TSA Meeting Minutes (March 26, 2004)
TSA News : June 4, 2004
TSA Officers:

Don Valk, President

Al Salazar, V. President

Ray Boyett, Treasurer

Lynda French, Secretary

Website: http://www.tableshuffleboard.org

 
Subject: TSA MEETING (March 26, 2004)

TSA Meeting Minutes Summary

March 26, 2004 (Amended/Updated Formatting & Missing Link Items on April 14, 2004)

CALL TO ORDER

President Don Valk called the meeting to order at 5pm on Friday, March 26, 2004 at the VFW Post 5076 in Garland, Texas.

INVOCATION

Vice President Al Salazar gave the invocation.

ROLL CALL

 

Secretary Lynda French conducted Roll Call.

TSA Officers & Directors Present: (7 of 17)

Don Valk, President (TX)

Al Salazar, Vice President (AZ)

Lynda French, Secretary (TX)

Larry Creakbaum, Director (IN)

Harvey Kidd, Director (TX)

Jim Payne, Director (NE)

Rick Pittman, Director (MO)

TSA Members Present: (2)

Ron Bowers, Member (TX)

Ken Strong, Member (TX)

 

Guests Present: (2)

Mahlon Nobles, Guest (TX) Note: subsequently joined as new member

Chris Smith, Guest (TX) Note: subsequently joined as new member

 

 

TSA Officers & Directors Absent: (10 of 17)

Dave Arndt, Director (WA)

Ray Boyett, Chief Financial Officer/Treasurer (FL) Note: last minute cancellation due to health emergency

Louise Freer, Director (PA)

Cliff Goff, Director (OK)

Bob Hunt, Director (CA)

Fred Johns, Director (WA)

Frank Mako, Director (WA)

Hal Perry, Director (CA)

Gerald Siebert, Director (MI)

Steve Walker, Director (OK)

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Don Valk provided copy of the TSA Meeting Minutes of July 11, 2003. Larry Creakbaum moved to approve minutes; Al Salazar seconded motion; Minutes were approved.

PRESIDENTS REPORT

Don Valk provided status on the TSA Hall of Fame Museum display cabinets, stating that the cabinets approved at the last meeting had been built and delivered to the Richland Hills, Texas museum facility.

Don Valk said we currently need plaques for the Hall of Fame Inductees photos and brief history to place in these new cabinets.

Don Valk stated that the current TSA Officer’s tenures expire mid-2006 and that we all need to be thinking about replacement considerations for these positions.

SPECIAL REPORTS

Finance Committee – Don Valk: Don Valk reported that Ray Boyett (Chief Financial Officer/Treasurer) had a sudden health condition that prevented him from being present at the meeting to provide the financial report. However, Don stated that the TSA account balance was reportedly approximately $9,000. Once Ray recovers from his condition and surgeries, he will provide a financial statement later.

Don Valk said we were currently needing plaques for the Hall of Fame Inductees photos and brief history to place in these new cabinets. He stated that Lynda French will get estimates on plaque cost, which she said should run approximately $30 or more depending upon design. If plaques were hinged with photo on one side and history on other side, they may be more expensive. Don Valk provided photos of the design of the Cowboy Hall of Fame inductee plaques (which were not hinged) as an option to consider. Lynda stated one of the primary problems in having plaques made yet is that the TSA needs photos and at least a brief summary of accomplishments for those that have already been inducted into the TSA HOF.

Historical Committee – Larry Creakbaum & Lynda French: Larry stated that he had an old Rockola score unit which might be used to hang on the wall in the museum. Lynda French stated that other donations, thus far, include a laminated copy of the original Sports Illustrated article about Billy Mays donated by A.Z. Turnbo and laminated by Lorraine Olson. A.Z. Turnbo has also donated a copy of the old Western Shuffleboard Rules that is to be sent in by Lorraine Olson (but not yet received). Old photos from Sol Lipkin are also waiting to be framed and placed in the museum. A.Z. Turnbo also has donated an old set of weights. Jolene Lembke donated four old Rockola weights. A brief description of the museum facility was provided by Lynda French, stating that others present may wish to go to the Richland Hills facility while in Garland to personally view the current layout and new display cabinets where Champion Shuffleboard has placed an old Rockola in the main room and the empty display cabinets are now placed in one of the two side rooms that open up to the main room.

 

Other Business – Mahlon Nobles: Mahlon Nobles gave a presentation and handout to each attendee titled “Less than ‘Fifty Cents’ a Week” (Click Here to View .doc format) or view as a webpage: “Less than ‘Fifty Cents’ a Week” (Click Here to View .htm format) which was originally a ten page synopsis intended for evaluation and consideration for the TSA to broaden their non-profit national shuffleboard organization’s mission and goals, increase membership, acquire sponsorships and promoters, and setup different levels of members such as: Vendors, Manufacturers, Shuffleboard Establishments, Major Tournament Owners and focus on Standardized Rules/Guidelines for tournament play; guidelines for ratings (national and local level), sanctioned leagues, sanctioned tournaments, etc. to grow toward a full scoped well-organized national organization similar to other professional sport’s organizations with increased TSA membership and participation to make this happen. As he put it, you have to take baby steps before you can walk. Part of the presentation included the potential to seed brackets at tournaments, which might help acquire more promoters and sponsors. There was much discussion pros/cons on the prior efforts of seeding brackets for tournaments. A consensus was not reached on the subject of seeding brackets.

There was much discussion on sequential steps that might be considered in order to achieve a broadened mission. Harvey Kidd said we need to get more people involved such as leagues, sponsorships, etc. and if we can get more involved and increase membership we would have a better chance of acquiring national sponsors for events. Lynda French equated the situation the TSA faces in this respect as similar to Board Talk problems she has with acquiring national advertisers, etc. due to not being able to show a reasonable subscriber base. Only 15% or so of rated players support Board Talk by subscribing and few establishments advertise and, thus far, there is no non-shuffleboard national level advertiser. Just as the Board Talk needs to be able show a meaningful subscriber base to sell advertisements, the TSA (on a larger scale) must be able to show membership in the national organization to acquire promoters and sponsors. Lynda stated that merely showing a list of up to 3,500 rated players by first name, last name, state (which doesn’t even reflect all the many unrated league players) is not sufficient to go forward to acquire sponsors and promoters for the TSA or sanctioned tournaments. Discussion followed indicating that if the TSA had every rated player as members of the national organization and a TSA Newsletter and Ratings under one umbrella and every rated player were TSA members (for instance), you would be able to better show the volume of membership necessary to possibly acquire advertisers for a national publication newsletter and get sponsors or promoters for league and tournament events. The current TSA membership of 50 or so players is not sufficient to achieve such future or long-term goals.

There was much discussion on league and major event tournaments. Harvey Kidd and others discussed ways to educate and promote TSA membership though local leagues, rated and unrated players, etc. Harvey stated that there are probably many players out there that need to be educated and approached about joining the national organization. Several committed to help with that education effort in their local areas.  Al Salazar, Ken Strong, Ron Bowers and others provided input on their prior experiences with attempting tournament seeding and with their experiences on  promotion and organization of league play.

 

Ron Bowers said he thought that a rating committee under a national organization would be well placed and such committee could include the rating budget/expenses under a national organization's annual budget plans.  He stated he and Debbie would be able to assist and/or head such committee, if this were to be added to the mission of a national organization such as TSA.

An in-depth discussion on standardizing rules/guidelines as perhaps the next steps towards expanding TSA goals and mission, by getting the 4 major tournament directors to assign someone to participate in a committee to come up with a standard set of rules/guidelines that could be used at the major tournaments and be available for other smaller or local tournaments to use as TSA Table Shuffleboard Rules/Guidelines.

 

Motion was made, seconded, and passed to pursue forming a Rules/Guideline committee consisting of major tournament directors and/or their designees.

OPEN SESSION ADJOURNED

 

EXECUTIVE SESSION

 

No business to vote on. There were two nomination packages received too late to distribute to all Directors to review and vote. Nomination packages will be prepared and mailed to each TSA Director and voted by mail or at the next scheduled meeting. There was discussion of possibly having another TSA meeting in 2004 during Del City, but nothing was finalized. The next annual (or special meeting) will be decided and announced at a later date.

 

EXECUTIVE SESSION ADJOURNED

 

Minutes Prepared by Lynda French, TSA Secretary (and reviewed by attendees) prior to distributing to the TSA Membership distribution list.

 


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