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Wow, Jerry. Lots to unpack here... Apologies to the rest of you for this long response. It's kind of on brand for me, though.
REPORTS - I was sending the board weekly status reports on what I was personally working on. One other board member was doing the same. I've fallen off on doing this of late. The rest send email updates when it suits them or something big happens. We communicate quite regularly via email, chat, and zoom meetings. Some board members would probably say that I communicate all too regularly, and at odd hours like I'm doing right now. But it is what it is. Switching to your suggested monthly reporting method would be a reduction in communications, not an increase.
PUBLIC MEETINGS - The board now meets every other month in a meeting that's open to the public. This is 5x more meetings than in the past and 100% more open to the public as past board meetings were limited to whoever showed up at the business meeting at the convention. We feel semi-monthly is a good pace for us and meets one of my campaign platform promises to increase transparency and improve communications.
CLOSED SESSIONS - The board also hold 18 closed session discussion meetings per year so we have a chance to get together to discuss problems as well as progress in a face to face setting (well, zoom).
OTHER COMMUNICATIONS - The board, committees, and individual chairs communicate with the public via 4 quarterly magazines, (nearly) monthly newsletters, ad-hoc posts on the club forums, the chip board, facebook, instagram, youtube, pokerchipper.com, and pokerchipforum.com. Not to mention the shares that occur from those posts by members helping us spread the word.
The MOGH - is given an opportunity at every board meeting to report on their activities. Charles and/or Jim have given a report at each meeting. Charles spent 30 minutes at the last one going over recent changes and challenges, upcoming seminars, convention speaker spots, and more, sending us WAY into overtime (I like to keep board meetings to 1 hour and we went to 1hr30min last time). Charles also posts updates here an on the club forums when he finds something suitable he feels the membership should know about. I'm also a MOGH board member and have reported on a couple of major undertakings myself (the search for a physical location to replace our storage units and also act as a potential museum; the consolidation and move of the club library, and most importantly to me and many members who have voiced concerns about it in the past, a complete accounting of the contents of our 3, now 2, storage units).
TRANSPARENCY - Do you know who knows EXACTLY what the board and chairs have been doing? The 20-40 people that attend our public board meetings every other month. You know who else knows? The unknown number of other people who watch the recorded proceedings (not all have been uploaded - my fault). And who else? Those who download the AI-generated minutes (which are amazingly accurate, well organized, and much better than any of us meatsack note-takers could do. And they're available IMMEDIATELY at the end of the meeting.
THE UNINFORMED - Do you know who does NOT have a clue what we do? Those who don't avail themselves of these multiple and easily accessible information outlets. I don't recall seeing your ID in the list of attendees at any of our 2025-2027 meetings thus far. Please join us. The next meeting is scheduled for 6pm Pacific on April 6th. Invitation information below. Mics have been opened for the entire meeting, so not just limited to public comment at the end. This is due to the civility in which everyone has conducted themselves (thanks to all who have participated in the past) and we welcome your civil comments and questions as well. If you have something specific that you'd like the board to address, send me your topic and I'll make sure you have 2-3 uninterrupted minutes to address the board (no action can be taken on this, but the board will be happy to hear what you have to say and take it under consideration for further action and/or task assignment).
DAMN GOOD RECORD - In short, I think our current record of communication and transparency is pretty damn good and unless someone feels we need MORE meetings, publicly or privately, I doubt we're going to improve that any time soon. We could improve on our PR through content creation and dissemination, but the board hasn't found the right person to do that yet and no one has been complaining - just complimenting us on how much communication has improved.
BALLOTS - In response to your complaint that the ballots are going out too soon, there's no mandate stating when the ballots are to come out at all. We only need to be sure we mail them, and that's happening with the publication of the next magazine. If the magazine were on its ORIGINAL schedule, you'd have it in your hot little hands right now. There's nothing saying that the ballots cannot be disseminated by other methods, and so (you're welcome) everyone can get one now if they wish. You will notice that one of the items to be voted on by the members is removing the mandate that the ballots MUST be mailed. We have so many other ways to reach the members that don't cost the club an arm and a leg, but are just as, if not more, effective. We will still publish the ballot in the magazine each year (presuming the yearbook will be printed in line with the election, which is the board's preference).
TIMING - There's no requirement to have a meet & greet. No requirement to have a debate. No requirement for candidates to even publish their platform nor beg for your vote. Most/all candidates have already posted their statements online and perhaps have emailed them to friends and members of the club for whom they have contact information (no, the club does not share lists of member's information but my understanding is that some people have stolen/borrowed club information and used it without permission in the past - that will not easily happen going forward as measures have been taken to catch people who do that now or in the future.
MORE INFO - I've just now posted all of the candidate statements I could find on the club's Election Page. Rick Lonski and Richard Huber's statements are pending. You can access everyone's statement here: https://ccgtcc.com/about/elections.aspx
ASK YOUR DOCTOR OR PHARMACIST - If you have any other suggestions or complaints, we have an online form that allows you to direct your comments to the person in charge of your area of concern. You can access it here: https://ccgtcc.com/suggestions
ALTERNATIVE METHOD OF COMMUNICATION - Or, if filling out forms isn't your jam, the next best thing to do is publicly complain and get a customized reply like this one from yours truly.
HUMOR - In the meantime, please enjoy this tongue and cheek video clip from the classic comedy "Stripes".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdbfJeI1Y1I
NEXT MEETING - Here's the invite to the next board meeting, taking place on 4/6/26 at 6pm Pacific Time. Attendance has been on an upswing, and with everything the board continues to accomplish each month, there's a lot to report on, so I hope to see more and more members jump on the call, even if to just listen in the background (mute yourself, please, so no background noise for the rest of us). Meetings are scheduled to last 1 hour, give or take. If we continue making the progress we have in the next 4 months as we've done in the last 8, our meetings could shorten up next year. We'll see.
Barry Sherwood is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: CCA General Board Meeting 20260406
Time: Apr 6, 2026 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
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