Minutes of CUAGA Annual Meeting 1997

Event

CUAGA 1997 Annual Meeting (General)

Date

10/25/1997

Location

At Charlie's Queens apartment

Author

Minutes compiled by Ian, 10/30/1997

Converted to HTML by Charlie, 11/7/97

Present

• Charlie
• Harold
• Helen
• Ian
• Jack
• Joe
• Phil
• Vasi

Absent

• Mario
• Tom

Proxies

• Charlie was proxy voting for Tom.

Refreshments

Dinner of Meatballs, spaghetti, and green beans was served with a choice of beer, iced tea, apple cider or filtered water. A desert of baklava was also available.

Other

Very professional, color covered By-Laws and Agendas were prepared and distributed by Charlie.

Topics Discussed

1. By-Laws

   • Ian and Joe identified several spelling/typographical errors. The incorrect words include committe(s) [committee(s)], admendments [amendments], enforsement [enforcement], appoing [appoint], tempoary [temporary], shal [shall], neccessary [necessary], and USAG [USGA]. The revisioner should please take note that some of these words appeared in headers.
     
   • Article IV (Membership) Sections 4 and 5 pertaining to Cooper faculty were discussed with respect to Cooper staff and adjunct professors. No changes were made.
     
   • Article V was modified: A new section 4 is to be included (exact wording left unspecified) specifying that Board of Directors are to be elected to 1 year terms with no term limits. The original section 4 became section 5, section 5 became section 6, and section 6 became section 7. Also, a new section 8 is to be included (exact wording left unspecified) to allow impeachment of a member of the Board of Directors. A Board member may be impeached (immediately removing him or her from office) by 3/4 vote of the members present or voting by proxy at any general meeting. To assure the replacement Board member's acceptance by the members, the general meeting at which the Board member was impeached shall also elect a replacement Board member.
     
   • The Bylaws were then ratified by a unanimous vote.
   
   

2. Board of Directors

   • The members then elected the first Board of Directors.

     The result of the election is as follows:

     Charlie	9
     Harold	8
     Jack	8
     Joe	9
     Mario	2
     Vasi	9

     
     Obviously, the first Board of Directors consists of
     • Charlie
     • Harold
     • Jack
     • Joe
     • Vasi.
     
     
   • The Board then unanimously elected Jack and Joe to the Handicapping Committee.

     THE GENERAL MEETING THEN CONTINUED. AFTERWARD, THE BOARD IMMEDIATELY CONVENED A BOARD OF DIRECTOR'S MEETING, FOR SAKE OF CLARITY, I HAVE GROUPED ALL THE BOARD BUSINESS HERE.

   • Charlie was unanimously elected Chairman of Board. (Without his tireless effort CUAGA would not exist!)
     
   • Charlie and Harold were then unanimously elected to the Tournament Committee.
     
   • Ian was unanimously elected Secretary.
     
   • Harold was unanimously elected Treasurer.
     
   • Jack was unanimously elected President.
     
   • Vasi was elected Vice-President by a vote of 4-1. She voted against herself.
     
   • Under Article IV, Section 7, the Board declined to form a membership committee, but did approve the membership of all 10 founding members.
     
   • By unanimous vote a Web Site committee was formed, and Charlie and Joe elected to it.

     THE FOLLOWING CONTINUES THE GENERAL MEETING.

   
   

3. Activity Schedule

   1. Golf
      • Golf activities will be Miniature Golf, Pitch and Putt, 9 hole courses and 18 hole courses. Locations desired include previous CUAGA activity course and new courses. Practice activities including Driving Ranges (and Miniature Golf). Group lessons were also favorably discussed. (Miniature Golf was heatedly debated. Although some expressed the opinion that it wasn't real golf, its usefulness for putting practice, its availability indoors, and the possibility of participation by friendly non-members (who are non real golfers) won out.)
      • It was also agreed that the activities would be varying throughout the entire season, but the season would start with more "easier" activities (Pitch and Putt, perhaps Miniature Golf, this was discussed before the Miniature Golf debate!) and progress to more "harder" activities (18 hole courses).
      • Major off-season trips to golf conducive climates were discussed.
   2. Non-Golf

      A end of year "awards" "banquet" was discussed. Concepts ranged from fun silliness with various awards certificates to a serious catered or restaurant affair with real trophies.

   
   

4. Tournaments

   1. CUAGA sponsored tournaments shall take place on "any" type of course. (Again this was before the Miniature Golf debate.) For this reason, at least 3 tournaments would should be scheduled (Pitch and Putt, 9 hole, 18 hole). Dependent on course (and type) the tournaments can either be handicapped or not. Similar to the season schedule, the tournament schedule shall start with Pitch and Putt (or Miniature Golf?) and progress to 18 hole. Golf packages suitable for tournaments available from the NYC Golf Course Concessioner were discussed. Using alternate scoring methods, for example teams and best ball were also discussed. Lastly, tournaments can be used as membership drives.
   2. CUAGA members (at their discretion) can participate in USGA tournaments. CUAGA's Handicapping Committee will provide an official USGA handicap to all members. Only games played at 18 hole courses which have slopes and rating can be used for the USGA handicap.
   
   

5. Lateness Policy

   The importance of being timely was discussed. At tournaments, both CUAGA and USGA, arriving on time is a must. Also, when regular CUAGA activities for which CUAGA has reservations, being on time is a must. However, for non-reserved regular CUAGA activities a general policy of waiting up to 15 minutes for late members was agreed to. Obviously, this will vary dependent on golf course.
   

6. CUAGA Wear

   1. Shirts were the major topic, with Land's End and Kuppler Graphics being considered. Land's End is stitched symbol with an $85 start-up cost, afterwards any 6 items can be purchased and stitched for $5 per item. Kuppler Graphics $35 per shirt with an actual graphic, there is a minimum 12 shirt order. Patches for member provided shirts were also mentioned. Ink jet printing of iron-ons was also suggested.
      
   2. The policy of going for quality not quantity was adopted for CUAGA gear.
      
   3. Golf balls were also discussed. There is a minimum of 12 boxes, each containing 15 balls. After $60 start up cost for a 2 color symbol, each box would be $25. The suggestion was made that CUAGA golf balls would be a good idea for CUAGA sponsored Tournaments.
   
   

7. Handicaps

   1. As mentioned earlier, CUAGA's Handicapping Committee will provide an official USGA handicap to all members. Only games played at 18 hole courses which have slopes and rating can be used for the USGA handicap.
      
   2. CUAGA will also maintain 3 other handicaps, for Miniature Golf, Pitch and Putt, and 9 hole courses.
      
   3. To meet USGA rules, games desired for use in calculation of the USGA (18 hole) handicaps must be witnessed, signed, submitted for peer review and preserved. USGA rules prohibit the use of e-mail and/or the Internet for score reporting (for handicap calculations). For CUAGA only handicaps, entering via Web Site is preferred, (possibly mandated), score cards need not be submitted, and will be discarded.
      

8. Cooper "Affiliation"

   1. CUAGA does not want to offend Cooper Union, and would like to remain "affiliated". The proper approach for doing this while simultaneously recruiting new members was discussed.
      
   2. Dean Baker was a running theme. There was serious discussion about making him the first honorary member, but a vote was never taken. Also still being discussed are how and when to introduce CUAGA to him. Furthermore, his name came up with regards to CUAGA Gear, the Awards Banquet, CUAGA Tournaments, and making sure the By Laws are error free. Basically, CUAGA wants to work with him, but (as the reader has probably realized) important details are still under discussion.
      
   3. A for profit CUAGA Tournament was discussed with profit going to Cooper Union.
      
   4. Getting free advertising in "At Cooper Union" to attract more alumni was mentioned.
      
   5. Enlisting Jeff Hakner to put up signs was suggested. The importance of doing this when Cooper students would have free time was raised. Right after finals in May and early in the semester in September were agreed to be the best times.

9. Dues

   1. Dues of $20 - $300 a year were discussed.
      
   2. The Board has until 11/30 to decide.
      
   3. It was agreed that dues will be decided based on "need". A budget (enumerating "need") will be further discussed (and possibly ratified) at the next Board Meeting, which is currently scheduled for Flushing Meadows Pitch and Putt, on 11/8/1997, with a tee time of 1445 hours.
      
   4. Budget proposal are to be submitted via e-mail to Harold, the treasurer.
      
   5. Not for profit status for CUAGA was discussed. Not for profit status has an estimated $400 one time cost, plus (of course) time and effort. Not for profit status would make the dues tax deductible, making more expensive dues easier to swallow. Also, CUAGA gear would be sales tax-free, also saving money.
      
   6. It was agreed that CUAGA sponsored tournaments should be self-sufficient (and possibly profitable), and not subsidized by funds raised through the collection of dues.
      
   7. If "expensive" dues are ratified, the possibility of tiered dues especially a student rate was discussed.

10. Other Business

    1. Purchasing the Internet domain name CUAGA was discussed. Use of the domain .org or .com was also discussed.
       
    2. The Secretary is currently making up a roster. Most information has been submitted, the rest will be requested as necessary.
       
    3. The proper spelling of Vasiliki Papadopoulos was noted.

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