President Glenda Calkins called the meeting to order at 9:25 am. Board members in attendance were:

Glenda corrected Gerald Goodman's email address to read redouble@webtv.net.

Minutes of October 13, 2001 were corrected by email. Harris made the motion to approve minutes as corrected; was seconded by Elaine. It was approved unanimously.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT
Glenda asked the board for approval of her appointments of Tod Thorgersen as Vice President and Penny Paikin as both Administrative and Recording Secretary. Board approved such action unanimously.

A list of job assignments was distributed. Some people are on more than one committee. The intent is to familiarize members of the board with various positions other than their own. Betty Price indicated that Eileen Whitney was on the Membership Committee and was omitted from the job assignment list.

Paul Nickerson asked to be recognized to formally congratulate Glenda Calkins on being President for three terms. All agreed. Glenda notified the board that all past presidents are honorary members and can sit in on board meetings. Jerry is putting on our web page a list of all past presidents and the years that they served going back to 1959.

Glenda received a nice letter from the Allendale Library thanking us for all the books we provided. We also received a thank you note for the get-well gift we sent Joe Adamo. She was happy to announce that he is doing well and is back to playing bridge. Tod attested to that fact.

TREASURERS' REPORT
Frank distributed copies of the December 31, 2001 financials. The Unit was budgeted to lose $1,140; but ended with a gain of $609.20, primarily because of the generous check from District 3. We had expected to receive $1,800, but actually received $2765. The balance sheet shows a cash position of $29,240.32. He is pleased with our financial position.

BUDGET
Jerry presented a chart covering the last five years and the 2002 budget which showed 1) net income or loss by event, 2) income from sources other than events, and 3) other expenses. All these proposed numbers are subject to approval by the Board. The budget for 2002 is projected to lose $1,276. We can afford it due to the fact that there is $29,000 in the bank.

Jerry said that STAC was always budgeted to lose money. He suggested that we increase the fee to the clubs by $ .50 per person and then it would be a break-even situation. Most units set the fees to make money. Life master events were budgeted to lose $500 and only lost $349; however, we are recommending that we not run this event again. All other items are in line with the former budgets.

Harris made a motion to continue to subsidize STAC; seconded by Andy. Discussion brought out the fact that members do not know that the unit pays part of the fees. Other units charge $7 extra for STAC. If we are at break even, we are still cheaper than any other unit. People for the motion felt that by subsidizing STAC, you reach more members than any other event and many people are on fixed budgets and appreciate it. People against the motion felt that members did not know or appreciate it. Subsidy should be announced at the local clubs. The motion passed 11-7. Harris now noted that the expected loss will be reflected in the budget would be $1,876; however, Arnie insisted that his cost for the Web Page would be no more than $120. This puts the new budget at a $1,746 loss. Motion to accept the budget as changed was made by Mary and seconded by Elaine. Motion passed unanimously.

Discussion ensued about reducing costs by sending out ballots by email. Secret ballots must be sent to each member individually and a second ballot cannot be placed in the same envelope for a spouse. A separate envelope must be sent to the spouse. It was also noted that email is not secret.

Glenda then reported that all the papers that needed to be filed by the Administrative Secretary had been sent to ACBL.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Tournaments
Betty Price and Marilyn Marion recommended that the Swiss Teams fee be increased from $72 to $80 per team. Glenda reported that the response to the meal served at a break of the Swiss Team competition was extremely favorable, but it was a lot of work and preparation with a limited amount of funds and the increase of funds would help greatly. Betty made the motion; seconded by Al. Discussion followed. The motion was unanimously approved. The Winter tournament will be Feb. 22-24, and the Spring tournament will be the last week of April.

Sectional Tournament At Clubs (STAC)----STAC occurs four times a year. We choose to participate once a year. There could be a STAC either at the end of June from the 24th through the 30th or at the end of September from the 23rd to the 29th. Following discussion, Marilyn made a motion to have STAC in September and was seconded by Betty. It was defeated 6 to 11. Motion made by Harris for STAC in June and seconded by Frank was passed 12 to 2.

Special Events
GNT----Andy reported that GNT will be held on the 13th and 14th of April in the same place as last year in Westchester. The championship flight will be on the same day as the other flights. The winner of the GNT's goes to Washington in July. There are no longer qualifying rounds for GNT.

NAOP---After qualifying rounds at the clubs, the Unit Final will be held on Sunday Oct. 6. Westchester will have their Unit Final on Saturday Oct. 5. We had decided that since you can play in the Unit Final of another Unit within the District, we would have ours on Sunday if Westchester scheduled theirs for Saturday, and vice versa.

Reitman Double Knockout Teams----Tod notified us that the Baranoff team won in 2001. The new event starts February 1st.

Johnke Team of Four----Tod reported that the date will be Saturday April 20th and Betty King and Mike Jeshion will be on the committee. The committee will decide on a place to have it, set up the tables, hire a director and continue with the fine food. Tod felt it was very well attended. He indicated that some people feel that B and C players do not join because of the way the event is structured and they feel they would not have a chance to win the event. Years ago this event was stratified and separate trophies were given for A and B/C. There was no handicapping. Now we are running it as a handicapped event giving a large victory point handicap to B/ C players. A motion was made by Tod to keep Johnke Team of Four the same for this year; was seconded by Frank. Motion was passed 13 to 5.

Bi-Unit Wide Games----Lee indicated that the Unit 140 dates are Thursday April 11th in the evening, Sunday May 5th in the afternoon, Wednesday June 5th in the afternoon and Tuesday September 10th in the afternoon. He is waiting for confirmation that Alex Allen has approved those dates. Glenda asked that the specifics of the events get to Arnie so information can be posted on the Web page, and the results be given to Al for Player of the Year.

Annual dinner----Mary told us about the Brownstone in Paterson, New Jersey, the new place for the annual dinner at on January 5th, 2003. Information and directions will be printed in the bulletin. The normal date for the annual dinner was in December but was unavailable. The change of date and place is a plus because all results will be in from all the events and the costs are less than at the hotel.

Pro-Am----Elaine reported that this event will be held on Saturday afternoon October 26th 2002 in four locations. Marilyn will apply for the sanction for the event.

Newsletter----Betty Price reported that Lee Ohliger will be working with her this year. She is encouraging more people to write articles. Board members should submit any information before February 20th. We will try to get the newsletter out early and put the Johnke entry form on the front page. Glenda stated that there must be a speeding up of the mailings. Last newsletter was finished a week before Christmas and did not get mailed until a week into the new year. Glenda and Betty will get the committee together to expedite the mailings.

Web page----Arnie reported an information program for partnerships on the computer for Marilyn Marion. He also has available a copy of the Unit Data Base which he will be happy to forward to anyone who would like to have this on their desk top. Please send an email to Arnie to request this program. He also spoke to Glenda about devoting some time at the next meeting to teach members of the board. Glenda thinks we need a computer workshop and would like to find a time maybe an hour or hour and half on a Saturday. Glenda polled the members to see if they would be interested in a workshop and the response was overwhelmingly yes. Glenda asked Arnie to check his calendar and email everyone with his availability.

Charity ----Penny reported that the Rockland Journal News had printed a tribute to all that perished in the WTC from Rockland County and sent her additional information on the firefighters and police that perished. She called firehouses to get further information on volunteer firefighters who perished. There were three gentlemen who were volunteer firemen in the county, Greg Sikorsky, John Coughlin, and Charlie Anaya Jr. She called the Firemens Field and asked if we can send a donation to the Fallen Firefighters Fund and designate which firefighter's family should be the recipient. Penny indicated that she did not know about anyone from Bergen County. She thought someone was looking at. Since the two Board members who were to check on the Bergen aspect are no longer on the Board, Glenda suggested Penny call Helen Wallach to seek assistance with this.

Glenda spoke to Helen Wallach who suggested the charity for 2002 be Meals On Wheels and would like to arrange a charity game for April or September at our Saturday evening event in Allendale and advertise it in our bulletin. Helen would like to arrange to have a special dessert and she would take care of it. It was noted that in order to give to a local charity you must first run a charitable event for ACBL and then the next one could be for the local charity. The charity for ACBL has not been selected yet. Before the Allendale event in September on Saturday evening, we will need to schedule a Unit Charity game at the clubs. Glenda will contact Helen re this.

Novice Promotion----Al Delio reported that advertisements will be placed in newspapers and flyers in grocery stores and the like. Glenda suggested that the flyers clearly state that this event is for novices and beginners only because many people saw the flyers noting that we offered free breakfast and life masters were ready to go. She just wants the flyers to be clear about being for novices and beginners only. Al stated that the advertising costs would be about the same as last year.

Conduct & Ethics/Recorder----Tod said there was one C&E situation and it was taken care of. No report from the Recorder chairman. Some information from Glenda was passed on to Robert Rosner.

Membership---Kay gave a monthly report. At the end of November, our membership stood at 1,236 and last year in November it was 1,232. The transfer in and out of members are phony numbers because they are mainly snowbirds. She feels that we are holding our own. We are entitled to one free membership list and Kay received it and reproduced it for the board members. Glenda asked if Kay had a good working committee. Kay responded that she has a committee of four and all is going well.

Old business---Charity issue was dealt with under Charity.

New business---A request that some trophies not yet delivered to recipients be taken the their regular clubs by some of the board members. That was easily accomplished.

Motion to adjourn was made by Andy and a second came from Harris. It was unanimously passed at 12:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Penny Paikin,
Administrative/Recording Secretary

Return to the index of Board minutes

Return to the Unit's main page