July 2012

The meeting was called to order at 3:55 PM by Susan Griswold, President. Present were Board members Susan Griswold, Bev Nuding, Margot Livenspargar, Allen Wolman, Steve Barasch, Kevin O’Leary, Valerie Baldwin, Sue Barkley, Henryk Szejnwald, and Keith Burnett. Also attending: Elinor Tanck (Kibitzer), Club Owners Claire Coleman, John Prior, John Schwartz, and Will Watson and other members.

The reconvening of the Annual Unit Meeting was postponed until August 14 with the agreement of all present.

Alan Cummings presented a preliminary proposal for a 299er Sectional to be held in the Winter of 2013-2014. Margot moved to ask Alan to continue exploration of the 299er Sectional and report back to the Board. The motion was seconded and passed.

Alan made two more announcements:

• The Second Harvest Foodbank donation program at the Firecracker Tournament provided $12,714 (including the matching donation) plus 9 barrels of food valued at $250 each.
• Fred Schwerer has compiled hardcopies of all the Unit sponsored free lectures that have been given since the inception of the current program. They fill three volumes and will be available in the library soon.

Lori Spaeth submitted a request to Sue G. to advertise the Unit, the game of bridge, and the lessons given at the Bridge Center in the Palo Alto Daily News online edition. The cost is $20 per week. Steve moved that we comply with the request for the period of July and August. Motion seconded and carried.

Kathy Harper asked that the Board waive the rent for a motivational speech by Tara Vanderveer on September 6 from 10 to 11 AM. Action was postponed on this item. Kathy will be asked to present more details.

Minutes of the June Board meeting were approved (Bev). The Annual Membership meeting was continued to August 14. Minutes of the meeting so far were approved (Allen).

Elinor Tanck, Kibitzer, said that 50 extra copies had been printed, but several were leftover. The printing will be reduced.

Keith (Unit Game Coordinater) gave the dates of upcoming Unit Games. The NAP game in September will be held on September 23rd.

The treasurer’s report showed $79,510 in the Unit Fund of which approximately $24,000 is liquid. There is $5400 in the Education Fund.

The Firecracker report showed a net profit of $1,044. Expenses have increased. The table count of 1058.5 set a record. The dates of next year’s tournament will be June 26-30.

A discussion of the License Agreement resulted in a committee of Sue G., David Crosley, Henryk, and Allen, which will meet with the Club Owners to come up with some ideas to increase participation in weekend games.

Sue G. contacted Nancy Boyd concerning a directors’ course. Nancy is too busy to do it but suggested that there is a course at the Nationals for those interested. This will be promoted in the Kibitzer.

A discussion of the purchase of an audio/visual system led to questions of feasibility of the system in our location. A committee of Henryk, Alan Templeton, and Sue G. will pursue this issue.

Added on 7/25: Another matter dealing with weekend games was the table fees charged. Because outside matters, such as tournaments, impact these games and because the weekend games were not able to be held for the period the Unit was using the IFES Hall during construction, the Board expressed a desire to address the rental amount per table for these games. Several ideas were discussed and Claire Coleman, John Prior, and Will Watson were asked for their ideas. They agreed and will bring some proposals to the Board.

The next Board meeting will be at 3:45 PM Tuesday, August 7, 2012.

Meeting adjourned at 5:55 PM

Respectfully submitted,
Margot Livenspargar, Secretary