Officers and directors attending were: Leo Cardillo, Margot Hennings, Diane Alexander, Lucy McCoy, Ed Heberg, Ron Kral, Paul Krueger, Scott Merritt, and NVBA Youth advisor David Banh. Unit Game Chief Director Marshall Kuschner, Pete Hughes, Kathryn Kiley, and Barry Sparks (having just undergone a back operation) were absent. (Barry did make a brief cameo appearance during the meeting.) President Cardillo called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

Minutes. Ed Heberg made a motion to accept the minutes for March 2005 as amended by e-mail, Scott seconded the motion, and the motion carried.

Membership Report. Ed made a motion to accept the March membership report (ACBL In-and-Out report), Margot Hennings seconded, and the report was accepted. The report listed Helene Bauman as a new Diamond Life Master. In accordance with our Policies and Procedures, the Secretary will send her a congratulatory letter and eight NVBA Sectional free plays (Margot is supposed to send these to Lucy).

Treasurer's Report.

Treasurer Diane Alexander provided the board with an income/expense statement for the fiscal year to date. She is gradually disposing of all the scrip in the NVBA's hands. At Leo's suggestion, she will make a footnote on future monthly statements showing the amount of funds being held in a CD (in the name of Ron Spieker, treasurer of the last NABC in Washington and tied to the NVBA's NWFCU account for District 6 to use in running a future NABC in the District).

Diane is working with Ed Heberg and Steve Ivins to make arrangements for a review of the books after the end of the NVBA's fiscal year on April 30, 2005. She will bring copies of the annual financial report to the Annual Meeting to be available to members, as required by the NVBA Policies and Procedures. Also, she discussed with the Board what she would say about the state of the Unit's finances at that meeting.

President's Report

Inventory. President Cardillo still needs to complete his portion of the inventory and obtain input from other NVBA members who have NVBA property in their custody.

Partnership Chair. Leo is still looking for a volunteer for this position.

Downsizing the Board. The vote on downsizing the Board is scheduled to take place at the Special Meeting on April 28. Leo is to bring the petition calling for the Special Meeting that was signed by the Board, copies of the Constitution and copies of proposed amendments. Plans are to vote on the items on the agenda for the Special Meeting once all the players are seated at their tables and boards have been made, but not passed.

TJ Club/Youth Program. David Banh talked with Carry On representatives hired by the ACBL to promote bridge among our youth. Nadine wants to talk to David about developing a TJ-type bridge program in MD schools and nationwide.

The TJ students are getting ready to participate in the annual In-School national bridge competition on April 22, 2005. Last year two TJ students won a scholarship playing in this event. David expects 15-20 tables of students will enter this year. He said they need some monitors to help the students with the scoring.

Ron Starr asked David to help with running a two-week bridge course for 16 students at the end of May.

Steve Forsythe is looking for someone to talk to a group of seniors about bridge and maybe engage them in playing some “easy bridge” or a game of whist.

2nd Annual Dave Murray award. Marshall Kuschner sent Board members an e-mail with nominations, and others were submitted from the floor. A straw vote was taken to narrow the number of candidates down to three, and then a final vote was taken. The Board selected Janet Gookin as this year's winner.

Annual Meeting. The Board reviewed who would do what in preparation for the Annual Meeting May 12:

--David Banh, as interim Unit Game manager, will order four cakes in different flavors, including one carrot cake, with names of the 2004 Life Masters on them.

--Margot/David Banh will make sure we have enough plates/forks/napkins for eating cake and strawberries. They will also have signs made for the elections/BBQ areas.

--Margot will arrange for the barbecue dinner and strawberries with KOCH.

--Margot will bring the Free Plays to hand out with the awards for the four NVBA trophies, the Ace of Clubs winners and the Mini-McKenney winners. She will also ask David Milton to bring a camera to take pictures of the winners.

--Kathryn will make sure Norma/Matt bring the membership list, ballots, and a ballot box. She is also making the arrangements for counting the ballots.

--Diane Alexander will bring copies of the annual financial statement. She will also bring forms for the President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer to sign and return to the bank. They are the four persons authorized to co-sign checks for the Unit.

--Leo will bring forms for the officers who need to be on the NWFCU account to sign.

--Leo will talk with Dick Wegman about the cost and logistics of arranging to pre-duplicate boards for the game. He will ask Doug Grove to bring the boards, if we decide to have the boards pre-duplicated, and if it is convenient for Doug to pick them up on his way to the game.

Unit Game Report

Unit game costs.

--To help the Board get a sense of the average cost of running the Unit game, Margot prepared a chart of Unit Game expenses and receipts for the month of March.

--In a further effort to bring some order to the Unit's annual expenditures, she recommended the Unit replace ten card tables annually at Beth El and ten at KOCH—unless this year's inventory indicates that even more new tables are needed.

In order to estimate the cost of supplies, she needs to further research the cost of bidding box inserts. She noted the time is coming up for the Unit to put in its order for more decks of cards, convention cards, score cards, etc. when the Director for the Alexandria Regional orders tournament supplies from the ACBL. All the local units can get a better deal on the cost if these supplies are ordered in bulk. Also, Leo noted that the Board needs to follow up on Barry's recommendation that adequate supplies be kept at KOCH for Sectionals.

Unit game manager. David Banh volunteered to serve as the Unit Game manager until he goes to university in the Fall. This primarily involves making sure a caddy is scheduled for each game, procuring and bringing refreshments (snacks and beverages) to the game, and ensuring that bidding boxes/holders are distributed in a timely way before the game starts, and are put away at the end of the game.

I/N game. Ron Kral has scheduled the speakers, directors, and experts for the “win-a-star” program through July. He has been making up his own version of free plays, but could use some from Margot if she prints some off. The key for the Treasurer is for the Director selling the entries to write the “value” of the Free Play on it when it is used.

LM/NLM game. The LM/NLM game is being held May 19, the week after the Annual meeting. Ron will put out a flyer at the I/N game and open game and encourage LM's and non-LM's to participate. We'll also put out a signup sheet at the Annual Meeting.

Newsletter

The deadline for submissions for the next newsletter is June 1. Printing costs for the newsletter have been paid in advance. Currently PMR Printing has enough in advance to cover the cost of mailing the newsletters through the end of the year. Coverage of the Annual Meeting and announcement of the new Board members and Committee Chairs will be the highlight of the next newsletter.

Old Business

NVBA Directory. Scott Merritt has put a lot of work into this, and can easily sort data now and produce a paper version for printing. The Board has asked Scott to use the data available as of May 1, 2005 to create another version for printing. Lucy would like to proof it before it is printed. The Board thinks we need 300 copies ready for the Annual Meeting. They will be sold for $1.00/copy. As for the website version, Scott is still working with Ron Kral on a blueprint, and with Sumner to determine whether Sumner can take charge of updating it once it is “operating.” Scott has put a prototype format on the NVBA website, and would like Board members' feedback on it before he develops it further.

Bridge Information Line. Sam Coleman has gotten a phone number from MCI for the new Bridge Information Line (BIL). The new number is: 703-204-0848. Now we are waiting for MCI to connect the new line at Sam's residence and Sam to set up the menu of choices.

Medals/Certificates for Mini-McKenney and Ace of Clubs winners. Leo has received the Ace of Clubs Certificates. Prize Chair Mary Mudd has the Mini-McKenney medals. Barry Sparks brought the letters to the award recipients to the Board meeting for Leo to sign.

NVBA Membership Database. Ron Kral continues to work with Norma/Matt Pierzchala on the issue of how to keep membership data current and accessible, and available to satisfy various Unit requirements.

Policies and Procedures Lucy sent Board members a copy of the Policies and Procedures (P&P) with changes made to date. The Board updated some more sections and reviewed some areas where discussion still needs to be held. The Board agreed to change the language in the Section 4 Cheer & Sympathy section to allow flowers (in addition to cards) to be sent to seriously ill members or members undergoing major operations. Lucy is adding language in Section 16.2 Newsletter that the newsletter is available electronically to those members who request it. If it is the Unit's intention to continue the Guaranteed Partner (GP) program, then the Board needs to add language to Section 17 Partnerships in the P&P. The Board needs to set forth guidelines on the Unit providing players with guaranteed partners, e.g., a maximum limit on the number of times a partner will be guaranteed for a player, the rules for providing volunteers who serve as Guaranteed Partners free plays if they play, as well as what they get if they come to a game as a GP and aren't needed, and the number of GPs needed for each Flight (presumably one each). Section 19.1 on Sectional prizes needs revision. The Board should considering adding language to Section 19.2 Unit Trophies regarding the newly instituted Dave Murray award and its criteria. The Board needs to review the policy on use of Mid-Chart conventions in NVBA-sponsored events in Section 21.4. The Board decided to delete Section 25.4 on the NVBA role in sponsoring STaCs, because all STaCs are now administered by District 6. In Section 26.1 Unit Game, language was added to indicate that hand records are used in both the Open and I/N games. In Section 26.5 Substitute Director, the Board approved raising the Substitute Director fee to a maximum of $80.00 plus expenses.

New Business.

Zero Tolerance. The Board would like to emphasize its support for the ACBL's Zero Tolerance policy. Margot will make signs to post at the Unit Game/Sectionals putting players on notice that unsportsmanlike behavior at the table will not be tolerated. Margot also would like an article on Zero Tolerance to appear in the next newsletter.

Members' suggestions:

--Sam Gumbert suggested a competition of some type (similar to the Jackpot series) among players at the NVBA Unit game, and Leo said he would follow up on it.

--Paul Stygar has suggested that a nice tournament table gift would be "stick-ons" for convention cards. Margot will take that into consideration.

At 9:35 p.m., Paul moved to adjourn the meeting, Scott seconded the motion, and the motion carried unanimously. The next Board meeting will be held Monday, June 13, 2005 at 7:00 p.m., with the dinner portion beginning at 6:00 p.m., at Pistone's at Seven Corners.