Minutes

      Unit 143 Board Meeting

        February 13 , 2008

(Approved March 12, 2008)

President John Samsel called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Present were Board members Bob Janis, Ed Hale, Bob Wheeler, Sheryl Finkenstadt, Mark Ludwig, Sandy Bigg, and Sasanka Ramanadham. Also present was Mike Carman. Absent were Board Members, Steve Zenk, Donna Pedrotti, Debbie Romero, Suzi Shymanski-Moore and Jane Ettelson.

January Minutes

The January minutes were approved.

Corresponding Secretary's Report

The Unit 143 data base is still current as of January 1, 2008. The ACBL In/Out report for 02/01/08 will be posted when received.

The 2007 Mini-McKenney medals were awarded at the January Sectional Tournament.

The Unit 143 Board Report listing member name, year elected, term ending date and term number was updated with changes received from Sheryl Finhenstadt and Jane Ettelson.

The 2008 POTY report was updated to include results of the January Unit Game and Sectional Tournament. The report has been posted on the Unit 143 website.

A list of new life masters from the November thru December 2007 Bulletins was provided to John Samsel. They were awarded their LM pins at the January Sectional Tournament.

Cancelled the February 2008 Unit Game per the request of Donna Coker.

Treasurer's Report

Bob Janis provided a copy of the Unit 143 balance sheet as of January 31, 2008. This showed a balance of $1,046 in the checking account. The unit has $33,900 in total current assets. The report shows a loss of $3,843.80 for the months of October 2007 thru January 2008. The report does not reflect income from the January Sectional Tournament which will add $6,000 to $7,000 to the Balance sheet. The Treasurer's report was approved.

STANDING COMMITTEES

A. Awards/Nominating/Club Liaison

No Report

B. Charity/Hospitality/Caddies

No report.

C. Education

Ed Hale presented the Education Committee's guideline document to evaluate requests for financial support by Unit 143 for education programs such as Easy Bridge. The proposal was approved. Also the Unit 143 Board approved an increase in the Education budget to $1,000. This money will be dispersed by the Education Committee.

D. Membership

Steve Zenk e-mailed his report to the board members. He reported an increase of 3 members in Unit 143.

E. Website

Sheryl Finkenstadt reported that the web site lists about 62 unique visitors to the site each month. The most popular pages are the game results page and the home page.

F. Publicity

Sasanka Ramanadham will include Easy Bridge sessions on the May postcards.

G. NAP/GNT

No report

H. Recording Secretary/Bidding Boxes

No report

I. Vice President

No Report.

J. Tournament Chairman

Mike Carman said that the January Sectional Tournament made about $101. The tournament was well attended and showed an increase of 24 tables over the initial budget estimate. The budget had projected a loss of $168.

Mike provided budget and schedule for the May Sectional Tournament He projects a loss of about $145. The schedule and stratification limits will remain the same as for the January Sectional Tournament. There are plans to have an EASY Bridge section on both Friday and Saturday afternoons. We are hoping to have 4-5 tables for the game. Price is to be determined. Because of increased food expenses, Mike proposed raising the fee for the Sunday Swiss game to $100 per team. The Board approved Mike's proposal. The schedule and budget for the May sectional Tournament were approved.

Mike provided a history of Sectional and Regional tournaments dating back to 1990. The history provides daily counts for these tournaments.

Mike requested that the Board consider the purchase of a third time clock for our tournaments. The cost would be about $450. His request was tabled for future consideration

OLD BUSINESS

Sasanka Ramanadham reported on the Bragging Rights Match. Kansas City has agreed to send a novice team to St Louis. Sasanka is proposing four brackets for the event. These brackets are A (open), B (<2000 MPs), C (<750 MPs) and novice (0 - 200 MPs). Kansas City has sent a check for $633 to Unit 143 to cover their portion of the 2007 Bragging Rights match expenses. Bob Janis noted that Kansas City still owes Unit 143 about $280 for the years of 2002, 2004 and 2006. Bob is not sure if Kansas City was ever billed for this money. The Board voted to erase this debt because Kansas City paid their share of the 2007 expenses even though these expenses exceeded their budget. Sandy Bigg will help Sasanka with the 2008 Bragging Rights matches. Games will probably be held at Maryland Heights.

NEW BUSINESS

None

Meeting Adjourned at 8:40 PM