November 2016

Call to Order: Dave Puryear, President, called the meeting to order at 3:40pm. Other directors present were Leslie Altick, Gill Barsley, Peggy Chen, Paul Davis, Jim Harris, Todd Makler, and Jody Williams. John Prior also attended. The Board approved the minutes of the October 13 meeting as submitted.

Lower Threshold for 2nd Director Fee: John Prior presented an alternative to lowering the threshold for the 2nd director to 20 tables – a flat, lower rate on table fees for all club owners. In the ensuing discussion, it became clear that the motivation for changing the threshold was not merely financial, but also to improve the quality of the game for players by having a second director. A flat rate would not accomplish this. A motion to lower the threshold for a 2nd director to 20 tables passed.

Weekend/Evening Usage Committee: Paul and Jim reported that Allison Bennett is assuming responsibility for Unit Games. There is another Non-life Master tournament scheduled for May as is a lecture by nationally known teacher Jerry Helms. A survey is being designed to solicit non-life master unit members for feedback on what might incentivize them to play in more NLM events. On 11/19 Kathy Harper will offer a free introductory lecture to people interested in learning bridge. The Unit has extended a special invitation to IFES members (there is a link from their website to ours). Paul and Jim are still looking for a volunteer to manage the Saturday game/event schedule.

Firecracker 2017 Update: Gill shared the early estimated budget for the 2017 Firecracker. It is expected to attract as least as many tables as in 2016, and potentially higher. All projections suggest there will be a profit. In fact, it will be necessary to develop a plan to handle overflow. This may necessitate relocating the team games. The dates the Unit wants have been submitted to ACBL. There is a volunteer to handle hotel arrangements. Applications to use the field owned by Hetch Hetchy for parking need to be submitted 2 months before the event. The next critical step is to update the flyers.

NLM Tournament Results: The latest tournament was a success, though not as successful as the first one. Again, the survey in design phase may help determine why. The Unit 503/507 tournament was also a success. The plan is to have a plaque that spends a year with the winning unit.

Budget Review: Todd reported that as the preliminary 2017 budget was accepted by the Board in October, it must be officially approved by the old Board at the December meeting and also approved by the new Board in January.

Reports:

President: Dave reported that the election took place and the results were tallied. The names of the new board members will be public once all candidates have been notified of the results. The owners of regularly scheduled Jan 4 game plan to be playing at the Monterey Regional, as do most of the directors. They asked the Board if it was all right to cancel the game. The Board concurred that it would be too difficult to find directors and agreed the game should be cancelled. The Board will communicate to members that although there will be special food served on November 20, it will not be a Thanksgiving dinner. The Holiday party will be the major culinary event of the season. The charities for the Holiday Party once again will be Second Harvest Food Bank and CSA. Some members have expressed concern over outdoor lighting of the parking lot now that it is dark earlier. Some of the existing lights will be repositioned and the Unit will work with IFES to see if there are other options. Judi Gentry has agreed to manage Kibitzer 2.0. This will involve creating articles for the website. The Board is looking forward to seeing her ideas. Our janitor has been doing some limited carpet cleaning, and this is working well and cost effective.

Technology Committee: Jody reported that the Unit is still encouraging members to signup for Pianola. Currently, there are fewer than half the names signed up as compared with Mail Chimp (the Unit’s current email service). We need to have all those on Mail Chimp sign up on Pianola so that this system that makes it easier to target our members can be used for email communications. The most important next step is to make members more aware of Pianola and the type of free information it can provide players. The committee will post Frequently Asked Questions about Pianola on the website and a letter will be designed to send out to new members.

Education Funding: Paul reported he has drafted an email blast to solicit funding for the new education foundation.

Treasurer: Todd reported that table counts remain healthy and that the Unit will exceed budget in 2016.

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 pm. The next meeting will be held on December 8th.