January 2024

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes ACBL Unit 503

Wednesday, January 10, 2024 via Zoom

Directors Present

Liz Koh, Marc Cervellino, Stephanie Youngquist, John Schwartz, David Merenbach, Geraldine MacDonald and Dianne Giancarlo

Others Present for All or Parts of the Meeting

None

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 5:08 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.

Approval of Meeting Minutes

Dianne G. announced that the minutes of the December 11, 2023 Board Meeting were approved via email.

ACBL Membership Retention

Liz K. reported that the ACBL is requesting Units to contact members in our Unit whose ACBL memberships have lapsed or who are due to renew soon. Based on the results of these efforts, Units have the opportunity of receiving up to 15% of membership dues in lieu of the previous 11% based on the “5/5/5 criteria”. Units who fail to meet expectations may receive less than the 11% which we normally receive. Liz will receive more information from the ACBL about this and will distribute a copy of the relevant emails to all Board members.

Online Club Games

John S. related a discussion with Paul Davis regarding online club games. Paul believes that club owners may be willing to charge less than the Bridgebase fee as a way to reinvigorate club online games, in particular now that bbo has increased its fees. The Board discussed that face-to-face games are slowly growing since the vast decline during Covid and that for purposes of maintaining and building Unit support we are focusing our efforts on face-to-face bridge.

Finance Update

Marc C. presented the December and 2023 year-end financials. Marc also presented the Board a budget for 2024 which the Board discussed and approved. M/S/P 

Unit Credit Card

Marc C. proposed that the Board authorize the issuance of a Unit credit card to be used for regular expenditures on behalf of the Unit. Marc agreed that he would oversee the use of the credit card. The Board added that the Board should implement a procedure whereby Liz K. as President or another Board member regularly reviews the credit card statements.  M/S/P 

Spending Limit Authorization

Marc C. requested that the Board consider creating a spending limit (eg, up to $150 per expenditure and monthly a limit of $750 for all expenditures) that Marc as Treasurer would have available without Board approval. David M. offered to draft the terms of such a policy which he will provide to the Board before or at the February Board meeting.  

New Volunteers

Gerry M. who has agreed to become the Volunteer Chair has asked all Board members to send her names of members of the Unit who we think would be willing to work on any of the Unit’s upcoming projects.

Future Board Meetings

A proposal was made to change the Board meeting times and dates to the second Tuesday of each month at 4:00 PM via Zoom. M/S/P

The meeting was adjourned at 6:22 PM.