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Sunday November 28 WGPO Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Call to Order: Steve Pellinen called the ZOOM meeting to order at 12:05 p.m., CST.

Attending: Steve Pellinen, President; Keith Hagel, Vice-President; Helen Flores, Secretary; Nancee Mancel and Susi Tiekert, Board of Directors. Also Attending: Lynda Finn, Elections Committee and Mike Johnson, Membership Roster.

I. Director Candidates: Elections Committee announced the list of candidates for three two-year Board positions. Directors accepted candidate list and confirmed the 11/27/2021 cutoff date for candidates to become WGPO members. They noted one pending membership caused through miscommunication – to be resolved by end of 11/28/2021. Candidates are:

Will Anderson

Jan Cardia

Bennett Jacobstein

Maureen Morris

Ben Schoenbrun

Susi Tiekert

II. Candidate Announcements and Voting:

  • Lynda Finn will post candidate announcement and candidate statements on WGPO Facebook page and send to Ruth for posting on WGPO Website.
  • The Dec 1 mailing to membership will include the candidate ballot. On the ballot candidate names will be in randomized order.
  • Minor Bylaw changes will specify election of Board members according to rank in voting, i.e., candidates receiving the top three number of votes will be elected. Note: This corrects bylaws approved November 2021 that required candidates to receive at least 50% of votes cast.
  • Mike Johnson reported that the membership roster update is completed. Members are grouped by past activity. ACTIVE members include (1) played in a WGPO tournament 2016 – current; (2) joined since 2019; (3) over 100 players previously listed as Inactive who requested move to Active status.
    Active members current total = 866.
    Other member categories include: Suspended (3); Deceased; Removed (fake email or by request); and inactive. Mike noted that some with incorrect email addresses may still be added. He will try to correct the roster by December 1.
    Keith Hagel asked that in the future the new Board figure out how to include those persons who do not have email addresses but wish to be included.
  • Lynda and Mike explained technical difficulties dealing with mass emails to the newly updated membership list. Entries in the WGPO roster need labor-intensive manual updating, and currently there is no convenient way to email all members on the new email roster. Lynda noted that in the long run WGPO will need ongoing volunteer support in this area. Discussion of interim solutions, including paid services to do mass mailings, followed.

III. Dec 11 Annual Meeting and election of three Board members.

  • Place: Twitch application will be used to conduct the meeting. Meeting and voting will occur over a 5-day period. Members use Twitch link to join meeting at any time after start.
  • Time and Dates: Meeting starts at 2:00 pm Saturday Dec 11 and ends at midnight, Wednesday, Dec 15. Voting occurs over the same time periods.
  • Twitch Moderator: Lynda Finn recommended using a qualified Twitch moderator to manage the meeting process and address issues. The Board concurred.
  • Minor Bylaws Changes: Steve summarized minor Bylaw changes that were needed to coordinate officer elections and to provide for ranked voting.

IV.  Annual Meeting Agenda: Steve will preside as president/chair, with other officers.
The Board recommended that Committee Chairs each provide a brief report – in writing – summarizing committee progress and issues. Doing so will facilitate the meeting and solicit member comments and involvement. Helen Flores suggested that, prior to December 11, submit reports to Ruth Hamilton and Mike Johnson for posting on Facebook page and WGPO website.

The meeting agenda is specified in bylaws as follows:

  • Welcome and Introduction, rules of participation.
  • Call to Order
  • Roll Call
  • Approval of Agenda of current meeting
  • Reading and Approval of Minutes of the preceding meeting
  • Reports of Officers
  • Reports of Committees
  • Old and Unfinished Business
  • New Business
  • Adjournment

Steve asked Directors to review the bylaws in advance of the Annual Meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 1:20 pm CST.

Submitted: Helen Flores, Secretary