Today the ACBL Board of Governors is doing its first ever remote livestream. Here is the link embedded below. Nothing TOO exciting should be discussed, but you may see several of the folks representing you.
Livestream: https://youtu.be/Mpx9FmJNBwwso
Update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eki6IJedtho
The stream will continue for about 2 hours. As always, the Board of Governors meeting is somewhat misleading. It is not really a board, and it does not govern. It’s primarily a group designed for two-way communication between the ACBL national level and the district membership. In many ways, it most closely resembles the house of representatives, whereas the Board of Directors is the senate.
As a reminder, a lot of Board of Governors information can also be found on the ACBL website BOG section.
Brief Summary (Not official meeting minutes)
Opening remarks by Doug Couchman – thanks everyone for coming, reminds everyone on ground rules. We will also later in the meeting discuss whether Saturday evening ET is a reasonable time to hold these meetings moving forward.
Jeff Jones gave a summary and answered questions regarding online cheating procedures and their cooperation with BBO on the matter.
Georgia Heth gave an overview on why 2021 will be very different than 2020, and filled with plenty of uncertainty and opportunity.
Counsel Linda Dunn updated everyone on the outstanding lawsuit between former ACBL tournament directors Peter Marcus et al vs ACBL, regarding exempt vs non-exempt status. Should directors be paid overtime? More information about the case on BW.
Several members had questions and comments for Linda Dunn about the lawsuit about the financial implications of the lawsuit. Although not all details could be provided on the lawsuit while still in litigation, the legal fees has cost $160K beyond what was covered by insurance.
Peyton Dodson reported on the financial health of the organization. The annual audit has been concluded and financial statements posted on the ACBL website. The original budget from November 2019 projected $330K in net gaming income. After quick pivots during the beginning of the pandemic, ACBL earned $2M a month in revenue and ended the year with a net $2.2M of gaming operations. The 2021 budget is approved and projects net gains of $748K, primarily from online activity. The budget currently does not project meaningful financial impact from face-to-face play.
Doug Couchman reports on activities from the Board of Directors (that’s the Senate, not this group, remember). One large set of changes included changes to the ByLaws, which among many things reduces the 25 Districts into 13 Regions. Pertaining in particular to the Board of Governors, the 1st and 2nd Alternate positions for each districts are no longer actually alternates moving forward.
AJ Stephani answered a question about the why 1st and 2nd alternates are no longer considered necessary. However, there is a transition period for the rest of 2021. One major reason is that all Board of Governors meetings will now be on zoom, a total of 6 per year (3 general and 3 special). In the past, Board of Governors meetings were held at NABCs, but even when face-to-face bridge resumes, we will likely continue to use Zoom meetings.
[Note: For District 24, which incudes GNYBA, the District Director is David Moss, the 1st Alternate is Jeff Bayone and the 2nd Alternate is Lee Lin. There are also three other members on the board of governors in our district: Diana Schuld, Uday B Ivatury, and Silvana Morici].
A series of motioned were made and voted on by the voting members in attendance. Normally this would be done via paddles in a physical room during NABC. Today we used Zoom polls. The first motion passed agreeing with ByLaws changes for the Board of Governors.
A prior motioned discussed talking about changing the name of the Board of Governors to something more descriptive. However, we have decided to continue calling the entity the Board of Governors.
Two more motions were proposed revising changes to the way the Board of Directors and Board of Governors cooperate. Both motions failed. However, some members note a past frustration with Board of Governors motions not passing at the Board of Director level and without sufficient communication from the Board of Directors. Others notes the communication falls to the Board of Governors chair, and that the current chair has done an excellent job.
A motion was proposed to direct the Bridge Bulletin to periodically publish a list of members currently suspended, banned, or on probation. This motioned failed. Some members pointed out that the ACBL already publishes a list of members CURRENTLY under discpline (although not a historical list).
Thanks for the heads-up, Lee!
We are also attempting to do a real-time summary, although it is not an official meeting minutes.