Austin Board Meeting, July 3, 2004
Meeting Called to Order: There is a quorum.
- Voting Members present:
- Everette Lewis, Unit 172; Eric Snow, Unit 164; Gerrie Owen, Unit 176; Tom Hughes, Unit 183; Mary Anne Laier, Unit 207; Howard Wilkins, Unit 224; Gay Roach, Unit 225; Tom Corlett, Unit 233; Judy McDonald, Unit 205; G. Poplawsky, Unit 172; Dewitt Hudson; Charlie Price
- Non-Voting Members present:
- Donna Compton; Sue Doe; Sandy Campbell; Dan Morse; John Zilic; Tom Whitesides; Chris Compton
- Distinguished Guests present:
- Shawn Quinn; Roxana Tom; Ed Rawlinson
- There is a Quorum.
- District Representative Report (Dan Morse)
- ACBL is changing the way they are doing donating to charities. Instead of donating $100,000 to one national charity, five districts will receive $20,000 a piece to give to the charities they want. District 16's year is 2006.
Dan Morse: I suggest dividing into 4 areas. We should form a committee to review requests for money from areas. Good chance to promote bridge in District 16 in the newspapers. So start thinking about where we want to donate.
Tom Corlett: We should have Carol Schoenhals appoint a committee that represents the entire District to determine how the $20,000 is distributed.
Dan Morse: Our membership is dropping again. Overall ACBL membership is up... but our District is down. We are now 4th in the ACBL.
- Treasurer's Report (Tom Hughes)
- As of today, the District has $20,400 - This is very misleading, however. The STAC has not been paid which is $8 or $9,000. $ 2,500 was sent for the July/August Scorecard and GNT has to be paid also.
MOTION (Charlie Price): a yearly balance sheet will be published once a year in the Scorecard. SECONDED (Eric Snow). Vote Taken. MOTION CARRIED. None Opposed.
- Committee Reports:
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- Appellate (Scott Humphrey)
- Everything is OK.
- Awards (Eric Snow)
- Jacoby Committee meant this morning. We have only 4 nominations from the past and no nominations for this year. Each unit has an opportunity to make a nomination for the Jacoby Award each year. This is a great opportunity to recognize your volunteers.
- Charity (Carol Schoenhals)
- The Charity Game will be held in September.
- GNT (Sandy Campbell)
- GNT participation was down a little bit. We had a packed house for Flights A, B & C. We need to get the event started faster. Very few teams pre-registered even though they were requested to pre-register in the Scorecard ad. I had a difficult time getting the reports from the Units. I need the Captains contact information from each qualifying teams.
Tom Whitesides: We need to rework the conditions to have a swiss qualifying and we would not need any pre-registration.
Shawn Quinn: I will head the committee to rewrite the conditions. The committee will meet during the Austin Regional. Tom Whitesides, Gerrie Owen, Shawn Quinn and Sandy Campbell will meet after the game.
Tom Whitesides: We also need to change the Super-Flight to 20 point Victory Point Scale.
Gay Roach: Unit 225 has 20K in funds. Our unit does nothing to support our GNT and NAP pairs.
Dan Morse: There are new rules for the NAP - Take the new rules back to your unit and explain that the event is cheaper to run. Maybe that will encourage your unit to host a NAP qualifying game.
- Membership & Education (Donna Compton)
- District 16 Membership numbers are down as Dan stated earlier. The ACBL offers a Free Unit Growth Seminar which helps to organize the unit, clubs and teachers to increase membership growth and retention.
- Intermediate Novice Coordinator (Su Doe)
- We now have 16 out of 17 units which have representatives. Please look over the list being past around and update any information that is required.
We would like for the District to host an Education Liaison and Intermediate/Novice reception so that information and ideas may be shared from across the District.
Gerrie Owen: I think this is a good idea. Dallas will host the first EL & IN during the Dallas Labor Day Regional. The Dallas Unit 176 will take care of the cost for the first reception.
- Internet (Charles Richards)
- OK
- NAP (John Zilic)
- We used to pre-register. But we only require a list of pre-qualifiers to make sure that they are playing. I am having trouble getting this information for the units.
I am disappointed to hear that Unit 225 is not having a qualifying game. It hurts our "at-large" qualifiers.
Some Districts are surcharging the players to subsidize the qualifiers that go to the NABCs. MOTION: Surcharge the District Finals for Flights A, B & C $1/person/session. Issue Tabled.
- Tournament (Charles Price)
- Tournaments are going as expected. I would like to recognize Howard Wilkins' city rotation for split Regionals.
- Disciplinary (Sandy Campbell)
- All Quiet
- Scorecard (Donna Compton)
- All is well.
- Board of Governors (Dewitt Hudson)
- Education Foundation: Stephenville has a new sanction. 4-5 Tables currently.
- Puerto Vallarta Regional (Judy McDonald)
- Dewitt Hudson: Puerto Vallarta Regional has been removed from the 2004 Calendar.
Judy McDonald: For the last five years we have made a profit. This year we had a difficult time finding hotel, directors etc. Our attendance for the last regional was down but we still made a profit because of the sponsorship. I receive a lot of emails from the players who do attend and they are very interested in the next date.
The next PV Regional is November 7-13, 2005. At this time we will go ahead with this date. We have old sponsors and one new sponsor for our 2005 tournament. We are going to do a web site for this tournament. We do flyers, postcards and advertise in the Bulletin and Scorecard.
PV is a great site - safe, lots of activities, local bridge players to help.
Dewitt Hudson: What is the participation from District 16?
Judy McDonald: District 16 is in the lower portion as related to the rest of the country. We have great hospitality and we would like to have better participation from District 16. Anything you can do to support our tournament is appreciated. We also have speakers, panel discussions and IN games.
- NEW BUSINESS
- Approval of USBF Regional November 29-December 5, 2004.
MOTION: Approve the USBF November 29-December 5, 2004. SECONDED. Vote Taken. MOTION CARRIED. None Opposed.
Approval of USBF Regional June 6-11, 2005.
MOTION: Approve the USBF June 6-11, 2005. SECONDED.
Roxanna Tom (Unit 172): I think it is a great idea to have the team trials. However, the timing is going to hurt our regional. We have a huge room requirement already in place. We usually make money on our tournament but if Houston has a huge tournament we will lose tables and rooms.
Shawn Quinn: We have a very limited time to hold the event. I don't think that it will hurt the attendance at the SA Regional.
Ed Rawlinson: (Treasurer of Unit 172): We would buy the rooms. What we want is that your organization to insure that you will compensate us in any shortfall in room count.
Shawn Quinn: Go back and renegotiate the hotel shortfall.
Ed Rawlinson: Hotel negotiations are not the same in SA as they are in Houston and elsewhere.
Gay Roach: Mediation is what we need to do in this situation.
MOTION: Approve USBF Regional in June with the understanding that if there is adverse effect to SA regional from the SA viewpoint that there will be Mediation in Good Faith between the SA Unit and the Houston Unit. SECONDED. Vote Taken. MOTION CARRIED. None Opposed.
- OLD BUSINESS
- MOTION: Austin will host the 2007 NAP. SECONDED. Vote Taken. MOTION CARRIED. None Opposed.
MOTION: An extra $1 will be charged on the Saturday of each District 16 Regional to support the 2006 Dallas NABC. SECONDED. Vote Taken. MOTION CARRIED. None Opposed.
Thank you Austin for your tournament. It has been very well run. It is a very nice tournament.
Meeting Adjourned.