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August 27, 2005 Macon

Meeting was called to order at Macon sectional, August 27, 2005.  Members in attendance:  Sandy Barrow, President, Barbara Heller-Secretary, Marty Nathan, Nancy Hetsko, VP, Ann Hedden (NAP Coordinator), Mary Ann Bateman, Treasurer,  Liz Swanson, Tom Wight (Macon), and Harpe Suggs (Warner Robins), Richard Burton (proxy for Jan Word-DBAA), Beatrice Kemp (DBAA), Dick Myers(Conyers 6), Betty Myers (Northwest Georgia 1),  Larry Rich (Northeast Georgia 2), Bob Heller (Tournament Coordinator), Myrtis Howell (Valdosta),  Martha Lucas (Milledgeville) Ruth Suggs (proxy for Columbus), Barbara Turner (Membership Chair), Sam Marks (proxy for Kevin Collins),

Minutes approved.
 

Treasurer’s report-$35,000 went to the Nationals.  We still have $52,700 per Mary Ann Bateman, approved by Harpe, Dick seconded, unanimous.
 

Barbara Turner has been sending out membership packets with coupons and she is getting them back and we will be reimbursing them.
 

Committee Reports-

Membership Report-she has sent over 400 letters.  She has been following up with the members from the Macon area with a phone call and invitation to local clubs and has had 100% return for her efforts.  Nancy stated that Barbara has a unit report and that we could send to Club managers a letter to ask them if they want the list of their members.  Marty seconded.  Unanimous. Ann is sending me a listing of all club managers and addresses and Nancy is sending me exactly the wording for this letter.
 

Bob Heller-Upcoming sectionals-Atlanta-Nov. 9-13, Valdosta- Sept. 30, Macon Is Jan. 22, STaC Feb. 2, Greensboro-March 24-26, Macon Non-life master, Marietta Non-life master, Atlanta-July, STaC in June, Roswell March is not for sure. 

Hilton wants to cut back from 5 to 4 days with large food and beverage cost.  DBAA is aware of it.  Jack is checking in to other sites.
    

Entitlement –Nancy Hetsko-reported on Bill Marks social bridge game starting in Sept. 8th.  He will give a report at end of his program. 

 

Ann Hedden  NAP- Anyone who qualifies at club level can play at district level in Spartanburg over Halloween.
  

Sam Marks will send out packet when he gets it to all club managers for GNTeams.  District final in Morganton-qualifiers begin next month
 

Trophy committee-Dick Myers gave us a corrected report-Non-Life master will be June 2-4 Marietta.  Attach it to minutes.  We will finalize in November and we voted on Macon Trophy pairs so it can be publicized.  Unanimous.
 

Hall of Fame Committee-chaired by Larry Rich.  –No one has made a submission.

 

 Old business-Sandy had asked Nancy to prepare a report on mentoring programs within the unit.  She reported on a list of suggestions that we can send to clubs about the running of mentoring program. She will email for attaching.  She stated that the Unit should not interfere with a club’s mentoring program unless we have a request for money.  Marty asked if we honor these requests and Nancy reported that Atlanta has taken advantage of it.  We deal with requests for any type of funding on a one by one basis.  Harpe suggested Girls and Boys Clubs may be interested in sponsoring bridge activities.  If anyone would like to contact them, please do so.  Entitlement funding is available for creative projects. 

 

New Business:  -Mike reported on the District bylaw amendment that we need to vote on.  In Greenville in June the district took its’ final reading and now the units have to ratify it.  Most of the changes are in the nature of housekeeping.  He went over them in a nutshell.  He encourages us to ratify by unanimous consent.  Sam seconded.  Mike clarified the actual voting procedure. 

14 for-4 abstain-none opposed.
 

Nominating committee-Larry Rich-chair, Ann Hedden, Mary Ann Bateman-will announce in November meeting. Mike Kovacich raised the issue of whether Mary Ann Bateman should be a member of the nominating committee since she is our treasurer and most probably will continue to serve in that position.  Sandy will check the bylaws to make sure there is not a conflict (Note: Harpe Suggs has replaced Mary Ann on the committee).
  

Annual meeting-normally in March in Atlanta- Notice has to be given of meeting.  No space is available in Insert-We passed a motion at a previous meeting that it will default to Macon if other is in doubt.   Notice to clubs to post and place a box in the flier for the tournament we will have in January.  Ann Hedden moved we send a slate of officers and the annual meeting to each club.  Beatrice seconded. Motion passed.

At a previous meeting, it was decided if the annual meeting could not be held at the March Atlanta area sectional that it would be held in Macon in January.  Since it is unclear about the Roswell sectional in March, we are holding our annual meeting and election of officers at the Macon tournament in January for 2006.
 

Mike Kovacich reported that the election of District officers will be in Charlotte.  He  asked that any unit representatives who could not go to the meeting to notify Sandy Barrow.  We want strong representation since two of our members were running for the unit board.  Nancy Hetsko is running unopposed for secretary and Bob Heller is running against Pat Jankovic for Vice-President.
  

Sam Marks presented a request for Patty Tucker asking for ACBL memberships for the 11 students that she taught in bridge camp in July.  There was some confusion as to whether we had approved something like this in the past, but Sam made the motion and Liz Swanson seconded that we give Patty $154 to reimburse her for these memberships.  All of these students are Unit 114 members.  Motion passed.
 

Marty Nathan asked that any time we are to vote on matters such as the District 7 bylaw amendments that they be included as an attachment to an agenda that is sent to each unit representative prior to the meeting.  The secretary will comply when given these documents by the person presenting the proposal.
 
Marty asked for a report on the profit made from the Lake Lanier sectional over the 4th of July.  Larry Rich, tournament chair, stated that the unit netted a profit of $0.03.  Mary Ann Bateman said that he had not turned over the profit to her for deposit.
 

Myrtis Howell asked the unit to be sure to attend the Valdosta sectional.
 

Mary Ann reported that she had received a check for $984.54 from the District board.  At a previous meeting, we had voted that any clubs running the games would get their share of this money.  Each club that ran the District 7 STaC games should submit the number of tables they had in play to Mary Ann who will then disburse the proceeds.
   
Next meeting will be held on Saturday, November 12 at the Atlanta Sectional at the NE Hilton.

 

A complete listing of Unit Board members is posted on the unit website at http://www.whidco.com/Unit114acbl/

Just follow the links for unit officers.

Unit members should up date their paper copies with the following three corrections:

Ann Hedden is changing her email to bellsouth.net from aol.com

Martha Lucas –delete phone number and use her cell, 478-414-8360

Mary Ann Bateman-delete fax number. 

 
                                        Respectfully submitted,
                                        Barbara M. Heller    Secretary Unit 114
GEORGIA UNIT 114
TREASURER’S REPORT – AUGUST 27, 2005
SunTrust beginning balance: 3,985.67
Income: Money from STaC games in December 2004-each club to get share: 984.59
ACBL membership: 1,769.81
Reimbursement from Gainesville Tournament: 2,000.00
Money from Money Market Account for the Nationals: 25,000.00
=======
33,740.07
Expenses:
06/01/05 659 Atlanta Nationals 25,000.00
06/05/05 660 Bob Heller – Board Meeting- Food 340.00
Atlanta Sectional-Good sportsman fees 56.00
06/14/05 661 Barbara Heller – mailing fees -secretary 28.00
06/14/05 662 Judy Nolan -District 7 publication-2 pages 300.00
06/14/05 663 Pat Seiler –4 table loss from Roswell 80.00
06/14/05 664 ACBL –labels for NAOP mailing 20.00
06/29/05 665 Barbara Heller – reimbursement
for gifts from Unit for Nationals 446.83
07/01/05 666 Lake Lanier Center - Gainesville Tourn. 2,000.00
07/01/05 VOID
07/10/05 668 Larry Rich – Webmanager for Unit 100.00
& 1 free play –new member 6.00
07/10/05 669 Barbara Turner – stamps, new membership 37.00
Harland Checks – imprinted checks 47.50
SunTrust Bk - maintenance fee 11.00
=======
Total of checks: (28,472.33)
SunTrust ending balance: 5,267.74
RBC Dain Money Market Account: July 31, 2005 118,435.78
SunTrust Balance: August 27, 2005 5,267.74
Total of both accounts 123,703.52
2006 TROPHY TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE - REVISED AT AUGUST MEETING
EVENT SESSIONS TOURNAMENT LOCATION DATE
MIXED PAIRS 1 MACON SECTIONAL 1/22/2006
OPEN PAIRS 2 ROSWELL SECTIONAL 3/5/2006
NLM PAIRS 1 ATLANTA NLM 6/4/2006
UNIT K.O. 4 ATLANTA SECTIONAL 7/2/2006
SPORTSMANSHIP n/a ATLANTA SECTIONAL 7/2/2006
OPEN SWISS 2 ATLANTA SECTIONAL 11/5/2006
N.A. PAIRS 2 DISTRICT 7 NAP FINALS - CHARLOTTE 11/12/2006
2006 UNIT 114 TOURNAMENTS - DATE SHOWN IS SUNDAY
MACON SECTIONAL 1/22/2006
DISTRICT-WIDE STAC 2/5/2006
ROSWELL SECTIONAL 3/5/2006
GREENSBORO / EATONTON SECTIONAL 3/26/2006
MACON NLM 4/30/2006
ATLANTA NLM 6/4/2006
DISTRICT-WIDE STAC 6/18/2006
ATLANTA SECTIONAL 7/2/2006
MACON SECTIONAL 8/13/2006
LAKE LANIER SECTIONAL 10/1/2006
VALDOSTA SECTIONAL 10/1/2006
ATLANTA SECTIONAL 11/5/2006
DISTRICT 7 NAP FINALS - CHARLOTTE 11/12/2006
DISTRICT-WIDE STAC 12/17/2006
REVISED-9/25/2005

Mentoring Program Guidelines

The purpose of a bridge mentoring program is to help aspiring new(er) bridge players progress in the competitive world of duplicate bridge. By matching newer players up with more experienced players we hope to help the newer player improve their bridge knowledge and abilities, feel more comfortable playing in open duplicate games and tournaments and increase their social interaction with other bridge players. Bridge club owners/managers should be interested in running mentoring programs at their clubs because a successful mentoring program can be expected to increase game sizes over time.
 
Each club should design a mentoring program that takes into consideration the particular needs, interests and mind-sets of their members - what works at a bridge club in Atlanta may not work for a bridge club in Valdosta.
 
Following are some guidelines for designing a successful mentoring program:
  • Clear definition of who can be a mentor and who can be a mentee. For example, a bridge club may define a mentor as anyone with over 300 masterpoints and a mentee as anyone with fewer than 100 points.
  • A specific time commitment for the program. 3 months, 4 months and 6 months seem to be commonly used time periods for mentoring programs - the mentor and mentee would agree to work together during that time period and then new matchups would be made for the next program. Also, the number of times the pair is to play together during the mentoring programs should be specified.
  • Definition of what games the mentoring pairs can play in as part of the mentoring program. For example some clubs might designate a weekly game for mentoring, while other clubs might include all open games as acceptable for mentoring.
  • Description of how mentoring pairs will be matched up, i.e., will all matchups be done by the club's mentoring coordinator, will the matchups be done randomly, or can pairs match themselves up?
  • Both mentors and mentees should be given a written explanation of their responsibilities during the mentoring program.
  • The program should be aggressively advertised and promoted to maximize participation by club members.
  • The program should be tracked in some way so that participants can see how the program is going, non-participants may become interested in participating in the future, and bridge club officials can gauge the effectiveness of the program and make changes as necessary.
  • A decision needs to be made regarding payment of entry fees. Should the mentor and mentee each pay their own entry fee? Should the mentee pay their own fee as well as part or the mentor's entire fee? Should the mentor play for free, or pay but receive a free play for another session? This is an area that may vary greatly from club to club.
  • The bridge club should try to ensure that all participants in the mentoring program have FUN and are recognized in some way for their participation. The club could have parties and extra refreshments during some mentoring games, have pictures of participants displayed on a bulletin board or on their web page, have special give-aways for participants and prizes for various achievements during the mentoring program, etc.
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