Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Larry Rand called the meeting to order at 12:40 PM
In attendance were Keith Hagel, Ruth Hamilton, Susi Tiekert, Helen Flores, and Bennett Jacobstein. Mike Johnson made a brief appearance.
Keith Hagel reported that we have approximately $5,100 in the treasury. Treasurer Janice Kaye prepared a detailed statement – see below.
Mike Johnson said that there was an unexpected $2000 shortfall in the tournament prize fund. The Executive Committee approved transferring WGPO funds to cover this. Mike anticipates returning 109% of the entry fees in prize money.
Winter has volunteered to be on the Nominations and Elections Committee. Lynda Finn had said earlier in the year that she would serve. Ruth is to confirm. We will ask the Nominations and Elections Committee to research and propose changes to the election process. The EC and BPR need to recruit new candidates for board positions. Two Executive Committee and three Board of Player Representative positions will be up for election this year.
Deborah Baggett was approved as an interim replacement for Melissa Brown as Member Liaison.
Next year’s Word Cup should attract more local players than previous ones have. To get a decent rental rate for the playing room, we have guaranteed that a number of guest rooms will be rented. If players don’t rent enough rooms, the tournament has to pay for the shortfall. In effect, players staying at the hotel are subsidizing the tournament. Because of the high percentage of players who will not be staying at the host hotel, Bennett proposed assessing a $50 facility fee to the commuters and taking $10 per night off of the hotel rate for those who book their rooms early. The board approved the idea. Bennett will explore it further.
We discussed possible tournament sites for 2019 and beyond – perhaps Albuquerque, perhaps Florida. We like to move it around. We’re open to suggestions, particularly if it comes with an offer to do all the groundwork.
Regarding insurance: Mike said he’d pursue the question. Expert opinion in the past was that we don’t need to worry about it.
Bennett will get information about establishing a non-profit organization.
Helen is drawing up a document explaining Scrabble etiquette.
Meeting adjourned at 1:55.
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Financial Statement
Balance 1/31/2016 6,406.62
INFLOWS
Tourney donations 946.63
Private donations 236.50
Auction/sales/raffles 1,001.00
Refund from WC director cancelation 125.00
TOTAL 2,309.13
OUTFLOWs
Webhosting 299.88
Previous WC Director admissions to WC VII 375.00
Donation to WC VII from raffles 770.00
Seed money for WC VII 2,000.00
TOTAL 3,444.88
Balance 7/28/2017 5,270.87