Board of Directors Meeting Minutes ACBL Unit 503
Monday, Tues Dec. 7, 2021 4 p.m. via zoom
Directors Present
Geraldine MacDonald, Marc Cervellino, Charlene Friedman, John Schwartz, Dan Thatte, Stephanie Youngquist, Eli Wismer, David Merenbach, Jon Rayden
Others Present During All or Portions of the Meeting
Liz Koh, Alan Templeton, Paul Davis, Kathy Wheeler, Dianne Giancarlo, Kevin OLeary
M / S / P = Motioned / Seconded Passed
Call to Order
Gerry, President of the Board, served as Chair of the meeting, called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm and announced that a quorum of the Board members was present and that the meeting, having been duly convened, was ready to proceed with business. Gerry confirmed that all participants could hear one another.
Approval of Meeting Minutes
Gerry announced that the minutes of the Nov. 8, 2021 meeting were approved via email.
Gerry thanked the board for all their hard work and dedication during the last year. The board also wished Charlene well, as she is leaving the board at the end of Dec.
David Merenbach thanked Gerry for her two years as President of the board, and her continued service to the Unit.
Financial Update 2022 Budget presentation and approval.
Marc reported that our cash reserves as we approach the end of 2021 are still strong. We have a loyal unit membership, that has helped with generous donations and a very favorable lease with the IFES, our landlord. However, we are continuing to see monthly losses as revenue from table rents, for F2F games, is very low. PBEF has helped to cover the shortfall. Hopefully, we will see increased in person participation at the club during the next year.
The unit budget model is to assume a break-even cash flow over time. However, for next year our conservative budget assumes a negative cash flow from operations. Included in the budget are the projected costs for rent, utilities and cleaning. Also included is the additional projected income from Unit games, NLM sectionals, the Firecracker Open, and the Celebrity Speaker series.
Marc presented an operating plan which was introduced as the 2022 budget. A motion was made to accept this plan. M/S/P
As per our by-laws the 2022 Unit board with revisit this budget in January, 2022 and provide an updated forecast as necessary during 2022.
Coffee and tea Service at the club — A motion was made to empower the Bridge Center game Directors to reintroduce coffee and tea service at their games and possibly individually wrapped snacks to be eaten away from the bridge tables. M/S/P
The Holiday Party will be December 18th. It will an online event beginning with games, award presentations and general fun. It will be followed by a BBO pairs games at 1 p.m., at a reduced cost of $3.00 per player. Stephanie Youngquist, and Kathy Wheeler are organizing the party and Frank Smoot will be emceeing. Will Watson will be running the BBO game.
The NLM sectional is progressing for Feb. Watch for posters, flyers, and sign-ups. Liz and Dianne have found a wonderful number of supporters providing free mentoring, books, etc. as raffle prizes for the event. In addition, a motion was made to have a special newcomers game for players with less than 5 MP at a discount price of $5 M/S/P. A second motion was made to include in the raffle up to 20 free play certificates for F2F play at the Bridge Club M/S/P.
Unit Games Update — Thanks to Jim Harris and Marc Cervellino we have dates for F2F Unit games in 2022. John Schwartz is going to follow-up on making sure we can also run Unit games on BBO.
Celebrity Lecture Series — Kathy Wheeler is ready to send a final email about the first Celebrity Lecture series in 2022. Gavin Wolpert will be presenting a Webinar. The mailing is going to all of District 21. More events will be coming in this series next year.
The Nominating committee and 2022 board elections — Dan reported that the annual board election was held with in person paper ballots at the bridge center. Newly elected to the board was Diane Giancarlo, and incumbents reelected included Marc Cervellino, Dan Thatte, Geraldine MacDonald, and Eli Wismer.
David Merenbach was elected as the new Unit 503 President, beginning Jan. 1, 2022.
Board officers elected were:
Welcome to the new board and congratulations to our new officers.
Tabled for the next meeting: discussion of table rent at the Bridge Center
The next meeting is January 10 at 4 p.m.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:49 pm.
ACBL Unit 503
Board of Directors Meeting Agenda
2021 Board/2022 Board
Tuesday, Dec. 7, 4 pm
To be held by video teleconference
for information about how to join the call, Unit members may contact geraldinem@aol.com