3 years of meetings. Continue reading
Sill in process.
In the composition of this entry I relied heavily on the minutes written by Ann Lohrand. I took my own notes, but I did not save them.
The state of the club in 2021: Because of the pandemic the club closed its doors in March of 2020 and did not reopen for face-to-face(F2F) play until the summer of 2021. In the interim the club had begun sponsoring online games while it continued to play rent on its headquarters near the border of Hartford and West Hartford. The revenue from the online games did not come close to covering the club’s expenses.
It took several months for the attendance at the F2F to reach a reasonable level. Only players who had been vaccinated were allowed to play, and they were also required to wear a mask. The quality of the masks was not enforced, but several players complained about them.
So, as of the autumn of 2021 the club was close to crisis mode. Although there was still quite a bit of money in the bank, the financial people warned that the club was earning about $2,000 per month from its dues and game fees than it was paying in expenses.
During the summer of 2021 Trevor Reeves, who was the HBC’s treasurer and the most immediate past president, called me to ask if I would be willing to serve on the club’s Board of Trustees. I said that I would be happy to do so, and I did not mind committing for three years. At the club’s annual meeting, which was held via Zoom on October 24, 2021, I learned the complete list of the people on the board. The the other officers besides Trevor were Felix Springer (president), John Willoughby (vice-president), and Ann Lohrand (secretary). There were three returning board members. Roger Pikor had one year remaining on his term. Carole Amaio and Bill Wininger had two years. There were only six board members at a time. Nevertheless, at the meeting Felix announced that four members had “departed” and three new ones elected, all for three-year terms. The other two newbies were Nancy Calderbank and Ben Bishop. I knew Felix, Trevor, John, and Nancy pretty well. I was much less familiar with the others.
The board met once a month on a designated Tuesday afternoon. Since I played bridge at the club every Tuesday, this was quite convenient for me.
Before the pandemic Felix had asked me to be on the Long-range Planning Committee. This group discussed how to prepare for the loss of any key people, especially Donna Feir, who had been the Club Manager for decades. We also discussed what could be done to improve the club in other ways. The necessity of educational programs was emphasized, and the nature of them was discussed. Use of special games available from the ACBL was a common topic, as well as the mentorship program that I had participated in every time it was offered. It no longer seemed to be flourishing.
I have a few distinct memories from the first board meeting that I attended on November 9, 2021. The first was the report of the Policy Committee. I did not know that there was such a thing. Apparently Tom Joyce and Pat Salve were the driving forces behind it. I had played against both of them countless times, but I had never worked with either one.
They proposed three motions. The first amended the by-laws to allow one board member to be a director. The second delegated authority to create the game schedule to the directors. The third reduced the number of past presidents on the nominating committee from three to two. All three items passed.
Evidently the primary focus of the committee was to negotiate a new lease for the existing property or a new one. Although many people supported the idea of finding an appropriate facility, Donna was clearly not in favor of considering the prospect of moving.
The second thing that stands out in my recollection of that first meeting was the treasurer’s report. In previous years the treasurer’s report basically just indicated how much cash the club had. Trevor and John Dinius had converted the club’s books to the accrual method. They had taken the steps to become a 501(c)(3) exempt organization. They had also applied to the town of West Hartford for a $10,000 Covid-19 grant. What impressed me the most was that they had implemented a budgeting and planning system so that they could gauge the effect of changes in attendance at both online and F2F games.
I also remember that I gave my own assessment of the state of bridge in general. I was convinced that Covid-19 had seriously wounded competitive bridge at all levels—club, unit, district, national, and even international. To me, however, the real enemy was online play for masterpoints. In my opinion this had broke the link carefully developed to provide the incentives for advancement to sustain clubs, units, and districts. Trevor said that he agreed with me.