July 2017

Call to Order and Approval of June 8 Minutes: Vice President Alan Polish called the meeting to order at 3:40 pm. The minutes of the June 8, 2017 meeting were approved as submitted. Other board members present included Leslie Altick, Gill Barsley, Marolyn Imaoka, Todd Makler, John Schwartz, and Jody Williams.

Candidate Statement: Jackie Zayak, a candidate for the District 21 seat on the National ACBL Board presented her reasons for running and presented her “platform” to the Board. Currently she is the President of the Diablo Valley unit, has served in many unit positions, and several regional and national positions. She positioned herself as an advocate for lower level (0-1000) master point players, who constitute 60% of District 21. She wants to work for more, lower limited events at national tournaments and build membership. She also wants to build better relationships within District 21. The Board thanked her for visiting our unit.

Firecracker 2017 Preliminary Results: The Board congratulated Gill on a successful sectional. The Firecracker raised $20,290 in donations to Second Harvest Food Bank, which will provide 40,500 meals to needy families. There were 924 played tables. Revenue was almost the same as 2016, but expenses were slightly higher due to clearly identified reasons (some of which can be eliminated or reduced next year). The Sunday table count increased from 165 in 2016 to 191. The head director said it was a very well attended sectional. The Board needs to identify a new Chair for next year. Suggestions to improve next year’s Firecracker included making the playing schedule clearer (e.g., single or double session Swiss); make parking signs more clear “No Bridge Parking” and refuse entry to those who will not comply; require directors to either stay at the Tournament Hotel or only receive that rate for reimbursement purposes; limit the youth discount to those under 21, unless they are full-time students. The dates for next year’s tournament is June 27 – July 1.

Proposal to Move Saturday Unit Games to 10:00 am start: As discussed at the June meeting, the Board proposed having Paul and Geri hold their Saturday game every weekend there is not a Unit game or other local Sectional. This game caters to very new players (which the Unit is trying to encourage) and includes a brief lecture. This way all players will know there is always a 10:00 am game on Saturday. The rationale is that it is harder to build a regular clientele for intermittent games and hard to change times from 10 and back to 12 for Unit games. This change was approved. The Sunday unit games start time will remain at 12:00.

Switching from Bridge Pads to Bridge Mates: Jody reported that Will did a large scale test of the Bridge Mates at his Wednesday and Thursday games, as well as the Unit Swiss teams game. The test went well, although it identified a need to determine how to enter late plays. Lori and Marolyn also used them at their game. The product is supported and all of the parts are in production. From a manufacturing standpoint, the Bridge Pads are in decline. As John Schwartz has not yet tested the Bridge Mates, the Board approved a motion to purchase the Bridge Mates subject to John’s having a successful test.

Reports

President – New bidding cards were placed in every bidding box on the Tuesday before the Firecracker. Agnes Lee is consulting with Val Baldwin about Learn Bridge in a Day in the fall. Alan will call Val to make sure Kathy Harper contributed to this change. Alan Cummings is organizing a one-day 299er sectional for the fall. The sanction has already been received.

Technology Committee – Jody met with Alan Templeton to discuss a new platform for the website, and he agreed the Unit should choose a different one. They also agreed that it is important to have the capability for different individuals to maintain their own sections of the website. At some point, it might also be necessary to make the technology adaptable to mobile devices. Jody will write the technical requirements and Alan will remain the web master. The new platform will help correct our single point of failure. Alan confirmed that the platform used by the Corvette Club is good. Jody will present the requirements to the Board after her working committee completes its work.

Finance Committee – Leslie reported that the Finance Committee will meet on July 25. She will distribute Todd’s first draft budget to all participants before the meeting.

Unit Games – Gill reported that even after adjusting table counts to make them comparable year to year, the Unit games are slightly below last year’s level.

Treasurer – Todd reported that cash flow for the Unit is significantly in the black, not typical for this time of year.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 4:48 PM. The next meeting will be on August 10.