NEWBURY BRIDGE CLUB
Minutes of the 49th Annual General Meeting held on Monday 12th November 2007 at Newbury Conservative Club
Present President Mrs Lynn Kirby
Chairman Mrs Ann McMahon
Chief Director Mrs Madeline Lawson
Treasurer Mrs Jackie Woods
Committee Members Mr Chris Doyle, Mrs Liz Madeley, Mrs Val Moules
Members 52
Apologies for absence had been received from, the Secretary, Mrs Phyllis Russell, Committee Member, Mrs Cynthia Nussey, and members - Evelyn Archer, Ros Barnes, Pauline & Stephen Burman, Jane Goodenough Brian Hawkins, Joy Joyce, Rosemary Pinches, Jean Reid, Mary Sutton, Mary Thomas, Brenda Vaslet, Pam Walsh, Gill Weeks, Bill Westmeath, Jeanne Whitehorn, Peter Wiesendanger who were unable to attend.
The President, Lynn Kirby, welcomed those attending the meeting. Lynn thanked the committee for being very helpful and efficient during the year. Special thanks were given to Ann McMahon for being an excellent Chairman.
1 Obituaries
Two minutes silence was held to remember the friends who had died during
the past year:-
Life Members - Eric Osborn and Reg Sutton
Members – John Pinches, Dennis Platts, Elek Tomaszewski and June Worthington
2 Minutes of the AGM held on Monday 13th November 2006
Copies of the minutes had been given or sent to every club member.
The adoption of the minutes was proposed by Madeline Lawson and seconded by Chris Doyle with the meeting in favour.
3 Matters Arising
There were no matters arising from the previous year’s minutes.
4 Chairman’s Report
Ann McMahon said that she had completed a third year as Chairperson. In this position
Ann felt that she is in part repaying the club for all the enjoyment she has derived from
belonging to Newbury Bridge Club.
a) The rent for the room at the Conservative Club remains at £30 per evening, and there is still a good working relationship with the Conservative Club. Ann thanked all members who cooperate in maintaining this, and also the few members who are also Conservative Club members, allowing alcoholic drinks to be purchased legally.
b) The EBU has set out proposals to change its way of working. These are being modified. The proposed £5 joining fee has been removed, but the ‘pay to play’ fee (covering the cost of joining and master points) still has to be set.
c) Regretfully, Elizabeth Maddocks no longer produces Newsletters for the club. A volunteer is required to take her place, offers are invited.
d) We are most grateful to Brian Davis for being a very able webmaster. The website is full of information eg club news, the calendar and results.
e) Chris Doyle has done an excellent job in submitting club reports to the Newbury Weekly News for several years. The publishing of these reports depends on the amount of newspaper space available. The reports provide advertisement for the club. A volunteer to continue this task is sought.
f) In November last year another Andrew Robson ‘Teach In’ took place at the Conservative Club. This was well attended by members and visitors. With his natural teaching ability Andrew made bridge seem so easy.
g) Another successful New Year Party was enjoyed by 92 members and friends at the Hilton Hotel. The hotel has been booked for next year’s party, tickets are now available.
h) The Southern Salver competition took place in January, again as an individual event. Many thanks to Brian Davis for running the movement and providing instant scoring. Another delicious tea was provided by Liz Madeley and helpers.
i) The Charity Drive was held at Stockcross village hall on 14th September with 72 people attending. Many members had worked hard to make the evening a success raising £930. In total £1,200 was donated to Newbury & District Cancer Care Trust during the year. A letter of appreciation from the Cancer Care Trust has been received.
j) An afternoon bridge party was organised for the 100th Birthday of long standing member, Florence Hawkins. A special card and cake were made for her, and members were happy to make her feel so special on the actual day.
k) Club and League matches at various levels have been played during the year. The Chief Director will report on these.
l) There has been an increase in the number of people attending non-competition duplicate evenings. The committee has made proposals for changes to the club calendar to include more of these evenings to encourage members to take up duplicate bridge and attract new members to other sessions such as handicapped and teams evenings.
m) Many thanks to Brenda Vaslet who has been compiling the club calendar for a very long time. Val Moules will take over this task.
n) Club members are now being more tolerant of other peoples needs regarding the air conditioning in the bridge room. However complaints have arisen regarding aggressive comments and indifference amongst some experienced duplicate players. It is rude to carry on discussing the previous hand and ignore the next pair coming to your table. Aggressive criticism of your partner after a hand has been played affects everyone at that table, the adjacent tables, and sometimes most of the people in the room. From now on there will be a penalty for those who are rude or unnecessarily noisy. The director can reduce the score of the offender according to ‘The Laws of Duplicate Bridge’ – laws 90 and 91. The director must be informed directly if an incident occurs.
o) There is a natural progression to playing bridge, a series of stepping stones to enable each person to reach a comfortable level. It is hoped that this club provides that facility. Somebody, who attends 3 times each week, wrote to apologise for not attending this meeting, but adding thanks to the committee for making the club successful, and saying how much she looks forward to coming to bridge evenings. It would good if everyone who plays at Newbury Bridge Club feels like that, coming to a club that is welcoming, considerate of others, and a club to be proud of.
p) Ann thanked committee members for their hard work in their various capacities and for their support. Ann thanked all directors, rubber and duplicate, who contribute to the smooth running of the club.
6 Secretary’s Report
a) Phyllis Russell apologised for being unable to attend to present her report personally.
b) There are currently 159 members in the Bridge Club, slightly more than in 2006. With several elderly members becoming too frail to continue to play there is a need to encourage younger members join.
c) The club members’ list is maintained as correctly as possible, relying on members to inform of changes to address details. This includes email addresses; some club information can now be sent to members by email, for example the latest club members’ list.
d) Amongst many items, during the past year the committee has been discussing the behaviour of players at the bridge table, and thinking of ways to encourage new players to join duplicate bridge. The EBU proposals for a new work strategy have proved to be controversial with members.
e) The New Year Party at the beginning of this year, and the more recent Charity Drive, both proved to be successful and enjoyable events with reasonable attendances. The next New Year Party will be on Friday, 11th January, 2008. Tickets are available now at the same price as last year, £14 for members. We do however need to sell at least 80 tickets to qualify for the use of the large room at the Hilton Hotel. In order to sell this number of tickets, visitors will be welcome to come at the non-subsidised price of £16.
f) Recently John Tuplin has gone to live in Cornwall, although he still intends to keep in touch with this club. I would like to express our thanks to John for all his work on behalf of the club over many years. He was on the committee, and officiated both as Chairman, then President. Since 2002, taking over from Tony Freke, John has been printing the club calendars and membership cards. John also made the generous donation of the Pam Tuplin Silver Cup, now awarded each year to the winner of the Individual Challenge competition. We extend our good wishes to John for the future.
g) I thank everyone for their friendly co-operation during the last year, and wish you all another happy year of playing bridge at Newbury Bridge Club!
7 Treasurer’s Report
Jackie Woods presented the income and expenditure account and balance sheet as at 30th September 2007. Jackie reported that the surplus was due to interest received from investments. Subscriptions had been slightly higher but net table monies were down. After clarification of some details, Martin Lindeman proposed and Chris Doyle seconded the adoption of the accounts, the meeting voted in favour.
8 Chief Director’s Report
a) Madeline Lawson thanked members for attending the 49th Annual General Meeting. Madeline also thanked all directors for their work, and congratulated Jeroen Wieland on qualifying as a County Director. Madeline thanked all the members who helped with the general running of the club.
b) Madeline reported on the results of the various competitions in which the club participates:-
§ Ridgeway League – Evelyn Archer ably organised the matches held during the summer, our thanks to Evelyn. The Newbury team lost 2 matches, but overall came second to the Highworth team, and hopes to beat them next year.
§ Solent Cup – Newbury went as far as the semi-final but were beaten by the team from Hedge End. Our thanks to Pauline Serby for organising the Newbury team. Madeline will be organising matches for the Solent Cup this year.
§ Basingstoke Cup – organised by Gill Weeks, Newbury team reached the final but were beaten by Swanmore team.
§ Simmons Cup – is against a Basingstoke team. It was won by the Newbury team, also organised by Gill Weeks, thank you Gill. It was good that this competition was played this year, last year Basingstoke failed to settle a date for the match.
§ Friendly matches – these have been capably arranged by Martin Lindeman. Newbury won 2 matches and lost another. Martin would like more volunteers to play in these matches, and we thank him for his organisation.
c) The heat for entry to the Pottage Cup competition will be played at the club on Tuesday 8th January 2008. This competition is the most prestigious event in our county. It would be good to have more club members entering for this.
d) Earlier in the year the EBU put forward proposals for changes in their way of working. The proposals can be viewed on the website www.ebu.co.uk, and there is a printed version on the notice board. Questionnaires are to be completed by all affiliated clubs. The changes are to assist promotion of gaining more members, and a ‘pay to play’ scheme is proposed. Members of Newbury Club should be thinking of the club as a whole and not of the changes that will affect us each personally. The greater picture needs to be addressed for the good of bridge, and looking forward is, in my opinion, the way to go. Ideas and comments can be put to me, but should be constructive to bridge and the Newbury Club.
e) The committee have decided to incorporate Law 91A (EBU rules) into the Club Rules. They are concerned with good behaviour within the club and will assist directors in dealing any complaints about bad behaviour. A score percentage will be deducted, at the discretion of the director of the evening, where players have been behaving badly.
Thank you all, and enjoy your bridge.
9 Election of Chairman
Ann McMahon was proposed for re-election as Chairman by Phyllis Russell and seconded by Chris Doyle. Ann was elected unopposed.
10 Election of 2 Committee members
Chris Doyle was proposed for re-election by Phyllis Russell and seconded by Henry Traill. Val Moules was proposed for re-election by Phyllis Russell and seconded by Madeline Lawson. Both Chris and Val were elected unopposed.
11 Appointment of Auditor for the year 2007-08
The club owes a deal of gratitude to Paul Sutton for auditing the accounts for the past year. Paul has kindly agreed to continue as auditor for the coming year. This was proposed by Matthew Stratton and seconded by Hilary Jones. The meeting was unanimous in voting for this.
12 Adoption of the proposed new club rules regarding conduct.
On behalf of the committee Ann McMahon explained details of the proposal to the meeting. There was some discussion that the wording should be simplified, about the appeals process, and about the formation of the appeals committee. The proposal to incorporate the new rules into the club constitution was finally approved. However 9 members opposed the change and 5 members abstained.
13 Any Other Business
a) Club calendar – the proposals to encourage competitive duplicate events to be played on Tuesdays, leaving Thursdays for less competitive events, prompted much discussion. The objective of the changed calendar would be to encourage more people to play duplicate bridge in a less intimidating environment. Letters had been received from several members preferring that the calendar should stay as it is. Other members like to play duplicate bridge in a congenial setting without necessarily wanting to improve. Matthew Stratton proposed and Peter Boyce seconded that the calendar remain unchanged. This motion was carried with 4 votes against.
b) Electronic Master Points – it has been decided that the club will distribute master points electronically to eliminate the task of manual preparation and distribution. Members have been asked to inform the Secretary of their EBU numbers when they renew their club subscription for 2008.
c) New Year Party 2008– Hilton Hotel Friday 11th January - tickets are available now from Val Moules – members £14(subsidised by £2), non-members £16.
d) The date for the Southern Salver competition is Sunday, 11th February 2008
e) Charity to be supported 2007/08 – following several suggestions and a vote from the floor, The Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust was chosen.
f) EBU strategy proposals – soundings and discussions are still ongoing. The latest news can be found on the EBU website or on the club notice board. The initial proposals have been amended to reflect feedback from clubs.
g) The meeting agreed to a request from the Treasurer to round up, to nearest 50p or £1, the entry fees for simultaneous pairs. This will simplify money collection.
h) Liz Madeley agreed to be responsible for submitting club reports to the Newbury Weekly News.
i) The meeting was reminded that there would be no bridge on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Also that there will no teams event in December.
j) On behalf of the members, John Corbett thanked the committee for all their hard work and organisation during the year.
There being no other business, Ann McMahon thanked those who had attended the meeting, it was closed at 8 15pm. Rubber bridge followed the meeting.