ACBL Unit 503 Meeting Minutes 6/9/06
The meeting was called to order by President Alan Cummings. All board members were present except Mona Maltz, Chuck Lane, and Roy Robinson. Will Watson and Elinor Tanck were also present.
Administrative
Since no one could remember them, the minutes of the last meeting were accepted as written.
Elinor gave the kibitzer report. The Kibitzer will be late this month due to an AWOL staff. There was a minor crisis. The Kibitzers in the cabinet were missing the middle (Firecracker Schedule) page. Ethel will be put on it right away.
Alan T. gave the treasurer’s report. The Unit balance is $37330.73, and the Center balance is $16714.85. The bridge center table count was also provided be Alan. It continues to run ahead of last year.
Alan C.’s between board meetings report consisted of a Mentor report. There will be a “Tea” at the bridge center on Monday the 26th. There will be a short game at 3:30 pm (after the normal Monday games) for the Mentors and Mentees. Refreshments will be available.
Old Business
Alan C. gave a report on license agreement. At least 1 owner from every game has signed except for 1. Alan anticipates no problem in this area.
John H. gave the Firecracker report. In short, everything is under control. The hotel (the Hyatt) has 46 room rentals. They were promised 56, but John was optimistic that before the tournament was over, there will be at least 10 more. The ACBL and website advertising is going full force.
Next year is another story. The dates will be June 30th to July 4th. However, as yet, we have no place to hold it. We will need about 8000 to 10,000 sq. feet which is very hard to find.
Roy was not present at the meeting, but we got a Unit game report from the people who were there. The Life Master/Non-Life Master game was not a great success. The turnout was low, and, apparently, many non-life masters and life masters would rather play with their own kind. We won’t be holding this type of game again anytime soon.
New Business
Alan C. talked about a revision and update of our Unit constitution and by-laws written in 1987. Elinor and Gene Drew are tasked to complete a draft by October. Those who have actually read the constitution and by-laws say they are not bad. Big changes are not anticipated.
Liz gave the Unit membership monthly report. We currently have 734 members.
Will Watson reported that lunch meat he had in the refrigerator was stolen. This is not the first time things have been taken from the refrigerator. If it happens again, we will lock the refrigerator.
Will also explained the new format of the Tuesday game. One section is open. The other section will have players with a maximum of 1000 points. Will did a good job of easing people into the proper sections, and he said that he saw some new faces.
Alan C. discussed our liability insurance which expires on July 6th. Current policy expires on July 7th. Negotiations are underway to improve coverage and reduce the annual premium by 40%. Alan has promised in his spare time to work on auto insurance for each board member.
The ACBL has made it possible for any game to be a charity game or junior fund game and thereby give out larger masterpoint awards. The catch is that the games would cost $8.00 which some players may not like. However, owners can run their games as they see fit. Those of us who have memories of getting slips of paper with a .07 masterpoint value for our efforts are mildly bemused by these larger awards.
Alan C. thinks we should have director training classes. We need more substitute directors in case the scheduled director is under the weather. He suggested a catchy slogan, “Flunk the course, become unit president”. We will offer classes in the fall.
Alan C. mentioned that it was not too early to be thinking of the 2007 board. He wants us to think of qualified people.
We want to re-lamp the bridge center to get all the lights working and looking the same. However, to do that, we would want to extend our lease. Alan will work with Duane Coleman to try and do this.
Alan C. and Gabriella had their usual kind things to say about the district 21 meeting. Apparently, we could raise our sectional entry fees to $10.00, but we won’t. We also talked briefly of having a second sectional for 299ers. It is a pipe dream right now.
We then adjourned.
Dave Wheeler
Secretary