BISHOP AUCKLAND BRIDGE CLUB

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting 3rd March 2016

held at 6.30 pm in the Golf Club

The meeting was not quorate until 6.44.

1.  Apologies – Paul Beard, Marilyn Dexter, Brian Myers, Denise Barham-Hall, Allan Blackett, John Blackett Snr,

2.  Minutes of the AGM 2015 – Approved  P: Roger Carpenter  S:  Barbara Stott

3.  Matters arising from the minutes 2015 – None but the meeting was informed that Jane Pringle had been co-opted onto the committee and that Louise Badcock had agreed to take on the role of Acting Chair as no-one had been elected at the AGM.

4. Chairman’s report – attached *

5.  Treasurer’s report – Peter presented the accounts which had been audited by John Little. There was £1800 in the bank account. The main outlays had been the subsidy for the Xmas Party (£98.93) the Spring Meal (£64.00) and the Presentation Evening Dinner (£54.40). We had 37 paid up members with another 7 expected to pay. There were no questions.

6.  Secretary’s report – attached *

7.  Match Captain’s report – attached *

8.  Scorer’s report – attached *

* These reports are also available via the club website.

9.  Election of Officers and Committee Members -with no other nominations forthcoming the Officers and Committee were re-elected en bloc by the meeting.

P: Mary Winter  S Claudette Whitton

10.  Proposal by the outgoing committee:

Membership Fees and Table Money should remain unchanged for 2017.

P: M Dawson S: J Dobson - CARRIED

11.  Proposal by the outgoing committee:

Currently the constitution of BABC states that officers can only seek re-election for a maximum

of 5 consecutive years after which they must stand down. The committee proposes that this be increased to a maximum of seven years.

P: J Dobson  S: M Dawson

It was pointed out that this refers to The Chair, The Secretary and Team Captain only. John Dobson explained why he thought it was necessary as in recent years there had been dearth of people coming forward to take on the role. Malcolm Dawson explained that Officers would still need to be elected every year but the change would mean that the three officers concerned would not be obliged to stand down if there were no other candidates. Alison Young spoke against the motion saying that the Constitution was that recommended by the EBU. Mary Winter suggested that some members might shadow the officers so that they knew what was involved.

The motion was CARRIED by a large majority, only two people voting against. The constitution requires that two thirds of those voting approve any changes to the constitution. This was easily surpassed and a formal count was not required.

12. Proposal: That club no longer has pre-dealt boards as they are contrived and too expensive.

Proposed: Colin Trotter    Seconded: Margaret Wiles

Colin Trotter and Eric Wilson both expressed their feelings that pre-dealt boards are contrived and bring about contrived distributions. Margaret Wiles stated that there are always lots of print outs of the hands which are left at the end of the night and were a waste of money.

Peter Whitton explained that the cost was 12x£5 per year. Louise Badcock stated that many people did take hand outs but there were several left over because of the number of copies sent. Iain Gordon said that properly shuffled, hand dealt cards are just as likely to produce distributional hands.

Malcolm Dawson stated that the computer is not set up to produce contrived hands but that it was set to produce random hands. To replicate the same randomness with hand shuffling requires 7 or 8 riffle shuffles or up to 200 overhand shuffles. Players who become used to hand dealt boards play a greater proportion of boards with a “flat” distribution than well shuffled boards. He produced some figures of recent pre-dealt boards which supported the evidence that computer dealt boards equate to what is statistically predicted when hands are truly random. He also pointed out that we now have the facility to present the hands on the website and players can replay any hands they found interesting.

The motion was DEFEATED with three votes in favour and the vast majority of those present against doing away with pre-dealt boards. A formal count was not required.

13.  AOB – for discussion only. Motions must be submitted in advance.

David Wilkinson stated that despite the Secretary giving members lots of information regarding the need for a quorum of 20 members being present at the scheduled start time of 6.30 the meeting was not able to start on time as there were not enough members present. This results in a delay and that because of this the Bridge session was delayed. He therefore suggested that the committee looked at proposing an alteration to the number required for a Quorum and that if necessary a Special General Meeting be called to put the proposal to the membership. It was agreed that the committee would do so.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 7.12 pm.