January12, 2021

East Texas Bridge Association

Unit 225 Board Meeting Minutes

This meeting was held virtually. Nine directorswere present: Jo Ellen Wade, Linda Harrison, Rathnam, Carol Kinsey, Susan Ford, Phyllis Alvarez, Sandy O’Bannon, Mary Ramsey and Tom Spradlin.

The meeting was called to order at 10:30AM, and the floor was given to Paul Cuneo, a Director of District 16, who attended to share news from the district. He reported that 2020 was a good year financially for the ACBL, with more than 60000 members playing online. He asked us to encourage people to play online and mentioned that in-person tournaments through April have been cancelled, and there may be more cancellations to come. Paul commented that, although there is a lot of discussion about online cheating, fewer than 50 cases are being prosecuted. Most cheating occurs when there are two playing from the same residence and is at low levels of play. Finally, the District 16 Board has voted to lower the number of directors to 13, and the Board of Governors is being reduced from 5 to 3.

In response to a question whether the masterpoint awards have been lowered for online play, Paul mentioned that the awards are lower because only 18 boards are played, but this is compensated for by the increased number of players in the game.

When asked about our Tournament of Roses in July, Paul commented that, if we don’t get news by the end of March, he believes the tournament is unlikely to be held.

We turned to the agenda for the meeting. Minutes from the January meeting were approved with two changes, and the Treasurer’s Report was approved.

Phyllis has awards for five persons, and the receipts for their purchase, and will hold them until we learn when the Tyler Senior Citizens Center will open. Even though it is uncertain when we will be able to present these, along with the awards for the Ace of Clubs and Mini-McKinney awards, Carol will post the winners on the website and we will notify the awardees by letter.

The directors also agreed that it is too early to make decisions about unit game allocations. It was also announced that the March 15 presentation for the District 16 educational effort would be made by Jonathan Ernest (later changed by email to Charles Ford).

The meeting adjourned at 11:20 AM.

Tom Spradlin, Secretary