Farewell Speech as Outgoing President on Oct 5, 2024

 

Yan S Drabek

 

Two years ago I was standing here as an ugly duckling getting pushed up the ladder. I survived. I guess. We survived, the pandemic. I remember negotiating with the church not to raise our rent so our Wednesday game could continue in the winter. I remember having to have people sign up a week before so we could be sure there were at least 2.5 tables to have a game. I have a lot to thank for: Philippe and Jim Nowill for giving up many month of director pay to have the game continue; Jan Nettler and Terry Sedgwick for directing many on-line games even though sometimes they didn’t feel like doing it.

Big Thanks to Sue McCoy and Sheila Ryan, who offered beginner classes last year and this year. As a result, our bridge family is getting bigger! Thanks to Tom Ye and Emily Kim, we were able to offer 4 games at the Amherst College;  Thanks to Jim Osofoski and John DeBaggis for always helping out when we need a last minute director. Special thanks to Motoko for always being here to help setting-up and cleanup after the games. And thanks to all the volunteers who have helped in our beginner classes. Here I want to specially mention Allison Ryan who has been encouraging and offering informal play sessions with beginners; and John DeBaggis! He has been driving a 2 hour round trip every week to help our beginner classes! And thank you every Pros and Ams who participated in our 4 Pro/AM games on Thursdays!

A special thank you goes to Richard McClure who has been doing the not-so-glamorous job of being the treasurer of the club. Thank you for your long time service!

Also, thank you Liz Hildebrandt for being the secretary, who is able to sort out rambling board meetings into accurate summaries.

Thank you Roger Webb to step in since August to be the temporary treasurer.

Thank you Judy Larsen for helping out at our potlucks, baking those delicious cookies, and ordering the name tags.

Thank you Jan Nettler, our director in charge for organizing director schedules monthly, offering online director training lessons, and taking care of all director related businesses.

 And thank you all of our board members for volunteering your time and contributing to our decision makings.

Finally I would like to thank Philippe Galaski, our club manager for tirelessly carrying out all the duties as a manager, and helping people to find partners on a weekly basis, and making all of this possible!

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The next order of business is to let our treasurer give us a brief financial report. Oh since he is not here, I will have to do it.

Our finance is stable, our bank balance has been in the $7000-$8000 range for the last 3 years. Our number of tables per year has been increasing. In 2021, we had 792 tables; in 2022 we had 930 tables; in 2023 we had 934 tables; in 2024 to end of Sept we had 579 tables, with one more quarter to go.

Our final business is to have a vote on our next board of directors.

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We have three board members who are retiring:

Richard McClure, Esther Bean and myself.

There are three people being nominated by the selection committee to join the board:

Alan Peterfreund, Anita Thompson, and John Dahl. Our existing members: Philippe, George Abbott, Steve Peck, Judy Larsen, Roger Webb and Liz Hildebrandt.

Are there any other suggestions or nominations? If not, we will take a vote. For those who agree with the three new people to join the board, as well as the existing board members, please raise your hand.

By the Northampton bridge club’s Constitution, the new board will elect its officers within 30 days of time.

It has been absolutely my pleasure and honor to serve as your president for the last two years!

In closing, as the outgoing president of the club, I want to echo a few words from president Biden...with slight modification:

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes being a president, but I gave my best to you!”

“I can honestly say I’m more optimistic about the future than I was when I was elected. I mean it!”

Thank you very much and I hope you enjoy the game!