Minutes of the Berkeley Go Club Board of Directors Meeting

May 15, 2005

Prepared by Roger Schrag, Secretary

Roll call: Ken Pelter called the meeting to order at 4:05 pm on May 15, 2005. Present were board members Herb Doughty, Mark Harris, Bob Murr, Ken Pelter, and Roger Schrag, constituting a quorum.

Agenda review: Three items were added to the agenda as New Business: Go instruction, Monitor roster, and Action items for the May 21 progress report.

Reading of the minutes: Minutes from the May 8 board meeting were not available because the officers were selected at the end of that meeting and there was no official Secretary through most of that meeting. A motion was made to dispense with the reading of the minutes at today’s meeting and the motion passed.

Treasurer’s report: A current treasurer’s report was not available, but Ken used the time to report on his conversations with Ted Christian regarding the duties and procedures of the Treasurer. Ken reported that Ted is happy to serve as Treasurer and not be a member of the Board of Directors, is willing to prepare a monthly Treasurer’s report, is willing to track and report status of members (full versus limited), and thought it was a good idea to have a weekly cash form to better track collection of cash dues, day fees, cash purchases, etc. Ken will work with Ted to refine the details in this area. A motion was made to accept the report and the motion passed.

Status reports: Herb and Bob used their status report time to report on items to be covered under Old Business below. Mark, Ken, and Roger had nothing to report.

Old Business – Incorporation status: Bob is waiting to receive a copy of the San Francisco Go Club’s articles of incorporation that Dave Marvit has offered to provide. If Bob doesn’t find the articles in his P.O. box promptly, he will try contacting Dave again by email.

Old Business – Interaction with AGF: Herb checked in with Mike Bull of AGA’s Board of Directors. Mike appreciated the reminder, but has not yet checked into whether or not Berkeley Go Club can receive tax-deductible donations through AGF. Herb will check in with Mike again.

Old Business – By-laws adoption: The board reviewed the draft of the by-laws dated May 15 as presented by Roger. Two amendments were agreed upon:

            Article I section 2: Change “all members” to “full members.”

            Article II sections 3 and 5: Change “email” to “email or other appropriate means.”

A motion was made to adopt the by-laws as amended and the motion passed.

Old Business – Officer and monitor duties: The board reviewed the May 13 draft of a “Structure of the Berkeley Go Club” document as presented by Ken. A handful of minor suggestions were made, such as removing the 48 hour time reference from the duty of Secretary to notify board members of meetings. A discussion ensued as to how the duties of maintaining membership status and contact information should be coordinated between the Treasurer and Secretary. Ken will give Ted a head’s up that this conversation is coming, and then Roger will discuss with Ted and together they will develop a plan. This will lead to more minor changes to the “Structure” document. Ken will incorporate these changes and feedback into a next draft to be discussed at the next board meeting.

Old Business – Domain transfer and website: Herb sent an email to Colin Jacobs on May 8, but there has not yet been a response from Colin. Since Colin is the sole contact person listed on the berkeleygoclub.org domain name registration, the club’s website is frozen in time until Colin can be located and requested to assign the contact to a member of the Board. Jason Pfaff has volunteered to host and maintain the website, but this cannot begin until Colin is located. Herb will send another email to Colin.

New Business – Go instruction: The idea of the club offering beginner lessons on a regular basis was discussed. Herb offered to teach a weekly class for beginners up to 15 kyu. Because of the small size of the current club quarters, it is not clear whether the club could feasibly be open for regular use during the lessons. Herb said he would not be able to teach a lesson and serve as monitor for regular club use at the same time. It was agreed that before starting the weekly lessons, we should reach out to potential participants to see what night of the week might be best—we probably do not want to conflict with San Francisco’s lessons on Tuesday nights. Ken will collect a list of beginners. This topic can be further discussed at a future board meeting.

New business – Monitor roster: Ken is currently monitor for Friday nights and Mark is monitor for Saturday nights. Because of work hours, Solomon is no longer able to monitor Sunday nights. Ken and Mark have been covering Sundays, but a Sunday monitor is really needed. Herb offered to be the Sunday monitor. There was a great deal of discussion as to what time the club should open on Sundays, because there currently is confusion and conflicting information posted on various websites. Herb enthusiastically offered to open the club Sundays at 2:00 pm and it was agreed to give this a try. Ken offered to request the AGA and San Francisco Go Club to update their websites with the new Sunday hours. Ken also offered to prepare and post new signs at the club and send out an email notification that the club will be open at 2:00 pm on Sundays. Herb said that in the case where he cannot monitor on a specific Sunday he will notify others as soon as possible and attempt to find a replacement.

New Business – Action items for May 21 progress report: The board agreed that the Secretary should prepare a brief status report of progress made by the board. The Secretary will email a draft of the progress report to board members for review on May 16. The Secretary will print up 15 to 20 copies of the report, attaching the adopted by-laws, and will bring the copies to the club on May 20 or 21 for members and interested parties to review. One copy will be pinned on the wall at the club.

Next meeting: The date and time of the next meeting of the Board of Directors was set as Sunday, June 5 at 4:00 pm. It was agreed that the agenda for that meeting should include the topic of club hours and days (consideration of opening the club on a week night).

Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 6:10 pm.