Columbia Bridge Club

Called Board Meeting held at Capital Senior Center

April 7, 2008

Attending: Bernetha Henry, Pat Webb, Sheelagh Young, Karen Coulter, Chris Webb, Janice Ripley, Connie Moody, Mike Bitonti, Alice Moore, and Jim Chianelli

Also attending: Dick Coulter

President Henry called the meeting to order at 5:08 PM.

Minutes from the March 3, 2008 meeting were accepted as information as they had been previously distributed to all board members.

Treasurer’s Report: Webb explained why the game entry fees show negative amounts in this month’s report. She has established a line item titled “Fund of the Future” and included in this amount is the extra one dollar entry fee that has been in effect since 6/1/07 as well as memorials and gifts received – total line item is $9271.00. If you compare entry revenue from the past 10 months versus the 10 months prior to that, you can accurately compare the two figures since the extra dollar entry fee has been removed. A 12 month $20,000 certificate of deposit was purchased at Vista Bank on 3/6/08. Webb reports work is still being done on the eleemosynary application, and the Board will review it before it is submitted.

Proposed By-Law Revisions: Moody presented the proposed changes, and there was much discussion by the Board regarding each line item. Please see attachment for exact proposal which is to be posted on the club bulletin board and voted on at the annual meeting on May 12, 2008.

CBC Standards for Teaching: Henry reports that a letter was received from George Nichols expressing his concerns over a misunderstanding regarding the teaching credentials that were adopted approximately one year ago. In those standards, it states under “teacher certification” that a teacher must be “a member of the CBC in good standing and also certified by the ACBL, the American Bridge Teachers Association, or be Easy Bridge certified.” When this policy was adopted, there were no questions regarding this issue. However, since that time Bernetha Henry, Sylvia White, and Chris Webb have taken the Easy Bridge course and are now Easy Bridge certified. Nichols writes the letter because his concern is that Easy Bridge certification only certifies one to teach that particular course. However, that was not stated in the original standards set forth. Webb and Henry report they have checked with the ACBL and learned that ACBL currently endorses three teacher accreditation programs, one of which is Easy Bridge, and their policy states that “upon completion of any of these programs, teachers will be recognized as accredited by the ACBL.” The board was in agreement with Webb and Henry that we are mainly concerned with promoting the game of bridge and any member who is certified in an ACBL approved fashion should be allowed to teach once that person has sought the approval of the Education Coordinator, Mary Townhill.

Capital Senior Center issues: Henry asked Dick Coulter to inform the Board of our status with CSC, as he serves as a liaison for CBC. Coulter reports that we need to provide all dates for 2009 including game schedules, teaching schedules, parties, tournaments, GNT, etc so that we can get on the CSC calendar and be positioned in appropriate rooms away from other activities and noise. He states that we do not have to sign a renewal contract in order to get these dates on their calendar. The CSC obviously plans far in advance, and we must be willing to provide the information in order to expect them to accommodate us. Coulter reports that there have been several incidents where members went to Larry or Amy with complaints and have caused some “friction.” He asked that all issues be handled by him, Henry, or Tom Gabriel, so that they can be handled in an appropriate manner and the staff at CSC knows with whom to communicate. If there is an issue at a game, and one of those three people is not in attendance, please have the director contact a CSC staff member for resolution. He asked the Board to encourage this policy when in attendance at any function.

Sectional Tournament: Chris Webb reports that Ed Young has placed the appropriate information and schedules for the upcoming Sectional tournament on the CBC website. The schedule has been cleared with Bob Heller but may need to be scaled back some. The tournament will start Thursday afternoon at 1:30 and currently has three sessions per day scheduled (except for Thursday). Webb has secured 30 rooms at the Wingate Inn (at Two Notch and I-77) at a cost of $89/night which includes a daily hot breakfast. The Wingate has been completely renovated, and he reports the rooms are very nice.

Henry asked Bitonti to review the directors’ duties with all directors as Cynthia Cone has asked for a list of their responsibilities.

Henry also reports she is sending a thank you letter to George Nichols along with 10 free plays as a token of our appreciation for his service as Education Coordinator.

The Board also discussed what a good job Ed Young does as the webmaster for the CBC website and agreed that he should play for free at every “regular” game held at our club. Henry will write a letter to inform him of this small token of our thanks.

Next Meeting: Monday, May 12, 2008 @ 5:00 PM

Meeting was adjourned at 6:35 PM.

Submitted April 10, 2008

Janice J. Ripley, Secretary

To be posted at the club without objection