September 2024

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes ACBL Unit 503

Tuesday, September 10, 2024, via Zoom

Directors Present

Liz Koh, Marc Cervellino, Stephanie Youngquist, David Merenbach, Dan Thatte, Dana Shelley, H. Paul Davis and Dianne Giancarlo

Others Present for All or Parts of the Meeting

Sidney Chen and Ken Rosenfeld

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 July 16, 2024, Board Meeting were approved via email.

New Board Members

Liz K. extended a warm welcome to new board members Dana Shelley and H. Paul Davis. New board member Alex Narasin is traveling and was not available for the meeting.

Financials Update

Marc C. reported that table counts at weekly F2F games continue to show a favorable trend. He noted that the Unit generally generates positive net income in months in which a Palo Alto Bridge sectional is held and a net loss in months without a sectional tournament. So far this year, the Unit’s net income is essentially on budget, with higher than budgeted F2F play, interest income, and celebrity lecture attendance offsetting significantly lower than budgeted Palo Alto Bridge sectional attendance and profit. There is only one more sectional that we will host—October 24-27 and we will market it aggressively. Expenses for the year are running slightly lower than budgeted.

Intermediate/Newcome Games Coordinator Update

Dana S. presented a report prepared by Phil Abrahamson, our Intermediate/Newcomer Games Coordinator. Phil emphasized in his report that to increase F2F participation at the club we need to have more teachers who will funnel students into the club games. It has been a struggle to maintain the level of intermediate players at the NLM Regional and at Sectionals. Members suggested it may be because intermediate players have become more comfortable playing online and that we may have more luck with beginners. Frank Smoot has agreed to offer an intermediate class. His classes were extremely popular with intermediate players pre-Covid so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Suggestions for increasing attendance of intermediate and beginner players also include: making partnerships easy to obtain for games and tournaments and to run this service from the individual games and tournaments, not centralized with the Unit; exploring (including through discussions with Will) the possibility of restarting bridge games during the day on Wednesdays and to perhaps offer free or nominally priced lessons before a game and supervised play; offering intermediate games throughout the week; considering serving just a snack instead of full meals at games.

Marketing Committee Update

Liz K. led a discussion on behalf of Pete Moulds, Chair of the Marketing Committee. She reported that Pete has held several meetings and has been working on improving the Unit website, primarily to make it easier to navigate and easier to sign up for games. Pete is trying out a new tag line: “Play, Laugh, & Learn” which is appearing on many communications distributed by the Unit. Pete and his committee have worked on a new logo but have put this on hold due to cost and prioritizing more important items. There was a short discussion about the sign-up pages for the games including Ken Rosenfeld’s observation that the submit button does not seem to work on all pages or cannot be seen on all sign-up pages. Members agreed to move this and further details regarding the website off-line.

October 2024 Sectional

Marc C. reported that the plans were going well for this Sectional that will take place at the club from Thursday, October 24 to Sunday, October 27. Lucy Ballard has volunteered to co-chair this Sectional with Marc.

Slate of Candidate for Board Election

Dan T., Chair of the Nominating Committee, reported that the nominating committee plans to present the following slate of candidates for Unit 503 Board of Directors for a 2-year term beginning Jan. 1 2025: three Incumbents: David Merenbach, John Schwartz, and Stephanie Youngquist; and three unit members: H.Paul Davis, Alex Narasin and Dana Shelley. The Committee plans to hold the elections in the first week of November. Six other current directors will continue to serve on the board for the second year of their terms.

Unit Membership Annual Meeting of Unit Members

The Board intends to hold the Unit Membership Annual Meeting of Unit Members during a meeting to be held via Zoom prior to the Board Meeting on October 8, 2024.

Executive Session

The Board held an Executive Session to discuss the Unit’s options with respect to the termination of certain games of club owners and directors.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:45 PM.