July 2014

Brian Samuels, President, called the meeting to order at 3:45 pm. Other board members present were Leslie Altick, Valerie Baldwin, Bob Horowitz, Todd Makler, Kevin O’Leary, and James Stuart Smith. Jim Harris and Jody Williams were absent by prior notice. Elinor Tanck, Kibitzer Editor, John Prior, a Club Owner, also attended. Three guest speakers – Debbie Rosenberg, Stu Goodgold, and Catherine Ewing also attended.

Minutes of the prior meeting were approved.

Guest Items: Debbie Rosenberg (Unit member, teacher, and founder of Silicon Valley Youth Bridge) thanked the unit for its support of the programs to attract and teach young people to play bridge. The Bridge Center was the site of a bridge camp June 16-20 for participants aged 9-17. 45 campers attended (more than expected), including 22 first time players; all finished the camp. 29 campers joined the ACBL (11 were already members); 19 played in the Firecracker. The fees for the camp covered the costs to the Unit. The June 11, evening game will be the first casual Friday follow-up event for this same segment of players. There will be pizza and a social bridge game that with Will’s approval will overlap with his game; fees will be charged. 22 players signed up. A weekly class for these kids is in the works.

Two candidates for the District 21 director (representative) to the ACBL Board addressed the board. Catherin Ewing, past president of District 21 described her long involvement with bridge. Since 1984 she has been volunteering at both the unit and district level. She believes a significant challenge the ACBL faces is its lack of focus on attracting members in the 30-50 year old age bracket. She fears that without programs to address this group, youth players now being recruited will take time off to develop their careers and grow families exacerbating the age related loss of older players.

Stu Goodgold is the incumbent appointed to serve out the term of the District 21 director who resigned. He has served at the unit level and is a past president of the district level. His goals are to promote youth bridge, to look at existing technologies and use them to simplify and bring more efficiency to the bridge table, and to see that there is fifth regional tournament in District 21. The next challenge he sees facing the ACBL is the revision of the master point calculation and allocation of points between pairs and other events.

The minutes from the June meeting were approved.

President’s Report: Brian reported that during the review of our conditional use permit at a recent city of Mountain View meeting, representatives of two neighborhood groups spoke positively about the Bridge Center. Although there were no negatives voiced about the Bridge Center, there is still lingering concern about traffic on Stierlin Road. Mike Atherton will follow up on this and other issues if it becomes necessary. Brian will be writing a mid-year update, with input from the other members of the board that will appear in the Kibitzer. The investigation as to whether the Education Fund could become a 501(c)3 will only move forward if volunteers will shepherd it through the legal process, identify the costs, and monitor these issues going forward.

Treasurer’s Report: Todd reported that the unit is approximately $6,000 ahead of budget (even before receiving the funds from the bequest). This is due to above budget results from the Firecracker, Learn Bridge in a Day, fees from the early signup for the Kantar course, and the Non-Life Master sectional. In addition, table revenues continue to grow. We are facing unbudgeted expense for the defibrillator purchase and the audio-visual upgrade that will likely offset this surplus.

Firecracker: Brian congratulated James on a successful Firecracker sectional. James gave credit to the 450 Unit members who played in the tournament, up from 377 who played a year ago. He also thanked members who helped even when not officially assigned a job. Overall, there were 1042 tables, the second best result in the last five years. The tournament did better than breakeven, even though we under-budgeted for water and did not meet the required number of booked rooms. 1097 different people attended, of whom 895 won 3820 silver master points. There were problems in the game schedule (e.g., stratifications, double sessions), but the new times for Wednesday seemed to work. We collected $5165 in checks/cash for Second Harvest Food Bank (online contributions still to be tallied). We need to identify next year’s Firecracker chairperson as soon as possible.

Unit Games: There was no update as Jim was not present.

Education: The successful Learn Bridge in a Day class has resulted in several new ACBL members. All participants have received information about the unit and several have signed up for Kathy Harper’s beginning class. This is Kathy’s first summer class and it is full. We have three classes this summer, another first. The Eddie Kantar seminar is nearly sold out at 182 slots; there will be a waiting list.

Kibitzer: Elinor reported we have run out of printed Kibitzers recently. Apparently there is some variability in demand month-to-month.

Game Ownership Update: Kevin reported that he and Marilyn Imaoka-Yancey have become partners with Claire Coleman in her Friday game. He also noted that the game owners need more refrigerator space. Kevin will research the price of commercial refrigerators and report at the August meeting.

Old Business

Defibrillator Update: John Prior has successfully completed the Red Cross pre-requisite and instructor courses. He asked that a board member review the “authorized provider” agreement and Bob Horowitz will. The next step is to purchase the defibrillator and related equipment for teaching. John recommended that we include first aid along with the defibrillator training. The board approved a motion to increase the budget for the defibrillator project to $3500 to cover the cost of training the first 20 people.

AV Upgrade: No report in Jody’s absence.

Free Play Transition Issues: There have been some complications on transitioning from $8 to $10 free plays. Brian proposed that free plays be sold at a $10 price, but that they be applicable to any regular Unit 503 game, independent of the table fee charged at that game. Owners would be credited with the amount they charged for the game. This avoids club owners having to make change at games. The free plays will not be usable at STAC, NAP, or unit games. The motion for this proposal passed.

2014 Initiatives

Member Input and Involvement: Val reported the blast email to recruit volunteers to help with partnership is ready to be sent. Brian will send it out.

Expanding Bridge Center: Nothing new to report.

Increase Weekend Game Attendance: Nothing new to report in Jody’s absence.

Online Bridge: Nothing new to report in Jim’s absence.

Play Nice: No new incidents to report. Bob will recommend a new wall location for the Play Nice posters.

Committee Positions: We still need volunteers to handle Trophies, Mentorship, and a new position – a backup person to send out the blast emails.

New Business

Playing cards: Bob researched the issues surrounding paper versus plastic playing cards. The paper cards last about 10 weeks, but handle well and fit easily into the boards. To date, the Unit has not specified what kinds of cards club owners must use. This could be addressed in any revision of the legal agreement with club owners. Bob will talk with those club owners using plastic cards to see if there is a simpler solution.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:48 pm. The next meeting will be on August 7 at 3:45 pm.