April 2014

Brian Samuels, President, called the meeting to order at 3:50 pm. Other board members present were Leslie Altick, Jim Harris, Bob Horowitz, Todd Makler, Kevin O’Leary, James Stuart-Smith and Jody Williams. Valerie Baldwin was absent with notice. Elinor Tanck, Kibitizer Editor, and John Prior, a Club Owner, also attended.

Minutes of the prior meeting were approved.

President’s Report:

• The unit held its constitutional meeting on March 23, at which Brian reviewed some of the Board’s recent actions. There were neither pre-submitted questions nor questions from the membership in attendance.
• The unit purchased a refurbished computer for the broken dealing machine.
• After the March meeting, Brian determined that it was not necessary to set our youth discount as a percentage of the license fees charged to game owners; rather it could be any whole number. A motion to set our youth discount and credit to club owners at $4 passed unanimously.
• Brian reported that Silicon Valley Youth Bridge is having an event to thank volunteers; the board will consider having a similar event as part of its initiative to involve more members as volunteers.
• There is now a formal agreement with John Prior for a 6-month trial Tuesday evening game.
• The Board discussed setting up a PayPal account and determined that the benefits did not outweigh the extra work involved.
• Brian thanked Barbara Shukov for producing the 2014 member directory. Brian also reported that our blast email service can include a hyperlink, which may prove useful in communicating to members.
• Finally, Silicon Valley Youth Bridge asked to use our center May 4, at 5:30 pm. This precedes Will’s game, but he has ok’d the request.

Treasurer’s Report:

• Due to higher than expected table counts, the March and year-to-date financials are ahead of budget. Because this may be a trend, it was agreed to have a financial review in July, after the Firecracker, to reforecast our expectations for full year results and identify any options this presents.
• Todd reported that the Education Fund had $750 in donations (even without a tax benefit) in the first quarter. Between what is held at the ACBL and these donatations, the unit has approximately $4,000 in educational funds.

Unit Games: Jim reported the on the income to the unit from the February and March unit games. It is not clear why February was stronger. Nancy Kehl (who organized the February game) believes it has to do the amount of promotion. As she will be promoting the April game, we will be able to see if this is the case.

Kibitzer: Elinor identified a new printing company that has offered us a lower price for printing the Kibitzer and it is more conveniently located. She will try it out this month.

Old Business: 2014 Initiatives – Member Input and Involvement: As Val was absent, Leslie reported on the first meeting on this initiative. The committee agreed this initiative has potentially three parts. The first is to determine what direction unit members want the club to take. This will require soliciting member feedback on our initiatives list. The second is to determine small-time-commitment volunteer positions that could involve more members in club activities. Each board member has been asked to think of smaller jobs meet this description. The plan is to query members about their interest in becoming more involved in the center, but in small ways. We might ultimately create a position of manager of volunteers. Finally, part of this initiative is also to determine what attracts members to games. The initial survey on weekend games will help jumpstart this part of the effort. Initial results indicated many members simply need a way to find a partner. This led to a discussion about partnership services at the unit, to be further investigated.

Expanding Bridge Center: Kevin had identified possible walls in the center that might be movable. A number of additional questions were raised about cost, permits, additional strains on parking, and renting extra space from IFES. More to come.

Increase Weekend Game Attendance: Jody reported there was a brief survey sent to 1000 members, which netted a good, 10% response rate. Responses pointed out a need to identify partners and interest in different game formats (e.g., an abbreviated Swiss game in the morning – 4 boards followed by analysis, another 4 boards with discussion, followed by a different format game in the afternoon). Next steps will be to talk with club owners about the survey, including discussing options for varying game formats.

Online Bridge: One impact of online bridge’s massive growth is that the ACBL now gives full master points for tournaments on Bridge Base Online (BBO), KO Bridge, and Swan. Colored points still are only awarded at sectional, regional, and national tournaments. Jim reported on his online bridge findings as well as the options they present. On BBO, the unit can set up games that are limited to a pre-submitted set of ACBL numbers. It’s also possible to have teaching games without master points. (For example, we could input hands to BBO and have unit senior experts give the suggested play of the hand.) Fun Bridge is a French company that allows a player to play a hand and be scored against all other people worldwide that have played the hand. Jim recommended the Unit begin experimenting with the different options. The board raised several issues during discussion. Brian charged Jim with forming a group to generate a vision(s) for this initiative and planning a strategic discussion at a future meeting.

Play Nice: Bob reviewed the ACBL’s recent changes to its “zero tolerance” policy on bad behavior. The policy now reinforces positive behaviors (e.g., greeting players when they arrive at the table, introducing oneself, and being social if time permits) as opposed to citing unfriendly or unwelcoming behavior by some members as their reason. The reality is that the unit has no authority for dealing with behavior problems; it is up to the club owners. We have the ACBL Play Nice posters in the center now. Bob is to come back with plans for communicating expectations for Play Nice both to club owners and members.

By-Laws: Jody summarized the purpose of the policy document that will accompany the by-laws. It addresses cases in which there are multiple ways to implement the by-laws, the choice the board actually made. Outstanding issues on this document have been resolved. The motion to approve the policy document passed. There will be an article in the Kibitzer describing the process for members to approve the by-laws and policy document and paper copies of the documents in a binder at the Bridge Center. The first question and answer session for members will be at 12:15 pm before the May unit game.

Firecracker: James had sent out a more detailed budget and identified what risks he sees. There still needs to be a co-chair for the setup and takedown as well as a co-chair for the 2015 tournament. Flyers will be distributed at upcoming sectionals and the Sacramento regional.

Other old business: One of our co-chairs of the mentorship program resigned, so we are looking for another volunteer. Mounting the bidding boxes turns out to be more structurally complicated than our volunteer had anticipated. Other options will be investigated before the next board meeting. After reviewing the estimated budget for the non-life master sectional, the board decided the financial risks are fairly low as breakeven is fewer than 20 tables. The motion to hold this sectional on May17-18 passed.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:55 pm. The next meeting will be on May 8 at 3:45 pm.