Minutes of the
Senior Men’s Interclub Representatives
Semi-Annual Meeting
at
Queen’s Harbour Yacht & Country Club
December 17, 2020
The Annual Meeting of the SMI Member Club Representatives of the Jacksonville Senior Men’s Interclub was held December 17, 2020 at Queen’s Harbour Yacht & Country Club. Present were Ray Mantle and Bruce MacDonald (QH), Allen Witham and Barney Poston (HH), Vincent Celestino (MC), Joe Pierce (OP), Jon Peterson (OC), Alan Harmon (SJ), Dick Fruechtenicht and Bob Dewey (LP), Fred Track and Jack Garrity (EH), Glenn Dobrick (SG), Skip Lunsford (JG), Bob McBride (WGV), Mark Rutland (DC), Ray Cabano (ML), Jim Kerr (Palencia). Jim Begley (EH) and Mac McKernan (OP) were not present.
The meeting started shortly after 10 AM. Dick Fruechtenicht acted as the Meeting Facilitator and Ray Mantle acted as the Secretary of the Meeting. Dick had earlier sent out the agenda. Ray Mantle welcomed everyone to Queen’s Harbour Yacht & Country Club and together with Bruce MacDonald hosted the meeting facilities.
The first order of business was approval of the minutes of the August 11, 2020 Semi-Annual Meeting. By resolution made and passed the minutes were approved as earlier circulated and submitted. The minutes are posted on the SMI website.
2020 Season
Dick Fruechtenicht raised for discussion the status and schedule of the 2021 season. Allen Witham passed around the current schedule of the host clubs for the 2021 season. Marsh Landing and Marsh Creek agreed to swap dates, so ML will be in May and MC in October. Dick discussed the poll results for San Jose regarding sharing of carts, walkers, etc. After discussion about the Covid-19 effects, cart availability, reduced revenues to hosting clubs if smaller fields are involved, etc., it was agreed that each Club Representative should not indicate when posting team rosters how carts are to be shared, etc. but instead the players may work out any such arrangements themselves. All of these issues will be reconsidered at the June 2021 meeting of the Club Representatives.
Reports
SMI Treasurer Bruce MacDonald gave a financial report as of November 30, 2020 with a balance of $1304.12 after payment of all outstanding bills. Bruce recommended the funds be retained for the 2021 season. After discussion and upon motion duly made, seconded and passed, it was agreed that the balance of the funds be retained for the 2021 season after setting aside a reserve of $500 for unanticipated expenses. Bruce noted he had changed to a fiscal year ending November 30th to better reflect the SMI financial affairs.
Allen Witham reported on the tentative scheduling dates for the 2021 season on a calendar year basis per the motion adopted at the August 11 meeting and as modified by the earlier discussion. It was agreed that the 2021 Poston Cup tournament be held at Deerwood CC, subject to its availability and acceptance. Based on the host Club’s acceptance of the proposed schedule, the 2021 schedule has been settled and will be posted on the SMI website.
Jack Garrity, SMI’s Technology Advisor, presented his technology report (Exhibit A). There was discussion about submission of team rosters to indicate preferred cart pairings, walkers, etc. As noted above it was agreed that when submitting team rosters the Club Representatives should not include any such information.
Barney Poston, SMI Chairman Emeritus and Webmaster, reported that the SMI website is operating reliably and he was not aware of any issues regarding the SMI website. Barney noted the only SMI website expense is about $20 annually for the domain name. Barney noted that periodically a check is received from Google based on the number of times the website is accessed but since the Covid shut down there has been no revenue either from Google or advertisers on the SMI website. The Club Representatives should send revisions for the Club’s team roster to Barney to remove persons no longer actively playing.
Nominating Committee
The Nominating Committee Chairman, Ray Cabano, reported on the persons nominated to be elected as the SMI officers for 2021, to serve until December 31, 2021. The nominations are Bob McBride as Chairman, Jon Peterson as Vice Chairman, Bruce MacDonald as Treasurer and Ray Mantle as Secretary. There being no other nominations, upon motion duly made, seconded and unanimously passed the slate of nominations was elected as the SMI officers for 2021, each to serve until his successor is duly elected and qualified. Dick Fruechtenicht noted that Allen Witham would continue to serve as Scheduling Chairman. There was some discussion about members of the Conduct Committee, but given the absence of problems arising during SMI events no further action was taken.
Old Business
Dick Fruechtenicht discussed the status of the present scoring system and the need to consider an alternative if and when Jack Garrity is not available to maintain and operate the SMI scoring system. Dick reported that he, Bob Mc Bride and Barney Poston had looked into, and evaluated available scoring systems that might work for the SMI Stableford scoring and handicapping, including Golf Genius, Leaderboard King and one other. He noted all of them are cell phone based for inputting scores and Leaderboard King is based in Jacksonville. He further noted that Golf Genius could not presently operate in the same manner as SMI’s present scoring system and Golf Genius would not make any adjustments or changes to accommodate SMI. Only Leaderboard King offered to work with SMI by providing a free trial for the San Jose tournament in January. The Leaderboard King scoring will operate in parallel with SMI’s scoring system at the San Jose event. Bob McBride noted that Leaderboard King charges on a per player per event basis, so that at 50 cents per player it would cost $56 for a field of 112. Some of the Representatives reported that Leaderboard King had been used for a tournament at their Club with satisfactory results. There was discussion about training SMI players to input scores on a cellphone and the need for a paper scorecard as a backup and verification that scores had been correctly entered. Bob McBride noted there is not an app for Leaderboard King score inputting and he would obtain further information about the availability of a tutorial, etc.
Skip Lunsford discussed the yardage, slope, rating and handicap adjustment for two sets of tees at Queen’s Harbour in March, Osprey Cove in April and Marsh Landing in May, with each SMI player free to choose his tee for himself for each event without any age or handicap index limitation. A player selecting the forward tees will have his handicap adjusted to reflect the difference in yardage, slope and rating. The results of the QH, OC and ML events using two tees will be discussed and evaluated at the June 2021 meeting of the Club Representatives for future determination whether to continue with two tees or not.
Glenn Dobrick reported the Sawgrass CC clubhouse remodeling, etc. is projected to be completed by March 2021. Glenn further reported on the possible availability of an SMI tournament in 2021, preferably for a July date. He noted that the SG Golf Committee is limiting outside events to four per year, with the additional limitation that an outside event cannot be repeated for three years. In addition, SG might wish to have an increase in the fees paid. All this is subject to the SG Board approval in January. Glenn will notify Bob McBride after the SG Board meeting about the decisions made and approved.
Bob McBride reported for the Club evaluation committee (which also included Alan Harmon and Joe Pierce) regarding substitution of Eagle Landing for Orange Park and Atlantic Beach CC’s request to join SMI. Bob reported that Atlantic Beach backed out after learning of the $70 pricing and Monday schedule. The committee met with Eagle Landing and played the course. Eagle Landing is interested in becoming a SMI Member Club, but wanted Eagle Landing members (and not Orange Park members) playing in SMI events. Joe Pierce reported a compromise had been arranged where half of the EL team for an SMI event would be composed of OP members (a list will be compiled to grandfather in the named persons) and the other half would be EL members. If neither OP nor EL provided 4 players, the other could fill the shortfall. After discussion, by motion duly made, seconded and adopted, the Representatives agreed that effective January 1, 2021 Orange Park would be removed as a SMI Member Club and Eagle Landing would become a SMI Member Club in place of Orange Park, subject to the negotiated arrangements with the OP players noted above.
Glenn Dobrick then raised for discussion the question of how a SMI Member Club is defined. Dick Fruechtenicht noted that the USGA accepts as a Club a group of affiliated players, without regard to ownership and/or operation of a golfing facility. There was no action taken.
Other Notes and Adjournment
Dick Fruechtenicht noted that this would be his last SMI meeting as he was stepping down as the LP Club Representative and Bob Dewey would become the LP Club Representative. The Club Representatives expressed their thanks and appreciation for Dick’s service.
The Semi-Annual Meeting of Club Representatives tentatively will be in June 2021 at Sawgrass Country Club.
There being no other business raised for consideration by the meeting, it was duly adjourned about 11:40 AM. Lunch was then enjoyed by a number of the persons present, followed by golf for some of the attendees.
Respectfully submitted
/Ray A. Mantle/
Ray A. Mantle, Secretary
Exhibit A –Technology Report
