WESTERN CONFERENCE
Meeting of the Board of Directors
Monterey, CA
January 10, 2004
The meeting was called to order at 8:30 a.m. The following board members were present: Jerry Fleming, John Van Ness, G.S. Jade Barrett, Sheila Wimer, Bill McIntosh, Roger Smith, Jim Kirkham, Al Schuster. Secretary-Treasurer Tom Shulman was also present. Larry King of Bridge Pro Tour, Bruce Reeve, President of ACBL, and Ken Monzingo were in attendance at various times during the meeting.
2003 Minutes
The board reviewed the minutes of the 2003 annual meeting. Upon the motion of SMITH and the second of WIMER the minutes were approved.
Treasurer’s Report
SHULMAN presented the Treasurer’s report, copies of which had previously been mailed to the Board. SCHUSTER moved that the Treasurer’s report be accepted. Seconded by KIRKHAM. CARRIED. [The Treasurer’s report showed that $5,822 was distributed to the member districts from the profits of the May STAC. The pro rata breakdown by district based on the number of tables in play was as follows: D17 $1,603; D20 $657; D21 $1,594; D22 $1,968].
D20 Concerns
VAN NESS reported that D20 voted to stay in the Western Conference. BARRETT suggested that continued communication with D20 board members would be beneficial, and that the issue would come up again at the D20 Seaside meeting in October 2004. There was discussion about statistics that showed the benefits to D20 regional attendance resulting from Forum ads and articles.
Forum
Ken Monzingo reported on Forum operations. Ken felt he had to tell his employees about the Conference Board’s appointment of a committee to review Forum operations and consider replacing Ken. Because of their uncertainty about their future employment with Ken, several of the employees sought other employment.
Ken noted that one year ago, the Board gave him a raise in pay, but Ken refused the raise because of the Committee review and because the 2003 Budget showed that no profit was expected even before the raise was considered.
Joel Hoersch will be spending a lot of time in Ken’s office and that will be a big help in editing and producing the paper. Joel will be able to cover for Ken when he’s away.
McINTOSH said that Ken did a good job with the STAC report; Ken said that Betty Bratcher was entitled to much of the credit for that.
There was discussion about the effect on the paper (and the effect on D23 expenses) if D23 were to join the WC. It was felt that there would be no financial impact on the WC if D23 were to join because the additional income ($24,000) would be offset by the additional cost of publishing another edition. [If this estimate of additional income to WC is correct, D23’s expenditure for Forum pages would be significantly less than any of the other districts].
Ken apologized that the WC website was not yet finished and requested that the board tell him about anything that they wanted to see on the website. KIRKHAM suggested that a Master Solver column would be good for the website even though it would take up too much space for the paper.
Ken’s lease is up and he will be spending about $200 per month more for rent when he signs a new lease.
BPT
Larry King of Bridge Pro Tour (BPT) addressed the board about BPT’s past events and future plans. He stated that Vioxx was being looked at as a potential sponsor. Reno and New York broke even, and they were the first break events that had been held by BPT. The first year BPT lost $32,000, the second year it lost $63,000, and the third year it lost $60,000. The projection for 2004 is to make $10,000. Sixty-nine players appears to be the number needed to break even at a BPT event. The effort now will be to find a sponsor. Television is the key. The goal is 30 major market events on TV. WC’s percentage ownership interest in BPT is 5% or less.
Executive Session
The board convened in an Executive Session.
Tournament Scheduling
The WC Swiss STAC will be August 16-22, 2004. The Board noted that other districts are now also joining together for STACs having noticed the success of the WC STACs.
FLEMING suggested that the Board needed to give better consideration to the priority week schedule.
New Business
BARRETT moved that Ken Monzingo receive a $2,000 per year increase. SCHUSTER second. The motion was amended to include an additional one-time $3,000 payment to be applied to development and maintenance of the WC website. CARRIED 8-0.
The draft budget for FY2004 was approved after adjustment for the newly approved payments to Ken noted above.
BARRETT moved that WC reject USBF’s request for a WC regional site for its competition. VAN NESS second. CARRIED 8-0.
Ken Monzingo will print flyers for the STACs.
ACBL President Bruce Reeve addressed the meeting as follows: ACBL is solving the problem of declining membership; the “pulling together of districts” worked for the MABC and is probably working for WC; the Internet will be the savior of bridge (get a list of people who attended your tournament and email them a thank you for coming, get a list of those who attended last year but not this year and email them to encourage them to come next year); we don’t do enough for volunteers who are the heart of the organization; we need to continually get new blood on committees and boards; ACBL is going after baby boomers; bridge is back!
Next Meeting
KIRKHAM suggested that the Board consider online meetings as an alternative to in-person meetings given the expense of the in-person meetings. SHULMAN suggested that the Board consider holding the annual meeting a little later in the year, perhaps March or April, so that the December STAC financial results and the operating results for the first couple of months of the fiscal year would be known.
The Board decided that the date and location of the next meeting would be considered and set by email.
Election of Officers
SMITH nominated McINTOSH to be president. KIRKHAM second. No further nominations. McINTOSH elected.
Tom Shulman was nominated to be Secretary/Treasurer. No further nominations. SHULMAN elected.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.