President M. Reilly called the June Board Meeting to order at 3:06 PM at the Papa Gino’s in Natick. Twelve people were in attendance: President Maryanne Reilly, Vice-President Kenneth Ballou, Treasurer Robert Messenger, Clerk Nicholas Sterling, and Directors George Mirijanian, Alex Relyea, Brian Lafferty, Brian Mottershead (arrived 3:15 PM), Steven Frymer (arrived 3:20 PM), Stephen Dann (arrived 3:22 PM), Robert E. King (arrived 3:55 PM), and one guest: Nita Patel.

Minutes of the April Board Meeting were distributed by outgoing Clerk K. Ballou. 
* * Motion (609-1) made by G. Mirijanian; the April Minutes were approved. * * Later, Minutes of the May Annual Meeting were distributed by incoming Clerk N. Sterling; 
* * Motion (609-2) made by B. Lafferty; the May Minutes were approved (A. Relyea abstained). * *

Elections Commission: (a) * * Motion (609-3) made by G. Mirijanian that the Election results (listed in the Minutes to the 5/24/09 Annual Meeting) be approved and the ballots be destroyed; Motion passed. * * (b) G. Mirijanian reported that twelve Officers’ names appeared on the ballot, of whom eleven were elected. Twelve Directors were elected, but the write-in candidate Igor Plotkin has declined his position, so there are currently eleven sitting Directors. F. Kolasinski has been reinstated on the Board, but will likely not be able to come to any Board Meetings until next fall at the earliest.

Treasurer’s report was read. Highlights (i) General Fund net income for April-May 2009: $1784.17; net income Year-to-Date for 2009: $778.18, an improvement over a loss of $4418.21 for last year’s corresponding Year-to-Date; the windfall payment from the House of Staunton, which will not be repeated next year, is responsible for this plus; (ii) Special Fund net income for April-May 2009: $432.76; (iii) Total fund balance as of 5/31/09: $55,000.96 with net income of $2216.93 over the 4/1/09 total fund balance of $52,784.03; (iv) Total liabilities and fund balances as of 5/31/09: $58,691.51; (v) 3/29/09 Gus Gosselin Grade Championship revised net income: $976.75, taking into account the previously unknown expenses of site rental and table rental; (vi) 4/26/09 MA G/60 Championship net income: $86.46; attendance was markedly higher this year, though not as high as in 1995; (vii) 5/23-5/25/09 MA Open net income: $1115.67, thanks to donations from Walter Champion that were meant partly to make up the difference for the discounts offered to under-23 players (of whom 26 enrolled, 19 in advance online and 7 onsite) and to help pay for their special prizes. * * Motion (609-4) made by B. Lafferty; the Treasurer’s report was approved. * *

Membership: (a) B. Messenger reported that the total number of people listed in the MACA Database, as of 6/20/09, is 1135. Of that total, 827 are Members, 781 are Voting Members, and 1089 receive Chess Horizons. (b) * * Motion (609-5) made by B. Messenger that David Couture be granted a Life Membership; Motion passed. * *

Committee Chair Nominations: 
Tournament: Ken Ballou 
Membership Secretary: Bob Messenger (the role of Data Processor has been merged with this position) 
Parliamentarian: Brian Mottershead 
Prison Outreach: Steve Frymer 
Budget: Steve Frymer and Brian Mottershead (working independently to produce separate budgets or collaborating on a combined one, at will) 
LMCF: Brian Lafferty 
Publications: Brian Mottershead (in charge of physically printing out materials) 
Public Relations, Promotions, and Fund Raising: George Mirijanian 
Scholastic: Maryanne Reilly (assisted by Steve Frymer and Beebe Wiegand) 
Education: Stephen Dann (assisted by Beebe Wiegand) 
Club Outreach: Donna Alarie (suggested by Stephen Dann)

* * Motion (609-6) made by K. Ballou to approve omnibus all these Committee Chair Nominations and vest them with authority to name their Committee Members as needed; Motion passed. * *

Tournaments: K. Ballou reported: (i) the MA Open was reasonably successful. (ii) It is planned to submit July and August TLAs, before the deadlines of 7/10/09 and 8/10/09, for the Greater Boston Open, held the last Sunday in October (10/25/09) at the Senior Center in Natick (a successful site last year). (iii) The Pillsbury Memorial will be held on the Sunday after Thanksgiving (11/29/09) at the Veterans’ Center in Leominster (also a successful site last year).

Publications: B. Mottershead reported that as of 6/20/09, he had received the CH PDF from Editor Mark Donlan and would contact Fed-Ex the following Monday. However, he was concerned about whether we could get our same super-discounted rate we had before, because the contact person who had arranged it before has left that organization. He may need the account number to make the case that the discounted rate was fairly agreed upon.

Scholastic: M. Reilly reported: (i) the dates for the Tournaments are being set and the locations being negotiated, in particular with BB&N and the Weston School Department. The date of the Fall Foliage Chess Festival has been proposed for 10/4/09. (ii) Felix Yang will represent MACA at the Denker Tournament, and Michelle Chen may be going to Turkey for the World Youth Tournament. The LMCF could be used to sponsor them.

LMCF: B. Lafferty reported: (i) he is glad to be back as LMCF Chair and looks forward to receiving suggestions from other MACA leaders about how to spend the LMCF money as abundantly and productively as possible, and how else to conduct outreach. (ii) He had chess sets with him that day to deliver; S. Dann also talked with him about four applications from Donna Alarie. [Clerk’s note: B. Lafferty reiterated his invitation for suggestions in a separate mass e-mail after the Meeting.]

Prison Outreach: S. Frymer circulated a letter from a MI inmate expressing thanks for the donation of copies of CH to the prison library.

President M. Reilly adjourned the June Board Meeting at 5:08 PM. The date, time, and place for the August Board Meeting is Sunday, 8/2/09, 3:00 PM at the Papa Gino’s in Natick.

Respectfully submitted, 

Nicholas Sterling, Clerk