Minutes

        Unit 143 Board Meeting

        February 21, 2007

Approved April 11, 2007

President John Samsel called the meeting to order at 7:00pm. Present were Board Members Donna Pedrotti, Jennifer Luner, Sasanka Ramanadham, Ed Hale, Steve Zenk, Mary Hruby, Suzi Shymanski-Moore, Bob Janis and Bob Wheeler. Absent were Sheryl Finkenstadt and Mark Ludwig. Also present were Mike Carman, Lee Hastings and Daryl Fisher.

January Minutes

Jennifer Luner motioned and Donna Pedrotti seconded motion to approve the January minutes. The motion was approved.

Treasurer's Report

Bob Janis provided a copy of the 2006/2007 budget. The budget projects a loss of about $7000 for the year. This loss is due to the $12,500 being provided to help fund the March NABC Tournament. Mary Hruby motioned and Donna Pedrotti seconded motion to approve the budget. The motion passed. Budget will be reviewed every month to see how we are doing.

Bob said we have about $5,000 in the bank thru February. We received a complete refund from St Charles for building rental costs associated with the January Sectional Tournament.

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STANDING COMMITTES

1. Awards/Nominating/Club Liaison

No report.

1. Charity/Hospitality/Caddies

No report

1. Education/Knockouts

The Education Committee Composed of Jennifer Luner, Ed Hale, Jane Ettelson, Lee Hastings and Daryl Fisher presented their report on their plan to promote bridge. The primary goals of the Education Committee are to promote bridge by bringing new players into the unit, increasing local participation in duplicate play and retaining new and current members.

The committee feels that the two major shortcomings are a shortage of ACBL certified teachers and a declining number of players at both the clubs and tournaments.

The committee made a presentation on Easybridge. The program has been well received in both Springfield and New Orleans. The program in Springfield produced approximately 140 new ACBL members. 20-22 tables were added to their Sectional Tournament count. After week 15 of the Easybridge program in New Orleans 4-6 tables were added to the Wednesday evening game and 10-11 tables were added to the Thursday morning game.

The committee recommends that Easybridge be introduced in Unit 143 twice a year in both 2007 & 2008. Each session would last 15 weeks. The first 4 weeks would be free for the players with the unit picking up the costs for materials, presenter, rent and refreshments. During the remaining 11 weeks, the player would be charged a nominal fee ($5/ player). The presenter would cover costs from the player fees for weeks 5 thru 15. Marti Ronemus, the ACBL Easybridge Program Manager, can provide advertising /recruiting materials. Unit 143 can use the ACBL Cooperative Advertising Program to off set 75% of our advertising costs for Easybridge.

Also because the presenter must be a certified teacher, the committee recommends the Unit143 sponsor that person at a TAP seminar. The person also needs to be a certified director. The cost would be on that person.

Motion was made by Mary Hruby and seconded by Donna Pedrotti to accept the committee proposal. The Committee will select a candidate to run the Easybridge program. The motion passed.

1. Membership

Steve Zenk reported membership gains include 2 new members, 9 reinstated member and 3 members transferring in. Membership losses included 1 member transferring out and 4 members becoming inactive. There was a net gain of 9 members during the past month.

E. NAOP/GNT

No report

1. Website

Via e-mail, Sheryl Finkenstadt indicated that site usage for the month appears to have been stable. Due to changeover in the site location in mid January, actual usage is hard to determine.

The NABC results will consist of a link on our home page to the Memphis NABC result pages.

Sheryl has established a procedure for publishing game changes on our website. The main point is that any game change info must be obtained directly from the club owner.

1. Publicity

Sasanka Ramanadham said that $350 was spent on the post card mailing for the January Sectional Tournament. Sasanka would like to eliminate this mailing and replace it with an ACBL e-mail advertisement and a flier and post card distribution at the clubs. A motion was made by Suzi Shymanski-Moore to modify Sasanka's plan by continuing to mail post cards to outing areas. Steve Zenk seconded the motion. The motion passed

Donna Coker is preparing fliers for the Eight-Is-Enough Unit game in April.

1. Membership/199er Tournament

No Report.

1. Recording Secretary/Bidding Boxes

No Report

1. Vice President

No Report

1. Tournament Chairman

Mike Carman stated that we lost about $1251 dollars during the January Sectional Tournament. The tournament was cut short due to bad weather and the need for St Charles to use the facility as a storm center. Unused food was donated to St Charles for the storm victims. Suzi Shymanski-Moore stated that her inventory was used and will have to be restocked for the May Sectional Tournament.

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NEW BUSINESS

Mary Hruby provided some information about possible radio advertising. Clear Channel 103.3 can provide five 30 second ads between 7-8 PM during the football season. The ads would be run once per day at a cost of $250. The board felt that the ads should target new players to clubs and attract new teachers rather than for our tournaments. The proposal was tabled until the Board has an area to focus the advertising.

Meeting Adjourned