December 2010

Present were Board members Mike Atherton, Susan Griswold, Terry Lancaster, Steve Barasch, Lu Isaacs, John Mattis, Betsy Steele, Phyllis Gaffney, and David Wheeler while Grant Spaeth was absent. The five new 2011 Board members Valerie Baldwin, David Crosley, Beverly Nuding, and Allen Wolman were also present. Committee member attendees were Alan Cummings, Alan Templeton and Elinor Tanck. John Hornback also attended.

NEW BUSINESS:
Report by Site Committee on Dymond Building – Mike Atherton, Alan Cummings, and Alan Templeton provided the Board with a detailed overview of the potential lease of Dymond office space located next door to the Bridge Center. The presentation included negotiating lease terms and the lengthy city permitting process. John Hornback also provided a sketch of the building and talked about space planning considerations for both directors and players. The committee also found a second site; however, it only has 50 parking places and if we could obtain the building from Diamond, with the extended parking places, this would be much better for the club.

Discussion by current and future BOD members – Discussion centered on our options, timing, the planning process and the significant costs involved.

Vote on proposed action – The site committee was granted authorization to negotiate a lease with Dymond. The new lease would require final approval by the Board.

ADMINISTRATIVE:

November’s Minutes were approved.

Kibitzer and Unit Games Report – Elinor indicated that the next issue of the Kibitzer will be 6+ pages. The Christmas unit game has a couple of openings; please contact Phyllis if you are interested in attending. The Sunday January 23rd unit game will be Swiss Teams event. A new tournament chairperson will need to schedule future unit games (rolling 6 month schedule). The next board meeting will be Tuesday, January 11th due to the Monterey Clambake Regional January 3rd-9th.

Treasurer’s Report – Bridge Center November income was $3.2K, with total income for the year-to-date of $18.4K.  Assets were $56.0K at month-end.  Unit income was $0.8K for the month and $18.3K for the year-to-date.  Assets for the Unit were $78.7K at month-end.  Through October, the cumulative table count for the Center was 7,011 up 6.9% versus the prior year.  Funds allocated to defray moving costs to a new center (accumulated from July 2009 through October 2010) were $22.5K.  There were expenditures of $0.4K from the Education Fund for the month, all for the lecture series.  Year-to-date, there have been expenditures of $1.4K from the fund.  Total estimated assets for the Fund were $5.6K at month-end. Betsy asked for the Treasurer to report the funds that have been collected for moving expenses to be added as a line item in the bridge center funds so members can know where the extra funds have been collected.

ITEMS INITIATED BY BOARD MEMBERS:

Election of 2011 Board of Director Officers – Complete returns are in from Election Central: Sue Griswold was elected President, Mike Atherton was elected Vice President, Beverly Nuding was elected Treasurer, and Incumbent Terry Lancaster was re-elected Secretary.

Letter from Harvest Food Bank – Pete Klebofski inquired about the club sponsoring a Second Harvest Food Bank Donation Barrel. Many of the directors had already donated to various programs and thought it was quite late in the season to begin a new food donation program. The Board is open to considering a program next holiday season.

Letter from John Schwartz – John made a number of donations to both the Education Fund and the unrestricted use of the Unit and Center. We would like to thank John for his many contributions and his continued support of the bridge community.

Clean Up Day – The Board wanted to thank John and Linda Mattis for the efforts during the month of November to give the Bridge Center a thorough cleaning. Linda suggested there be a regularly scheduled clean up day. A date wasn’t scheduled because we will be moving. Please note that it is important to maintain the cleanliness of the Center for health reasons, especially during the cold and flu seasons, but also as we approach the end of our lease in August.

Firecracker 2011 Schedule – Steve provided a handout outlining the dates and times for the 2011 Firecracker Sectional at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The most significant changes are the new dates July 13th – 17th, new 49er games during each session, elimination of the Saturday and Sunday 2 day knockout, and addition of compact knockouts on Friday and Saturday with new morning and afternoon starting times. We look forward to seeing everyone at the event. Remember it is never too early to start making your plans to attend the best Sectional in the country.

Membership Drive – Lu reported on the activities of the Membership Working Group (Lu Isaacs, Steve Lubeck, Sue Griswold, Alan Cummings, and Phyllis Gaffney) and their efforts to increase ACBL membership. They created packets of information (entitled WHY JOIN ACBL?) to be given to non-members in order to persuade them to become members. They put together several sample packets and each of them met with two or more bridge teachers and/or directors of low level games for their feedback. The response has been very positive so the project will move forward. Steve Lubeck has volunteered to take over the project.

New Board – The Board would like to thank the retiring board members for all the time and energy they have given the club and we also like to congratulate the new members on officially joining the Board. We look forward to working with the new Board members on a number of challenging issues facing the unit in the coming year.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:30PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Terry Lancaster
Secretary