STAMFORD
BRIDGE CLUB
MINUTES
OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
HELD
IN THE CLUB ROOMS
ON
THURSDAY 23rd APRIL 2009 AT 7.15pm
1.
APOLOGIES FOR
ABSENCE: M. Gore Browne, M. Knights, L. Stuart-Jones, S. Simpson, T. &M. King,
W. &S. Evans-Evans, E. Waterhouse, C. Ramamoorthy, G. Glaser, P. Ison, R. Griffiths,
S. Lee, P. Williams, B. Berresford. 41 members were present.
2.
THE MINUTES OF THE
AGM HELD ON
24th APRIL 2008: T. Naismith proposed their acceptance, seconded by B.
Norman and carried nem con.
3.
MATTERS ARISING FROM
THE MINUTES: There were no items for discussion from the previous minutes.
4.
TREASURER’S REPORT:
John
reported that this had been a very successful year financially. Table fees were
nearly £3,000 more than last year, with all sessions showing an increase. In
particular the Wednesday morning classes had an increase of more than £800,
thanks to J. Grimer and G. Hedley for their efforts here. The subscriptions had
a small increase, but, due to the present financial crisis, the interest on our
accounts would be very much lower next year.
The rent will
increase again in the summer but after that will only increase with inflation.
Now that the premises are larger we have to spend more on the cleaning. Next
year our Insurance should be considerably less, thanks to a much better policy
provided to clubs through the EBU. The main item of property was a larger and
better dishwasher, much appreciated by all. The year ended with a surplus of
£5,104.70.
John was asked
whether our savings accounts could be moved to ones earning higher interest,
but he said that we were classed as a business, and so couldn’t benefit from
these accounts.
The report was
accepted on the proposal of B. Leyland, and seconded by B. Hedley.
5.
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT: Paul remarked that
the general state of health of the club was good. The financial report made
good reading, having already recovered over £5,000 of the money spent on the
move. As this was the case, the table fees would not need to be increased. The
premises have proved to be very good, despite the state of the gentlemen’s
toilets, though these have now been attended to. His only worry is the security
of tenure, and he hopes that he can secure a longer lease when the present one
expires.
We need to continue
to increase our membership in order to replace members who leave. We continue to be one of the strongest
clubs in the County, congratulations to Brendan Alston and Robin Griffiths in
coming second in the Eden Cup and therefore going forward to represent the
county at a National level.
Paul then went on
to thank all the various members of the sub-committees. He also thanked Trevor
Thrower, who, with Marcus, helped organise the Pivot Teams competition, and
Mike Auger, who has run the Anglian Teams so efficiently for many years, and
has now decided to stand down from doing this. He thanked Brendan for being the
Chair of the Directors sub-committee, but is giving up this year. Ian was also
thanked for the work he puts in as the County Rep. We shall now be holding the Lakeland and a County
match here for the first time.
Paul then thanked
in particular Diane, who has been our Social Secretary for the past 10 years,
but has now decided to retire from the committee. All the work she has done in
the past has been very much appreciated. Finally he thanked Peter, his
Vice-Chairman for the past few years, who has been in charge of IT, introducing
the club to computer scoring, computer dealt hands and the Bridgemates. He
wished him the very best for his retirement from the committee and hoped he
would still continue to play bridge at the club.
Paul then thanked
all those who worked hard at the Wednesday morning sessions, introducing new
players to the game. In particular, he thanked Jan Grimer, who had taken over
these classes when Glenice died, and who, with the help of Fiona West, had
started the Monday afternoon sessions, where new members could learn to play
duplicate bridge in a more relaxed atmosphere. For all the work she had done
for the club he was pleased to announce that Jan had been awarded the Rutland
Cup for this year.
Bruce then thanked
Paul for the work he had done throughout the year as chairman. I. Clarke
proposed the acceptance of the Chairman’s report, seconded by T. Thrower.
6.
COUNTY TEAM
CAPTAINS’ REPORTS:
A TEAM: Trevor Thrower reported that the A team had
won Division 1 for the fifth time in six years, though not quite as
convincingly as last year, having lost one match to Kettering C. He thanked the
three members who acted as subs. Unfortunately the team was not as successful
in the Lakeland,
only finishing fourth out of six.
B TEAM: Bill Chadwick reported that the team earned A
for effort, but only B for attainment, finishing fourth in the league, which at
least meant they would not be relegated next season. Especial thanks to Mary and
Terry for the refreshments.
C TEAM: Bruce McKenzie said that the team had had an
enjoyable season, winning six out of ten matches and ending up third in the
division. However when they lost, they did so in style! He found it most
helpful to have a pool of five pairs to call on. He hoped that next year they
would do better.
D TEAM: Gill Webb thanked all the team and those who
subbed, despite the team not covering itself with glory!
E TEAM: Liz Jones had found it an interesting
experience. She thanked the 12 players who took part, most of whom had never
played league matches for the club before. The team ended up winning eight of
their 12 matches, however four of these were awarded because the opposition teams
withdrew, either because they couldn’t raise a team, or else they refused to
travel to Stamford.
At this point, both
Liz and Colin Dale made the point that it didn’t seem fair that when a team
withdrew the non-offending team were only awarded 11 points out of a possible
20. It would then appear that weak teams could benefit by not turning up. There
was a general discussion about this, and Ian and Trevor were asked to raise the
point at the next County
Committee meeting. It was
pointed out, however, that next season the league structure has been reorganised,
with Spalding joining the county and entering a team in the league. This would
mean that there is now a 3rd NE division, consisting of Stamford D
& E, Kettering D, Spalding and Oundle, so there should no longer be the
problem of teams not wanting to travel such long distances.
7.
APPOINTMENT OF AN
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER OF ACCOUNTS: John Simms was proposed by M. Witt and
seconded by T. Knights, and his reappointment was carried nem con.
8.
ELECTION OF CLUB
OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE: At this point Bruce, as President, took the chair.
Paul was the only member proposed for Chairman and he was duly re-elected.
Brian Churchill had been proposed by Mary Knights and seconded by Terry for the
position of Vice-Chairman. There were no other proposals, and he was elected
unanimously. There were no other nominations for the posts of Treasurer and
Secretary, so John and Christine were both re-elected. There had been three
nominations for the vacancies on the committee, but when this meant that an
election would be necessary, Rona Stewart stood down.
The committee and executive officers for
2009 – 2010 are as follows:
PRESIDENT:
Bruce McKenzie
CHAIRMAN: Paul Double
VICE-CHAIRMAN:
Brian
Churchill
TREASURER: John Norman
SECRETARY: Christine White
COMMITTEE: Brendan Alston,
Ian Clarke, Marlene Jones, Mary Knights, Terry Knights, Marcus Witt.
The other officers and
sub-committees would be decided at the next committee meeting.
9.
IN MEMORIAM: A minute’s silence
was held in memory of Bill King.
10.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS:
(a) Honours Boards.
Brian told the
meeting that the question of the honours boards had been raised in committee,
as we were not happy with the present way they are presented. Printing the
names on shiny film made them difficult to read. He had looked into the
possibility of having the boards replaced and professionally printed, but this
would cost in the region of £3,000 to £5,000 initially, with a further outlay
of up to £200 each year. Members felt that this was too much. After discussion
it was decided to see if the names could be printed on matt film, or be covered
with a matt laminate, with a limit of £1,000 to be spent.
(b) Club Web Site.
Ian has been
working on the web site but asked the members for their opinions as to how they
would like to see the site developed. It was the general opinion that the home
page needed to be improved, and that club competitions should be up-dated
regularly, with the correct method of scoring for the Stamford Cup and the
Butler Trophy shown, instead of just the percentages. Ian is putting the
calendar and Thursday Spares on the site. Members were reminded to read the
Notice Board by the main door as they come in, which will only be locked during
play.
(c) Friendly Inter-club Matches.
Colin Dale
suggested that as we have a lot of new members who would not be ready to play in
any of the club teams, that we should try and arrange friendly matches against
other local clubs for them to take part in.
(d) Bridgemates.
Bruce expressed the
view that, by seeing previous results on the Bridgemates, this took time, and
also quite often comments about results were made which could be clearly heard
at the next table where the hands were to be played. It was proposed that we
should have a month’s trial not having the results shown. 19 members were in
favour and 13 against. As there were not enough in favour, the motion was
rejected.
As there was no
further business, the meeting closed at 9 pm, after which refreshments were
served.
