The Board of Directors of Unit 254 met at The Bridge Studio of San Miguel de Allende on Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at 11:30. The meeting was led by Louis Roman, President, with the following Directors present: Natalia Zapata, Lynn Chambers, Sandy Martin, and Jan Brosnahan, with David McDougall nearby (teaching bridge lessons). Mary Seggerman was absent. The following agenda items were discussed:
Financials: Natalia Zapata presented the January and February financials, which were reviewed by the Board. The February financials showed an ending cash balance of approximately 200k Mexican pesos and $10k US cash, which includes the net profits from the February Sectional and March’s rent already paid. Jan and Natalia will work together over the coming months to develop a model that can help us better understand and project the club’s costs throughout the year, taking into account the seasonality of the table counts and the utility costs. We also want to better understand the detail of the costs of the ACBL special game costs, and make our players more aware of the benefits that our club provides by offering such higher point awards to our players.
Lease Renewal: The current lease was signed by Louie on May 31, 2025, so we have some time before we need to renew it again. A copy of the current lease was distributed to the board members and members were asked to provide any input to Louie on any ideas for term negotiations.
Air Conditioning: Ideas were discussed on how to make this work better. Ideas to explore included a swamp cooler and/or fans mounted above the players, to help circulate the air.
Table counts over the past 12 months: Glen had prepared an analysis of table counts by month over the past few years which was distributed to the board members. Some declines have been noted, some due to loss through member deaths and those moving away. We need to continue to recruit new members, and it is believed that the bridge lessons being offered at The Bridge Studio are going to bear fruit. Another idea presented by Sandy Martin and discussed by the board is a survey of members of both The Bridge Studio and of The Casa de la Noche (Bordello) Bridge group, to help improve bridge overall for San Miguel, by understanding what bridge players like and dislike and desire at both locations. Sandy presented a sample survey, intended to be filled out anonymously by bridge players at both locations in the coming weeks while we still have most players here. Louie will speak with Dan Sondgeroth about the survey and then arrange for the surveys to be printed, distributed, and collected. The information should be quite helpful in improving the bridge environment for San Miguel.
Regional Tournament: The ACBL Regional Tournament, to be held March 17 – 22 at Hotel MX is fast approaching. We continue to encourage our local players to get involved in the tournament and have promoted it best we can. We discussed the importance of beginning right away to work with Jorge or Mexico City on identifying a better location for next year. The board identified Sandy Martin as our liaison with Jorge for next year’s regional tournament and have asked him to work with Jorge and the director of Aijjic during the Regional tournament, if possible, to coordinate sectional and regional tournament dates (trying to get our sectional date in February to hit our largest local crowd) to get a jump on next year.
Monthly Social Dinner at LaFrontera: Next one is scheduled for Wednesday, March 25, 2026, at 5:30 p.m. at LaFrontera. The board discussed continuing to always holding it the same time each month at the same place (last Wednesday, at LaFrontera, at 5:30), for consistency and predictability for members as they come and go from San Miguel. Kind of like a “Cheers” environment! Those interested in attending should email our Hospitality Director, Lynn Chambers, at lynnrchambers@gmail.com by Monday, March 23rd, and let her know if they plan on ordering the salmon or filet special or plan to order off the menu. Spouses and significant others are always welcome. We continue to have a large gathering which makes it extra fun!
Next Board Meeting: A short post-Regional Tournament meeting is planned for 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, April 1, 2026.Hello everyone! A few updates!!!