Washington Elementary Chess Champions

Washington Elementary Chess Champions

Board of Directors Meeting

April 24, 2013 Richland Public Library

Members Present:David Merrill, President

Cathy Kuwamoto, Vice-President (via conference call)

David Criswell, Treasurer

Michele Braccia, Secretary

Guests:Danielle Craigen

Meeting was called to order at 7:10 p.m. by David Merrill.

Minutes from March 20, 2013 were reviewed and corrected. Motion to approve minutes as corrected by David Merrill and seconded by Michele Braccia. Approval of the minutes was unanimous.

The document titled “WECC Accomplishments UPDATE- 2013” was reviewed and updated.

Financial Review

David Merrill turned in a receipt for $62.45. This was to reimburse him for the purchase of batteries for the clocks for the 2013 State Championships. David Criswell reimbursed the expense via check; this transaction is now complete.

A bill for the chesschampions.org domain name has been received in the amount of $7.49.

AREVA has made a financial donation; the check is currently in the mail from France, and should arrive shortly.

The PascoSchool District currently has two outstanding invoices from its participation in the Richard Krebs Open and March Madness, for a total of over $2,000.

As of April 24, 2013, the WECC account balances are as follows:

PayPal: $1,551.65

Sterling Bank: $5,286.81 (Plus Deposit Account)

HAPO Credit Union:$50.20

HAPO Credit Union:$5,030.52 (12-Month CD)

HAPO Credit Union:$5,042.00 (24-Month CD)

Petty Cash:$50.00

Accounts Total: $17,011.18

$1,051.65 will be transferred from the PayPal account to the Sterlings Savings Account, bringing the balance of the PayPal account to $500.00.

Danielle Craigen offered to talk to her husband about various CD options since the 12-month CD will mature in June. Possibilities include a Money Market account or a third certificate of deposit.

Website Review

The majority of minutes are not currently linked, and those that are linked are currently difficult to find. Minutes for 2008 and 2012 are still missing from the main directory. Michele has these and will forward them to Bill Rausch so that he can upload them to the website. Bill should also be working on adding pictures to the site; two questions were raised regarding this issue. First, what happens to the site if large quantities of high-resolution images are uploaded? Second, what happens to the per-gigabyte rate charged to the WECC by the domain provider?

From this point forward, Danielle Craigen will assume responsibility for updating all events on the website.

David Merrill will upload the “Summer Chess Class” flyer/information to the website.

Sponsorships need updating. AREVA Fondation’s new logo needs to be placed prominently on the site, due to their recent large donation to the WECC. Maui Apple’s logo also needs to be added to the site, but it needs to be smaller than AREVA Fondation’s logo. Dairy Queen’s logo needs to be added for their sponsorship of March Madness. The possibility of adding links to Sponsor sites was suggested. McDonald’s logo needs removal, as Adams Enterprises is no longer providing support.

The WECC’s accomplishments need greater visibility; David Merrill add this toward the top of the page.

Election of Replacement Board Member

Due to an employment related out-of-state relocation, Michele Braccia has to leave her position as the WECC Board of Directors Secretary prior to June 10, 2013. She will continue as a voting member of the board until June 1, 2013; she will have the title of Past-Secretary and continue as a volunteer. Since the fiscal year does not end until June 30, 2013, a replacement board member must be elected.

Proposals for Michele’s replacement as Secretary were accepted from the floor. Michele nominated Danielle Craigen as her replacement. David Criswell seconded the nomination. Cathy Kuwamoto participated in the vote via conference call, thus attaining quorum. Danielle Craigen’s election as Board Secretary was unanimous, and Danielle accepted the position as WECC Board of Directors Secretary.

Review of the 2013 State Tournament

The 2013 tournament in Vancouver had both successes and areas for improvement. Successes included: starting on time at 8:30am and having rounds every two hours, especially for the first two rounds. Areas of improvement included: starting rounds four and five early (2 minutes and 15 minutes, respectively) which caused a bit of a problem because it wasn’t announced and several players almost missed their matches. This was particularly problematic in round five. The on-line registration was much too public; everyone could see the payment status of all registered participants. In addition to the traditional posting of match pairings each round on paper, text messages and match pairing information were posted on line. Unfortunately, the text messages were frequently blank, and the Wi-Fi network was overwhelmed by the demand of all of the devices’ of tournament participants, making it difficult to obtain pairings information. At the end of the tournament, the award presentation lasted from 5:30 until after 7 pm; many in attendance felt that the trophy presentations could have been faster. As a side note, there were 81 clocks total, 39 of which belonged to WECC. They were appreciative of the clocks that we loaned to the tournament.

2013-2014 Scheduled Events

The local tournaments planned for the 2013-2014 school year were reviewed; tournament organizers, e-mails, and phone numbers were updated for each event. The dates for March Madness and the Richard Krebs Open are still slightly up in the air. A review of the format of events was conducted. Recommended splits are K-2, 3, 4, 5-6, and 7-12. Rob Anderson will be contacted to see if he will want to do team events for 7-12 like last year. If he does not want to do team events we will do regular 7-12 sections.

Summer Nights Chess at the Richland Public Library were discussed. June 19th will not work; dates for the classes will be 6/26, 7/3(tentative), 7/10, 7/14, 7/24, and 7/31. The flier will need updating. The emphasis will be on students new to chess. The classes will be limited to 150 enrollees; we need to start promoting these classes. Possible places to advertise include Craigslist, local school district websites, the WECC website, and the Kids Play magazine event calendar.

We are unable to put on the chess camp this August. June is too soon to get it organized. We can ask Jeremy Kidd and/or Gregg Dillingham/Elliott to put it on instead?

Do we want to try to offer teacher/coach training this year? The emphasis would be on how to start chess clubs. It was decided to wait to see what will happen at the begging of the year; we can use the summer classes to promote this.

Misc. Business

Eileen Yokuda has been elected at he Chief Joe PTA President; she will be the new contact for Chief Joe.

The sample lesson plans for coaches are missing from the website. Additional checking of the website needs to be completed to ensure that it has been cleaned up.

The board needs to touch-base regarding advertising.

Unfinished Business

• Stipend responses (thank-you e-mails from coaches or schools)
• Stipend proposals for which districts for 2013-14 (PSD, KSD, andRSD?)

The next WECC board meeting will be held May 15th, 2013 at 7 pm at the Richland Public Library.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m. by David Merrill.

Respectfully submitted,

Danielle Craigen

Secretary

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