Newbury Bridge Club
EBU Items
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Newbury Bridge Club EBU Items |
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To Newbury Bridge Club This is to inform you that at the HIWCBA Executive Committee meeting on 27th May, 2008 it was decided that HIWCBA would place all three of its votes against the Strategy Proposal at the EBU's EGM on 4th June. Margaret Gale - County Secretary and HIWCBA Shareholder HIWCBA and the EBU Strategic Proposal document >>see lower down for Pros & Cons << This document enlarges on the process by which HIWCBA will formulate its position on the EBU’s Strategic Proposal described briefly in the covering email. The Process The HIWCBA position will be established by a combination of a ballot of the County’s Clubs and the view of the HIWCBA membership. In addition, the County is convening a “Meeting of Clubs”. As you will probably realise, convening a “Meeting of Clubs” and conducting a ballot of the clubs and allowing these to influence the position that the County will take on this matter is stepping outside the bounds of the HIWCBA Constitution, which is founded on the principle of “One Person, One Vote” for its members. I crave the indulgence of the HIWCBA membership for allowing this. It is based on my strong belief that since the EBU’s Strategic Proposal would affect those in clubs who are currently not members of HIWCBA, there is a natural justice in allowing their voice to be heard, even though there is the possibility of “double/triple/more accounting” due to individuals being members at more than one club. However, I cannot ignore the HIWCBA Constitution, which requires me to take into consideration the views of the HIWCBA membership. This aspect, although taken into account to some extent by way of the clubs, will be determined through the properly elected representatives of the County, namely the members of its Executive committee, who will be expected to form their own opinion based on the views that they have heard from individuals who are members of HIWCBA (i.e. they will not take into consideration the views on those who are not HIWCBA members). I have asked the members of the Executive committee to note the name of anyone making their view known, so as to ensure that the view of a particular HIWCBA member is noted only once. Armed with all these sets of input, the HIWCBA Executive will mandate its Shareholder for the EBU EGM at its committee meeting which is scheduled for the 27 th. May. The ballot, as well the view of the HIWCBA membership, will be taken into consideration in arriving at HIWCBA's position. You should note that due to my close involvement with the development of the EBU’s Strategic Proposal I will be abstaining from the determination of the County’s decision at that Executive committee meeting. The HIWCBA Executive agreed to this process at its last meeting. The “Meeting of Clubs” The “Meeting of Clubs” is convened for 20 th. May at Chilworth Hall (adjacent to the Chilworth Arms pub, formerly known as The Clump on the A27 in Chilworth village), commencing at 7:00pm and hopefully finishing no later than 9:00pm . There is a reasonable, but limited, amount of parking behind the Chilworth Hall – please do not use the car park to the front of the hall which belongs to the pub. This meeting will offer the opportunity for discussion, allow questions to be answered and/or clarifications made, and enable the clubs to make statements regarding their position. I expect the agenda to take the form:
Since this is not a meeting convened under the constitution of HIWCBA, it can be chaired by anyone and this affords me the opportunity to step down from its chairmanship so as to be able to answer questions on the EBU’s Strategic Proposal. Some clubs will schedule their own EGMs. Some will want to attend the County meeting to understand better the Strategic Proposal before finalising their club's view. Clubs wishing to do this and needing to take a position through a club EGM should schedule that EGM for as soon as possible after the "Meeting of Clubs" as they can. This implies that there cannot be a “finalised” vote on the evening of the “Meeting of the Clubs”. However, those clubs who attend the meeting and have finalised their club’s position can record their vote that evening. See also “The Ballot of the Clubs” immediately below. The Ballot of the Clubs A ballot of clubs will be undertaken on the motion: "That named club accepts the main tenets of the EBU's Strategic Proposal, primarily that duplicate players in EBU-affiliated clubs should be members of the EBU and that they contribute to the national organisation by way of the 'Pay to Play' scheme". Each club will have one vote only. However, the number of "player sessions" returned by the club in the recent EBU Club Survey will be taken into consideration in assessing the overall position of the club membership of the County. If your club did not make such a return then HIWCBA will accept your club's "player session" information up to the time of the deadline for the ballot, and this will allow your club’s view to be taken into account appropriately. The deadline for submission of a club's vote will be Sunday, 25th May. Those clubs attending the "Meeting of Clubs" who know their position on this motion may record their vote at the meeting. Votes should be lodged with Margaret Gale, the County Secretary , by post (9, Winchat Close, Southampton SO16 8HU), email ( margaret_gale@hotmail.com ), telephone (02380 740471) or in person. The known point of contact (i.e. the person who has received this email/letter on behalf of the club directly from HIWCBA) is considered to be the only person to have the authority to register a club’s vote. It should be straightforward for clubs to comply with this and in this way there is no confusion for either the clubs or for HIWCBA on how the vote is correctly reported. Also it avoids the necessity for any “proxy” mechanism. The Wording of the Motion for the Club Ballot I do not yet know the wording of the motion for the EBU EGM. However, I am advised that the motion placed before you will cover that which will be put to the County Shareholders at the EBU EGM. Quite deliberately, the wording of the motion allows for some flexibility. In my opinion, the discussion is about the overarching principles, and not about the detail in minutiae. One can expect that further refinement of the detail of the Strategic Proposal will occur. It would be miraculous if every possible clause were absolutely the way it should be, and it would be unreasonable to vote against it solely on that basis. Please note that the wording does not ask the clubs to mandate how our Shareholder should place the County’s (3) votes. This is quite deliberate, since the ballot of the clubs is only a contribution to the determination of the County’s position. However, the ballot will have an influence on that decision. You should also note that the wording mentions only "duplicate players". The reason for this is that the EBU's Strategic Proposal only affects duplicate players (be they EBU or non-EBU members at the moment) i.e. the EBU’s Strategic Proposal does not reach into other forms of Bridge, such as Rubber. It follows that if a club holds an EGM of all its members, then any of its members who are unaffected (e.g. only play Rubber) by the EBU Strategic Proposal should abstain, i.e. it would be unreasonable for them to contribute to a decision which does not affect them. I give below a few pointers for and against the EBU proposals. These are my interpretation and my personal opinion only and should be treated as such. Please read the EBU proposals on their website and if you have any Questions please telephone me or ask me at the Club. THE PROPOSAL To accept the pay to play scheme and for Newbury Bridge Club to affiliate to the EBU Points in favour of the Proposal
AGAINST THE PROPOSALS
MADELINE LAWSON 29-4-08
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