Welcome to Newbury Bridge Club

EBU Proposals announcement June 2007

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Link to Proposals document (opens in new window)

Letter to EBU (Chris Barrable) on behalf of Newbury Committee

Q & A ref EBU proposals specicic to Newbury

LETTER TO CHRIS BARRABLE RE NEWBURY COMMITTEE THOUGHTS ON NEW PROPOSALS

I am writing to you on behalf of Newbury Bridge Club and Ann McMahon our Chairman.

Newbury Bridge Club Committee has read the proposals from the EBU Board and the following is our considered response: We do not see how these proposals would revitalise Clubs.

The free Services listed under 4a are mainly already in situ at Newbury. PTP would work out at 43p. per head per game extra, at each duplicate session. This would be rounded to 50p. to make money collection sensible and also incorporate the club's annual affiliation fee.

Members of Newbury who are not members of EBU do not wish to join. We promote joining the EBU within our Club. A large proportion of our Members who are Pensioners are happy with the status quo. Some say they will leave rather than be foreced to join the EBU if Newbury affiliates under the current proposals. We do not see how the EBU objectives to elevate and maintain the status and procure the advancement of bridge in England would be helped by these proposals.

There is nothing in the proposals that says how you are going to invigorate clubs by helping them to gain additional Members. This would not strengthen our Membership base. We think Newbury willlose some existing Members and we see nothing inyour proposals that will help us to gain newMembers. The EBU may gain Members by tis proposal but it will be because existing Members of local Clubs are forced to become EBU Members.

Should a Member of our Club choose not to be a EBU Member they will have to pay an extra fee on top of PTP. This would not be set by Newbury Bridge Club alone but in consultation with EBU.

QUESTIONS (& ANSWERS) POSED TO EBU BY MADELINE LAWSON

We often have guest players are they prevented from playing duplicate becuase they are not ebu - if yes who makes the decision on guest fees the club or ebu?

Not at all. The current proposals include the charge of a visitors fee. This would be set in consultation with the clubs themselves. Everybody will be able to play in our clubs as they do at the moment.

We prefer Scorebridge to Cass under the proposed scheme will Scorebridge still be acceptable and usable in conjunction with ebu?

Most definitely. We are not promoting Cass as our scoring program, we are negotiating with the market leaders so that our clubs get the best possible tools to fulfil their jobs.

pleaseconfirm that there will be no county affiliation fee payable by clubs or members?

I can confirm there will be no county fee payable by individual members – this is, of course, if the proposals are accepted. I cannot confirm if there will be a county club affiliation fee. This is outside of the remit of the EBU and is between the county and its clubs.

4. how do the ebu intend to use the extra revenue that it will undoubtedly get if these proposals are adopted? In what ways are they going toinspire people to play bridge?

If you look at our FAQ no 5 you will see that the financial calculations are income neutral i.e. they do not raise any extra income. The point of the proposals is to strengthen the membership and, we hope, increase it. Once this is achieved we can then develop the game of bridge because we will not be facing a decreasing membership every year – this year we are likely to lose 1000 members. However, we do have outline plans that we would like to develop and I have attached a document that outlines our hopes for the future.

how do they propose to fund clubs to run their own classes for bridge teaching?

Sorry, I am a little confused here. We run a partner teacher scheme which involes subsidising our teachers in terms of equipment and education materials and training them how to generate more students. The partner teacher scheme involves the creation, after the first academic year say in June or July, of a learn and play section of a club which in turn becomes a partner club or partner section of a club after a period of 18 months. There is nothing in our proposals that will fund any teaching scheme outside of our own.

6. will rubber bridge be affected. do rubber bridge players only ie not duplicate have tojoin ebu if club affiliated? (most of our rubber bridge players do not wish to be members)

The EBU has no responsibility for rubber bridge at all. It only covers the game of duplicate bridge.

will there be any choice should club members wish to play duplicate but not join ebu?

As in my previous answer, your club members will be charged an extra fee on top of the P2P fee if you remain affiliated and they choose not to join the EBU.

will there be annual increases from ebu on ptp and master points, subscriptions, duplicate costs etc. what control will a club have?

The whole point of the P2P charge is it rolls all of the above in to one payment. Your own club charges and costs are determined by you. The P2P charge is currently estimated at an increase of 30p per player per session. This calculation is based on only 45% of our clubs playing data. It may well be that when we get all the playing data in and we can accurately predict the initial P2P charge that it could be lower than 30p. The more playing sessions from clubs the lower the P2P will be. If there are annual increases they will be very low, if you read FAQ no. 4 you will see the increase that a penny would make.

will ptp be out of club committee control?

Yes, it will be set by the EBU annually.

10. Cahalan Cup within our County states you donot have to be an ebu member how will this be affected?

also leagues, basingstoke cup etc.?

I suspect that your county has competitions, like my own county, to encourage new players to become involved in duplicate events. I do not see why that should be changed.

would all duplicate sessions have to be played under te aujspices of the ebu or would we be able to have some non ebu evenings?

Currently the proposals involve all EBU sessions, this is because the more sessions involved the lower the initial P2P fee.

one county last year cancelled a Swiss event which normally had 300-400 people attending. I am told this was because the bu and county could not agree on the division of money. Surely both sides shold be promoting bridge - how does the ebu equate this with promoting bridge?

I cannot make any valid comments about this as I know nothing of it especially as you do not name the county. We have extensive rules and regulations for the running of our tournaments and the joint county events. May I suggest that you contact Max Bavin, our Chief Tournament Director who will be able to deal with these serious allegations.

DEVELOPMENT PLANS

There are a number of plans that we have in mind to develop the game but because we need to ensure that we have a strong basis to develop from we have yet to research and cost these potential projects in detail. However the following are areas that we would like to investigate in the future:

Youth Bridge

Bridge in schools currently is dependent on the good will and enthusiasm of volunteers which we appreciate greatly, but which does not provide consistency or continuity. Although we recognise that some research has been undertaken in the past it lacks the academic rigour that is required by governments to ensure bridge is taken seriously as an education tool.

Employ teachers to take bridge in to schools on request.

Undertake a robust and rigorous research project to prove that bridge helps children in various aspects of development – mental arithmetic, strategy, partnership, interpersonal skills etc… Use this to persuade the government that bridge should be part of the national curriculum.

Employ staff to promote bridge in universities and set up university bridge clubs.

Bridge and the over 40s

Investigate and research – in partnership with a university or commercial organisation –the health benefits of bridge, and use this to promote the game amongst the over 40s.

Employ more club liaison officers to help clubs re-vitalise their activities and, in conjunction with the communications officer/s, promote the game locally amongst non- players. Use the above methods to encourage partner teachers and learn and play clubs and club sections to encourage more people to take part in the game.

Bridge and the elderly

Develop partnerships with organisations like the U3A, Help the Aged and others to create initiatives for the elderly to enjoy the benefits of bridge.

These are only some of the activities we could undertake to develop this great game of ours. Most of them are inter-dependent. We are in a difficult position at the EBU, we lose members each year, and therefore it is impossible to make any investment in developing the game before we have developed the existing membership base. Only then can we truly investigate the exciting opportunities available to us.

July 2007