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ACBL Unit 114

Minutes of Board Meeting

Athens Sectional

Saturday, October 10, 2009

 
President Tom Wight called the meeting to order at 5:30 PM.

Officers in attendance were: Tom Wight (President), Dick Myers (Vice President), and Mary Ann Bateman (Treasurer). Area representatives in attendance were: Judy Bailie (Proxy - Donna Parker (Northwest)), Doug Roberts (Metro Atlanta), Carolyn Eckert (Proxy - Ralph Folkerts (Metro Atlanta)), Jack Feagin (Metro Atlanta), Bob Heller (Proxy - Barbara Heller (Metro Atlanta)), Bill Marks (Metro Atlanta), Claudia Feagin (Proxy - Marty Nathan (Metro Atlanta)), Fred Kilcline (North Central), Anne Hedden (Northeast), Ron Cadora (Northeast), Jimmy Lord (South Central) and Harpe Suggs (South Central).

Others attending were Mike Kovacich, Sandy Barrow, Betty Myers, Josie Mitchell, Ruth Suggs and Marj Hall.

The minutes of the board meeting on May 30, 2009, which had been sent to all board members prior to the meeting, were approved with an addition that Roy Taylor had resigned his position. 

Committee Reports

President – No report.

Treasurer – Mary Ann Bateman presented the Treasurer’s Report.  It was approved. A copy is attached.

Atlanta Junior Bridge – Patty Tucker reported on the Jerry Helms seminar and a parent survey of AJB members.  The detailed report and the AJB financial report are attached.

Conduct & Ethics – No report.

District 7 Meeting Report – Bob Heller reported that the ACBL has set up a new organization called the Foundation for the Advancement and Preservation of Bridge. This would be a vehicle for people to make charitable contributions to bridge and designate it for use by the District. The District will have a subordinate organization with trustees who will administer these funds.

Education – Sandy Barrow reported that there is now a list of certified teachers on the ACBL website. We need to increase support of education – teachers and directors.

Elections – Mike Kovacich reported that the DBAA plans to run elections in the Atlanta metro area with the Unit board approval.  The system would include a monitor for ballots who will go to the clubs for local voting and control of the absentee ballots. There will be advertised times for the voting at all locations. A motion was made for the board to approve this plan for this time only and in the future after written procedures have been provided to the Unit board. The motion carried unanimously.

Entitlement – Dick Myers reported on the AJB request for $2,000.00 and recommended approval.  They have already received $4,000.00 from District 7 and $2,000.00 from the DBAA. The motion carried unanimously.

Finance – No report.

GNT – No report.

Hall of Fame – No report.

Hospitality – No report.

Intermediate/Novice – No report.

Membership – No report.

NAP – No report.

Policy & Procedures – No report.

Publicity – No report.

Tournament – Dick Myers distributed the 2010 Tournament List for approval. He asked for discussion of continuing the Covington Sectional.  The board wishes to continue this tournament if the Tournament Chair can get a school or other site with a much lower rent. If this tournament is not held, the Mixed Pairs event will be held in Athens. The board also approved continuation of the Athens tournament in 2010. (Revised copy attached).

Trophy – No report.

Unit/Novice Games – No report

Unit Goodwill – No report

Old Business

No old business.

New Business

The Nominating Committee reported on the slate of Officers for the 2010 election at the annual meeting. The nominations were: Dick Myers, President; Ann Hedden, Vice President; Secretary, Nicolas Hammond and Treasurer, Nancy Motes. The board voted to approve this slate for the annual meeting.

Our next meeting will be Saturday, December 12, 2009 between sessions at the Atlanta Sectional.

Respectfully submitted,

Richard Myers

Acting Secretary

Atlanta Junior Bridge

Fall 2009

Summary:

Our next Jerry Helms Seminar is scheduled February 2010 where we hope our fund raising efforts will be well rewarded.  The AJB Fund Raising group has three raffles scheduled for 2009/2010; one in December will be for AJB itself and the following two in March and July will be efforts for the children to participate in the 2010 Youth NABC in New Orleans.

We are seeing a drop off in the number of continuing students in classes and have developed a survey (attached) which we are mailing to all of our parents in an effort to find out how we can better serve our membership in offering classes.  We have also put the survey on our web site to offer two means of communicating their thoughts to us.

Our plans to develop a Middle School Connections Curriculum are in place and the preliminary lessons are coming out now.  We expect to have the curriculum completed by mid-November and place it in the hands of the curriculum advisor at that time for their approval.  Once that is in place we will be searching for locations to offer free bridge lessons to teachers and school officials in the winter.

The Bridge Teacher for Youth website (www.btfy.org ) is up and running; and is regularly updated with new information as it becomes available.

Bill Marks set up a ‘Multi-generational Game’ in July at his club at the Roswell Senior Center which was very well attended and resulted in a nice write-up in the ACBL bulletin and on the official web site.

Two of our students, Richard and Andrew Jeng became Life Masters in September.  The first of many we expect to see down the road.  Richard now holds the record as the ACBL’s Youngest Life Master.

Camps and Classes:

We have 17 active classes this fall with one more in the works.  We have classes in Marietta, Roswell, Alpharetta, Atlanta, Norcross and Tucker.  Total attendance is 117 students; 59 newcomers and 58 returning students.

Games:

The game at the Atlanta Duplicate Bridge Club is still being held each month and I have had an inquiry from a South Alabama class who is thinking of traveling to Atlanta to participate in the game.

 I am looking into the possibility of getting a monthly game set up in Southeast/west Atlanta.

Tournaments:

The Georgia Youth Pair State Championship will be held in December.

Future Plans:

Our attention will be focused on three efforts:

1)     Identify problem areas in an effort to improve student retention and service to our members

2)     Create a Youth Bridge TAP with the intention of training more people in how to teach bridge to children (we hope this eventually will become a model for ACBL)

3)     Create a model which will match a school teacher (as a coach) with an AJB teacher and foster inter-school competition (we hope to create a model which we can get privately funded)