STAMFORD BRIDGE CLUB
MINUTES
OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
HELD
IN THE CLUB ROOMS
ON
THURSDAY 22nd APRIL 2010 AT 7.15PM
1.
APOLOGIES FOR
ABSENCE: Paul Double, Diane Scarborough, David Dyer, Mel Rowley, Patrick Knights
and Bill and Sheila Evans-Evans, who also sent their apologies for missing the
last round of the Anglia Teams competition. 38 members were present. In Paul’s
absence the chair was taken by Brian Churchill.
2.
THE MINUTES OF THE
AGM HELD ON 23rd APRIL 2009: Berry Hedley proposed their
acceptance, seconded by Marlene Jones and carried nem con.
3.
MATTERS ARISING
FROM THE MINUTES: The scoring system in the county league has now been
changed.
The honours boards
have been replaced with the details of all competition winners for each year
from 2000 printed and framed. The initial cost of this was £500, and it will
cost a further £15 a year to keep these up-dated.
A lot of work has
been done on the club web site.
Several friendly
matches have been arranged between our members and those of four other local clubs.
It is hoped that these will continue next season.
There are still
complaints that a lot of time is wasted between rounds by members looking at
all the results on the Bridgemates.
4.
TREASURER’S REPORT:
John
reported that we had had another very good year, with table money up by about
20%. Subs had also risen, but the interest, due to the present financial
situation, had decreased. The rent will rise again in July, and then rise by a
factor linked to inflation. Our cleaner had been given a rise during the year.
The insurance, now
arranged through the EBU, was considerably less, even though we have an extra
premium to cover property worth £12,000.
Admin included cost
of around £700 spent on external lighting.
The County has
contributed towards our Master Point Fees, but this will no longer be so, now
that Pay-to-Play has started, but they will not be charging any subs to clubs
this coming financial year.
We ended the year
with a surplus of £7,380.59.
The report was
accepted on the proposal of Brendan Alston and seconded by Lawrie Wickson.
5.
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT: Paul had sent his
report which Brian read to the club.
First he apologised
for his absence, but he was at a short golfing break with other lawyers, an
event which he had been attending for the past 34 years and he hoped we would
not consider it unreasonable of him to give priority to this event.
His report started
by commenting on the prosperity of the club. Although we have kept our table
fees unaltered for the past few years, we will now have to increase these to
£2.50 to take into account the P2P introduced by the EBU. Our healthy balance
may be needed in the future to relocate to new premises.
The high standards
of bridge at the club have been maintained, though the A team has not done
quite as well this year, nor have any of our other teams secured promotion from
their divisions, but we should still be proud of the quality of bridge played
here.
He then talked of
how, although maintaining the high standards of play, we must remember that
bridge is a game, and we must accept that if we do not do well, we must accept
this with good grace. When competing in competitions, the highest standards of
ethics and play are expected, and members must be careful not to pass on
unauthorised information to their partners by their manner of bidding and play.
However on Monday afternoons and Wednesday evenings the directors should use
their discretion and not enforce the rules quite so rigidly. They should point
out to the offending player what he has done wrong, without necessarily
penalising him. If, though, players break the rules, Paul suggested that a book
should be kept, akin to the psyche book, so that players who continue to
transgress can be identified, and it should then be suggested to them that they
should not play in competitive events until they have honed their ethical and
playing skills. He also reminded us of the ‘Ten Commandments’ as written down
in the white book issued to members some years ago.
Paul then went on
to thank the various members of the committee and club; Marcus for his splendid
variation to the Anglia teams event; Terry, for all the odd jobs he does around
the club; Marlene, who with the help of Ian, Graham and Marcus, has
re-constituted the members’ data base; Bruce for the enthusiastic way he
collects our annual subs; Mary for all her catering, and Berry for the food for
the Club Championship; Brian for the sensible alternative to the honours boards
he has produced; Graham and Berry, who, with their helpers on Wednesday
mornings produce workshops and assisted bridge for improvers; Christine for
keeping him in touch with all club matters and for producing next season’s
calendar; Brendan for his contact and entries in the local Mercury; Ian for the
time he spends at week-ends doing things with the computer, so that when we
come to play during the week everything is working well.
He then made
special mention of Bruce, who spends a great majority of the week at the club,
playing or helping out, even though he is well over 86 years old. His support
is valued by all.
Finally special
mention was made to John, who has been Treasurer for 18 years. He has now
decided to retire, but thanks to his careful management of the finances, the
club is in a very stable position. Paul wished him well, and hoped he would
continue to play bridge for many more years. In recognition of his services to
the club the committee decided to make him an honorary life member. At the same
committee meeting it was resolved that David and Pat Williams, founder members
of the club should also be made life members.
Paul ended by
hoping that we had enjoyed the last twelve months and will continue to attend
regularly despite the increase in table fees. He was aware that some members
had found the friendly atmosphere of the club lacking of late, and welcomed
comments in this regard under any other business.
Terry Knights
proposed the acceptance of the Chairman’s report, seconded by Brian Glover.
Bruce than thanked
Paul and all the members of the committee for all they do.
6.
COUNTY TEAM CAPTAINS’ REPORTS:
A TEAM: Trevor Thrower said that unfortunately the A
team slipped to second in Division 1, quite a distance behind Kettering A, due
to the fact they hadn’t won their matches by a large enough margin. They were
also second in the Lakeland. He thanked the team and the eight members who
acted as subs.
B TEAM: Bill Chadwick reported that the B team had
known it would be a tough season as all the other teams in Division 1 were
club’s A teams. However the team avoided relegation as they didn’t lose their
matches as badly as Towcester. Thanks to the three members who acted as subs,
and to Mary and Terry for the refreshments.
C TEAM: Brendan Alston reported that the team ended
the season second in the division, just 6VPs behind Orton who were promoted,
and only 10VPs above the bottom team. Especial mention was made to Chris and
Robin who did very well for the team.
D TEAM: Brian Churchill said that the team had performed
valiantly, ending the season second behind Spalding. He thanked the 17 members
who had played for the team.
E TEAM: Liz Jones reported that it had been an
interesting season. They had ended the season in last place, but the opposition
teams were much stronger. She thanked all those who had played for the team,
and said that she and Sandra would now be standing down as team captain.
7.
APPOINTMENT OF AN
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER OF ACCOUNTS: As John Simms no longer wished to do this,
Chris Tily was proposed for the post by Marcus Witt and seconded by Berry
Hedley.
8. ELECTION OF CLUB OFFICIALS: Graham Hedley was
proposed as Treasurer by Terry Knights and seconded by Christine White. There
were no other nominations so he was duly appointed. All the other committee
members were willing to stand, and as there were no other nominations, Roger
Blackmore proposed their re-appointment, seconded by Lawrie Wickson.
The committee and
executive officers for 2010 – 2011 are as follows:-
PRESIDENT:
Bruce McKenzie
CHAIRMAN: Paul Double
VICE-CHARIMAN:
Brian
Churchill
TREASURER: Graham Hedley
SECRETARY: Christine White
COMMITTEE: Brendan Alston, Ian Clarke,
Marlene Jones, Mary Knights, Terry Knights, Marcus Witt.
9.
IN MEMORIAM: A minute’s silence
was held in memory of Jan Grimer and George Glaser.
10.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS:
(a) The committee
proposed that all members should pay the same Annual Subscription of £10 and
become Voting Members at the AGM. The members of the U3A and the Lady Anne’s
Bridge Club will pay an Annual Subscription of £5 and will be Associate Members
with no vote at the AGM. Table fees would be confirmed at £2.50 when results
fall within the P2P requirements of the EBU. Otherwise they would remain
unaltered.
Some members felt
that the Wednesday morning group should not pay the increased table fees, but
it was generally agreed that with all the extra help they received, they should
pay the same as other members. It was hoped that they would move on to playing
at other sessions. The extra 50p table fee would produce an increase of around
£4,600 a lot of which would be needed to reimburse the EBU with the P2P fees.
The committee’s proposal was put to the meeting, and it was carried with a few
abstentions but no-one voted against it.
(b) Thoughts from
the floor.
(i) A letter had been
sent to the committee from Ian McGlynn, Mel Rowley and Bob Leyland as they felt
“that the club atmosphere is less friendly than it used to be” as evidenced by
slow play, arguments between partners, browbeating of weaker players,
aggressively questioning bids and brewing tea/coffee thereby delaying play.
These factors have caused one of our members not to renew his membership.
Ian then spoke to
expound on his letter. He explained that sometimes he had to wait over ten
minutes before moving and some players seemed to take forever to check the
results on the Bridgemates. Players at tables where a dispute had occurred
often tried to solve this themselves, whereas a director should always
be called. But sometimes they then made decisions which would be appropriate at
congresses, rather than at a friendly session at the club.
There was a lot of
discussion from the floor on these matters. Many members did not recognise most
of the situations Ian described, and said that, even though not perfect, this
was the best club they had ever belonged to. It was agreed that at times there
was too much argument between certain partners at the table, and directors
should deal with this. It was also thought by many that it would speed things
up if just the score of the hand was shown on the Bridgemate, rather than all
the previous results too.
If a director was
called to a table to settle a dispute, the correct ruling should be given. It
was pointed out that we were not playing bridge in our own homes, and members
need to be educated in certain rules and ethics of the game. These matters would
be brought up at the next committee meeting.
Members were
reminded that one way to save time was to play to the first trick before
filling in the score card and entering the contract in the Bridgemate.
(ii)It was felt that the
Handicap/Unusual Trophy had lost its way, with very many regular partnerships
playing together in it each month. It was therefore decided that we would play
a handicap event one Thursday a month, and the Memorial Trophy would be
allocated to a different competition. It had been suggested that this could be
given to the winner of the Men’s Pairs and we would also be holding a Ladies’
Pairs on two successive Tuesdays in June.
Marcus, as the chairman of the
competitions sub-committee, suggested that we should play restricted teams one
Thursday a month, in which only one pair in the team could be members of the
Club’s A or B teams. There was general agreement to this proposal, so it would
be added to the new Club Calendar.
Brendan suggested that we could
reintroduce an Individual Competition, which used to be held many years ago.
All these matters would be
brought up at the next committee meeting.
There being no further business,
the meeting closed at 8.45pm, after which refreshments were served.
