January 2017

Palo Alto Unit 503
January 12, 2017

Call to Order and Approval of Minutes: President Dave Puryear called the meeting to order at 3:40 pm. The minutes of the December 8, 2015 minutes were approved as submitted. Other directors present included Leslie Altick, Gill Barsley, Marolyn Imaoka, Todd Makler, John Schwartz, and Susan Zhang. Dave extended an official welcome to new board members John Schwartz, Susan Zhang and Alan Polish (in absentia due to a cold).

Weekend/Evening Usage Committee – Dave reported for the Weekend/Evening Usage Committee. The first unit sponsored Saturday game targeted primarily to newer players will be held January 14. Paul Davis will give a brief lecture to start, focusing o the mechanics of duplicate bridge, director calls, etc. to make the process less intimidating for newer players. As the game is sanctioned, master points can be awarded. They are scheduled for once a month, initially.

Holiday Party Report – Marolyn reported that the Holiday Party was a success on many levels, although we did not attract the 400 people expected. The timing of the party might have been too close to Christmas. There were 220 players – 33 open tables, 16 499ers, and 6 99ers. She recognized Nancy Kehl for the wonderful decorations she made, noted how well the potluck part of the meal worked. Next year there will be a better understanding of how to control the temperature in the IFES Hall.

Firecracker 2017 Update – Gill said the game schedule for the Firecracker has been approved by the ACBL and posted on their site as well as the Unit’s site. Several committee chairmen positions have already been filled. Josephine Ventura will handle caddies, Bill Dougherty will lead set-up, and Joni Smith will be the partnership chair. Cheryl Haines has already negotiated an attractive room rate at the Sheraton in Sunnyvale. The Board also decided to set the dates for the 2018 Firecracker on June 26 – July 1 and release the other dates that were being held for us by the ACBL.

Approval of 2017 Budget – Todd reviewed the key assumptions behind the 2017 budget. They are: 1) the Firecracker nets what it did in 2016, 2) there will be only one Non-Life Master Sectional, and 3) only one outside nationally known speaker. These, he believes, are conservative assumptions. They and the rest of the budget have not changed since first approved by the 2016 Board. The motion to approve the budget passed.

As several of the games at the center are increasing table fees, Todd asked the board whether it planned to maintain the reimbursement rate to club owners for student fees. Currently the Unit reimburses club owners at 50% of table fees. The Board reaffirmed the rate, hence the reimbursement will be 50% up to $6. Similarly, the price of Free Plays will be raised to $12.

Pianola Update – Dave reported for Jody that there has been good progress signing up members on Pianola. The email blast telling members that if they didn’t sign up they would no longer receive Unit communications, had a big impact. The next step is to send an email via the Pianola system, followed by a final Mail Chimp email blast alerting people that unless they received the Pianola communication, they are no longer be included on Unit 503’s mailing list.

A related question was whether the Unit should purchase 15 Bridge Pads to lend to Walter’s games to facilitate Pianola adoption. After much discussion, the Board agreed that it needed more information and was not prepared purchase additional Bridge Pads. The Board also will investigate how the Unit can leverage its relationship with Pianola to help the new game owner learn to use Bridge Mates to interface with Pianola.

Reports:

President: Dave shared his first cut at 2017 priorities for the Board and invited other directors to think about what else should be added to the list.

1) Make sure the Firecracker is successful;
2) Decide whether to upgrade the technology in the Bridge Center (e.g., should we add the capability to stream remote speakers over the net?);
3) complete our projects with Pianola;
4) reconstitute the Mentor/Mentee program; and
5) clear out the items in the storage room that do not belong to the Unit.
Dave also gave the update on the Peninsula Bridge Education Foundation. With only two email requests, the foundation received $16,000 in donations, more than enough to fund the Lecture Series in 2017. He also noted that the Unit did reach 10,000 tables played in 2017 and asked the Board to think about an appropriate way to celebrate this milestone. February 4 will be another cleaning day for the kitchen and bathrooms using help from the workers’ center. This will also be the day to clear out the storage room that we now rent.

Unit Games: Gill reported that as of the end of November, the revenue from the Unit games had almost doubled versus 2015. There was an average of 22 tables at these games.

Treasurer: Todd reported that he was unable to become sufficiently comfortable with Quickbooks online to permit him to use it efficiently. Dave noted that the matter would be revisited again as the reasons for converting to Quickbooks online remain. Todd also asked and received permission to transfer the savings account to another FDIC insured institution that is offering a more attractive rate.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5:04 pm. The next meeting will be held on February 9.