Introductions were done with the following in attendance: Connie Anderson (for treasurer Judy Nolan), Judith Bloomer-Unit 119 rep and MABC Secretary, Eldon Clayman-President, Susie Clayman-Unit 244 rep and MABC Governor, Ray Coleman-Augusta Co-Chair and Unit 202 President, Jim Current-Unit 160 President, Shirley Dail-Wilmington Co-Chair, Jim Hansell-Unit 191 rep, Barbara Heller-Vice President, Bob Heller-MABC Governor and Unit 114 rep, Nancy Hetsko-Secretary and MABC Governor, Wayne Hollingsworth-NAP Coordinator, Spencer Hurd-Charleston co-chair and Unit 160 rep, David Klein-Wilmington Chair, Unit 118 rep and MABC Governor, Mike Kovacich-MABC Vice-President and 1^st Alternate to ACBL Board of Governors, Sam Marks-Unit 114 rep, Julia Murphy-Unit 171 rep, George Nichols, Unit 160 rep and MABC Governor, Emily Phillips- Unit 171, Alec Price- Unit 119 President, Bruce Reeve-ACBL Director, Larry Rich-Unit 114 President and MABC Governor, Pat Seiler-Unit 160 rep and MABC Treasurer, Janet and Joe Sherwood-Unit 114 reps, Jerry Vaughan-Unit 165 rep, Chuck Whidden-Unit 114 rep and Webmaster, Bob White-Unit 119 rep and MABC Governor, Carol Winecoff-Unit 169 rep and Harold Winecoff-ACBL Governor.

Minutes: Joe Sherwood moved that the minutes be approved, Larry Rich seconded and all approved.

Treasurer’s Report: Connie Anderson presented the Treasurer’s report for Judy Nolan and pointed out that the revised budget was yet to be approved (the Finance Committee had approved it during the Atlanta regional.) Nancy Hetsko moved to accept the treasurer’s report, Susie Clayman seconded and all approved. The budget will be approved later.

Oversight and Insert Committee: Joe Sherwood pointed out that since there is no longer an insert, we need to change to name of the committee. The new District 7 publication was mailed out December 13^th at a cost of $5700 – 5800 for this issue. The estimated cost for the entire year is about $34800 without a salary increase for Bob Heller. Bob said he doesn’t need an increase since the ACBL is doing some of the work. Bob also said that the cost could go down a little when he does all the work instead of paying others for creative work. The budgeted amount of $40,500 is too high, $36,000 should be adequate. Joe said the committee recommends sending only 1 publication per household, which should save $1 to $2 thousand per year, but some people don’t like that idea. Another issue the board needs to address concerns running District 6 regional ads in our publication. Normally we run 2 ads per District 6 regional, but because our publication is every other month now, based on the timing of the tournaments, we may only be able to run 1 District 6 ad instead of 2. Another question for the board is whether (assuming there is space available in the publication) we should sell space to units, or whoever else might be interested. Bob Heller indicated that he has spec’ed out the entire year and some issues are completely filled, but the September issue may have 4-5 open pages. It would cost $850 - $900 to add 8 pages to the publication. Adding 4 pages costs almost as much as 8 pages. Sam Marks said that based on what he has seen in other places, it would be a good idea to add unit items. The postage should not go up if we add 8 pages. Harold Winecoff inquired whether we had guidelines for what this publication should include. Joe responded that it was mandated to include MABC items such as MABC regionals and MABC official reports plus whatever District 7 wants to publish. Joe moved that if there is space, we make the space available to units on a first come first served basis. Mike Kovacich seconded. During the discussion, Barbara Heller pointed out that managing this could be a big problem. Bruce moved that we table this issue until the committee comes back to the board with a proposal. The motion to table passed.

Regarding the tournament oversight part of the committee, Joe indicated that Bob Heller continues to have problems getting sanctions on time from certain units. The committee recommended that we adopt a policy requiring sanctions to be turned in at least 1 year in advance of the tournament date, and that we impose a $50 fee for each month or portion thereof that a sanction is late. The fee would be charged to the unit sanctioning the tournament. Chuck moved to accept the committee recommendation, Sam Marks seconded, and the motion was passed unanimously.

Finance Committee: Mike Kovacich presented the report for George Bloomer. Mike pointed out that the reserve fund had been changed from $5750 to $450 in the revised budget, but since the District 7 publication should cost less than originally anticipated, there should be more going into the reserve fund. Mike presented the Finance Committee’s recommendation that starting 7-1-03, as part of the process for sanctioning tournaments we should charge a fee for the sectional ads in the publication. A ½ page ad would cost $50 if run once, $75 if run twice. A full-page ad would cost $100 to run once and $150 to run twice. This should generate about $3000 per year to go into the reserve fund. The advertising fee would go to Bob Heller with the sanction application; Bob would forward the funds to Judy Nolan. If we start charging a fee for advertising, we should make the advertising optional. Ray Coleman asked who decides the size of the ads? The policy from the old insert would be carried over so that tournaments with over 400 tables at the previous tournament would get full-page ads. Also, we would swap pages with other district to get our regionals advertised elsewhere. Bob Heller doesn’t think we should charge anything for ads because the purpose of the publication is to disseminate information, not to generate money. Bruce Reeve and Bob White both felt that this would open a lot of problems and would be an administrative nightmare. David Klein stated that advertising does generate more tables. Bruce Reeve suggested that we wait a while and see what happens with the publication. The motion failed.

Tournament Coordinator: Bob Heller reported that tournament attendance was down a little for the year-this was the first year we did not have 13,000 tables. We averaged about 200 tables per tournament. The Knoxville and Atlanta tournaments did well, but there were a few other problems, which were impossible to predict.

GNT Report: No report.

Entitlement: No report.

NAOP Report: Wayne Hollingsworth reported that we had good levels of qualifiers during the summer, although 1 unit is threatening not to run any next year. District 7’s 53 tables for the district finals were the highest in the nation. 2 districts had only 3 ½ tables for the finals. Wayne moved that we subsidize this year’s winners as follows: $150 each for second place pairs and $150 each plus supersaver airfare for third place pairs (all 3 flights). Chuck Whidden seconded and the motion was approved. According to Wayne, we made more money on the NAP this year than ever before. At this point Mike Kovacich brought up a request from the Finance Committee. We are estimating $8000 income from the GNT vs. $2000 from the NAP and we are proposing to spend $3000 on the NAP and $7000 on the GNT. The Finance committee would like Wayne’s committee to propose a budget combining the 2 events as a self-sustaining budget item by Gatlinburg.

MABC Report: Mike Kovacich reported that the Florida District had requested an additional regional; the ACBL Board in Washington voted this down. In Virginia Beach, the MABC board discussed supporting Florida’s request so we could try to get another regional. During Phoenix, the ACBL Board approved Florida getting an additional regional for 2 years. Much discussion regarding future MABC tournaments ensued. Bob Heller moved that we recommend that the Mid-Atlantic negotiate contracts with the hotel for this time slot for 04 and 06 in Charleston. Larry Rich seconded and the motion passed with 1 opposed. David Klein pointed out that a Charleston New Year regional would probably negatively impact the Cape Fear regional. Mike Kovacich said that someone needs to inform the MABC of the District 7 recommendation regarding negotiating future Charleston regional. Mike also reported that the Columbia 06 contract has been signed and we are waiting for the 09 contract. Bob White did a very good job negotiating these contracts-the hotel originally had some objectionable clauses regarding home football games, but Bob was able to satisfactorily handle them. Mike will have the Contract committee handle the 05 Wilmington contract.

District Director’s Report: Bruce reported that in the first 6 months with ACBL’s new CEO (Jay Baum) much has changed. The new Bulletin is magnificent. The Phoenix Nationals had a sponsor-Cabot Cheese is now sponsoring some ACBL events and there are other deals in the works. The # of ACBL employees is down from about 100 to the mid 80’s. Bruce will not be chairing appeals next year but will be chairing marketing-clubs, juniors, etc. Bruce would like all of us to ask members and clubs questions-what can the ACBL do better and report back to Bruce. The ACBL has 2 new employees in marketing that should be real assets. "Bridge Week" in January is one attempt to generate publicity for bridge by celebrating the anniversary of the Culbertson-Lenz match. Bruce next reported that the US Olympic Committee is not happy with bridge and things look bleak for Mindsports. Bruce told us that in Phoenix it was decided that Millard would do a Club Manager & Director seminar in Gatlinburg for a minor cost. For the majority of members, the main contacts with ACBL are the club directors and managers. Our responsibility is to promote bridge and there is no better way than by educating the club personnel. Bruce made motion that we offer these seminars at each regional-the cost should be less than $200 per tournament. Mike Kovacich seconded the motion. Barbara Heller said this motion should come before the MABC. The motion passed with 1 opposed. Bruce next addressed the District 7 Supervising Director situation. Millard Nachtwey has been the Field Rep for District 6 and District 7; Doug Grove has been the Field Rep for District 4 & 5, but this has not really worked out, so Millard is now taking over that area. As a result, Patty Johnson from Florida will now supervise Georgia and South Carolina. North Carolina and east Tennessee are still under Millard. Bruce said that although there are potential problems having two supervisors for District 7, this was the best that ACBL could come up with, and it should not affect the day-to-day operation of tournaments, etc. Millard is still the DIC of Mid-Atlantic tournaments, but Olin will run a few more. This is a fait accompli. We should monitor the situation to see if any problems arise. Barbara Heller moved and Harold Winecoff seconded that we go on record objecting to this situation. Bruce’s opinion was that it would be politically foolish to send ACBL such a letter-they are aware from discussions in Phoenix that we are not happy with the situation. David Klein suggested that the contents of the letter could be very complimentary to Millard and that we are uncomfortable having 2 supervising directors for the District. Wayne Hollingsworth moved to table this motion, Mike K. seconded and the motion to table failed. The motion to send a letter to ACBL objecting to the supervising director situation was voted down 12 to 9.

Old Business: None

President Eldon Clayman wants to hold 2 District-wide Charity games this year and has picked April 21 and September 24^th as the dates. It was suggested that we do daytime and evening games on each date to allow more clubs to participate. Bruce Reeve moved that Nancy Hetsko as the new appointee to the National Charity Committee should be the person to coordinate. Mike K. seconded and all approved.

Joe Sherwood made a motion that we appoint a committee to look into the possibility of District 7 withdrawing from the MABC. Jim Current seconded the motion and the motion passed. Eldon will appoint a committee to investigate and report back to the board with a recommendation.

The next District 7 meeting will be Saturday morning, April 12^th in Gatlinburg.

There was a rising motion to adjourn.

Respectfully submitted,