The Meeting was called to order at 5:10 PM. Present: Stephani,
Levinson, Purcell, Moese,Manne, Mess, Wisner, Meinking, Wilson by
telephone and Orr as advisor.
The minutes were approved as sent. Previous minutes will be available on our website under the CBA Board category.
Three Priorities
1) Comer Committee
Comer Committee The committee met and John talked to the Comers about
how to “grow their games”. So far no overall approach has been agreed
upon but all parties will continue to pursue this goal..
2)Master Plan - Steve Moese. Fairly good responses have been received
to the information and AJ helped put a new format together in the form
of a calendar. Clubs not responding were not included. The special
games are identified on the new calendar. The key events, however, will
also be highlighted on the front page. Steve passed around the
original Master calendar which indicated when CBA events need to be
announced in advance by posting, email, etc. so that members will be
aware in plenty of time if they wish to attend.
3)Relationship between Unit 124 (Cincinnati Bridge Association) and our
Sanction holders. Last month we listed challenges and problems and AJ
grouped them into categories. It will be a year-long process (or
whenever it gets done) to discuss them with an eye towards a long-term
plan of where we want to be in 5 years. AJ feels we should have an
open-ended discussion on the items we have now, whether there are any
missing, what we think about them. Our initial goal is not to focus on
solutions but rather brainstorm starting next month. Right now we
should focus on what we want to address and/or solve while going
through the process. Steve commented that increasing the positive
experience of the members and increasing the table count are two
different points. AJ asked if any one thing stood out and Mike
mentioned the demarcation etween the CBC and CBA. Susan suggested she do
some financials on the two categories.
President’s Report
AJ gave us a District Meeting update. There are 8 units in our
district and all should be informed about what the district is doing. We
voted on a new youth - under 21 years of age - policy whereby those
members will play at 1/2 price at the 4 District Regionals and the
district-wide events which are the NAP and GNT. It was suggested that
Sectionals apply the same policy to the youth. There is the
ongoing saga of the Midwest Monitor - Brad Bartol editor. Problems
involve method of publication - hard copy vs electronic and monetary
compensation. There will be a committee meeting to discuss this issue
at the Columbus Sectional in April.
Our Attempt to run an
International Fund game Thursday afternoon March 13th did not fare
well. Three tables was very low attendance. John suggested we have some
information at the front desk about upcoming events as well as director
announcements.
Awards
The annual
Awards Party will be on Wednesday evening April 9th. In choosing this
date it was forgotten that Northern Kentucky holds a regular game on
Wednesday evenings. We will be aware of this in the future. As a
result, AJ spoke to the directors and all new NKY honorees will be in
attendance at the party. In addition, Al Fultz’s wife and sister will
be present to accept his award. It was suggested that a way to give
back to our members would be to make the event free to members. Ron
made the motion and Mike seconded to do same. Attendees will need to be
paid ACBL members and reservations will be taken either in-person by AJ
or on the website. AJ will volunteer his director services that
evening.
There is a lingering issue about the two discretionary awards. We have
found no written rules concerning the Sternagel Award. It appears to be
traditional for former recipients of the award to convene an ad hoc
committee to select future winners. No one is aware of any such meeting
nor is any planned. The last one was presented in 2009. The other
discretionary award is the Patty Eber Award. We do know that this award
is not required to be presented annually. Other unit awards are
non-discretionary and are masterpoint related.
Investment Policy
The finance
committee composed of John Meinking, Susan Wisner (treasurer) and Tom
Mess has met. A draft of unit 124 investment policies and standards for
board review was sent to the board for review.The CBA has approximately
$140,000 which is at present earning less than 1% interest. The
finance committee have suggested that we invest the money very
conservatively but depending how it is done, we can expect to earn $4000
- $7000 a year. The money will probably be invested over several months
rather than all at once. Mike asked about cash on hand and it was
agreed to hold $30,000. The decision of how to invest will be the
unanimous consent of the finance committee or the majority consent of
the board. Steve was concerned about accountability. The following
statement was made by Steve and seconded by Ron: The investment
portfolio of the CBA shall be administered by the unit finance committee
and governed by the CBA Board of Directors. The finance committee is a
committee of the board and ultimately answereable to the CBA board. A
brief report will be given each month with a more in-depth report
presented quarterly. A formal policy was presented and signed by all
members of the board.
Treasurer’s Report
Susan’s report was approved as sent. The purchase of our new duplicate
machine was partially paid for by the money obtained from the defunct
Pasteboard checking account. Susan was in contact with our landlord.
There was an adjustment in the common area fee because we were charged
with snowplowing fees that were not used.
Education Committee Report
Mike reported that Saturday morning supervised play continues to do
well with a good mix of people, some of whom already play duplicate as
well as non-ACBL members. There are several CBA members who are
volunteering in this game.
In April and May there will be two events - New2Bridge and
New2Duplicate. Current planned dates may be reversed.
Tournament Committee
AJ reported that we usually approve funding to help our GNT winners attend the NABC’s but this year we have no candidates.
Our Non-Life Master Sectional will be held the 3rd weekend of May.
Stephanie Richardson will chair and Pam Campbell will be partnership
chair.
The Flying Pig
Regional will have an additional game on Monday evening to
benefit The Longest Day campaign. It will involve making sure the room is set up
on time. Patti English is the Chairman of the Tournament. Adrienne
Netherwood will be Partnership Chair. Hospitality will be similar to
last year which was wine and cheese in between the afternoon and evening
sessions. Joyce Tedrick will be in charge of Hospitality. We talked
about naming games in honor or memory of players and this will have to
be considered by the Chairperson. While our Regional is in progress, we
will be renting our CBC space for part of that time to the ABA for
their use. It was suggested that although we usually have the carpets
cleaned during this week ,we forego it this year and we concurred. One
other point was brought up that we need to try to get our local players
to increase their attendance at the tournament.
The former Middletown Sectional will now become the Northern Kentucky
Sectional chaired by Cordell Coy and Elaine Jarchow. We have requested
several times that the excess funds left from the Middletown Sectional
be turned over the Northern Kentucky but have had no luck so far.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 PM