The meeting was held at Pistone's Restaurant at Seven Corners. Officers and directors attending were: Leo Cardillo, Margot Hennings, Diane Alexander, Marjorie Gazzola, Kathryn Kiley, John Mason, Paul Krueger, Scott Merritt, and NVBA Youth Advisor David Banh. Unit Game Chief Director Marshall Kuschner and Ron Kral were absent. President Cardillo called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
Minutes. Scott Merritt made a motion to accept the minutes for April 2005, Margot Hennings seconded the motion, and the motion carried. There was no May 2005 Board meeting because of the annual membership meeting and picnic.
Membership Report. The Board discussed the In-and-Out report for 06/01/05. We have no QUIP report for June. It may have been sent to Lucy or Norma. Marjorie will contact the ACBL to ensure that she, as the NVBA designated electronic contact, receives the QUIP report.
Treasurer's Report. Treasurer Diane Alexander provided the Board with copies of the NVBA annual reports plus an income/expense statement for May 2005. A membership income error had been found in the annual report and fixed so that the loss amount for the prior fiscal year is now $88.47 instead of $2,800. An additional NVBA Wachovia checking account was found, containing about $1,000. Diane and Ron Spieker closed this account, which was not listed on the balance sheet before. We now have eight accounts and Diane would like to consolidate some of these. Our CDs are earning 4-5% and Leo urged Diane not to keep too many funds in savings accounts. The last three years have been almost break-even for the NVBA, even with more free plays being given.
The review of the books that was to be started after the end of the NVBA fiscal year on April 30, 2005, has not been done. Although Ed Heberg and Steve Ivins have been available to do the audit, Diane has asked to postpone the audit until the format is more completely specified. Diane has asked Doug Grove if he knows about review formats from other units and he will get back to her. In the meantime Diane and Steve will work toward a better way of doing our financial processing. Diane will provide Steve with samples of receipts, bank accounts, reports, etc. in preparation for the review.
President's Report
Inventory: President Cardillo would like to buy open shelving for the storage closet at Beth El so we can stack items all the way to the ceiling. Judy Blickstein, our contact at Beth El, has a replacement. Leo will speak with the new contact. We are currently paying $30 for the small room and $210 for the large room, and Leo expects some increase in these amounts when the NVBA lease expires at the end of 2005.
Conduct & Ethics Activity: An unethical conduct incident at the NVBA April 2005 Sectional resulted in a special Conduct & Ethics committee hearing. The WBL handled this hearing because the player involved was a WBL member. Margot presented rewritten eligibility requirements for the NVBA/WBL Player of the Year Award that she and Doug Grove have drafted. Leo will forward these proposed changes to Dick Wegman, and the WBL must agree to them before they can be implemented.
Bridge Information Line(BIL) Update: Hardware has been connected at Sam Coleman's residence. It should receive separate messages on three mailboxes but it isn't functioning properly yet. Leo is working on the problem with Sam.
Vice President's Report
Yearly Schedule: Vice President Margot Hennings noted a scheduling change on the 2005 NVBA/WBL Special Event Schedule: the dates for the WBL Sectional scheduled for August 25 and the Stratified Unit Championship scheduled for September 29 have been swapped because of location availability. A joint WBL/NVBA meeting will be scheduled in August to develop the 2006 schedule. Doug Grove and Millard Nachtwey have the template, and Margot will determine who should be invited and will issue invitations. A column showing the price for each event will be added to the published schedule.
Free Plays: Marshall reimburses directors for free plays from Mini-McKenney and Ace of Clubs awards which are used at their games.
Items of Interest from the District 6 Meeting in Richmond:
1. Revision of District 6 ByLaws: Margot is chairing the D6 Committee to revise the ByLaws and asked for input from the NVBA regarding the issue of weighted voting. A larger unit has more votes, and the NVBA is the third largest unit within District 6 (WBL is first and the Maryland Bridge Association – MBA – is second), so voting is now weighted to the North. An issue on the table is whether to get rid of weighted votes, and hopefully it will be voted on and resolved at the Alexandria or Hunt Valley District 6 meetings. The committee has already met twice. The sense of the NVBA Board is that the vote should stay weighted.
2. Goodwill Committee: Margot is also chairing the D6 Committee charged with developing criteria for a D6 Goodwill Committee. Margot would like to see more expansive criteria than ACBL's considered under the “Goodwill” umbrella, to include more far-reaching deeds that benefit the bridge community and not simply good behavior at the bridge table. The National Goodwill committee is currently seeking, through each District Director(Nadine Wood is the D6 Director) nominations for its annual Goodwill recipient. They are due by August 15. Norma Pierzchala has been suggested for our District 6 Goodwill committee representative.
Other Chair Reports
Unit game manager: David Banh reported that Unit Game attendance has been about 25-30 tables recently except for the Richmond Tournament week. David will be in Atlanta for 10 days in July and will be leaving for college on August 19. Bobby Gookin has offered to buy food for the Unit game when a substitute is needed. Carole Grob will be taking over Unit Game Hospitality but she will be out for several weeks, so we need extra backup. A suggestion was made to ask if anyone at the I/N game would be willing to assist.
NVBA Membership Database and Telephone Directory: Scott Merritt reported that data is now being automatically extracted from the membership database the ACBL supplies to Doug Grove, and that the import process to the NVBA (Norma's) database is easily done. The goal is to have the same membership data available in three databases: ACBL's, Norma's and Ron Kral's, so that these databases can ideally be combined into one. Membership mailing lists can then be created using many different criteria. Scott will train Norma to use the new database. Melissa Gumbert is a database specialist and can provide assistance if we have problems or if someone needs help with a query. Scott will also be available remotely after August when he and his wife relocate to Nigeria. There have been some complaints about our decision to charge a dollar each for the printed telephone directory. It was decided to continue charging $1.00/copy for this batch of directories and to include one free of charge in new member packets.
NVBA August Board meeting: The board discussed raising the monthly meeting dinner supplement from the current $15 to $20. John Mason moved and Scott Merritt seconded a motion to raise the supplement to $20. The motion passed, 4 votes to 3, with one Board member abstaining. New policy: The Monthly meeting dinner supplement will be $20 beginning in July 2005.
NVBA August Board meeting: It was suggested that the Board take a month off during the summer and a tentative proposal was made to skip the August meeting. The Board will decide this issue at the July meeting.
Free plays for Vice President: Currently the Board President, Treasurer and Secretary receive free plays at the Unit Game. A proposal to also include free plays for the Vice President was made by Kathryn Kiley and seconded by Scott Merritt. The motion carried. New policy: The NVBA Vice President shall play for free at all NVBA Unit Games.
Junior Corps nominee: David Banh, NVBA Youth Advisor and Interim Unit Game Manager, has been nominated for the ACBL Junior Corps. The winners will be announced at the summer NABC in Atlanta.
The meeting was adjourned at 10 p. m. The next Board meeting will be held Monday, July 11, 2005 at 7:00 p.m., with the dinner portion beginning at 6:00 p.m., at Pistone's at Seven Corners.
Marjorie Gazzola