Duplicate Bridge Association of Atlanta

Board of Directors – Meeting Minutes

December 5, 2007

 

Present:  Jack Feagin, Susan Wolfe, Judy Fendrick, Donna Holland, Kevin Collins, Bob Heller, Nicolas Hammond and Richard Browne

 

President Jack Feagin called the meeting to order.  Items highlighted in blue require future discussion and/or follow-up action.

 

1.  Minutes:  The Board members reviewed and approved the minutes from the October 3 and November 13 meetings.

 

2.  Financial:  No report.  Finance Committee was asked to create a 5-year plan for DBAA projected income and expenses, including a commitment to promote bridge in general.

 

3.  Special Games:  STAC-December 12; Christmas Party-December 19; GNT-January 9.  Jack will contact Jan about advertising for the Friendship Game.

 

4.  Old Business: 

 

Sectional Tournaments-2008 – The March sectional tournament will be held at the new Doubletree Hotel (formerly Magnolia Manor).

 

DBAA Website – Larry Rich responded to Jack that he will be available to work on the website update in January.  Jack has provided Larry with suggestions for updating the site.  In particular, we want users to be able to easily find bridge games from our site.  The Board members will continue to research other sites for ideas to send to Larry. 

 

5.  New Business:

 

Unit Election– The Unit board is scheduled to meet on December 8 and decide issues relating to the March election of Unit reps.  The Metro Area will have 9 reps.  Each club owner in the Unit is encouraged to post a letter for their members for Unit rep nominations.  There will be absentee ballots available for the March election, which will need to be sent to a specific person or brought to the election.

 

New Bridge Club– A new bridge club is opening soon in Canton.  No other details are available yet.

 

Promoting Bridge –

Ø       Advertising – Options discussed included advertising at catholic churches, community centers, health clubs, country clubs, neighborhood newspapers and Access Atlanta.  Consider the idea of submitting news stories that highlight interesting aspects of bridge.  Jack will check with ACBL regarding possible advertising subsidy.  Jack will also check on coupon book costs.

Ø       Phone Number to leave messages for information - A phone number with voice mail could be another option to give people the ability to get information, with an assigned rotation for people to respond to messages.  DBAA did this prior to the Nationals. 

Ø       Public Television - Public television or ACBL may have some bridge teaching segments designed for public television or web broadcasting that we could bring to the forefront. 

Ø       Lesson Free Plays– Lesson free plays would be a nice incentive to encourage newer players to play in club games.  We would need to have these printed and distributed.  Judy and Donna will check their historical files for any free play templates already available.

Ø       ACBL Listing of Members– Check with ACBL to find out if they have a listing of ACBL members who have not played for 2-3 years.

 

Meeting adjourned at 7:10 pm.  Next meeting:  Wednesday, January 9, 2008 – 6:15 pm

 

Respectfully submitted,