Unit 143 Board Meeting Minutes

March 11, 2009

President Suzi Shymanski-Moore called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Present were Bob Wheeler, Bobby Riggs, Bob Janis, Jennifer Luner, Carole Benkelman, Bill Bunn, Steve Zenk, and Jane Ettelson Absent were Board members Donna Pedrotti, Debra Romero, Jackie Baker, Ed Hale and Carl Clyne. Also present was Mike Carman

February Minutes

The February minutes were approved.

Corresponding Secretary‘s Report

The database was down loaded on March 9 th from ACBL to replace the Unit 143 database. This is done monthly.

The 2009 POTY standings were updated with the results of the March 1 st and March 8 th unit games. A report will be e-mailed to Milt Zlatic for posting on the unit website.

Obituary notice for Milt Harris was sent to ACBL.

Jack Bryant submitted a proposal for a revised fee schedule. His present fee is $200 per month. Since his workload has been reduced because of the ACBL database download, Jack is proposing to charge $25 per hour with a maximum charge of $200 per month. The fee for February amounted to $56.25. The Unit 143 Board approved Jack's proposal.

Treasurer's Report

Bob Janis provided a copy of the Unit 143 balance sheet as of February 28, 2009. This showed a balance of $8,038 in the checking account. The unit has $39.598 in current assets. The report shows a net profit $651 for the period of October 2008 thru February 2009.

The Treasurer's Report was approved.

The Unit 143 board voted to Change its Standing Rules to allow Bob to sign checks up to $2,500 without the need of a co-signature from either the President or Vice President.

The Unit 143 board also voted to change its Standing Rules to allow a Board member to obligate the Board for expenditures of up to $250 without prior approval of the Board. This limitation shall not apply to expenditures which were previously approved for either the annual budget or tournament budgets.

Standing Committees

•  Awards/Nominating /Club Liaison

Steve Zenk accepted the position of Club Liaison

•  Charity/hospitality/Caddies

No Report

•  Education

No Report

•  Membership

Steve Zenk reported a net decrease of 4 members. Membership count stands at 1075.

•  Website

Jennifer Luner reported the need to upgrade the web page software to allow the use of the Firefox browser. She will be changing NAOP to NAP. Other maintenance items are also required.

Jennifer would like to publish the names of new players on the webpage for a period of 24 months. A suggestion was made to also include their pictures.

Jennifer will check with club owners on the Find A Partner section of the webpage.

Jennifer reported webpage hits in excess of 1,411,000.

•  Publicity

Suzi Shymanski-Moore likes the format of several ads in the Bridge Bulletin on upcoming Regional Tournaments. She will pass the ideas on the Debra Romero to consider when she is putting together the ad for our upcoming Regional.

•  NAP/GNT

No report

•  199er Tournament

Jane Ettelson reported the results of the 199er Tournament. There were a total of 33.5 tables for the AM session and 16 tables for the PM session. The tournament was considered a success and netted the unit a profit of $589. Jane will get convention card holders to use as door prizes. Jane also reported a problem with the clocks. Neither one was working properly.

•  Bidding Boxes

No report

•  Vice President

No report

•  Tournament Chairman

The kids' event will again be held on Saturday afternoon during the May Sectional Tournament. The event will be called the 2 nd Annual Illinois Bridge Tournament. Bobby Riggs will coordinate the event. Trophies will be awarded to the winners. Pizza and salad will be provided as hospitality.

The Board held a discussion on how to improve Friday night attendance. We may try a single session Swiss event. No conclusions were reached.

The Sunday lunch at the Sectional Tournament will be served between the 4 th and 5 th rounds. The lunch is presently served after the fifth round.

Bob Janis is working on a Restaurant Guide for the May Sectional Tournament. He is also checking motel rates in the area. He may have something for the October Sectional Tournament.

•  Bragging Rights Match

Bill Bunn will inquire with ACBL whether or not an ACBL director is required for the event or can we use a local director. Bill would prefer a local director due to cost considerations.

Old Business

The Board voted to rename the POTY award to the Ed Schultz Unit Champion Award. A travelling trophy will be obtained on which the names of future winners will be engraved.

New Business

The Board discussed an ABA unity game. Jennifer Luner is the liaison with the ABA and will discuss possible dates for such a game. The Friday night Sectional game was suggested as one possibility for the game.

A discussion was held on the scheduling of and sanctions for 199er & 299er silver point games at the clubs. The Unit 143 Board will be establishing procedures and policies on the scheduling of these events in the Date Book so as not to conflict with board sponsored events. The Board also wants to ensure the all the clubs have an opportunity to hold these events if they wish.

Meeting Adjourned 9:15 PM