District board meeting March 8, 2014  Indianapolis
 
President Bill Sentman called the meeting to order sometime after 5:30 PM.
 
On motion made by Georgia Banziger and seconded by Terrell Holt, the minutes of the Louisville meeting as submitted were approved.
 
Treas. Adrienne Netherwood presented the treasurer’s report (see below). The district’s current balance is $27,946.15. Other than collecting money from the Louisville regional and paying for a few meals there had been little financial activity since the last meeting. There were no questions for the treasurer.
 
Tournament coordinator AJ Stephani reported on 2 matters.
1.     He made a request to the webmasters of all units within the district asking them to be sure to advertise the 6 district wide events on their website (for regionals, the NAP and the GNT). Most webmasters have complied with only Indy and Evansville have not finished. AJ had made available a link to the ACBL website that would automatically filter the tournament list on that website to show only those items in District 11.
2.     AJ also advised the group that he would like to have a twice yearly meeting of the chairmen of the 4 regionals separate from the district board meeting. The purpose would be to exchange news, comments and ideas relating to the regional tournaments.
3.     It was also noted that there have been some data problems with tournament information posted to the ACBL website through the new Tourney Trax program. While some of those problems were, in fact, created by ACBL staff, others were the result of a lack of proofreading by tournament chairmen who posted the information. Tournament coordinator Stephani asked the tournament chairmen to submit their flyers to him and he would volunteer to do the proofreading to make sure the information on the ACBL website was accurate.
 
GNT, NAP chairman Larry Jones thanked Lexington for hosting this year’s GNT qualifications. It was noted that bad weather over that weekend probably suppressed the total number of tables. The GNT in January 2015 is scheduled for Dayton. There was discussion of complaints from some of the teams in the Championship flight and the A flight that teams finishing 2^nd 3^rd and 4^th received very small master point awards. ACBL district rep Beth Reid was aware of the problem and is working with the master point planning committee of the ACBL looking into the issue. They will be reviewing that at the meeting in Dallas. While the best solution is to have more teams enter, the ACBL committee will review the issue. Mike Purcell suggested that perhaps the A and B qualifications be held on different weekends to allow some teams to compete twice.
 
Thanks was expressed to Beth Reid by Potter Orr for hosting he and Mike Lipp at the ACBL board of governors meeting in Phoenix.
 
Youth coordinator Isaac Stephani propose that we adopt a district wide policy of pricing for youth players a district wide events. On motion made by Terrell Holt and seconded by Mike Purcell, the following was adopted:
·       Youth players would receive a 50% discount on entries at regional tournaments. The cost of this discount would be borne by the sponsor of the regional.
·       Youth players would receive a 50% discount for entries in the district wide NAP and GMT events. Since these are district events, the district would bear the cost of the discount.
·       Sponsors of sectional tournaments would be allowed to set their own rates, but would be strongly urged to follow the 50% discount to be used at district wide events.
·       For the purposes of these discounts, a youth player is defined as an ACBL member under the age of 21 (20 and younger).
The motion passed.
 
Midwest Monitor editor Brad Bartol apologized for the lateness of the last issue. A combination of late submissions and illness with the causes. He especially apologized to Louisville who lost an advertisement due to the late issue. He presented the financial update (click here) on the results of the Midwest monitor. As has happened in the past, the 1^st quarter issue lost a fair amount of money. Advertising was down and there was a significant postage increase since the last issue. For the next issue Brad received approval to proceed for the next issue with the quote he has in hand they would have the 1^st 4 pages printed in color and the balance in black and white on newsprint. This will save about $900 in printing costs for the issue.
Bread indicated that he had no interest in running another Stac tournament. He has had significant problems with late and/or missing payments from the games participating in the tournament and did not feel that the amount of money generated was worth the aggravation. Bill Sentman indicated that the West Virginia unit would take over running the holiday Stac from Brad.
Brad requested again an actual contract from the district for his services to produce an electronic version of the newsletter. Bill Sentman acknowledged that the committee he formed after the last meeting to come up with his contract and not been able to successfully meet. He intends to appoint a new committee to finish the job prior to the next meeting. In accordance with the motion passed in a previous meeting, this committee has the authority to conclude the contract and proceed without coming back for additional approval from the board. The next issue will still be on paper and the deadline for submissions is March 14 with the issue due out around April 1. The deadline for the following issue would be June 6 with an estimated publication date of July 1. ACBL district rep Beth Reid now has the ability to do up to 3 email blasts per year to all of the ACBL members in the District. Once we have settled on which issue of the Midwest monitor will be the last one in print, she has volunteered to use one of those blasts to communicate this to district members. Brad also noted that in light of the postage increase the $2 fee for having a copy mailed to an individual may not be enough and it might have to be increased to $2.50. He also posed the question about how revenue would be handled for advertisements in the monitor. You will recall from his previous proposal that advertisements by units within the district would be free. We do receive advertisements from time to time from units outside our district for their tournaments and occasionally from vendors of bridge related materials. The committee in charge of his contract will deal with this issue as well.
 
New business:
There was a short discussion of a new service called Fast Tracks available for regionals that makes the detailed results and hand records available almost immediately. Information should be forthcoming.
 
Notice was given that the district board meeting in Cincinnati on Saturday, June 7 will be down the street from the convention center (within walking distance) at a restaurant called Vincenzo’s. This has been chosen to upgrade the food available at the meeting.
 
On motion made by Georgia Banziger and seconded by Mike Purcell the meeting was adjourned in time for everyone to make the evening session.
 
 
Treasurer's Report

Treasurer's Report
Indianapolis Regional
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Activity since November 9, 2013 Meeting
ACBL District 11 Beginning Checking Balance		$23,629.05
Increases in Cash
Louisville/Lexington Regional Table Fees + $250		$748.80
2014 GNT		$614.09
Meals Reimbursements		$331.30
Total Increase in Cash		$1,694.19
Decreases in Cash
Meals Expense Louisville/Lexington Regional Meeting		$834.60
Total Decrease in Cash		$834.60
ACBL District 11 Ending Checking Balance		$24,488.64	*
Midwest Monitor Checking Balance		$3,457.51	**
Current Total Cash Balance		$27,946.15
*$17,000 earmarked for future NABC within District 11
*$2,116 earmarked for ACBL Grass Roots
**Per 5th 3rd Bank Statement
Note: Editor of the Midwest Monitor is responsible for
maintaining the books and records of the Midwest Monitor.