Back to Home Page AGM Minutes 

AGM Minutes 2009
Alton Bridge Club

Alton Bridge Club

Minutes of AGM of Alton Bridge Club held on Monday 13th July

At 7pm in the Centennial Room at Alton Maltings Centre

1. Apologies

22 apologies were received.

2. Approval of minutes of last committee meeting held on 15th July 2008

The minutes were approved and signed.

Proposed Maureen Morrison

Seconded Peter Lang

3. Matters arising from the last AGM

There were no matters arising.

Jack Aaron asked if the minutes of the AGM could be posted online. It was agreed to put them on the Alton Bridge Club website.

4. Chairman’s Report

Reg Tripp thanked the member’s present at the AGM and those who had sent apologies and registered their proxy votes on the two important issues to be decided at the AGM.

Financially the year has been satisfactory. The issues of attracting new and possibly younger members and the falling numbers on Tuesday evenings remain a problem. Alton Bridge Club has a reputation of being a friendly club thanks to our members, and this reputation we must maintain.

He hopes that the planned Annual Dinner at The Poachers in South Warnborough on Saturday 24th October 2009 will be as successful as last year’s which attracted more members. He hoped this would increase to 40 this year.

The weekend away in 2008 was very successful (possibly due to the mistake in pricing made by the hotel). The next weekend away will be from Friday 19th March to Sunday 21st March 2009 at the Hydro Hotel in Eastbourne. There will be a limit of 11 tables, and priority will be given to members and their partners.

Two important decisions will be made at the AGM. These will influence the future viability of Alton Bridge Club. They will affect everyone individually and the club as a whole.

He thanked the hard working committee and those who gave strong support to the club, in particular the Directors. He added that more Directors are needed and some financial help would be given by the club to anyone interested in taking the Directors Course.

He thanked those members who always arrive early to help with the setting up of the table’s etc. for both Mondays and Tuesdays, and hopes that next year a few more people will join in.

Award of the Chairman’s Cup

The Chairman said that he would prefer to give this award to a non committee member but this year one committee member has performed above and beyond the call of duty. Firstly the move from Treloars to the Maltings, then the possible move to Beech and, most difficult of all, the Pay 2 Play proposal. Her voluntary contribution is thankless enough without the burden of all this extra detailed analysis. So, with great pleasure and thanks for all her hard work, the Chairman’s Cup was awarded to the Treasurer, Kate Colley.

5. Treasurer’s report

All members were given a copy of the accounts for the year 20th June 2008 to 30th June 2009.

Receipts for the year were £6663.08 and expenditure £6718.39. This gives a shortfall of £55.31.

Income is up £900 on the previous year. This is due to an increase of £758 table money and the increased participation of members at the Annual Dinner.

Interest in the Savings Account is low due to the present economic situation. At the 2008 AGM it was suggested that moving the Savings Account should be considered. The financial situation has remained the same, so this was not worthwhile.

Accommodation charge increased by £1000, due to the move to the Maltings. Master Points expenditure was up – more players plus a price increase. The cost of bridge supplies was down as anticipated.

Two donations were given - £50 to the Maltings and £50 towards Allan Kimble’s memorial.

Refreshment costs are made up of £210 for the use of the kitchen and £108.25 for biscuits.

Annual membership subscriptions and table money charges will be dependent on the outcome of the decision to move from or remain at the Maltings.

Annual Membership subscriptions are due from 1st July 2009.

Members Questions

1. Bill Holmes queried the fact that the club had benefitted from the last payment of £1000 to Treloars being made in 2008. Kate Colley replied that this amount was balanced by our rent increase of £1000

2. Ken Sinden asked if it would be advantageous to move our balance of £6000 into a different savings account. Kate Colley replied that we have a balance of £1600 and at this time all banks are paying very little interest. She will monitor the situation.

Kate then thanked David Hayden for examining the accounts and also the members who collect table money on her behalf.

The accounts were approved.

Proposed Ray Butcher

Seconded Grace Pilbeam

 

6. Pay to Play

The committee unanimously proposed that

"Alton Bridge Club accepts the proposal of the EBU Universal Membership through their new Pay to Play scheme."

David Hayden proposed the motion, as follows: -

---

As you have just heard from Reg the EBU has adopted a Pay to Play system of finance starting in April 2010 which will replace the current system based on personal membership and which at the moment is optional.

In future if a Club wishes to remain affiliated to the EBU that Club will be required to collect and pass on a pay to play fee in respect of all players participating in Club evenings irrespective of whether those players are club members or visitors.

As a Club we must now decide whether to continue our affiliation to the EBU or to opt out and play as an unregistered Club.

The committee are recommending that we continue our affiliation to the EBU for various reasons.

Those reasons being

Competitions

If we wish to continue to play Simultaneous Pairs events run by the BGB, EBU and County Associations we need to be affiliated to the EBU.

At the last AGM a proposal was adopted that in future the Club play a minimum of six Simultaneous Pairs Events on Tuesday evenings.

Previous records have shown that attendance is higher for Simultaneous Pairs events than on normal club evenings.

If we opt out the Club will not be eligible to play in any Simultaneous Pairs events.

Neither will the Club be eligible to play in any County competitions such as the Basingstoke Cup or any leagues.

Individual members will not be able to play in any National or County competition unless they belong to a Club which is affiliated to the EBU or unless they continue their personal membership to the EBU.

Various charity events such as the Children in Need and Hants & IOW charity competitions will not be available to be played by the Club.

Most players having played in Simultaneous events enjoy monitoring their progress and position in relation to other players nationally via the E-cats website.

Any Club whether it be bridge or any other activity or sport is dependant for its survival on attracting and maintaining a reasonable standard of play or membership.

This means we have to attract and keep good players as well as encouraging beginners.

Without a reasonable standard of competition attained by playing in national events the standard of the Club will inevitably decline as the better players will play at those clubs which continue to offer the challenge of playing in national events.

Master Points

Awarding Master Points is an attempt to record the standard of play any particular individual has achieved.

Master Points are issued to approximately the top third of players on Club evenings.

In addition players can gain substantial Master Points including Green Points by doing well in Simultaneous Pairs events.

If we decide to remain affiliated to the EBU these points will be credited automatically for all Club and national events and players will be able to check their running totals via the EBU website.

In future no charge will be made for Master Points which at present cost 40p each.

If we opt out of affiliation to the EBU then Master Points can no longer be issued by the Club.

While not all members are interested in Master Points a lot of members do enjoy receiving them and by discontinuing their issue we may well discourage those members from attending Club evenings.

 

 

The Cost

If we wish to have a national body such as the EBU responsible for governing bridge then they need to be financed.

Our Constitution states that bridge shall be played in accordance with the Duplicate Bridge Rules set by the EBU.

At present the EBU annual membership fee is £22. In addition they gain revenue from the issue of Master Points.

In future an affiliation fee of £30 per Club will be made plus a table charge of 33p per player made up of 29p to the EBU and 4p to the Hants & IOW association.

Based on the annual fee of £22 this Pay 2 Play charge equates to 66 visits to any bridge club.

For those Club members who are already EBU members and only belong to or attend one club such as Alton the difference in cost will be minimal.

There are obviously quite a few members like myself who belong to more than one club and they will be faced with an increase in the equivalent of their annual membership fee once they exceed 66 visits in any financial year.

Once a member has played more than 150 club Pay-to-Play sessions in a financial year, then any subsequent sessions are exempt and EBU Pay-to-Play amounts for those sessions will be rebated.

Club members however will notice very little difference in the actual cost of playing at Alton Bridge Club whether they play on just Mondays or both Mondays and Tuesdays.

This is because the Committee feel that the difference in cost between issuing Master Points and the pay to play cost can be absorbed in the present table money of £1.50 particularly if we return to Beech Village Hall.

Should we remain at the Maltings the difference in cost may mean a modest increase in annual subscriptions.

Personal Details

Any member who does not wish his or her personal details to be passed on to the EBU may remain anonymous.

Unless players remain anonymous the EBU may share personal information with the member’s county membership secretary and event organisers but other than this undertakes never to pass on the personal details to any other person, or third party organisation, without the member’s permission.

There are other fringe benefits to be gained by remaining affiliated to the EBU such as every club member receiving a two monthly copy of the bridge magazine and a diary annually.

Having heard the Committee’s reasons for recommending that we continue to be affiliated to the EBU we hope that you will agree and vote in favour of the motion.

---

Barrie Cavell opposed the motion, as follows: -

---

P2P: Against Alton Bridge Club Affiliation

He congratulated David Hayden on his persuasive argument in favour of ABC remaining affiliated to the EBU.

Great majority against P2P but individuals were not given the opportunity to vote, instead it was left to County Representatives and by a majority decision - P2P accepted although Hampshire and Surrey voted unanimously against. Sally Brock and Ned Paul, very well respected in bridge circles, wrote articles in "Bridge" magazine against P2P with a huge correspondence on the matter overwhelmingly against the proposal. English Bridge Magazine (the EBU publication) did not publish any correspondence on the matter.

Case for: -

Need a Governing Body

Simultaneous events

Master Points and Green Points

Case Against: -

Compulsory EBU membership an anathema to many.

Increase in cost for all current non members and current members playing more than 75 times a year and doubling the cost playing three times a week when capped.

Significantly greater burden on Clubs and a minority in those clubs who have to interact with EBU, and will effectively become unpaid officials of the EBU. Twenty people are employed by the EBU (these numbers have increased as membership has declined and technology has improved; current wage bill in excess £400k). It was noted that the Welsh and Scottish Bridge Unions are run by volunteers. Those clubs remaining affiliated may find that the untried/untested procedures will pose a huge problem to those administering the scheme and many smaller clubs have already disaffiliated in Devon and Cornwall.

Confidentiality could become an issue when EBU releases information to Event Organisers and County Secretaries.

Clubs may decide there are better ways to spend their members’ money. EBU offers very little in exchange and member’s money could be used to offer prizes for competitions run by the club or a group of non-affiliated clubs.

---

Then followed a prolonged and sometimes acrimonious debate during which many members expressed their views and financial implications were discussed.

Sue Cretch summarised in favour of the motion, as follows: -

---

Pay to Play - Why we should join

Advantages

1 To be able to continue to issue master points.

2 To be able to play in Simultaneous Pairs events.

3 To get English Bridge magazine every two months. Includes articles on improving your bridge, as well as on competitions, news and example hands.

4 To get 18 month pocket diary, plus EBU offers and discounts on bridge supplies and insurance.

5 Tournament Director training will be offered.

6 Get a free teacher training session in future.

7 Get 6 Club Focus online magazines.

8 Get club directors handbook free of charge.

9 Available online

Scoring

Director’s handbooks

Model convention cards

Model club handbook

10 Get a voice in the Hants & Isle of Wight bridge association.

11 Get a voice in English Bridge Union, and they promised to increase the amount they do for ordinary clubs and members. More competitions. A new way of comparing your results called the National Grading Scheme.

12 Most Importantly - If we do not join we will be out of touch.

It will be hard to attract and keep new members because those who discover and join the game may start in their local club as beginners, but they are then likely to leave and go to a master point club as they get more interested.

Clubs who don’t join are likely to get left behind and will eventually find it hard to continue.

 

 

 

 

Answer to disadvantages

1 Most of us are already members of EBU. Currently paying £22 per year. Plus you pay towards the master points each time you play - Approx 16p per session. Alton Bridge Club runs 96 sessions. The cost per individual increases only after 150 sessions.

2 If you are not currently a member it will cost you more, but not as much as you think. It will cost you 17p a session extra to what we already pay in club membership and master points (In Surrey it will only cost you 13p a session). So if you play once a week it will cost you approx £8.50, for which you get all the advantages. If you play twice a week it will cost you approximately £17.

3 If you play more than 150 times in a year in any club then any sessions over the 150 will not be charged the Pay 2 play amount – any overpayment will be credited to the member or held in their account if under £5. (Page 7 of the Pay to Play Information Pack)

4 Privacy. If any members of Alton Bridge club do not want the EBU to have their information they do not have to give it. They can be entered into the EBU database under a pseudonym and be an "anonymous member". Their scores will then go to the EBU under that name and the EBU will have no record of who they really are. (but they then don’t get the magazines etc.)

5 Extra work for committee. This will cause extra work especially to set up initially. However none of the committee has complained about this. We will have to see but it is anticipated that the workload will be less once it is set up.

6 Exempt sessions

1 Social event

Any teaching or supervised play session with 16 or less boards

Charity events

Any other event applied for (Page 6 of the Pay to Play Information Pack)

---

Ken Sinden summarised against the motion, as follows: -

---

The change is unnecessary and not in the interest of either the majority of the members of the EBU or of ordinary club members. The table monies involved have not resulted in many members being inconvenienced, nor have the extra funds collected from the clubs adversely affected the clubs finances.

 

The clear majority of clubs in Hampshire and Surrey have voted against the proposal and for this reason alone we should support our local organisations by voting against the motion.

 

Specifically the EBU Committee has failed on the following grounds: -

    1 It has not paid any attention to its member’s views and tried to suppress discussion.

    2 It has shown that it is out of touch with society today - families no longer play cards and trying to recruit younger players is not a good investment route.

3 Similar societies that have gone down the same route have just built an expensive overhead structure.

4 The growth of bridge players is from the older generation - old age pensioners. This rapidly growing population are looking for new leisure activities and, as shown in our own club, is and will continue to yield new members. These members do not really care about their county or national status but play, in essence, for pleasure

5 The majority of EBU income seems to be spent on international competitions, the funding of the international players and various committee members.

 

In view of the above the club should vote against the motion. If the EBU committee changes its approach we can always join in the future.

---

A vote was then taken.

The result was (inclusive of proxy votes)

52 in favour

10 against

4 abstentions

The proposal was therefore carried.

7. Beech Village Hall

The following proposal was read

"The committee proposes by a majority of 6 – 8 that the Alton Bridge Club return to Beech Village Hall with effect from Tuesday 1st September 2009"

Kate Colley had prepared a financial statement showing the anticipated income and expenditure for 2009/10 showing the comparison between remaining at the Maltings or moving to Beech Village Hall.

This showed that the move to Beech would save the club £800 in a full year.

Reg Tripp then spoke of the advantages of moving to Beech Village Hall: -

After some discussion by members a vote was taken.

The result was (inclusive of proxy votes)

40 in favour

16 against

10 abstentions

The proposal was therefore carried.

8. Membership Subscription

As the affiliation of Alton Bridge Club to the EBU Pay to Play scheme and the move to Beech Village Hall have been agreed, the annual Membership Subscription will remain at £10.

This was approved

Proposed Grace Pilbeam

Seconded Peter Lang

9. Membership Secretary’s Report

We currently have 94 members.

10. Competition Secretary’s Report

Sue Cretch said that the competition results this year had been extremely close.

11. Club Competition Results and Presentation of Awards

Clarke Shield Wendy Miller & Shirley Urquhart

Val Beard Memorial Trophy Clive Purkiss

Millennium Trophy Gill Purkiss

Joan Ings Memorial Trophy Jack Aaron & John O’Donoghue

Roebuck Rose Bowl Marian Rumbold

Clock Trophy Jill Cook

Tankard Trophy Jacky Gunston

Monday Pairs Trophy Grace Pilbeam & Mandy Bristow

Monday Master Points Trophy Sue Cretch

Chishick Vase Sheila Wilson

12. Members Proposals

No proposals were received.

13. Re-election of committee

All the committee had agreed to stand. This was generally approved.

14. A.O.B

Bill Holmes stated that he was disappointed to see so few Tuesday players at the AGM.

David Hayden replied that usually the AGM is held on a Tuesday and very few Monday players attend.

Reg Tripp agreed with this and added that 20 Tuesday members had sent their apologies and proxy votes. He suggested that alternating the AGM between Monday and Tuesday might be a something to consider in future.

There being no other business the meeting closed at 8.30pm

 
Back to Top of Page