Minutes of Unit 174 Board Meeting
Board meeting was called to order at
The District 16 Board meeting was held on Saturday morning,
Ira and Ellen Hessell are the new editors of the Scorecard.
Eric reported the Board of Governors of the District will be
losing 3 seats and the Board of Directors of Unit 174 will need to vote for 3
candidates. There are 4 people running
for 3 positions. The election will take place between
approximately August 15 and
Dianna passed out her report to the board. She reported the
The minutes were passed around by the Secretary for everyone to read and correct. MOTION: Was made to approve the minutes of the June Board Meeting as corrected. Was seconded and approved.
Jim reported the board remains in good financial condition. MOTION: to approve the Treasurer’s report as reported. It was seconded and approved.
Lauri reported that 8 life master awards have been ordered so far this month. Six have been received and are being distributed accordingly. She said the Unit has a credit for 16 more plaques at Post Oak Trophy. Another order will be placed later this month once the update comes in from ACBL.
All Mini-McKinney and Ace of Clubs awards for 2006 have now been distributed.
Lauri said she will be taking a firm count of all glasses and paperweights in order to decide if an order needs to be placed to cover the rest of the year.
Lauri reported that all NAP flyers were mailed or delivered. She also reported that she sent flyers for the August Sectional to all the local clubs in outlying areas with a note requesting feedback concerning the number of flyers they would like.
Bridge in Schools – Bert (for Carolyne Fox)
Bert reported there was no news from Carolyne and asked the board if they wanted to put together a marketing campaign to see if bridge could be taught in more school areas. The board decided to pass on the discussion.
Betty reported to Bert that she and her committee are contacting new members, transfers in and Life Masters and Non Life Masters who have not renewed. She reported that messages were being left because catching people at home is very difficult. They are also sending e-mails.
The board discussed various ways of getting the news out to members that whenever they shop at Randalls or Krogers, part of their sales purchase goes to the Unit. At Krogers, all a member needs to do is to apply for a special Kroger card and at Randalls, all the member has to do is fill out a form.
Book Sales: Nineteen books were sold to Laura Lee Jones during the month of July and she has requested eleven more. Most of the teachers do not teach during the summer months.
Education: Lynne Graham and Laura Lee Jones are teaching their Introduction to Duplicate seminars and are very actively encouraging their students to come to the 0-20 Friday games at the Studio. They are also actively recruiting new ACBL members.
299er and 0-20 Games:
The Bridge Studio has begun the 0-20 Friday game in addition to the
current 299er game. They are also considering adding a Wednesday novice
game. Bridge Club of Houston has
expanded its novice offerings as has
She emphasized that these games are critical for unit bridge growth and retention.
Mentor/Mentee games: Joyce would like to know if there is a way that we can encourage or offer a better financial incentive for novice/mentor games or for novices/mentors playing together. The board discussed various ways.
Bert reported there’s good news! Membership is up by 19 this month to 2303 members. This is our highest total since August 2003. Retention continues to improve but the number of new members faltered a bit this last quarter. Bert also compared our unit with other units in District 16 in terms of active membership trend and found that in March 31, 2007 it was ranked 8th in District 16 and 136th in ACBL compared to being 3rd as of June 30, 2007 in the District and 96th in ACBL. Our downward trend in competitive position within the district seems to have reversed. He hopes this continues.
On another note, Bert looked at our membership and divided it according to where people live: 12% live inside Loop 610, 6% live North of I-10, east of I-45, 13% live South of I-10, east of US 288, 40% live South of I-10, west of US 288 and 28% live North of I-10, west of I-45.
The NAP qualifications are going on at various clubs. The GNT is set to go to
JoDene passed out two letters that will be going out to all the clubs for review and comment. The board discussed ways to reword the letters.
Karen reported there is nothing to report on Stac at this time as it won’t be held until early October. Two cards went out this month for Goodwill.
Lauri reported in John’s absence that he said everything should be in order. She also said they met prior to his leaving to go over instructions regarding the coordination of supplies for the August Sectional.
Tom Whitesides asked Jolie if she could ask the Board if we would change the dates of our Stac tournament to January 7-13 in order to accommodate the San Antonio Sectional. There seemed to be no problem with this.
Jolie reported there were 493 l/2 tables at the Sectional and it was the best attended June Sectional since 1995. Jolie reported a profit of around $250.00. She noted that the directors’ expenses were up several hundred dollars more than budgeted and also more free plays were given out than were budgeted.
Gary King is lined up to speak on Saturday.
JoDene passed out a copy of the proposed budget to all the members for review. MOTION: Was made to approve the budget of the October Sectional as presented. Was seconded and approved. JoDene also passed out a copy of the proposed schedule for review. MOTION: To approve the schedule of the October schedule with the exception of the stratifications. Was seconded and approved.
The board discussed Bert’s proposal to change the strats and
Bert will pass this on to
Review Section 1 Unit Procedures Manual – All
The board decided to put this on next month’s agenda.
There was no executive session.
MOTION: Was made to
adjourn the meeting. Was seconded and
approved. The meeting was adjourned at
Respectfully Submitted,
Karen Nimmons, Sec.