The GNYBA Board of Directors met on September 22, 2020. Go to the meeting minutes page for this and all prior board meeting minutes.
In Attendance (by ‘Zoom’)
V. Apter, J. Bayone, D. Garber, B. Gellas, J. Hu, U. Ivatury, P. Lentz, F. Levine, S. Levine,
L. Lin, Mark Mariaschin, J. Meyers, G. Miniter, R. Moller, D. Moss, A. Parrish, A. Rhodes,
A. Rudary, W. Sigward, A. Silverstein, K. Todd, N. Trabulus, J. Wank.
President’s Report
B. Gellas began with two ACBL-related items:
ACBL has announced they will not sanction in-person tournaments thru at least
February 2021 (regional tournaments). This decision does not restrict local bridge
clubs from opening or operating, if they choose to do so.
ACBL may begin to limit the number of regional tournaments that are held in a
calendar year. However, the ACBL will not interfere with 2021 tournaments a
particular district has already contractually scheduled. As a practical matter, it will
be in 2022 and beyond that the new limitations may be imposed. District Rep D.
Moss stated that there is ongoing discussion at ACBL on this topic, and there is a
sense that there are too many regionals being held. Due to pandemic-related
cancellations, the GNYBA at present has no future regional tournaments scheduled.
Tournament Report
Bonnie requested S. Levine to update the Board on the status of our tournaments and
relationship with the Hilton. Steve reported that we have successfully cancelled the
November 2021 Regional, with no financial penalty. In addition, the Hilton has agreed to
return our $13.5 thousand deposit which they have been holding following cancellation of
the May 2021 Regional. (The deposit is expected to be returned within the next two weeks.)
Steve also reported that GNYBA remains on very good terms with the Hilton; and that at
present we have no contracts in place with anyone.
Secretary’s Report / Nominating Committee Balloting
The Secretary reported results of the recent balloting to create the five-person Nominating
Committee which will develop a slate of candidates to work on the GNYBA Board in 2021.
The following Board Members were selected for the Committee:
Bonnie Gellas
Lee Lin
Gillian Miniter
David Moss
Adam Parrish
The two alternate members of the Committee will be: Amy Rhodes and Allison Rudary.
District Representative Report
D. Moss updated the Board on developments at the ACBL –
The ACBL’s ‘Future of Bridge’ Task Force concluded that the future would feature a
strong emphasis on on-line bridge; with face-to-face bridge accorded relatively less
importance. David stated the ACBL Board did not react well to the latter finding.
More to follow.
There have been no announcements regarding the scheduled NABC in St. Louis in
March 2021. The same is true for the Providence NABC in July 2021.
David stated that whereas not much has been done with respect to 2021 GNT’s, we at
GNYBA should assume there will be a GNT at Providence and proceed accordingly.
One key issue is whether our GNT should be face-to-face competition, or conducted
on-line (we will “wait and see” for now). David also expressed his thanks to A.
Rhodes for her terrific work managing the pandemic-impacted 2020 GNT’s.
Financially, the ACBL is doing fine; however, the future holds challenges. Among
them is the fact that membership in ACBL has been declining, and has declined
further since July of this year. As a result, there is a need to stabilize or reverse that
trend. Getting more people to play on-line would help.
Creating a group to promote bridge would also help. In subsequent discussion, A. Parrish suggested that holding an on-line New York event would be something worth trying; and the NYC bridge community might respond well to some kind of organized team event for New York participants. U. Ivatury volunteered to look into the feasibility of GNYBA
sponsoring such a team-oriented NYC event.
Other Business
Announcement was made of the result of the recent election for the District’s 2nd-Alternate
position. The winner was GNYBA Board Member Lee Lin. Lee will thus become a voting
member of the ACBL’s Board of Governors, and will also serve on the ACBL’s Master-point
Committee. D. Moss commented that Lee was one of two people he knew who best
understood the intricacies of ACBL master-point awards. Congratulations, Lee!
Next Board Meeting
The next Board Meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 20th.
Respectfully Submitted by
Bill Sigward,
Secretary of the Board September 24 , 2020