Old Business

President John Berry called the meeting to order at 10:00 am. Those present included John Berry, Robert and Sue Erwin, Judy Biegner, George Cundy, Arlene Roberti and Maureen Johnson. The minutes from the last meeting were read and accepted. The idea of having a side game on Sundays during the Swiss was discussed once again. John Berry said he had spoken with some directors and feels it is a bad idea. He decided not to make it part of the tournaments for now. Our March and June sectionals were discussed with both showing small profits with June increasing somewhat. The hospitality portion of our sectional received a lot of compliments and we discussed continuing to improve it. It was decided that Bridge Bits would be a separate entity and all expenses related to it were to be kept separately accounted for in order to show the true profit of our sectionals.

New Business

Since or last board meeting our Treasurer Amos Foster had resigned due to differences of opinion with other board members. Replacing him was discussed, since the position has now been vacant for 3 months and the president has been filling in. It was felt by some members of the board that this was not good practice, because of the lack of checks and balances that are usually in place in any organization. The search for a Treasurer will hopefully be resolved soon.

There was discussion on having our sectionals at a new location. The location would be in Warwick at the Buttonwoods Community Center. The cost would be about $500 for the weekend, but the location is more centralized, more spacious and a newer facility. There was a motion to move future sectionals to the Buttonwoods Community Center. The motion was voted on and approved. Starting in September 2005 the sectionals will be in Warwick. (Post- meeting note: The cost increased to about $600 per weekend due to the increase in hourly cost by the center effective July 1, 2005.

District 25 News was discussed from the June annual meeting. John discussed the following items.

1. There have been some problems with the website posting of tournaments and their start times. A new person is taking over that duty and the problems should go away.

2. The standing district policy of rotation of the district Presidency through all units was discussed but nothing was decided on.

3. The Portland ME. Regional has a new schedule which will be posted on the website.

4. The district is looking into covering the individual units with liability insurance to keep it more affordable.

The upcoming Gala was discussed. It was mentioned that it has now been changed back to a one day event Sunday October 30^th. The Gala will be in Richmond RI at Foxwoods Country Club. The reason for it will be held just on Sunday is because we could only have the room on Saturday until 4:30 pm. Therefore there would not be time for two games and a dinner. Alternative sites were looked into but none were found. The President John Berry adjourned the meeting at 11:55 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Maureen Johnson

Secretary