Farthest North Bridge ClubUnit 426

Board Meeting Minutes
Date 3-27-11

Board Members:                                                                      Directors:

Patty Merritt   President                                                         Shirley Liss

Nancy Williams   Vice President                                                Julie Werda

Axel Born Treasurer                                                                Gail Ballou

Penny Wakefield  EASYBRIDGE                                                                              

David Williams    Secretary 
Bonnie Williams Business Manager
Penny Wakefield

Present:

Patty, Bonnie, Nancy (via telephone), David, Gail, Penny, Judith and Charlie.

Absent: Axel                                                                                           

Quorum present?   Yes

Proceedings: Call to order 6:09 p.m.

Patty called us to order and Bonnie gave a report on the 3 accounts activity.

Savings: $3,002.73    Checking: $2,910.22     CD: $5,025.22

Total:  $10,938.17

Patty said she had downloaded ACBL Procedures and Policies and was reading through them. She said she had also asked for a manual with a job description for club managers. She hasn’t  heard back on that yet.

Patty said that Gail provided statistics that were very helpful on attendance.

January was down 30 players and February down 80 for the month.

Last 4 years Summary Players/plays

2010 - 390

2009 - 470

2008 – 480

2007 – 340

Patty said we need to bring more players in; to be more friendly; other venues such as a game once a week at the University to get more younger crowd; try to get the town’s Friday players (mostly women) to our Wednesday games.

Phone rings

Nancy gets through from her winter home in Palm Springs.

Patty said that Penny had recommended a Saturday game to her as a possibility.

Patty said she learned of another club that has a routine for welcoming first time visitors which includes a routine starting with a welcome packet which the club manager welcomes them with. Patty went on at some length describing the process and thought that maybe we should consider doing the same thing. Impress the new attendees that we are friendly and helpful. She is hoping someone will volunteer to start such a thing in our club. Notes on what this club does can be had from Patty.

Nancy thought it was a good idea but in her experience most new people are absolutely terrified with the idea of playing Duplicate Bridge.

Penny volunteered to put together a welcome kit. She noted that her Saturday EasyBridge classes have a lot of people attending because she keeps on emailing them. She wants to work on passing the  Director test so she could develop the Saturdays into a regular bridge club game. Patty said we will jump through all the hoops to see that we can add a Saturday game and make it legit.

Patty said we need to take steps to keep the club healthy and all need to work on it.

Nancy reported that she is going to work on the Sectional when she gets back in Fairbanks on April 28th. Patty said she won’t be here for the Sectional so wants to be sure we have all arrangements secured as soon as possible. Patty said she is confident that Nancy will handle the job well.  

Patty said she filled in the ACBL report on the clubs roster. She said she has Penny as the webmaster Axel as the Discipline chair, David is Secretary and Recorder, Bonnie is the Business Manager, Nancy is Tournament coordinator, Penny is education liaison, Gail is the coordinator for three games – North American Pairs, Stat pairs and the Grand National Team.

 Patty said the month of April is charity month and we need to pick our charity. 

Nancy said that Shirley had told her that we need to arrange special games 45 days before the game is to be held.

There was discussion on the World Wide Bridge tournament on June 3 rd and 4 th and other special games that offer special master points and the fact that some players aren’t interested in every special game.  Patty said there is also the Grand National Team on September 01 to think about. Nancy argued that these special games bring a welcome change from the normal week and offer special points besides. The board decided to pursue the special games.

Judith  had a proposal about a new construction project building new senior housing with 4 buildings and large meeting areas called Raven Landing.  Judith thought it would be wise for our club to donate a little money to help with the building of the center as she thought it would be a possibility of our using this large new space for our Sectional. The central meeting room would hold about 125 people.

Patty suggested it might be a possible choice for our Charity Game this year. Penny said she would rather our charity game proceeds go to the Senior Center as they are very accommodative to us. She had no problem with some money going to Raven Landing.

It was the feeling of the Board that we should stick with the Senior Center at this time and wait to see what comes up with the new building and meanwhile we need to be financially cautious with our funds, especially now that we have lost some members in the last few months. It was approved to send our charity donation to Raven Landing rounded up with club funds to total $100.

Patty noted that Gail is our coordinator with ACBL for games and game reports and was in need of a credit card so she could make payments to ACBL easily without the hassle of running down the checkbook and getting a check. Bonnie finally arranged with the Bank to have a new card which is coming shortly.

Judith told us that for 8 weeks she was in Portugal she played bridge at a local bridge club. She told us of the manner in which she was welcomed and made to feel comfortable and she was recommending we do the same in our club.

Nancy said in closing that she really appreciated the help that our club was getting from Gail, Penny, Judith and others.

Patty seconded this comment and said she was so thankful for all the people who are stepping forward to take some responsibility for the success of our little club.

End.