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Unit Board Meeting Minutes
Board Meetings are held approximately ten times a year, usually on the first Thursday evening of most months, at the Vancouver Bridge Centre. The minutes from these meetings are first sent to Board Members to review and approve. Once approved, we can post them here. Occasionally there will be news items on the site resulting from the minutes that are released before the minutes are approved.
Links to Unit Board Meeting Minutes
What's the Unit Board Been Discussing?
Minutes of Unit Board Meetings are taken by the Unit Secretary, who sends a draft copy out to Board Members to ensure there are no obvious mistakes. Once a final version of the minutes is distributed a few days after that, that version will appear here on Matchpointer Online. (It should be noted that even the 'final version' of the minutes can be adjusted at the following meeting, and that motions passed can later be amended or rescinded.)
In the table below, we have listed the most recent meetings first (with future scheduled meetings on the bottom). Each meeting has a pdf link to the meeting minutes, as well as a short summary of highlights from the meeting, which is included for convenience and may in fact be inaccurate. These links will open in a separate window or tab in your browser. (If you get a separate window, it is time to update your browser and discover the pleasures of tabbed browsing.) When you are finished looking at them, simply close the window or tab. If your computer balks at viewing pdf files, download (or upgrade to) the free Adobe Acrobat Reader here.
| Date of Board Meeting | Link to Minutes (pdf) | Unofficial Highlights |
| September 4, 2008 | Final version not yet released |
- Flyers and information for our tournaments are sometimes appearing in different forms, or not appearing at all. Members urged to go to matchpointer.com for local news, and Board members are looking into correcting the errors on the DINO and ACBL sites.
- The Leo Steil Trophy criterion will change in 2009 so that a member must be 65+ at the start of the year. Rather than print lists and have to guess who is qualified, the Unit will ask that any leaders on the Phil Wood Trophy list declare their eligibility before the Round-Up Sectional.
- The Jean Turnbull trophy is still missing.
- The subsidy policy was briefly discussed and Bruce was requested to apply the prospective rules to previous years to see whether the results would be reasonable for the next meeting.
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| August 7, 2008 | Click here |
- Unit Officers for 2008-09: Peter Morse (President), Monica Angus (Vice-President), Angela Fenton (Secretary), Vicki Moffatt (Treasurer).
- New Board Members and duties changes: Allan Karro (trophies, Matchpointer liaison), John Demeulemeester (Special Events), Vicki Moffatt (Treasurer).
- One more open spot on the Board.
- A new subsidy policy is to take effect starting in 2009. The Board will spend several meetings discussing the new format.
- The STaC made a profit of $2,039 for Unit 430, mostly due to the ACBL's new policy for charging Director's fees for the event.
- The Unit's year-end finances were reviewed and the Unit Board voted to put $2,500 from Unit profits during the past year into the subsidy fund.
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| June 5, 2008 | Click here |
- A profit of $1200 was made at the Victoria Day sectional, held at Queensborough Community for the first time. Attendance was a bit down, but the Canadian dollar is strong and all three directors were local.
- A discussion of the site will be held after the September Sectional, also at Queenborough.
- A new Matchpointer was released by Ben Takemori, full of interesting articles.
- Some review of the Unit Subsidy Policy will be necessary with the recent discontinuation of Zone Finals for CBF events and Unit Finals for the NAP. The Unit will need to come up with an alternate method of raising funds, and an alternate method of deciding who most deserves the funds raised.
- The STAC (in progress as the meeting took place) was up in the number of clubs participating, but down in table count slightly, because some larger clubs have chosen not to participate this year.
- IMP League Final matches in each division will take place following the Penticton Regional.
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| May 17, 2008 Annual General Meeting | Click here |
- President's Message (Peter Morse) Highlights:
- ACBL Memberships are up but sectional participation is down
- Future Stars, Monthly Unit Games, and Special Events attendance went up in 2007-08
- A considerable expansion of the Unit web page has happened in the past year
- The Unit provided more than $5,000 worth of subsidies to help players attend the National Finals of various events
- Many thank-you's to Board Members continuing and retiring, and others doing work for the Unit
- (Following the President's Message, Gilbert Lambert moved that Peter himself be thanked for his years of service as President.)
- The strong Canadian dollar allowed the Unit to make a small profit in fiscal 07-08 despite a disappointing year for sectional attendance.
- District Report (David Schmidt): DINO lost about $45,000 in the past year, but has ample reserves in the bank to cover theses losses. The 2008 Vancouver Regional incurred a loss of $15000 due to poor attendance and other DINO Regionals have been down in the past year. Entry fees may need to be raised but the current strength of the Canadian dollar means that the price will likely be the same in either currency. David congratulated the winning team in the GNT Flight C, who received $1400 from DINO to compete in the National Final.
- Canadian Bridge Federation Report (Peter Morse): The major issue facing the CBF continues to be its difficulties in getting Canadians to pay the small extra amount for the CBF. This money goes towards sending the winners of our national championships and our selected Junior and Youth teams to World Championships. Currently less than 50% of Canadian ACBL members choose to support the CBF when they renew their membership. Other CBF news: some local players have been contacted with a view to reorganizing the way Bridge Week selects national champions.
- Monica Angus and Peter Morse, along with nominees Allan Karro, Vicki Moffatt, Rita Dodge and John Demeulemeester were elected to two-year terms on the Unit Board, joining Angela Fenton, Janis Parker, Ken Ramsay, Bob Walters, Gail Heuchert, and Jennifer Ballantyne on the Board.
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| May 1, 2008 | Click here |
- Items proposed during the previous two Board meetings, but not made into a formal motion in the absence of a quorum, were approved by the Board.
- In future, the Unit will pay the $1 surcharge to the CBF International Fund from tournament revenues instead of having players pay an extra dollar for one event. The extra dollar allows the event to pay regionally-rated silver points (about 30% more than sectional rating). The money raised helps offset costs to send Canadian teams to the World Championships.
- Monthly Unit Games continue to improve slowly by about one table per session from last year's attendance.
- 32 clubs have signed up for the June STaC so far (40 last year, still lots of time to sign up)
- Bruce suggested that the 08-09 IMP League be run as an A/X stratified (quite large, possibly two divisions), and a B/C stratified.
- Board nominations for next year were discussed and several nominees have been found; more from the floor at the AGM can be accepted.
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| April 10, 2008 | Click here |
- Queensborough Community Centre sustained some fire damage in January. The Board has not been informed that the site will be unable to host the May sectional, but David Hooey will be sent to check out the damage and report at the next meeting.
- Changes to the Generic Sectional Schedule:
- Trophy Sectional: a 0-750 stratified pairs on Saturday afternoon opposite the unstratified Adrian and June Budd Hicks Open Pairs. (The Saturday Evening Consolation Pairs is also stratified.)
- Round-Up Sectional: likely to be a three-day sectional in future. The Friday-Saturday knockouts, previously opposite two single-session pair games, is now opposite the Flighted Pairs that used to be held on Sunday. The Board decided to move the knockouts to Friday evening, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon, so players can play in both events if they do not survive to the finals of the knockouts. A side pairs will be played on the Saturday morning as well.
- The Jean Turnbull trophy, for the Friday evening mixed pairs at the Evergreen Sectional in September, is missing. Jenny is looking through the list of recent winners to try to find out if somebody has it.
- Clubs have been contacted for the STaC in June and a few have responded; follow-ups to the non-responders have been sent out. Steve Bates of Edmonton will be the director this year. This is part of an ACBL program to improve STaC efficiency by reducing the number of directors who run STaC games.
- Meetings coming up: CBF Board (May 21-23, contact Peter Morse with issues), and DINO (June 9 in Penticton, contact Jenny Ballantyne or David Schmidt with issues.)
- This meeting of the board was attended by seven people, but one was Bruce, who is no longer a member of the Board officially because being an ACBL employee disqualifies him from participating in the political process of the Board. The lack of a quorum means that at the next meeting, all decisions made at this meeting will need to be ratified by the Board.
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| March 6, 2008 | Click here |
- Unit to appoint a Club Liaison to help ensure that clubs throughout the Unit are aware of Unit events and can communicate them to their players through announcements and e-mails.
- Trophy Sectional was down in table count but will make a profit for the Unit because all the Directors are local.
- April Monthly Unit Game moved from the 5th to the 12th because of the GNT District Final in Everett.
- Target times for print Matchpointer editions: January 15, April 15, July 15, October 15.
- The new Unit 430 Conduct Deportment and Ethics Committee Chair is Patti Adams.
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| January 31, 2008 | Click here |
- The annual Monthly Unit Game Dinner and Party Game, originally scheduled for March 8, will be postponed to the April or May game because of the number of Board Members away in February and March.
- The Unit made a profit of $300 for the General Subsidy Fund by selling Entertainment books.
- A search for a new Conduct Deportment and Ethics Committee Chair continues.
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| December 13, 2007 | Click here |
- Gail Heuchert volunteered to take over as Vice-President of Unit 430 following Bruce's resignation in October.
- The IMP League has been finalized at 12 teams in the top flight, and 6 in the second flight. Matches are proceeding normally, results are on Matchpointer online, and a bright new wall display has been mounted at the VBC.
- The GNT District Final will be in Everett from April 5-6.
- Bruce McIntyre was the only applicant for the job of Monthly Unit Game director for 2008 and was accepted by the Board.
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| November 8, 2007 | Click here |
- Ben Takemori appeared at the meeting to discuss the direction of the print Matchpointer and what the likely release date of the next issue would be.
- Future Stars tournament fees to be raised to $8.00 per session and door prizes to be discontinued. (This change may take some time to happen, since some publications already have advertising at the old rates.)
- The 2006-07 Unit financial records have been audited by Vicki Moffatt.
- Monthly Unit Game dates for 2008 proposed by Bruce in an e-mail were accepted. Bruce felt that several of the fall 2007 dates, moved back into the previous month, were confusing to players, so the 2008 dates were limited to first or (occasionally) second Saturday of each month.
- The Unit made a $500 donation to hospitality at the January regional in Surrey.
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| October 4, 2007 | Click here |
- Some Unit equipment was stolen between sessions at the Queensborough site. The Unit will need to be more security conscious at sectionals.
- Dates have been decided for the NAP Unit Final and the CNTC and CWTC Zone Finals.
- David Schmidt has indicated his willingness to continue as one of the Unit representatives to the DINO board when his term expires in December. The Board will ensure that announcements are made so that anyone interested can apply. If there are multiple applicants, the Board will choose a representative at the December meeting.
- Bob reports no advantage to the Unit in becoming a non-profit society.
- Bruce has been asked to become an ACBL Tournament Director starting in 2008. The position has some potential conflict-of-interest problems with some of his duties on the Unit Board. In order to get the hiring process started, Bruce submitted his resignation as Unit Vice President and as Unit Conduct Deportment and Ethics Committee chair. Memphis has indicated that he may continue to be on the Unit Board as a non-voting member, and may continue to do other jobs such as Matchpointer Online, organizing the IMP League, and directing Monthly Unit Games and other special games, as long as none of these conflict with his duties as an ACBL employee or with ACBL policies.
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| September 6, 2007 | Click here |
- Future Master Games at Sectionals changed to one event per sectional.
- NAP Unit Final: DINO is pushing for no more NAP Unit Finals in 2008, requiring the approval of all DINO units. The Unit agreed to not hold Unit Finals in 2008 and beyond if all DINO Units agree (see next item).
- Instead of the Unit Final, which raises money for the NAP subsidy fund, the Unit will run a fund-raising game in fall 2008 to raise money for NAP subsidies. Only pairs attending, plus those not attending but making a contribution to the subsidy fund equal to the entry fee, will be eligible for subsidy should they be invited to the National Final. The new event will be open to any pair, whether they have qualified at the club level for the NAP or not.
- Unit 430 is considering becoming a non-profit society and looking into the implications.
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| August 2, 2007 | Click here |
- Unit Officials re-elected unanimously: Peter Morse (president), Bruce McIntyre (vice-president), Joan Richards (treasurer), Angela Fenton (secretary)
- Other duties for 2007-08 assigned to various board members
- From 2008 on, only one four-day sectional each year (Round-Up will now be only three days)
- The Unit donates some portion of its assets for the previous year to the subsidy fund, depending on the final financial report from the fiscal year just ended. This year the amount donated was $2,500.
- The Unit agreed to wave the normal one-month waiting period for the transfer of the the South-West bridge club to new owner John Rousseu.
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2007 Annual General Meeting:
May 19, 2007 | Click here |
- Thanks to outgoing Board Members Bev Hall, Cathy Miller, and Cate Takemori
- Continuing Board Members elected to a new two-year term: Gail Heuchert, Angela Fenton, Jennifer Ballantyne.
- New Board Members elected to a two-year term: Ken Ramsay, Janis Parker, Bob Walters.
- Board Members in the middle of their two-year term: Monica Angus, David Hooey, Bruce McIntyre, Peter Morse, Joan Richards, Howard Shimokura.
- Financial report: revenues slightly down in 2006-07: lower table counts and higher expenses.
- Matchpointer Online has been set up online and will continue to be developed by Bruce McIntyre.
- DINO: The popular Lynnwood site for the Puget Sound Regional is unavailable in 2007 but will be the site from 2008 to 2012. Canadians won three of four GNT flights at the 2007 District Finals.
- CBF: An international fund Regional is to be held in Victoria in March 2008, CBF Bridge Week in Penticton the week before the Regional in 2009.
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| Future Meetings | | |
| October 2, 2008 | Awaiting minutes |
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| November 6, 2008 | Not yet held |
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