CBA board meeting April 15, 2014
 
Meeting was called to order at 5:05 PM. Present were Stephani, Moese, Wisner,  Meinking, Mess,  Manne, Purcell and Sonya Wilson by telephone. Also present Orr.
 
Meetings of the previous meeting as distributed and adjusted were approved.
 
We started with a review of the 3 priorities:
 
1. The communication newsletter and master plan seems to be moving on schedule. Steve Moese reported good progress in receiving contributions to the newsletter. There was some discussion of the details a weekly email blasts and the matter was referred to co-webmasters Moese and Orr.
 
2. The Comer committee has met and is working on a plan to find additional directors for games at CBC. No specific progress with the Comers has been reported.
 
3. Pres. Stephani sent an email to the board with links to several existing documents concerning the structure of CBA and the running of CBC. Questions were entertained on the existing structure and answered. There was further discussion of what the structure of the CBA/CBC combination might look like in 5 years. It was noted that the existing lease expires in February 2017 so some arrangements will have to be made for space after that time - either renewing the existing lease or finding a new location. A number of different possible structures for CBA and the CBC were discussed and Pres. Stephani will summarize those the email to the board for consideration at future meeting.
 
Presidents report:
Pres. Stephani asked the full board to pass a motion to ratifying a decision made by the executive committee. Motion was to make John Meinking the investment director for CBA. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously.
 
The awards party was deemed a success with 21 tables in attendance. In addition to most of the award recipients, the wife and sister of recently deceased member Al Fultz came to accept his prizes. Prompted by Steve Moese, a motion was made in past to give thanks from the board to all of those who helped make the awards party a success including but not limited to AJ Stephani, Stephanie Richardson, Everett Kitchen, Patrick Hoffman, Barb Levinson, Elaine and Ron Jarchow.
 
Treas.’s report:
Treasurer Wisner sent a financial report via email. Results so far this year compared to similar time period last year are not good. Our table count has suffered so far this year from a number of weather based cancellations including a number of them for Deschapelles. In addition, last year’s results benefited from several one time positive items that were not repeated this year. As part of the discussion, it was noted that we are currently paying around $50,000 a year in rent and common area fees for our space.
 
Education committee:
May 3^rd at the bridge center we will hold and another event for beginning players, called New to Bridge. We will be advertising this via flyers distributed to the various bridge game locations in Cincinnati. Committee chair Mike Purcell requested that the board authorize $250 for advertising in the suburban newspapers for this event (the $250 is our portion of the $1000 total less the expected ACBL rebate). The motion was seconded and passed
 
Tournament committee:
Reminded everyone of the regional coming up in early June. All board members were asked to promote the regional in general but especially participation of local members and team games. The committee believes that the easiest way to get additional tables from local players is to get people to play an extra session. Signing up for extended day team games is the easiest way to do that. Adrienne Netherwood will be the partnership chair this year working with Joanne Earls and Chris Hastie. Also noted was the nonlife master sectional is coming up in late May. The first northern Kentucky sectional is in mid-August (replacing the Middletown sectional). In support of that tournament we will close the bridge center on the Friday and Saturday of that sectional as we have traditionally done to support the Middletown sectional.
 
Sonya Wilson reported that we are presently out of the little notecards that we send to welcome new members that she requested and received approval to order another batch of the hundred cards complete with the free play cards that we send to new members.
 
Meeting was adjourned at about 6:40 with a reminder of the next meeting on May 20