Apologies:  Jill and Roy Simmons, Pat Henry, John Wareham, Fiona Paterson, Steve Southworth, Dorothy Turner & David Stimson.

Minutes of the last year’s AGM:  No matters arising. Proposed by Hubert Bunker and seconded by Sheila Coates

Chairman’s Report.

I am pleased to report another year of enjoyable bridge at our Club mainly to play duplicate pairs and we also enjoyed all the regular annual Club competitions, and reduced number of simultaneous pair’s events.

The club’s membership was about 80 (plus Life Members) during the past year. Sadly last year we lost a long-standing member and regular player when Bill Thie died, although he had not played much since Doreen passed away. From this current membership the average number of tables per week has been just over 9 tables. This is a fair number, but of course a few more players on a regular basis would be welcome.

To encourage some new members, we will be holding an Open Evening on 11th October, when new players will be invited to attend, and join with us regulars in a normal Duplicate Pairs Event.

I would like to thank Roger Lennard for the collection and return of the boards to the EBU: Jane Farndon who is still providing a service to try to match up any single players, so please give her a call if you ever need a partner.: the members of the committee for organising the Christmas Party last December. : The Directors who have directed our events. We have taken on the task of directing the Simultaneous Pairs events ourselves, which saves us an external Director’s fee but puts extra pressure on our own playing Director. Special thanks go to Jane Farndon who is our regular Scorer, and to those who do the scoring when Jane is not available to do so. We could not play bridge here without the help of all these volunteers.

In response to your feedback, we have reduced the EBU Simultaneous Pairs to two per year and we have been quite successful at National level.

We discontinued our Sign-in process a couple of months ago, and I hope you agree that the collection of names and table money at the tables is working smoothly. This is the method that most clubs use.

A few months ago, the Committee put forward some ideas for refreshing some of our annual competitions. Thank you for your responses to our suggestions. These have since been modified in the light of your comments, and we will be putting forward the latest proposals in a few minutes, when further discussion may take place.

Finally, I would like to thank you for supporting me and the committee in our efforts to keep the club running as you would wish it to be.

Treasurers Report: no matters arising

Adoption of accounts and appointment of Auditor Tom Banks: Proposer: Brenda Baldock, Seconder: Terry Neal.

Competitions Proposal: Following a robust discussion the following was agreed at the AGM:

1. Dane Cups Tuesday 7th February 2017

a. Ladies Cup

this will be run without change, but ladies will probably have their own section with only the Ladies competing (no non-competing mixed pairs or visitors). Most likely a Howell movement playing as many of the other pairs as possible.

b. Men’s Cup

This will be run in a separate section from the Ladies, and will have the men’s pairs and any mixed or visitor pairs. There was a split opinion on whether only a Men’s pair could win this Cup, or whether it will be open to mixed pairs as well (must be members – visitors always play without standing). The Committee will take the final decision on this soon and let the members know. If it will be men only competing, then the men will all sit one direction (NS or EW) and the non-competing pairs will sit the other way. If mixed pairs are also competing, then seating is not important, and either a Howell movement (best) or an arrow switched Mitchell movement will be used to produce one winner./font>

2. Ranwell Cup (Mixed Pairs) Tuesday 25th October 2016

No change to this competition, other than the fact that the Toten Cup for Married Pairs will be run as part of the same evening completion (see below). The Ranwell Cup is the main event, Toten Cup is subsidiary to it.

3. Toten Cup (Married Pairs) Tuesday 25th October 2016 (postponed from the B.B.C. Calendar date of 4th October, when a regular Pairs event will take place).

As there are so few married pairs playing at B.B.C. these days, this event will be run as a part of the Mixed Pairs event. The winning Mixed Pair (married to each other or not) will win the Ranwell Cup, and the next highest placed Married Couple will win the Toten Cup. You cannot win both on the same night.

4. A new Pivot Teams competition will be introduced as an experiment. Details and date to be worked out by the Committee.

We will try to advertise our competitions better, so as to attract more entrants. Sign-up sheets for entrants on the notice board may be re-introduced, to encourage others to commit to the event.

All other competitions continue as they were in 2015/16.

Committee: the existing committee was re-elected. Proposer: Terry Neal, Seconder: John Jackson.

The meeting closed at 8.00 pm. Followed by the presentation of prizes