August 2014

Brian Samuels, President, called the meeting to order at 3:38 pm. Other board members present were Leslie Altick, Valerie Baldwin, Jim Harris, Bob Horowitz, Todd Makler, James Stuart Smith, and Jody Williams. Kevin O’Leary was absent by prior notice. Elinor Tanck, Kibitzer Editor, John Prior and John Schwartz, Club Owners, also attended. Roger Smith, a guest speaker, also attended.

Guest Item: Roger Smith, the last of the three candidates for District 21’s director (representative) to the ACBL Board described his candidacy. He has been volunteering for the ACBL for 40 years. He has served at the unit, district, and national levels, serving as district president twice, president of the organization that publishes the Forum, in a previously term on the ACBL board, and as ACBL president. Recently, he has focused on the ACBL’s Goodwill efforts, of which Playing Nice is an important part to encourage newer players’ continued participation, as well as participating in activities encouraging new members, such as mentoring. He believes the ACBL’s major challenge is membership recruitment and taking care of the “regular players.” He sees on-line bridge as a separate world — that the ACBL needs to make face-to-face games more attractive. The ACBL election will be from August 15 – October 3.

The minutes from the July 10th meeting were approved.

President’s Report: Brian reported on a visit from representatives of the Mountain View Zoning Association, which deals with neighbors’ complaints. The purpose of their visit was IFES (the source of several complaints), but decided also to see our facility. There were no issues raised. With November elections in the near future, Brian introduced a nominating committee, headed by Leslie and including Jim and Jody, the three members of the board who have second years yet to serve. As the size of the board will be reducing to seven members, we are looking for only four new members,. Brian will act as consultant to the committee. Unit members should send names of potential candidates to anyone on the Nominating Committee. Brian had a meeting with the head of IFES, our landlord. Among the issues discussed is that the IFES hall is rented for the remaining weekends of the year, as well as for a 100 person/50 car event from September 10-14. We need to plan for parking around these dates. Brian asked whether IFES is interested in renting us the larger hall for overflow – yes, if we can deal with parking. As for renting us the small storeroom near the kitchen – he no interest himself, but will ask his board.

Treasurer’s Report: Todd reported that the unit is approximately $8,000 ahead of budget (even before receiving the funds from the bequest) and well above our benchmark reserves. The variances are due to our educational activities as well as higher tables revenues and our sectional. Although we do have unbudgeted expenses before the end of the year, Todd expects we will end the year ahead of budget. The Finance Committee will meet to develop a budget for 2015 in September.

Firecracker: The final financials for the Firecracker suggest raising the table fees was the right decision. The tournament would not have been in the black without the increase. James will provide the tournament’s last five years’ statistics to the rest of the board. There will not be a member survey after all. We need to identify next year’s Firecracker chairperson as soon as possible; ideally this should have been done before the event. James continues to advance negotiations with the Santa Clara Conventions Center. June 10 – 14th are the only available dates. The ballroom would be available for the five days, but the small room is unavailable on Sunday. A way to deal with this might be to stage the Sunday Pairs at the Unit. Although, we are not able to get a contract confirmed until November/ December, a provisional booking has been made for the space and the D21tournament organizer advised. James is also investigating Levi Stadium, which has the requisite space, although we do not yet know the cost. James recommended that there be a committee formed to plan for the future of the Firecracker, including identifying future venues. Alan Cummings has volunteered to help with the venues. James also recommends the playing schedule be worked on sooner rather than later and he has several volunteers in mind. Leslie volunteered to help.

Unit Games: Jim reported that we have a unit game in each of September and October.

Education: Val reported that we have a totally full house for the Eddie Kantar seminar. There was a discussion of how to accommodate Silicon Valley Youth Bridge’s desire to use the Bridge Center more often. It was decided to continue to consider each request on a case-by-case basis. Todd noted that there is flexibility in the budget should we need it to cover rent.

Kibitzer: Elinor noted that due to travel schedules, the September Kibitzer will be late.

New Business

Brian has received a number of suggestions that we limit the size of the games at the Bridge Center. People are mostly concerned about parking and safety risk, as well as preferring more space during the game. The downside of placing a limit is having to turn people away – not a pleasant task. He suggested two alternatives a) create a committee to study this and make recommendations, b) decide that the board chooses not to make decisions of this type and direct the game owners to manage the size of the games appropriately. John Schwartz was present for the discussion. He pointed out that the median number of tables on Monday is 46.5. The greatest number of tables on Monday was 53. After much discussion, the board concluded the second option was best. As long as the fire aisles are preserved, the largest game is considered safe. Further, since unit members (who can always vote with their feet) are still coming to the most crowed game, the majority of members are satisfied with the way the largest game operates.

Old Business

Additional Refrigerator Space: Kevin informed Brian that he is investigating adding more shelves to the existing refrigerator.

AV Upgrade: Jody has received a satisfactory bid for the system that includes the needed conversion of the digital sound signal from the new HDMI equipment to analog to be compatible with our existing system. She hopes the small complication regarding how power is installed at the Center is a misunderstanding on the vendor’s part; but if not, the bid may come in slightly above the spending authorization. The board passed a motion authorizing Jody to spend up to $2800 to simplify matters. She also noted that although the vendor does not offer a guarantee, enough people will be attending the installation to determine if it is working properly before we pay for new equipment.

Defibrillator Update: John Prior reported that owing to a Red Cross delay, he has not yet ordered the new equipment.

Playing cards: Bob spoke with the game owners. Most use the ACBL paper cards. Those using the plastic cards do not see a problem with them. To mandate use of specific cards would require a change in the contract with club owners. A motion was made to change the contract with club owner mandating use the of ACBL cards provided by the unit. The motion did not advance.

2014 Initiatives

Member Input and Involvement: Jody reported that we had a great response to the email blast for partnership volunteers. Many people wish to help. Aruna Desu has volunteered work with all the directors to help match people, as well as helping to get the paper partnership binder created. She has started to introduce the binder at different games. Ed Zuckerberg has volunteered to help create an online partnership directory, which may take a bit longer as we address managing the site and the kind of information that people are comfortable having public. Jody requested that board members fill out a partnership form to encourage members to contribute to the binder.

Increase Weekend Game Attendance: Jody and Leslie will be planning an individual event to acquaint people with new potential partners. One consideration is whether this event should be at a unit game. John Prior noted that during the Las Vegas tournament, only two pairs attended the Saturday game, making a duplicate game impossible. But those present agreed to play a Chicago-style rubber bridge game, which everyone enjoyed enormously. He wondered whether it might be useful to add a 199-er section to the Saturday game with the Chicago-style rubber format (which would avoid partnership issues). He might include a short lesson or commentary after hands on the relevant bridge points. The board encouraged him to try this idea.

Expanding Bridge Center: No news in Kevin’s absence.

Online Bridge: Jim reported that he was unable to reach BBO to schedule a meeting in Las Vegas. The principals never responded to his inquiries. Jim will investigate other sites.

Play Nice: The delay in getting the posters from the ACBL website should be rectified shortly. Bob will be talking about the initiative at the games at which he plays.

Bylaws & Policy: The new bylaws will be posted to the website next week.

Committee Positions: We still need volunteers to handle Trophies and Mentorship.

Todd noted that the retiring Baby Boomers are our greatest short-term opportunity. He urged the board to think about how to market to them, suggesting that this be discussed at a future meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:25 pm. The next meeting will be on September at 3:45 pm.