March 2013

The meeting was called to order at 4 PM by Brian Samuels, President.

Present were Board members Brian Samuels, Valerie Baldwin, Margot Livenspargar, Susan Griswold, James Stuart-Smith, Steve Barasch, Kevin O’Leary, Robert Horowitz and Lee Haze. Also attending: Elinor Tanck, Kibitzer.

Sue moved that the minutes of the February meeting be approved. Motion carried.

Brian made several announcements:

• The committee head appointments have all been filled.
• He would like the meetings to last no longer than 1 ½-2 hours, ending surely by 6 PM.
• Our insurance will go up this year since an inventory of our furniture, computers and related equipment, audio-visual equipment, bidding boxes, BridgePads, etc showed that we were underinsured. Also, the directors of games at the Bridge Center who are not members are covered by our insurance. Bob Horowitz moved that our insurance be increased to cover $75,000 of inventory. This will cost $373 to 6/23/13, then renewal will be $2118 per year. Motion passed.
• The President and the Chairman of the Education committee reached an agreement with teacher Debbie Rosenberg. A member will be found to take her class at no cost in return for making coffee, cleaning up, and securing the Bridge Center. Debbie will also pay a $15 fee per class session for this service and in return will have no responsibility for the Bridge Center. There was little interest in hosting the 2014 D21 GNT.

Brian, reporting for Treasurer Todd Makler, said that the Finance Committee had met. Sample reports were passed out showing the results of that meeting. Six reports will be sent to the members of the Board, Club Owners, and any member who requests them.

The preliminary budget created by the Finance Committee was presented. There will be a few revisions and it will be again presented at the April meeting. A final vote is expected to be taken in May. A copy of the 2013 budget will be attached to the minutes of the meeting in which it is formally approved by the Board.

The current balance in the Unit fund is $76374 and in the Education fund, $4806.

Elinor announced that the Kibitzer will be 6 pages for the next issue.

Previous Business
There has been only one request to speak at the Annual Membership Meeting. That is by Debbie Rosenberg, who, with Mukund Thapa, will present some ideas for getting a bridge presence in the local schools.

The increase of the fee for Unit Swiss team games was upheld. Comments were forwarded to the Board via Board Members from some Unit members who did not attend the meeting. The consensus is to keep the $10 fee.

Examples were presented by Elinor Tanck and Steve of plaques to replace those that were lost in the move and to update all the plaques. Steve moved that these items be procured and updated and that the fee would not exceed $450. Motion passed. Elinor will take care of this.

The issue of incorporation for the Unit was not yet resolved. Bob, wearing his Board Member’s hat, said the he would contact LegalZoom and get a detailed estimate of the cost for incorporation.

Kevin said that, at this time, no further Board action is required for the three weekend games.

Kevin is still looking at the sound proofing issue.

Val gave an update on the audio-visual installation. It is still not satisfactory but is better using a device borrowed from Alan Templeton. Alan Cummings is working with the company that originally installed the a/v system to get them to replace the switch at no charge to us.

New Business

Val presented an Education Rental & Scheduling Policy. Because of time constraints, a motion (Kevin) was made and passed to approve the presented policy with the changes that were discussed. A copy of the new policy, with the discussed changes included, will be attached to these minutes if the policy is completed before these minutes are posted. Otherwise, the new policy will be attached to the April minutes.

Directors of non-Bridge Center clubs are entitled to use the dealing machine but must pay a fee for paper, printer supplies etc. if they wish to print hand records at the Club.

The pricing for the 2013 Firecracker tournament has been approved by the ACBL and published. Therefore it was decided that the 2013 table fee should remain as advertised.

Announcements will be made about the first anniversary of the first game in the current Bridge Center.

Kevin will look into the prospect of fixing the bidding boxes on the edge of the table similar to how they were presented at the San Francisco Nationals.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:10 PM

The next regular meeting of the Board will be Thursday, April 4, 2013 at 4 PM at the Bridge Center.

Respectfully submitted,
Margot Livenspargar, Secretary