February 2026

Club Owners and Board of Directors Meeting Minutes ACBL Unit 503

Tuesday, February 10, 2026, via Zoom

Directors Present

Liz Koh, Marc Cervellino, Dan Thatte, John Schwartz, Dana Shelley, Stephanie Youngquist, H. Paul Davis and Dianne Giancarlo.

Directors not Present

Geraldine MacDonald, Alex Narasin

Others Present

Alan Templeton, Will Watson, Allen Simon, Paul Davis, Prue Saunders.

M/S/P  = Moved/Seconded/Passed

Call to Order

Liz Koh, President of the Board, served as Chair of the meeting, called the meeting to order at 3:30 PM and announced that a quorum of the Board members was present and that the meeting, having duly convened, was ready to proceed with business. Dianne Giancarlo served as Secretary of the meeting.

Club Owners Discussion

Liz K. welcomed the club owners to the meeting and thanked them for all the efforts they have put into their club games in the past year to help make the Unit successful. The specific areas discussed were:

1-Feedback about attendance at F2F club games: Liz asked the owners for input on how we can increase attendance at our club games. Marc C. noted that the Unit is at about 30% of our highest attendance record in 2019, which is an improvement from the numbers since the Bridge Center closed in 2020, but attendance probably will never fully recover to pre-Covid levels. Some of the ideas discussed as to how to increase attendance include: the importance of bringing in newer players; having more lessons offered perhaps before a scheduled game to help build up a game; having more evening games to accommodate working players; perhaps holding an intermediate game similar to the Tuesday limited game on another day; offering very easy ways for new players to get used to duplicate such as a smaller number of boards in a game; owners sending newsletters to the newer players to help keep them connected to the club; making newer players feel welcome at the club; offering more awards to players for achieving masterpoint milestones; phoning members who haven’t come back to the Bridge Center since Covid. Paul D. acknowledged that the Unit Board has done a great job at helping to increase participation.

2-Unit’s Financial Overview: Marc C. presented slides on the financial overview of the Unit. The Unit has incurred a loss for 2025 and is projected to continue to do so through 2026 mostly because our rent is increasing. Notwithstanding the loss for 2025 and the projected ongoing loss, the average weekly table count has been about 65 which is a solid improvement over past years since Covid. Factors such as the steady improvement in attendance, successful tournaments, celebrity lectures, special events, etc. are helping to limit those losses.

3- Advertising upcoming events at the Bridge Center. Liz stressed the importance of the club owners/directors advertising upcoming events at their club games when they have a captive audience.  Players may not necessarily read our eblasts promoting upcoming events. We are still looking for a volunteer to head up the marketing aspect, an important part of our Unit duties. It is particularly important that we let members and non-members know that our Firecracker date has been moved to June this year.

4-Ideas to increase attendance at club games, especially NLM and beginner players. As part of the Free Lecture Series, H. Paul D. and Ken Rosenfeld are organizing some lectures before some of the club games, perhaps directed to more beginner players. Other members have offered to provide lectures. H. Paul D. also noted that there is a Pro Am coming up on March 12^th.

5-Cultivating future directors and club owners. The Board had put some thought into this previously when there was a pending change in ownership of some clubs. Dana S. expressed that we should continue to identify who may be up and coming directors or club managers. There was some discussion about the different skill set needed for these two positions and that there is not much training out there.  Club Owners should put together a training/development program.

6-Cultivating a volunteer culture. We discussed that we need to continue to find ways to bring more members into the volunteer circle.

7-Relationship with IFES. Liz K. and Marc C. reported that we have been working harmoniously with our landlord, the IFES, on dealing with some maintenance issues and settling the issue division of past utilities.

8-Change start times for club games. Start times had been changed so that they are now the same for Mondays and Thursdays (11:30am with no break) and Tuesdays and Fridays (10:45am with small break), to accommodate players who may prefer one over the other. No further changes are expected at this time.

9-Table fees. The Board noted that club owners are responsible for setting table fees.

Liz K. thanked the owners for attending the meeting and moved on to the Board regular meeting.

Approval of Meeting Minutes

Dianne G. announced that the minutes of the January 13, 2026 Board Meeting were approved via email.

Financials Update

Marc C. reported that recent attendance at our weekly games has been strong in January and February, beating most of last year’s months. Enrollment at the recent Amber Lin online seminar and enrollment in Frank Smoot and Kathy Harper classes has been very strong. 

Next Celebrity Seminar on Zoom: Adam Parrish on 4/11. 

Adam Parrish will give an online seminar on April 11^th on planning the play in no trump contracts.

Meeting with Club Owners

Board members found the meeting helpful – we may want to have Board meetings with club owners every six months.

Water consumption 

Liz K. reported that we have been working with the IFES to address some water overconsumption issues. 

Fundraising efforts with PBEF 

Stephanie Y. reported that our fundraising effort has been very successful. We have not reached our goal, but the Unit is in good shape. 

The Board meeting adjourned at 5:40 pm.