Minutes: 

Minutes of our annual 2014 North Carolina Checker Association Business Meeting - Date: Friday 5/16/2014   9:00am - 9:30am

Call to order:

A regular annual business meeting of the North Carolina Checker Association was held at Econo Lodge Hotel, 2133 Hanford Rd, Burlington, NC 27215 on May 16, 2014. The meeting convened at 9:00am, President Teal Stanley called the meeting to order. The yearly meeting was before the 124^th Annual 2014 State Tournament "In Memory of Bill McClintock" which was also scheduled at Econo Lodge Hotel, 2133 Hanford Rd, Burlington, NC 27215. In the 9:00am business meeting, NCCA President Teal Stanley welcomed 16 players to the 124^th Annual 2014 North Carolina Open Checker Tournament from 3 States: 11 from NC; 4 from OH; and 1 from SC. We especially appreciate and welcome the Ohio players who drove over 500 miles, making a long 9 hour trip to be here.

• Players were welcomed to Econo Lodge - Burlington by a nice front desk counter display sign announcing: Welcome!! 124th NC Open State Checker Tournament "In Memory of Bill McClintock"  Playing in Conference Room 247.
• Mrs. Frances McClintock visited with the players Friday morning before the NCCA meeting. We were happy she came by and spent some time with us since this State Tournament was in honor and memory of her late husband, Bill McClintock. All the NC players got a big hug and we all were definitely glad to see Frances again!
• Teal Stanley gave our tournament invocation before opening our 124th Annual 2014 North Carolina Association business meeting.
• Teal Stanley, NCCA President opened the meeting by call to order at 9:02am Friday, May 16th in the Econo Lodge Hotel conference room 247. 
• Members in attendance: 16 players were present: as six Life-Time members present were: John Webster, Tim Laverty, Teal Stanley, JR Smith, Raleigh Johnson, and Larry Michael all from North Carolina. Mike Ross, Glenn Fuquay, Grover Minor, Morris Auman, Trey Stanley were the 5 other member-players from NC.  Matthew Clark from Fort Mill, SC; Joe Weaver from Dundee, OH; John Troyer from Millersburg, OH; Harley Hochsteler from Sugarcreek, OH; and Aden Keim of Fredericksburg, OH were the 5 out of state players making a total of 16 players present. 
• Teal, called for Secretary JR Smith to read last years minutes which were preprinted and available to members.  Smith reviewed the last year's 2013 minutes which were approved as presented and read. 
• Announcements: JR Smith spoke about this year's tournament being in memory of Bill McClintock and how much we missed him at our Tuesday afternoon playing sessions at McDonald's.  As you know Bill was an active tournament player who traveled the circuit for over 25 years. Bill loved, played, promoted, supported checker, and was our NCCA Treasurer from 2005 until his death October 6, 2012.
• We honor him by reading a list of his many checker accomplishments in playing and winning tournaments (Read List).  We discussed under topic New Business at our 2013 NCCA Business Meeting to to add “Billy McClintock Memorial” to the "Greensboro Open" in honor of Billy who organized and directed this tournament from the mid-1990s until 2009. His last tournaments were at his home and included Mrs. Frances McClintock's wonderful home cooked dinners. Before Billy, Howard Amos was the Greensboro Tournament organizer. This would be a fitting tribute to honor and remember Bill by naming the tournament for him. A motion was made, seconded, and unanimously carried.  Its hard to think of a man you respect more, enjoyed being around, and playing checkers with, than Bill McClintock.
• Smith continued under announcements: Remembering recent deaths of our NC checker players and others we played against:
• Dr. Robert Lilburn Shuffett, Green County, KY - 4/1/2014, Gayle Helterbrand, Cabool MO - 10/13/2013,  Leonard Hickman, Culleoka, TN - 1/2/2013,  James W. Bracnaro, Shelton, CT - 2/5/2013, Benny Jackson "BJ" Vaughn,  Burlington, NC - 9/4/2013, Roger L. Sample - New Bern, NC retired in Midlothian, VA - 11/8/2013, Benjamin P. "Ben" Jones, Hubert, NC - 7/3/2013, Gene M. Rader, O'Fallon, MO and moved to New Haven, KY - 8/13/2013, Steven Leslie Buntin, Chapel Hill, NC - 1/1/2013, Jimmy Reliford, Columbia, KY - 8/10/2013.  This is continuing the traditional announcements like Bill McClintock would do at our annual business meetings.
• Smith also announced, Next year... The 125^th Annual 2015 North Carolina Open Checker Tournament will be held on Friday and Saturday, May 15^th & 16^th 2015.  This is in keeping the State Tournament dates as in the past, the first weekend after Mother's Day which is the second Sunday in May. This tournament will be named the “Cecil Lowe Memorial State Tournament” in honor of our past president.  We will try to have our State Tournament in Eastern North Carolina.
• Smith also mentioned the June 21st Missouri GAYP Open in Branson, MO with a $4,000 purse.  We have invitation / announcement sheets available on the back table.
• Financial Reporting:  JR Smith, acting as NCCA Treasurer, as Mike Ross's assistant, reported on the financial status of the security accounts, saying the RBC balance was $15,360.12 as of  EOY December, 2013, and the Edward Jones account was $13,064.02 for the combined total of  $28,424.14. Smith stated that the last statement as of 4/30/2014 Edward Jones was $13,873.48 and RBC was $16,674.46 for a combined total of $30,0547.94 before this year's $1,500 tournament withdrawal.  The fund accounts were in pretty good shape considering the market was up and we where in mutual funds, corporate bond funds, and ETFs that offered safety with good dividends and interest, which is much higher than we would be getting from CDs. The shares' value might fluctuate a little with the market but we are not concentrating as much on growth but after safety and yield.  Smith also had printed statements of NCCA fund accounts for anyone who wanted a copy.  He also said our 2013 Federal Tax Return (990) was filed 2/17/2014.  Two other reports were available: a list of tournament withdrawals and yearly history of the fund accounts.
• Election of officers:  We voted to keep the current officers another year. Teal-president, Jeff-vice-president, JR-secretary, and Mike-treasurer.
• New Business: Because of our low attendance we reduced the playing field to one group instead of our planned three and set the entry fee at $20.00 for a single class division. We voted to play a single Swiss division using the mid-field player's finish position as our Majors Champion as we have done in the past when there wasn't enough players to have multiple divisions. Tournament Playing Rules were posted on the bulletin board, as well as: tournament schedule, pay-out schedule, up coming checker tournaments, a list of all the NC State Champions, and a list of local restaurants were all there on the back wall.  Time clocks, game recorder sheets, and extra pens were available on the back table for those players who wanted them.
• The tournament was advertised to start play at 9:00am Friday morning and again at 8:00am Saturday morning.  We expected it to conclude Saturday evening at approximately7:00pm; however, several local NC players who drive in to play ask if we could start Saturday's play an hour later.  We discuss a Saturday 1 hour delay time, a motion was made, voted, and carried as 10 to 6 to start Saturday play at 9:00am.  Raleigh Johnson spoke up and ask, "why advertise and publish a start time and then change it?"  Point well taken! we will stick with what is published in the future, provided its not a mistake or extremely inconvenient.
• We appreciated the donations and contributions which with the entry fees and fund account withdrawals totaled $2,150.00. Normally we deposit the withdrawn player’s cash in next year’s tournament fund account. 
• NCCA Life-Time Members are exempt of any State Tournament entry fees, one of the benefits of being a life-time member.  These 6 Life-Time Members attended this State Tournament: Larry Michael,  JR Smith, Tim Laverty, Teal Stanley, John Webster, and Raleigh Johnson.
• Obviously the Ohio fellows were the furthers traveling players, Raleigh Johnson the oldest player, 90 on July 12 and Trey Stanley the youngest at 19 on April 5th.
• We appreciate Gayle Smith who made sure we had plenty of water, drinks, fruit salad, chips, cheese & crackers, etc. available throughout the tournament.  Also we appreciate Caroline Minor for making the delicious strawberry cake.  It seems the strawberry cake, grape, and blueberry salads were hits with the players. We appreciated these delightful treats!
• Mike Ross brought us a basket of his frozen muscadines & scuppernongs for the players to enjoy.
• We appreciate Tim Laverty officiating as score-keeper and tournament referee, and of course doing a fantastic job as usual.
• This years tournament was announced in Americantowns Greensboro News-Record GoTriad Scene and a 2014 Flyer was mailed out.