USTA Northern California Board of Directors
Minutes of Meeting of March 15th, 2006
Held at the Four Points by Sheraton in Pleasanton
Members Present:
Rosie Bareis, Terry Cossette, Dale Evans, John Frank,
Hunter Gallaway, Jean Hassoun, Don Jacobus, Paul Kepler, Rick Kepler, Gary Lee, Mark Manning, Dale Miller, Sherri Nordahl, Linda Peltz, Margie Peterman, Deb Petersen, Francisco Ruiz, Pam Sloan and Fred Tierney.
Other Officers Present:
Michael Harrison (General Counsel),
John Togasaki (Parliamentarian),.
Staff Present: Bruce Hunt (Executive Director).
Guests: Madhu Kohli, Patrick King, Valena Williams Jr.
The meeting of the USTA Northern California Board of Directors was called to order by President Margie Peterman at 6:32PM.
Approval of Minutes Board meeting 2/15/06: Motion edited as recommended by General Counsel Michael Harrison and adjournment time corrected Motion passed unanimously.
Motion to go in Executive session (Guests left the room).
Board meeting 2/15/06 Executive Session minutes approved unanimously.
Motion was made by Fred Tierney to be also recorded in regular meeting
minutes. Motion failed 7 to 8.
Action Item A: Attorney Fees for Board Meetings
Sherri Nordahl made the motion to allocate $10,000 in the budget for attorney fees so legal counsel can be at every board meeting this year.
Mark Manning seconded. Mark Manning called the question. Passed 13-3.
Motion passed 13-1
Action Item B: Mileage Reimbursement Option for Directors
Sherri Nordahl made the motion to reimburse directors for mileage and expenses for all board required functions. Mark Manning seconded.
Mark Manning called the question. Passed 16-1. Motion passed 11-3
New Action Item: Which Version of the Bylaws Should NorCal use?
Mark Manning motioned to add Margie Peterman’s action item to the agenda. Rosie Bareis seconded. Passed 14-1.
Margie Peterman made the following motion:
Whereas the last version of the association’s Bylaws approved by the membership of USTA NorCal was adopted in November 2002,
Whereas the chairman of the Constitution and Rules Committee made, and informed the Board of language, stylistic and conforming changes made to the November 2002 Bylaws in February 2005, and;
Whereas these stylistic and conforming changes have created disputes regarding the intent of the changes and whether there are inconsistencies and conflicting previsions between the November 2002 and the February 2005 versions of the USTA NorCal Association’s Bylaws;
NOW BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the official Bylaws of the USTA NorCal are affirmed to be the 2002 Bylaws, as approved by the Member Organizations in November 2002.
Rosie Bareis called the question. Passed 14-1. Motion passed 13-0-5.
Old Business: Mediation Update Margie Peterman reported that while the mediation meeting had been very long, lasting from 2:30PM to 12:20AM, the mediation failed.
Jean Hassoun made the motion to stop all actions against Dwight Johnson and Fred Tierney on the issue of the 131 organizations. That motion would not cancel in any way actions and votes done so far by the Board.
Dale Miller seconded the motion.
Don Jacobus called the question. Passed 13-1.
Motion failed with a vote of 5-10 (With Fred Tierney not participating).
Old Business: Elections Irregularities Report
Jean Hassoun distributed a 16 pages document as the Elections Committee report on the election irregularities that the committee was chartered with.
The report and all its recommendations were supported by unanimous votes of the Elections Committee members.
Jean Hassoun recommended to go in executive session but Mark Manning stated that he was the main person involved in those ‘irregularities’ and he preferred to hear the report in a regular session.
Note: The report will not be included in these minutes.
Are only listed here the actual motions made to the Board and the resulting votes. Specific recommendations were made for needed improvements of the elections rules. These will be included in the new elections rules to be presented
to the Board at a later date.
Don Jacobus requested secret ballots. There was no opposition.
All the following motions were made by Jean Hassoun and seconded
by Dale Miller.
Motion 1: Report [1] List of Organizations with ‘problems’
Motion to reprimand Fred Tierney as EC chair for abuse of power in changing the voting power of some organizations, even after being informed that he and his committee did not have that right.
Motion was defeated by 6 to 12.
Motion 2: Report [3.A] Montclair Tennis Association:
Motion to send a letter of apologies to Roger Lambert (president of the Montclair Tennis Association) about preventing him from exercising his right to nominate
a proxy holder and also to Valena Williams for being denied her right to vote due to our error in handling the proper chain of command for the organization. The Board indicated that the letter should be sent by the elections committee.
Linda Peltz called the question. Passed 15-1.
Motion passed by 12 to 3.
Motion 3: Report [3.B] Mark Manning & Montclair Tennis Association:
Motion to reprimand Mark Manning for signing his name on the Montclair proxy form without authorization and by his silence while the issue was debated by the elections committee, allowed a mishandling to his benefit of the proxies instead of the proper beneficiary Valena Williams.
Rosie Bareis and Sherri Nordahl motioned to table the issue. Withdrawn.
The question was called. Passed 16-0.
Motion failed by 7-11.
Motion 4: Report [4] Don Johnson:
Motion to reprimand Mark Manning for not asking an explicit (even verbal) authorization from Don Johnson to sign Don’s name, and in any case, to not make it explicit that he signed someone else’s name.
Garry Lee called the question. Passed unanimously.
Motion failed by 2-15.
Motion 5: Report [5] Were there other organizations that Mark Manning
signed for without Authorization?
Because this was beyond what could be addressed by a reprimand, as it has been proven that Mark Manning signed for at least one other organization without authorization even after he stated by email that he had not done so, except Montclair, the committee requested for its Board members to make a motion to the Board to remove Mark Manning as Vice-President for election fraud.
Rosie Bareis called the question. Passed 13 to 2.
Motion failed by 5-11.
Delegate Report:
Pam Sloan reported on the issues coming up at the annual meeting.
New Business: Grievance with USTA National
Margie Peterman asked the Board for feedback so she could respond to the most recent grievance filed with USTA National.
New Business: Insurance Proposal
Paul Kepler made the motion to delegate the authority to the Operations
Committee to review and approve the insurance contract proposal prior to the next
Board meeting. Rosie Bareis seconded the motion.
Passed 12-2, with Paul Kepler abstaining.
Meeting was adjourned at 10:15pm
Respectfully submitted
Jean Hassoun, Secretary
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