Sepulveda Seniors’ Golf Club
Board Meeting Minutes
January 20, 2025 

Bob Lieb, President, opened the final meeting of our 2024 Board by thanking members and reviewing some items that led to our excellence for the year including:

        Increased membership

        Increased number of members participating in club events

        Increased number of members who attended the end of year banquet

        Thanked those on the Board that took important roles in each event

        Bob announced that he will lead our MGA team for the coming year and provided schedules of play

Several suggestions were made on how to improve the banquet for next year including:

        Increase the number of Razzle Dazzle winners

        Shorten the program time

        Think about how much the club subsidizes the banquet 

Minutes from our last meeting were approved as written. 

The meeting was adjourned. 

First meeting of the new Board for 2025 was opened by past president Bob Lieb at 1;00 pm..  Present for the meeting were:  Bob Lieb, Ed Gooze, Harvey Goldsmith, Steve Greenbaum, Anthony Benenati, Mike Camp, Larry Tash, Steve Skinner, Dean Abston, Roger Cowan, Jan Bernard.  Not present were:  DeRon Jones, Blane Goldwater 

Election of New Officers for 2025:

  The new Board elected the following to be our new officers for 2025:

        Ed Gooze, President

        Steve Skinner, Vice President

        Larry Tash, Secretary

        Harvey Goldsmith, Treasurer

        Other leaders identified were  Roger Cowan to assist Larry, Jan Bernard working with Mike Camp to lead tournament work as we transition from Mulligan to Golf Genius, Steve Skinner will add two-day away tournament planning to his list of jobs, Dean Abston remains as Membership Chair, Larry Tash remains as Handicap Chair, Blane Goldwater will continue as Sunshine Chair, Steve Greenbaum will continue producing the Niblick.  Other positions will be finalized soon.

President’s Message:

Ed welcomed all of us and gave a special welcome to our two new Board members, Anthony Benenati and Mike Camp.  He told us how much he has enjoyed being on the Board and working with other colleagues for the good of the membership of our club. 

Treasurer’s Report:

Harvey Goldsmith that we had an end of year balance of $9544.  Since then, we have received additional membership fees from the SCGA which brings our current balance to $12.100 with all bills paid to date. 

Tournament Conversation:
Jan Bernard:

        We had 70 players play in our shotgun tournament.  72 had paid.

        The January 13 tournament due to the fires was a difficult situation for some of our members.  We had 76 players sign up, however, due to conditions at the time, only 65 played. 

        The January 27 tournament on Balboa has 72 members signed up, and Jan is trying to get one additional tee time from the City to address those currently on the Waitlist to play.

        The 2025 Tournament schedule addresses the issues around course aeration of the greens.  Balboa aeration will occur on April 22 and Encino will be aerated on April 15.  In setting up the tournaments, Jan worked around these dates in April.

Steve Skinner announced that the away tournaments will be finalized soon.  He is including regular courses like Los Robles, Westlake, Olivas Links, Buenaventura (which we were told probably will not be available for us this year).  He is considering contacting Porter Valley and Sunset.  He also wanted input on whether to go to Sand Canyon or Santa Anita.  The Board agreed that Santa Anita would be a better course for our membership.  He also will take on trying to set up a Two-day away tournament for the fall.  This was tabled for the time. 

Larry Tash, Handicap Chair:

        Shared the process for creating a Club Index to protect the integrity of our competitions.

        There was discussion about the need to review with members the Rules of Golf.  It was mentioned that the rules we play by are clearly stated on the website and on the back of each scorecard.  Players in each foursome are responsible for supporting proper play within their own group.

        It was restated that there are no gimmes in our tournaments, unless expressly stated by the Tournament Director, and no bumping unless we are playing under “Lift, Clean, and Place” rules.  The question of deterrents for those not following the Rules of Golf was discussed and will be moved to old business at a future meeting.

 Dean Abston, Membership Chair:

        We currently have 193 full regular members and 45 associate members?        We were told that several people left the club as they were unable to get tee times for our tournaments.  We can get additional tee times normally if there is a need, but 76 has been our maximum.  This issue is common to many clubs.  Jan tries to make entering tournaments as fair as possible, so everyone has a fair chance to participate. 

GAC report:

        Anthony Benenati agreed to be our club representative to GAC. 

        Mike Camp and Larry Tash shared what they know about GAC and why it is important to have a representative for our Club. 

        Our current representative is Anne Mathews who is a member of the Sepulveda Women’s Golf Club.  It has been many years since we have had a member be the GAC representative for the Sepulveda Golf Course facility. 

Bob Lieb, MGA representative:

        Last year the City Golf Division halted MGA play because of slow play issues.  However, they have agreed to reinstate MGA for 2025 with club requirements to speed up play.

        He has been attending MGA Zoom meetings and explained that the home course team will be responsible for providing a marshal on the course to speed up play.

       Schedules for the coming year were provided.  The scoring used for the competition will change this year but it has not yet been finalized.

        It is Bob’s goal to have a competitive team made up of members representing all levels of play in our club.  The first-round competition will be on Thursday, March 20, on the Encino course. 

Steve Greenbaum, Niblick:  Steve will continue to provide the membership with our Niblick Newsletter each month and looks forward to members providing articles of interest about themselves and golf experiences. 

Old Business:

Topics that need to be discussed at future meetings include:

        Team events and whether to allow teams to have a handicap gap of more than 10 strokes or not

        Discussions about handicap modifications following extended illness or surgery

       Changes in our banquet practices in the future

        Should we move forward on having Two-day away tournaments

        Discuss rules violations and ways to refresh member knowledge of the rules

                New Business:

         Mike Camp reported along with Jan Bernard on the introduction of the Golf Genius system into our club events.  Currently Jan and Mike are running parallel tournaments in January to be sure that we trust the Golf Genius system.  We are currently using the free basic system, but with the premium system we could:  

                     Pay in advance of the tournament

       Maintain live online scoring

        Select tee times

        Provide a web site to replace or work side by side with Mulligan golf site?        Provide more flexibility in managing tournaments?       Currently Jan and Mike are considering how to transfer from Mulligan to Golf Genius and how will that maybe look different as we register for our tournaments

        Ed Gooze proposed several ideas for this year including:

        Occasional mixed member tournaments for members to meet and develop new friends

        Consider the club giving a gift to the course

        Providing volunteers to go out and prepare the course by identifying ground under repair prior to our tournaments

        Thank you gifts to the regular golf shop employees who are so good to us

        Question about fairness of low gross (when not voluntary) in our tournaments 

Next Meeting will be on February 17 at 1:00 p.m.

Meeting adjourned at 3:00 pm.

November 11, 2024

Meeting called to order my President Bob Lieb at 1:03. Members present: Bob Lieb, Steve Greenbaum, Edwin Gooze, Steve Skinner, Jan Bernard, Dean Abston, Don Kihara, Harvey Goldstein, Blane Goldwater, De Ron Jones, Larry Tash,  past president Saul Isler. Absent: Roger Cowan, parliamentarian Wendy Furth. 

Guests: Jane Stanton, Anthony Benenati, Michael Camp, Michael Diner. 

 Minutes: Approved, though not read. 

President's Report. Bob thanked the board for the great support over his two-year tenure. He plans to remain active, heading up MGA (Municipal Golf Association) as well as GAC (with Blane's assistance), LA City's Golf Advisory Committee. He hopes to be effective in improving the cou