MINUTES OF THE UNIT 195, WESTERN MICHIGAN, ACBL BOARD MEETING 
held at Steaks Eatery, 4243 Oaklane, on Saturday, January 8, 2005

The meeting was called to order by President Dennis Carman at 6:15 PM.

Present were:
President Dennis Carman
district 1 -  Duane Little, Joe Manhart and Nancy Yarbrough
district 2 -  Joanne Molt and Roger Anderson 
district 3 -  Eugene  Kales, Jackie Oman, and Paul Christ
district 4 -  Alan Bau, Tom Eadie, Judy Euler and Marian Vyverman,
district 5 -  Brenda Walz and Pete Fleming
Board Member absent: - Dave Kamm
and guests
 
    The Minutes of the Board Meeting at Traverse City, September 11, 2004 
were approved.
    The Financial Report was presented by Joe Manhart.  He stated that the 
loss for the year is about $3,500.  A completed Financial statement is included 
with these minutes.  Financial results of tournaments held this year are shown 
under Tournaments Results included in the handouts.  The report was approved.
    Dennis reported results from the District Board Meeting.  Bill Arlinghaus 
was elected as District 12 Director to the ACBL Board by one vote after some 
confusion as to ballots.
    The dates for the 2005 GNT will be April 9 & 10 in Farmington.  (The cost 
per team, at the door, will be $88 for the 9th, but registration prior to 
March 31 will be $80.  Each club in District 12 will receive Flyers and 
registration forms)
    The District treasury dropped from about $11000 to $5000 during 2004.  
Therefore subsidies from the District will be cut in 2005.  No subsidy will be 
given to the 3rd place finishers in the NAP and the subsidy for the GNT will be 
$1000 per team.
    The NAP District Final will continue to be in Lansing, partly because of 
the high number of pairs coming from our Unit, but the GNT will be in the 
Detroit area.                        
TOURNAMENT RESULTS:
    Financial results of Tournaments at Traverse City and Lansing and the 
Unit Finals of the NAP are shown on the handout.   72 pairs played in the NAP 
Unit Final netting $435. (the previous four years averaged 47 pairs and $184) 
    
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULING:
    Tournaments for 2005 will be much the same as 2004 except that there will 
be no St. Joseph 299er.  Bridge-O-Ramas were passed out and available at the 
game site.  They have been mailed to all Club managers and will be available 
at our Tournaments or by request from the secretary.

INFORMATION

    Alan Bau is the web manager of the District web site, www.d12bridge.org 
as well as the Unit Web Site, www.unit195bridge.org.  Visit these to see the 
new additions and  send suggestions to Alan.

    Alan Bau reported that the MENTORING PROGRAM at the Kalamazoo bridge 
center is continuing. $97.50 was paid by the Unit toward this program.

    The following is repeated from the last Board minutes:  Because of the 
success of this pilot program, the Board voted to offer any Unit 195 club which 
establishes a Mentoring Program, including a Mentoring Director, payment from 
the Unit of one half of the game fee for the mentor.  The club can choose how 
much the mentee pays and how the other half of the mentors fee is paid.  It is 
expected that mentors will be experienced players, generally Life Masters, 
and the mentees will be relative newcomers to competitive bridge.

    The Kalamazoo Bridge Center was reimbursed $238.51 for advertising costs 
for  bridge lessons.

NEW BUSINESS:
Dennis suggested that we consider holding only two Board Meetings each year.  
Any important business could be handled by E-mail between meetings and 
considerable money would be saved.  Our tournament schedules are largely repeating 
and do not require frequent modifications.  The Board voted to move forward on 
this change.  Alan Bau, Eugene Kales and Joe Manhart were appointed to prepare 
appropriate Bylaw amendments to present at a Membership Meeting to be held on 
Saturday, April 30 at the Grand Rapids Sectional between the two sessions.

    The Board voted to continue subsidizing the NAP club games as we did last 
year.
Each club will be reimbursed $3 per table for one Nap game per month in June, 
July and August.  Each club should send a table count for each session to the 
Treasurer after the August games to receive the reimbursement.  Clubs are 
expected not to charge higher fees for these games

    The Board also voted to fully subsidize the STaC game in December for 
each club in the Unit which chooses to participate.  The entire cost of $6 per 
table will be paid to the Director by the Unit.  

    Nancy Yarbrough asked if the Unit had a recommended level for 
stratification at our Tournaments.  Dennis replied that we do not and that the best guide 
may be previous history from the particular Tournament.

    Guest Darryl Haynes commented that there was poor attendance from Unit 
195 members other than those from the Lansing area at the Lansing Sectrional in 
December.    
    
    The next Board Meeting will be July 16, 2005  at Joe’s house in North 
Muskegon after the Saturday games of the Muskegon Sectional.

The Meeting was adjourned at 8:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted, 



Joe Manhart