September 2015

President Jody Williams called the meeting to order at 3:45 pm. Present were Board members Paul Davis, Leslie Altick, Todd Makler, Kevin O’Leary, Jim Harris and Dave Puryear. Also in attendance were James Stuart-Smith, John Prior, and Stu Goodgold.

Stu Goodgold spoke in support of his candidacy for 1st Alternate to the District Director. Stu emphasized his experience in the role and his demonstrated ability to step in for the Director.

The minutes from the August 4, 2015 meeting were approved.

Firecracker 2016: James Stuart-Smith, who has agreed to chair the event provided we can staff the key roles to provide help, shared his thoughts on next steps. He will be travelling for several weeks and several tasks need to be completed while he is gone. The priorities are parking, game schedule, and food. Jody and James Harris reported on the status of negotiations with IFES. The FC dates are reserved with IFES. The person at the Buddhist Temple in charge of parking is on vacation; James Harris will follow up when he returns. We need Chairs for Parking and Food. Jody’s email blast has not resulted in much response. She will send another blast, making clear that the FC cannot happen without volunteer help. Paul Davis has made an inquiry to the Conservative Forum about their success in getting an easement to use Hetch-Hetchy parking. Board members have differing opinions about the length of the FC. Should we keep the traditional 5-day format or shorten it to 3 days, at least this first year in a new venue with more volunteer effort needed. A final decision will depend in large part on the volunteer response.

District Elections: A brief discussion of the candidates for District offices was held. Each Board member must vote online for both 1st and 2nd Alternates to the District Director.

Paul Davis reported that we have an almost-final draft of the new license agreement with club owners. The changes are intended to clarify the document, not to make any substantive changes. Once the final version is ready, it will be reviewed by both the Board and our club owners before final approval.

Nominations: Dave Puryear reported that the Nominating Committee is close to having a slate of candidates for next year’s Board of Directors.

Utilities: IFES is not happy with the terms of our lease regarding electricity. We will investigate a separate meter for our space. We are also willing to pay our fair share of costs each month. We would also like to encourage IFES to install LED lights in the parking area. Recycling is also an issue. Kevin O’Leary will follow up with Recology regarding a recycle bin on our side of the property. He will also explore a composting option.

Volunteer Posts: We still need Chairs for Unit Games and for the Mentor-Mentee program. The current Chairs are leaving at the end of the year.

Member Communications: We will pursue two possibilities regarding the Kibitzer. We will send an email blast with an opt out option for receiving the Kibitzer electronically. We will also consider a “coupon” in the printed Kibitzer requiring a signup to continue receiving it in printed form. At the least, we will be able to reduce the number of copies we print. Eventually, we should be able to avoid printing costs altogether.

Unit Games: We had 45 tables in August and we are still ahead of the 2014 pace.

Facilities: The carpet is being cleaned during the Regional. Will Watson has solved our computer crashing issue, at least for now.

Treasurer’s Report: Cash reserves are above our target and we are ahead of our budget for the year-to-date by about $7600. We owe about $2000 in supplies, so our real position is closer to $5600. The end of the year typically involves extra expenses so the projected final result is a deficit of $1800. This is not a problem, but going forward, we can anticipate larger deficits. The Budget Committee is meeting next week and we will have a preliminary 2016 budget at our next Board meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 pm.