---

Minutes Of January 2009

Attending: Chris Villarreal, Ninfa Villarreal, Bob James, Lucy James, George Tintera, Charlene Tintera, Bill Wheeler, Augie Rivera, Mike Wallett, Don Morrison and Ken Muir.

Location: The Rivera's house.

The meeting was called to order by President Rivera at 2 PM.

The minutes from the previous meeting were unanimously approved.

Mike Wallett stated that not all tournaments from last fall were resolved yet and did not yet have the most recent statement. (Ken Muir, in fact, brought several checks and the statements needed). Bob James reported that Ed Partridge encouraged the OCBCF to update its UBS account as Ed's name was still on it even though he is not active with the organization. President Rivera will ask the executive committee to review the accounts in light of proper fiscal management and long term organizational goals.

Old Business

The Primary-Elementary Championship had approximately 100 participants and a side event with about 50 players. Results are available at the website. A couple of issues came up on the floor.

1. There were several instances where players needed to be reminded of chess etiquette (timely claims and not playing on while discussing an issue, admitting loss, etc), but only one where a game was called by the chief TD due to a unacceptable behavior by a K-1 player.
2. There was an instance where a game was interrupted so that a player could attend to his bloody nose. This lead to discussion about how T Ds should respond and a motion (see below). The discussion considered not only nosebleeds, but a variety of scenarios in which a player should or could not continue play. Because of the variety of scenarios, there were no firm conclusions. Instead there were some guidelines that T Ds should consider:
   1. The TD should consider the safety of all players first.
   2. TD's should consider the time needed to resolve the issue in comparison to the time control when deciding to pause the clock or let it run.
   3. TD's should use their judgement when asking parents to withdraw players for health reasons and might offer refunds for players withdrawing for sudden health reasons.
   4. The organizer's need to identify the parent or responsible adult for each individual player and review that at check in (this will require extra help at check-in).

The motion "On approval of the president, the OCBCF will pay for an American Red Cross First Aid training course taken by OCBCF volunteers" was made and unanimously approved. Also, Ninfa Villarreal reported having previously gotten a first-aid kit for the OCBCF, but wasn't sure where it is. Both she and President Rivera planned to make sure that we have a kit in the future and appropriate protection (gloves) for handling blood.

Ken Muir presented the invoice for the trophies to be paid per previous agreement. He also pointed out that the OCBCF needs more boards to run such tournaments. Bob James offered to take care of ordering the boards imprinted with something indicating they were for use at OCBCF tournaments or club use after donation.

Other Old Business

1. TD training will take place sometime during the next three months. It will include both opportunities for TD's to get in games needed to establish a rating and learn skills not generally learned at tournaments but are needed to pass the certification tests.
2. Ninfa will look into t-shirts/polos again.

New Business

Fliers for most of the spring tournaments are posted. Bob James will be the chief TD for the Royal Tournament. Jan 31 will be the date for the tournament for members of the Diocese of Corpus Christi. This is not a scholastic tournament for the general population, but several players and tds from the OCBCF will be involved. Christ the King, Kaffie and Oak Park schools are all interested in hosting tournaments later this spring or in the fall.

Mandy Peebles is the coach at Club Estates and is interested in taking players to tournaments.

The motion to "Allow Bob James to purchase a flash drive for up to $50 for the purpose of backing up the OCBCF laptop data" was made and unanimously approved.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 pm.

The next meeting will take place Feb 22 at 2 PM at the Rivera's house.

I hereby declare that this is a true and correct rendition of my notes of the meeting held on January 25, 2009.

          George Tintera, OCBCF Secretary