Auburn Duplicate Bridge Club
Board Meeting
March 8, 2024
OLD BUSINESS:
- Treasurer’s Report: We have spent less that one quarter of the allocated budget in all categories, but we have not had the first quarter party yet.
- Education:
- A series of 3 classes for the club, beginning with Joe Megill’s class on the ACBL Yellow Card system and continuing with Eli Jolley’s class on competitive bidding will be scheduled for the later part of March or early April.
- Eli Jolley is in the process of preparing four each one-hour classes appropriate for intermediate players
- Development: Eli Jolley has tentatively agreed to conducting a beginner’s bridge class at Moore’s Mill Club, in the hopes of developing a Beginner’s Game for the Auburn area.
New Business:
- ADBC has arranged a feasible option for making sure we reimburse Auburn Parks and Recreation for use of the space at Frank Brown. This will be handled by the Board and there will be no changes in the daily operation for members.
- The Board approved a charity event for Camp ASCCA in conjunction with the summer party to be held June 20th. Lunch will be provided by the club and members will pay $10.00 to play. Additional donations will be requested.
Respectfully submitted
Auburn Duplicate Board Meeting
Minutes
December 14, 2023
The Annual Meeting of the Auburn Duplicate Club was held on December 14, 2023, at Frank Brown Recreation Center.
Minutes from the past meeting were read and accepted unanimously.
The following slate of officers were presented:
President: Larry Stafford
First Vice President: Fran Madsen
Second Vice President: Laura Palmer
Secretary/Treasurer: Kay McClain
Mary Ann Duncan seconded the slate and it passed unanimously.
President, Larry Stafford presented plans for2024 including education and recruitment.
Respectfully submitted,
Kay McClain
Kay McClain
Auburn Duplicate Bridge Club
Board Meeting
September 7, 2023
Present: Larry Stafford, President; Fran Madsen, First Vice President; Laura Palmer, Second Vice President; Kay McClain, Sec/Treas.
Absent: Faye Whidbee, Club Manager
Kay presented the budget. We are under in all categories.
Education: The Education expenses are higher since we hired Eli Jolley. Larry reported that we will increase the budget for next year since the two events were so successful.
Book Drive: Was very successful. Members collaborated with Lambda Sigma Society from Auburn University. The students cleaned the books and sorted them by reading level. The Hudson Foundation picked up the books and were very thankful.
New Business: Larry will start a search committee to find a secretary. Kay McClain will move to Treasurer.
New Director Budget: Tom Guffin is being trained by Jean Paul. Kay moved and Fran seconded that the Club pay Jean Paul’s fee to teach him.
Tailgate Party: Fran has contacted Jones, Frank Brown Director, to cater. We will spend about $200 in total. Three pounds of bar-b-que. Feed eight per quart of the sides. Feed eight per pound of pulled port. They will do pork, chicken, three sides, and dessert. We will get tea and lemonade, and slider rolls. Fran will send invites to the tailgate party to members who have not been coming lately. We will do a dirty Santa/Raffle for the prizes.
Disciplinary Policy: The first discussion was about what offenses get warning and which ones are punitive immediately. ACBL recommends no warnings for any violations. We must make the members aware that nothing will happen unless they call the Director. If somebody wants to appeal, they can appeal to a committee appointed by the President. We will re-write the policy and circulate to the Board. Fran suggested the offenses be very clear and not confused by verbiage!
Fran will contact Linda Tarver about their players coming to Auburn to play in the Instant Match Point Game on October 25th.
Respectfully Submitted,
Kay McClain
Auburn Duplicate Bridge Club
Board Meeting
June 5, 2023
Attending: Larry Stafford, President; Laura Palmer, Vice President; Kay McClaijn, Secretary; Connie Wood, Treasurer; Faye Whidbee, Club Manager
Absent: Fran Madsen, Vice President
Connie began the meeting with a detailed discussion of expenditures and income for the year 2023. With the increase in dues and pay-to-play, the financial situation of the club is very stable.
Kay next gave a summary/review of the Patti Tucker weekend which can be found at the end of this report.
Discussion then moved to ideas for further education opportunities while incorporating ideas for increased membership. Larry will work with Eli Jolley on a series of lessons for the club and report back. Connie will talk with Marie about access to the Campus Club Bridge Groups.
The club will host its quarterly party on June 22nd. It will be a beach theme and there will be a contest for the “best” beach hat. Members will be asked to bring their favorite picnic item. The club will provide ice cream sundaes.
The book drive was moved to August.
The last item concerned a complaint about the noise level during play. Larry will meet with the Directors, but all officers were reminded that the officers should be setting an example and helping keep the noise level abated.
Respectfully submitted,
Kay McClain
Secretary
Review of Patti Tucker Workshops – Lessons Learned
Attendance – Twelve club members attended on Friday and fourteen guests and eight members on Saturday
Cost – The two days costs the club a total of $184.59 (see Treasurer’s Report below)
Registration – Patti’s webpage was problematic at best. Even after speaking with her, it was no better. This was a real source of frustration for members and may have cost us some participants.
Advertisement – None of the traditional ways of advertising were effective. If we do this again, we need to set up a dedicated webpage that can be accessed through a Google search.
Effectiveness – While those who attended enjoyed the lesson, the best gauge of the effectiveness would be to determine who, if anyone, has incorporated what they learned into their current play.
TREASURER'S REPORT
Income
On-line registration 841.34
Walk in registration 65.00
Lunch overage 10.00
INCOME TOTAL 916.34
Expenses
Breakfast supplies 102.24
Frank Brown room reservation 50.00
Patty Tucker Payment 930.00
UPS return to Patty 18.69
EXPENSE TOTAL 1,100.93
Weekend Loss $184.59
Auburn Duplicate Bridge Club
Executive Board Meeting
March 16,2023
Present: Larry Stafford, President; Fran Madsen, First Vice President; Kay McClain, Secretary; Connie Wood, Treasurer; Faye Whidbee, Club Manager
Connie Wood gave an accounting of income and expenditures. She reported that we are within budget on snacks and our income is holding steady. The Director's fee for Tuesday night was reinstated to $30. Larry reported that Sue Mossholder and Laura Palmer completed the audit and all accounts are in order. Thanks to both Sue and Laura.
Larry expressed concern about the Monday game’s low turnout. It is difficult when the Director goes to the trouble to set up the game and/or members drive a substantial distance, and we have no game. Larry will begin sending emails for the Monday game asking members to commit to the game so that the Director can cancel if there is a low turnout.
Lunch and a Lesson will resume in April with Fran and Nels Madsen in charge. The Board discussed several options for involving Eli Jolley in the teaching as he has indicated an interest. Larry will follow up with Eli.
The Patty Tucker weekend was discussed. Connie explained the plans for lunch and how that would be handled. We will need an email list of all those who sign up so we can contact prior to the event. The Board unanimously approved purchasing an electronic advertisement through the Opelika-Auburn News. The Board expressed concern over the difficulty in navigating Patty’s Website to sign up. Kay is signing up people who request she do so.
The second quarter party will be a “Summer Fun” event on Thursday, June 22nd. We will combine this with a used book drive for the lending libraries sponsored by the Hudson Family Foundation.
Respectfully submitted,
Kay McClain
Kay McClain, Treasurer
Auburn Duplicate Bridge Club
Board meeting December 27th
Kay McClain(secretary), Laura Palmer (second vice-president), Larry Stafford(president), Faye Whidbee(Club Manager), Connie Wood(Treasurer)
Connie passed out Club expenditures for 2022. We discussed the rise in number of tables since the pandemic. We are showing around 450 tables this year. We have been on an increase since the downturn in 2020.
Discussion moved to the cost for pay to play (p2p). Fran (via text) said raising daily playing fee is the way to start. She also suggested we limit the snacks and maybe have a donation box. The Board decided to continue the snacks with a strict budget by quarter.
The Board agreed that we spent too much money on the meat for the Holiday party. One area where we can cut back.
Faye shared that the company who repairs the dealing machine says they never break. We will never have to purchase another one, hopefully.
We next discussed STaC games. Faye is opposed to having them or wants to charge more to cover the table fees. Kay expressed concern over this and the need to continue them. Kay noted it was not fair to charge more since many members are not interested in getting points and the table count would go down below five. The Board agreed that ADBC will play all STaC games with no increase in table fees.
Kay moved we up the P2P to $4. Motion passed unanimously. Larry moved we up membership to $20. Motion passed 3 to 2. STaC game cost will stay the same.
Effective immediately there is no free pay for visiting members. Non-members will pay $7. Members will pay $20 for dues up until July and then it drops to $10. There will be no quarterly decreased in the amount.
Connie writes the checks and either Faye or Fran signs the checks. Faye sets the passwords for the checking account. The Board authorized Laura Palmer to set up access to the account with Riverbank. She will visit River Bank to get herself on the account as a back-up as the Board felt it was very important to have a second name on the account.
The usage for the website for the year 2022 so far is:
Visitors is the number of different visits. Administration is the number of pages the Webmaster (Kay McClain) visits to update the page. All is the total number of pages viewed by the visitors.
Respectfully submitted,
Kay McClain, Secretary
Annual Membership Meeting of the
Auburn Duplicate Bridge Club
December 8, 2022
President Larry Stafford began the meeting with a proposed amendment to the Constitution. Article V, number 3 currently reads:
3. The Board will meet at least quarterly and more often at the discretion of the President. Board meetings will be publicized. and members will be encouraged to attend and participate in discussions. The Club Manager is not eligible to hold office on the Board but may attend board meetings in a non-voting capacity.
It was proposed to change it to:
- The Board will meet at least quarterly and more at the discretion of the President. The quarterly Board meetings will be publicized, and members will be encouraged to attend and participate in discussions. The Board may meet at other times without notifying the membership. The Club Manager is not eligible to hold office on the Board but may attend board meetings in a non-voting capacity.
The proposal passed unanimously.
Connie Wood, Treasurer, presented the balance from 2021, the income from pay-to-play for the year 2022. She also gave the deficit to date. Against this background, Larry Stafford, President, presented options for moving forward which address the issue of the deficit. The membership was asked to indicate their preference via a survey.
The last order of business was the election of new officers. Laura Palmer was presented as the nominee for Second Vice President. The nomination passed unanimously. Kay McClain was presented as the nominee for Secretary. The nomination passed unanimously.
Auburn Duplicate Bridge Club
Board Meeting
September 14, 2022
The board held its quarterly meeting on Wednesday at the Frank Brown Center.
Attendees: Board Members: Larry Stafford, Fran Madsen, Connie Wood, Marguerite Nunnally, Carol Harrell, and club manager, Faye Whidbee
Old Business:
Carol Harrell reported that Nels Madsen was in the process of gathering the contact and personal information from the club members for two purposes. The first is to facilitate the registering of all the members with the Auburn Parks and Recreation Department. The second is to compile an updated and complete list of contact information and put it into a shareable format so that the list is available to those who need it.Nels will hand out a form to be completed to the membership. Then they should be returned to him so that he can begin the registration. Additionally, a folder with blank forms will be kept in the bridge closet to be available so any new members can be registered and added to the membership list.Once Nels has completed the registration, he will have the data base set up, makingregistration easier in the future.
Fundraiser:
Our club netted $45.00 to help defray the District 10 hospitality costs for its upcoming tournament. The next games to be held for this purpose will be the week of October 3 for all three sessions. Each person playing during that week will be asked to pay an additional dollar for each session.
New Business:
The Board noted that there has been some interest in going outside our small club to offer an educational opportunity that might bring in new people to the game of duplicate bridge.It was decided that the board is willing to provide support for such endeavors in the form of volunteers to help facilitate, but not lead, such classes, as well as approving the loan of necessary equipment, such as bidding boxes. Internally, the board agreed that we could be offering some instructions for our members who want to better their game. As such, an email will be sent outto our members asking that anyone who is interested in participating sign up during the week of September 26. A list will be compiled during each three meetings that week and from emails. The first class will be held on Thursday, October 13. We would like to begin at 11:00; people could bring their lunches and play a few hands that have been prepared. A mentor will be on hand to discuss the bidding and the play.
Connie Wood submitted the treasurer's for the past quarter. Please address any questions you may have to Connie.
Finally, the Board decided to hold a tailgate party on Thursday, October 27. Details will be sent by email and announced at the games.
Respectfully submitted,
Carol Harrell, Secretary
Auburn Duplicate Bridge Club
Board Meeting
September 14, 2022
The board held its quarterly meeting on Wednesday at the Frank Brown Center.
Attendees: Board Members: Larry Stafford, Fran Madsen, Connie Wood, Marguerite Nunnally, Carol Harrell, and club manager, Faye Whidbee
Old Business:
Carol Harrell reported that Nels Madsen was in the process of gathering
the contact and personal information from the club members for two
purposes. The first is to facilitate the registering of all the members with the
Auburn Parks and Recreation Department. The second is to compile
an updated and complete list of contact information and put it into a shareable format so that the list is available to those who need it.
Nels will hand out a form to be completed to the membership. Then they should be returned to him so that he can begin the registration. Additionally, a folder with blank forms will be kept in the bridge closet to be available so any new members can be registered and added to the membership list.
Once Nels has completed the registration, he will have the data base set up, making
registration easier in the future.
Fundraiser:
Our club netted $45.00 to help defray the District 10 hospitality costs for its upcoming tournament. The next games to be held for this purpose will be the week of October 3 for all three sessions. Each person playing during that week will be asked to pay an additional dollar for each session.
New Business:
The Board noted that there has been some interest in going outside our small club to offer an educational opportunity that might bring in new people to the game of duplicate bridge.
It was decided that the board is willing to provide support for such endeavors in the form of volunteers to help facilitate, but not lead, such classes, as well as approving
the loan of necessary equipment, such as bidding boxes.
Internally, the board agreed that we could be offering some instructions for our members who want to better their game. As such, an email will be sent out
to our members asking that anyone who is interested in participating sign up
during the week of September 26. A list will be compiled during each three
meetings that week and from emails. The first class will be held on Thursday, October 13.
We would like to begin at 11:00; people could bring their lunches and play a few hands that have been prepared. A mentor will be on hand to discuss the bidding and the play.
Connie Wood submitted the treasurer's for the past quarter.
It is attached to this email. Please address any questions you may have to Connie.
Finally, the Board decided to hold a tailgate party on Thursday, October 27.
Details will be sent by email and announced at the games.
Respectfully submitted,
Carol Harrell, Secretary
Board Meeting of the Auburn Duplicate Bridge Club
July 21, 2022
Frank Brown Center
Attendees: Larry Stafford, president; Connie Wood, treasurer, Carol Harrell,
secretary.
Treasurer's Report submitted and accepted.
The president suggested that club needed to support the ACBL goals of retention
and recruitment, making it a top priority. He noted that although our membership numbers
remain comparable to pre-Covid years at 49-52, the number of people attending games is
down approximately 30%. With the subsequent loss of revenue, we will need to consider the budget for the coming year. As a result, the board needs to consider ways to increase
the attendance at games and the revenue stream and make those suggestions to the membership before the general meeting in December.
The secretary should be working with Nels Madsen on the electronic registration now
required by the Frank Brown Center. Additionally, we need to keep up to date information on all members, both with hard copies and electronically. To that end blank information sheets need to be kept in a folder to capture contact information of newcomers immediately and have a separate folder with that information readily available on the premises. It can then be
entered electronically.
The treasurer needs to begin giving hard copy receipts when they pay their dues.
In the absence of the club manager, the president and treasurer should insure contact
with ACBL. The first vice-president should be the coordinator with the center, and the treasurer and secretary will make purchases as needed for office supplies and assist the 1st vice-president with the purchase of snacks and party supplies.
District 10 fundraiser will be held during a three-month period beginning with the week of July 25 and continuing on the weeks of September 12 and October 3. All three games during those weeks will be part of the fundraiser. Table fees will be $4 instead of the usual $3 to be paid
by the participants.
On August 18, the club will hold a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the ADBC. It will be a potluck with the club providing a cake.
Respectfully submitted,
Carol Harrell, Secretary
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