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Club AGM Minutes

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.

         

 

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