With the new Board members participating, the Board elected David Puryear as President, Alan Polish as Vice President, Leslie Altick as Secretary, and Todd Makler as Treasurer.

Weekend/Evening Usage Committee: Paul reported that the Committee is planning to offer an entry-level Saturday game at least once a month. There is some concern as to the level of player interest. He noted that the Burlingame unit is having success with Raad Bundy’s novice player lessons paired with a game that illustrated the points of the lesson. Paul is investigating whether a ’99er game with a similar format on Saturday might work for Unit 503. Acquiring sanctions and directors for these monthly games is still in process.

Holiday Party Update: Marolyn reported that we have 60 tables signed up for the Holiday Party. Extra parking will be available at the Buddhist Temple. The meat dishes will come from Safeway. Beverages will be served in the Bridge Center, but the dining will occur in the IFES hall. Marolyn needs volunteer captains to recruit volunteers for set-up and cleanup (using sign-up sheets at the Bridge Center). All directors will be asked to announce the party and the need for volunteers to sign up.

Firecracker 2017 Update: Gill was able to update the Firecracker flyer with help from our printer and a friend who is a graphic artist. Assuming ACBL approves it in a timely fashion, the flyer should be available for the Monterey Regional. Joni Smith has agreed to chair the Partnership Desk. Cheryl Haines is working on securing hotel rooms. Dave asked that discussions with Hetch Hetchy about using its easement for parking include a request that future applications be granted with less than a two-month lead-time. This will be useful if there is a scheduling overlap with IFES.

Approval of 2017 Budget: Todd noted that the 2017 Budget has not changed since the November meeting. He considers it a conservative budget. The 2016 Board approved the budget, recognizing that the new Board will have to approve it again in January when estimates for year-end results are more certain. From his vantage point of having served as Treasurer of several non-profits, Todd noted that few Boards would have been able to develop so many new activities/events to bolster the 2016 results. He offered his congratulations to the 2016 Board for these decisive moves.

Approval of new Defibrillator Battery: John Prior reviewed the rationale for having purchased the defibrillator and offering training on its use. He asked the Board to again promote training for directors and other unit members now that there appears to be no liability risk in California for users of the device. Discussion brought up some research that shows little difference in survival rates after hospital discharge between patients who received defibrillation and those who hadn’t. There was a proposal to decouple the issue of purchasing the new battery from training. For now, only the new battery was approved.

Reports

President – Dave noted that the recently installed mandalas (created by Carl Brunsting) are on permanent loan to the Unit. The Unit still needs to fill key volunteer positions. The most pressing need is for a Tournament Coordinator, the person who acquires the ACBL sanctions for each tournament scheduled. It does not require proposing dates for or managing the tournaments. This job only requires 1 hour/month. We also need volunteers to arrange for 1) food for the Unit games, 2) scheduling and picking up the teams from the Workers’ Center to do the periodic cleaning of the kitchen and bathrooms, and 3) volunteer recognition. Volunteers should contact Dave. The Bridge Center will be getting new, higher handicapped toilets. Given that several games plan to raise table fees in 2017, there was a discussion of whether to raise the fee for free plays. The consensus was to consult the most frequent users of free plays before making a decision. At the Board’s suggestion, Kathy Harper held a beginner class hoping to interest IFES members in bridge. After it was held, she asked if the 8 participants could kibitz for free at her Monday evening class without Kathy incurring a rental charge. The Board agreed to waive the rent for this one special circumstance, but reiterated that it wants to adhere to policy. Thus, any variance from policy needs to be pre-approved in advance. Pursuant to November’s discussion, John Mattis has volunteered to install an exterior building light to improve parking lot visibility.

Technology Committee – Jody reported the main issue in getting members to sign up for Pianola is motivating them to take action. That said, about 500 Unit members have enrolled. The primary emphasis on Pianola is to trim our database to unit members plus members from other units who play regularly in our games. The database was originally created with all members from surrounding units. The size of the membership list is causing three problems: it takes too long to load, it makes it difficult to determine which of our players have not yet signed up for Pianola, and we can’t move the email blast to Pianola until we trim the list. There is a partnership desk function within Pianola that works well for regularly scheduled games. Members can set their own group of people with whom they are willing to play. Discussion surfaced that there are some features of Pianola that are not intuitive; they will be forwarded to Jody and addressed in Frequently Asked Questions. It was also suggested that the company consider a mirror server in the U.S. to help speed up response times. Jody will contact Barbara Shukov in order to help set a date for terminating use of Mail Chimp. Paul made a parting request ton the 2017 Board to consider a single solution for members to make game reservations.

Education Funding – Paul reminded the Board of the E-mail Blast that was sent after Thanksgiving soliciting funding for the Peninsula Bridge Education Foundation. He reported there were two PayPal donations and a substantial number of checks, but it is hard to attribute them to the blast. Since its inception, the foundation has received more than $9,000 in donations.

Unit Games – Gill reviewed the results and explained the report she creates to the new Board members. The report shows a substantial year-over-year growth in tables due to the higher number of unit events being held.

Treasurer – Todd explained the Unit’s cash position and reserve policies to the new Board members. He also reminded the Board of the transition from cost center to standard income statement accounting in 2017.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:22 pm. The next meeting will be held on January 12, 2017 at the Bridge Center.