October 2025

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes ACBL Unit 50
Tuesday, October 14, 2025, via Zoom

Board Members Present

Liz Koh, Marc Cervellino, Stephanie Youngquist, Dana Shelley, H. Paul Davis, John Schwartz, Geraldine MacDonald and Dianne Giancarlo.

Board Members not Present

Alex Narasin, Dan Thatte, David Merenbach

Also Present

Alan Templeton

M/S/P  = Moved/Seconded/Passed

Call to Order

Liz Koh, President of the Board, served as Chair of the meeting, called the meeting to order at 4:00 PM and announced that a quorum of the Board members was present and that the meeting, having duly convened, was ready to proceed with business. Dianne Giancarlo served as Secretary of the meeting.

Approval of Meeting Minutes

Dianne G. announced that the minutes of the September 16, 2025 Board Meeting were distributed for approval via email.

Financials Update

Marc C. reported that table counts at weekly F2F games on a year-to-year basis is flat but some games such as the Tuesday limited is growing which may mean that some open games are declining slightly. Marc noted that Gabi hasn’t had any online games for the past seven weeks and so he will not continue to report on her data. Marc reported that the Unit had significant losses in September due to no sectional, low table rents and competing outside events. However, we are still above budgeted revenue and the Celebrity Lectures and our tournaments have been particularly successful this year. The Board acknowledged and thanked Dede Barsotti for her excellent leadership of the Celebrity Lectures. Tournaments make up about half of our revenue. Overall, however, the Unit is still operating at a loss and will incur a sizable loss for the year.

Liz K. reported that the Unit earned extra funding under the ACBL 5/5/5 members program which was initiated by the ACBL to counter the ongoing decline in ACBL membership. Based on the latest (2025 Quarter 3) performance results, Unit 503 came top 2nd in the Dollar Retention Awards out of all 285 units. Liz thanked the Board and the Club Directors for their efforts in helping to retain our Unit members and recruit new members. The Board acknowledged and thanked Liz for her tremendous efforts and excellent results in retaining and recruiting new members through her personal outreach, her leadership in instituting new events and in advertising all Unit events, as supported fully by Marc and other volunteers. The Board discussed the many improvements that have supported these efforts such as the new player reservations software developed and donated to the Unit by Allen Simon, the new whiteboard donated by Stephanie Y., the ongoing video posted on the TV screen at the front of the bridge center and the monthly President’s newsletter. The Board discussed that Kathy Harper has exposed the Unit to many new bridge players and that we should ask Kathy to explain to her students how ACBL membership works and how to convert guest memberships to Unit 503 memberships. Liz asked that the Board find a dedicated Membership Chair to oversee these efforts and relieve Liz of some of this responsibility.

Silicon Valley Unit 507 sectional attendance 

Marc C. reported that Silicon Valley Unit 507 hosted their sectional at our bridge center in September and were disappointed by the attendance. They speculate that this was due to several competing tournaments that month including a regional tournament and that they probably did not advertise the event enough. 

4th sectional in 2026: April or August 

Marc C. asked for input as to when in 2026 to hold our fourth sectional. There are available times in April and August. Since we are holding the Firecracker early this year in late June instead of July the Board agreed that early August would be the best option.

Debbie Rosenberg’s offer to help 

Liz K. reported that Debbie Rosenberg has offered to help the Unit by providing a celebrity seminar and to try one time and perhaps provide on a regular basis a postmortem via Zoom at 7:30pm after Tuesday’s club games. 

Playing cards

Marc C. reported that he and Liz K. spent about $800 of the $3,000 that was approved to purchase new playing cards to address players’ complaints about cards at our sectionals.

Fundraising efforts with PBEF

Stephanie Y. reported that she and her committee are preparing a fundraising appeal letter that will be sent to targeted players requesting that they make a tax-deductible donation to the Peninsula Bridge Education Foundation. 

Goodwill nominations for D21 and ACBL

Liz K. reported that she did not receive nominations for the D21 or ACBL Goodwill Awards so we will not submit any nominations this year. 

Status with IFES

Liz K. reported that she and Marc C. have updated our proposals with more data and that they and John S, will meet with the IFES on October 16th to continue to discuss outstanding issues with IFES.

Volunteers recruitment

Gerry M. reported that we have had some volunteers step forward to help with various projects but that we still need a chair or co-chairs for upcoming Unit sectionals and some roles in marketing/promotion.

Status on new initiatives (to increase F2F play)

Next LIVE Celebrity Seminar by Robert Todd at PABC – Sat. 10/18– Liz K. reported that we have about 50 sign-ups so far. 

Halloween on Fri. 10/31 – Liz K. reported that Alex N. is organizing a special Halloween game on October 31^st.  

Feedback from 50th anniversary of PABC Tue. 9/30– Stephanie Y. reported that we had an excellent turn out for this event (44 tables, which is the largest club game since Covid). Many people who have not been to the bridge center since pre-Covid came to celebrate the anniversary. Gerry M. mentioned that a few of the older players expressed that they no longer play at the club because they find it hard to play 24 boards and Gerry asked if directors may consider holding an 18-board game occasionally. 

Next Pro-Am game on Thursday 11/13– H. Paul Davis reported that he will format this Pro-Am as a Swiss game of mixed abilities. 

Next Free Lecture: H. Paul Davis reported that Will Watson has offered to give a free lecture on October 31^st.

The Board meeting adjourned at 5:21 pm.