October 2014

Brian Samuels, President, called the meeting to order at 3:44pm. Other board members present were Leslie Altick, Valerie Baldwin, Jim Harris, Todd Makler, Kevin O’Leary, and James Stuart Smith. Bob Horowitz amd Jody Williams was absent by prior notice. Elinor Tanck, Kibitzer Editor also attended.

The minutes from the September 4th meeting were approved.

Reports

President’s Report:

The November 6th board meetings will held in the small conference room at IFES.

The City of Mountain View Zoning Administration will hold a public hearing on Wed, Oct 8 to review some proposed modifications to the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) that IFES uses to lease our Bridge Center space to us. We are in discussion with IFES and with the Zoning Administration to try to eliminate any negative consequences for us. The fact that all of our players have done such a great job managing our parking problem has our neighbors supporting us at the hearings. This support from our neighbors carries a lot of weight with the Zoning Administration.

Bob Horowitz has agreed to lead the trophy process, assisted by the two past winners of the Sportsmanship and the Service awards. This committee will recommend the winners to the Board. The bequest from Jean Flocks may be a bit more than $20,000 and should be made available to us by the end of the year. The club owner license agreements have been renewed; the Saturday and Sundays license agreements being renewed with the proviso that they may not be renewed again at the next annual renewal in 2015. The Friday morning game is now under new ownership, as Claire Coleman has sold her game to Kevin O’Leary, Marilyn Imaoka-Yancey and a third owner yet to be named. The Board of Directors election will be held from November 10-19. The results will be announced at the November 23rd unit game. There have been no self-nominees. The defibrillator and first aid box have both been mounted in the Bridge Center.

Treasurer’s Report: The Unit currently has $24,000 above our required reserves (not including the proceeds from the bequest) and Todd expects no significant change in our fiscal position due to operations before the end of the year.

Finance Committee: The members of the Finance Committee (Brian, Leslie, Todd, Jim, and Margot Livenspargar) met and agreed on a proposed 2015 budget, as well as recommendation on what to do with our 2014 surplus, and the funding of the Education Fund. Todd reviewed the proposed budget with the board and reported that the expenses about which other board members had concerns have been provided for adequately. The committee recommended that the surplus be added to the existing reserves and not be used until there was a very good reason to spend it. That said, as the Education Fund is only adequate to cover the lecture series for the balance of 2014, the committee recommended $6,000 be moved from reserves to the Education Fund to fund the Lectore Series for 2015. Discussion centered on whether it was necessary to continue fund raising for the Fund during the balance of 2014. A motion to use the $6,000 to pay for the 2015 Lecture Series and cease the fund raising effort in 2014 and the first half of 2015 passed unanimously. Another motion to approve the 2015 budget also passed unanimously. The Finance Committee also discussed the need to have someone or some committee to oversee the management of the bequest the Unit is receiving (and other funds). Currently the Finance Committee is not an official body of the Unit, and in order to have it be responsible for managing any funds, it needs to be formally created and have a series of policies drawn to govern its function. A motion to create a Finance and Investment Committee passed unanimously. Brian will create the draft of the policies.

Nominating Committee: Leslie reported that the committee (she, Jody, and Jim) had selected a slate for the three open positions on the board. The nominees are Paul Davis, Todd Makler, and David Puryear. The committee was pleased to have also found willing volunteers for board positions for whom the timing was not workable currently, but who are interested for the future. Brian thanked the members of the committee for their work.

Firecracker: James received a plaque from the Second Harvest Food Bank recognizing our 2013 food fund drive as outstanding. James said we have a provisional booking for the 2015 Firecracker at Santa Clara Convention Center for June 10-14 (without the upstairs room on Sunday). There will be a 15% rent increase as we are not receiving the free day we have had in past years. James is getting input on how the games are scheduled. He is in the process of asking committee chairs if they will serve again. The board discussed whether table fees should be raised, and decided not at this time. Discussion turned to alternative venues, and one has surfaced (Crown Plaza Cabana). However, it could only accommodate us on 4th of July weekend, at an immaterially lower price than the Convention Center. Also, parking would be a problem. After much discussion about the risks of the new venue, including the fact that James is unable to chair the Firecracker and no new chair has been identified, the motion to further investigate this venue for 2015 was defeated. Further discussion raised the issue of whether the Firecracker needs to be a 5-day event with a scope so broad that it makes finding a chair difficult. The board agreed that the Firecracker’s future structure needs to be evaluated, and will look for a person to head a committee to do this.

Unit Games: We have 2 unit games in October, a pairs game on the 11th and a Swiss game on October 12th. The game to celebrate Hansa Narasimhan’s achieving Grand Life Master will be on November 1. The potluck will be on November 23rd. As a turkey will not be provided, people will be asked to bring different kinds of dishes based on where they fall in the alphabet. With respect to the holiday party, it was decided it will be open to non-members and that sign-ups will be mandatory. After much discussion, the board passed a motion to charge table fees for this game, but that the dinner will continue to be catered at no cost to attendees.

Education: No Education report.

Kibitzer: Elinor reported that there was not enough notice about the mentor-mentee game on October 11th to have included it in the Kibitzer.

Old Business

AV Upgrade: The AV upgrade in complete with only a few procedural issues left to finish. The system must be documented as to what works and does not, including how to do an upgrade and how to use the system. Cables and remotes must be housed somewhere in the Center.

Brian drafted a policy to address compensating Club Owners when the Unit requests to use their time slot for a Unit event. The compensation equals the average revenue for the past three months less the sum of the license fee, sanction fee, and the cost of the food (estimated at $1.50 per person). The motion to pass this policy passed.

2014 Initiatives

There were no updates on most of the initiatives.

Increase Weekend Attendance: A date for the individual event has been chosen and will be published in the Kibitzer. Alan Templeton will create an online signup procedure. The email blast for the Partnership effort worked very well. Aruna received may requests for partners. We still need to build up the database of people willing to play with new partners. One of the nominees to the board is interested in this effort and may assume leadership of the effort.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:40 pm. The next meeting will be on November 6 at 3:45 pm in the small conference room at IFES.