April 2015

Jody Williams, President, called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm. Other Board members present were Leslie Altick, Jim Harris, Todd Makler, Paul Davis, Kevin O’Leary, and Dave Puryear. Also in attendance were John Prior and James Stuart-Smith.

The minutes from the March 10, 2015 meeting were approved.

FUTURE FIRECRACKERS: James Stuart-Smith reported on the meeting of the Future of the Firecracker Committee. The Santa Clara Convention Center is not currently available for any June or early July dates in 2016 that work for the District 21 calendar. The Committee is investigating alternate sites, including the IFES Hall next door. Paul Davis and Jim Harris will assist in these negotiations. Subject to availability of a venue, the Board preferred June 22-26 to June 29-July 3, 2016 to avoid conflict with members’ plans for the holiday weekend.

James also noted that this year’s Firecracker will need a number of volunteers for setup and takedown as well as other tasks.

LARRY COHEN EVENT: The Board voted to reserve some spaces for youth signups for the Cohen seminars for a period of time after signups begin. Jody will consult with Val Baldwin about how many and how long. The Board decided against a youth discount because the Unit only receives 25% of the fee. Dave Puryear will talk with Debbie Rosenberg, who requested the youth spaces, about which young players should be urged to attend.

Last year’s Kantar event experienced a significant number of cancellations, creating extra work for the volunteer organizers. The Unit was able to fill the seats from the wait list, but the Board is reluctant to repeat that experience. So the Board voted to charge a $10 cancellation fee for early ticket refunds and to stop giving refunds in the final 2 weeks prior to the event unless the ticket can be resold to someone on the wait list. This will reduce the Unit’s risk in sponsoring the event.

FREE PLAY POLICY: The Board passed a free play policy to clarify how we allocate and account for free plays. The Board recently approved $1000 in free plays for both unit Games and special services to the Unit, including our upcoming Spring Cleaning. A copy of this policy will be added to the Governing Documents in the Unit Governance section of the website.

REPORTS: President Jody Williams has ordered better document holders for our lobby display of educational offerings. Our current holders make it difficult to see the materials on display.

Leslie Altick provided a draft of our membership survey of attitudes about a fragrance-free environment and about our annual member directory. The Board approved the survey.

Dave Puryear reported the Communications Committee met and decided to publish the Kibitzer every other month rather than monthly. He is also working on an updated ‘Courtesy’ poster.

Jim Harris reported that table counts at Unit games are down, but more Unit games are scheduled this year so total tables for the year should at least match last year.

Kevin O’Leary has ordered a microwave for the kitchen. He also reports that our janitor has been asked to write a letter to the Board regarding his request for a raise.

Todd Makler reported that revenue was $4000 below budget for the first quarter, but this may be an anomaly due to two factors. First, the Quarter includes revenue realized in January for December table counts which are always below average due to the holidays. Second, in 2015 the Burlingame Regional occurred in February and reduced first quarter revenues. Last year it was held in March, reducing April (Second Quarter) revenue. This year March table counts should be larger because there was no Regional in March and because there were five Mondays in March, our biggest day of the week.

The next Unit games are Saturday, April 4 (pairs) and Sunday April 12 (Swiss).

The next Board meeting will be May 12 at 3:45pm at the Bridge Center.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:43pm.