GOSPORT BRIDGE CLUB
Minutes of the Committee Meeting held on 22nd October 2012 at 19 Palmerston Way.
The meeting commenced at 1904 with the following committee members present.
Roz Reid Chairman
Edna Stratton Vice Chairman
Phil Runchman Secretary
Phil Downham Treasurer
Shirley Corner Committee member
Jean Ruskin Committee member
1. Apologies for absence.
There were no apologies but the committee noted with great sadness the recent death of Keith Palmer. Keith was officially our Scorer but he had filled and carried out many other roles. His knowledge, experience, and hard work will be badly missed by the committee and the Club as a whole. Roz has e-mailed the membership with details of the funeral and will make an announcement at the Club on Tuesday. We have already observed a minute silence in his memory as have other Clubs in the area where he worked and played.
2. Minutes of the last committee meeting held on 25th June 2012 and matters arising.
The secretary summarised the previous minutes which were accepted as a true record of the meeting. There were the following matters arising:-
Item 4. Competitions Update. The Solent Trophy will retain it’s current format as a knockout competition this year although next year it will probably be a one day multi teams event at Romsey. Phil Downham is Captain.
Item 6. Next Year’s Programme. This is up and running satisfactorily.
Item 7. Blue Points. Keith Palmer had suggested that we consider running a Blue Point event when they are introduced next year. As Keith is no longer with us to organise this it was decided to shelve this proposal at present.
Item 8. Electronic Scoring. This was an agenda item for later in the meeting.
Item 10. (a) EBU website. Roz has updated the Club’s information on this. We need to inform the EBU of Keith’s death although they will also be informed by the County as he was he was an EBU Shareholder for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
(b) Club website. Keith had set this up before he died. We have paid another year’s rental and Roz has the access code and password which she passed on to other committee members so that they also had access.
3. Minutes of the GBC AGM held on 28th August 2012 and matters arising.
The secretary also summarised these minutes. There were the following matters arising.
Item 3. Para 7. EBU Matters. The rise P2P fees had been acceptable.
Item 4. Treasurer’s Report. The Club finances were healthy although our balance creditor was down to £1450 due to the purchase of the Bridgemates.
Item 8 (a) The membership had decided that the Christmas Party should be held at the Methodist Hall despite the ban on wine.
4. Treasurer’s Report.
Our financial position and balance creditor were broadly unchanged from that reported to the AGM in August although it is getting more difficult to keep track of the accounts as we now only pay the hall rental four monthly, the SBL only pay us for their nights monthly, and the EBU take P2P fees two monthly in arrears. However Phil D as treasurer and the committee as a whole were happy with our finances at present as we expected to start making some profit now that our hall hire charges were less. It was agreed that we should need to look more closely at our finances if or when our balance creditor fell below £1,000.
Roz had met with John Jones as the new Chairman of the SBL to discuss the financial arrangements between the League and GBC (John had not been involved in discussions about these arrangements earlier in the year.) Basically SBL now collect their own table money of £2.00 per person per night and pay £1.50 per person per night to GBC to cover the hall hire and other expenses such as maintenance of equipment. John is now happy with this arrangement although it was agreed as before that it should be kept under review. He will probably discuss it again with Phil D when he gets round to inspecting our accounts.
Phil D told the committee that we owed £150 to Keith’s estate as he had paid our NICKO fees. It was thought that the best way to deal with this was for Phil to write a cheque for Clare. We also need to update the signatories on our bank account. These are currently Phil D, Keith Palmer and Pat Loader; this should be changed to Phil D, Roz Reid and Jean Ruskin.
Action;:- Phil D
5. Competitions Update.
Roz has arranged teams to play in the HICKO and Basingstoke Cup and the first matches have been booked. We have entered three teams for the NICKO but following Keith’s death and other illness we shall have to withdraw one (the entry fee will be refunded). Teams and arrangements for the Solent Trophy (see above) have yet to be finalised and Phil D will deal with this.
Action:- Phil D
6. Bridgemates.
Before his death Keith had purchased 12 Bridgemates and the equipment to run them. We have started to use them for duplicate pairs nights with success but not without some teething problems. Keith was very much the driving force behind this innovation, his expertise and computer skills will be missed but he had held some instruction sessions for other directors and officers of the Club. Roz and Phil R now hold the Bridgemates and have tried running dummy sessions with them, also not without difficulty! The reaction of Club members to the Bridgemates had generally been positive and the committee felt that having made such a large capital investment we must persevere in using them. Roz and Phil R will keep trying with dummy sessions, they will bring the Bridgemates to the next duplicate session (23rd Oct) arriving early to set them up and Phil D will direct and help them. Until we gain more confidence them we shall also use travellers and only try to play 24 boards.
Action:- Roz, Phil R and Phil D.
7. Christmas Party.
SBL had agreed at their AGM to run the Christmas Party within the restrictions of the Methodist Hall (i.e. no alcohol and no raffle prizes of alcohol or value of more than £5). They would like GBC (i.e. Shirley) to provide tea and coffee as usual and Jean agreed to liase with Isobel Evans to see if we could help in other ways such as soft drinks. It would be GBC’s turn to run the Christmas Party next year.
Action:- Shirley and Jean
8. Visitors Evening.
We had held a Visitors Evening in January of this year and it was felt that this had been enjoyable and successful in attracting some new members. It was therefore decided to repeat this on 22nd January 2013. Again there would be no table money on that night for members and visitors, and we should approach Pat Loader and Aileen Wilkinson to invite players who attended their classes. Whether or not to use Bridgemates could be decided nearer the time.
9. EBU Update.
Again this was something we relied on Keith for as he would attend the EBU Shareholders meeting in early October and report back to us. Our main concern in the past had been P2P fees usually decided at this meeting. Phil R had just checked the EBU website, there is nothing new on P2P fees and the minutes of the latest Shareholders meeting have not been published. However he had noticed from the EBU accounts that they had made a profit last year and not the loss that Keith had been predicting so perhaps there would not be too much pressure to raise P2P fees. No doubt we shall be informed in due course of any change to P2P fees and the committee felt this was no longer the concern it had been in the past.
10. AOB.
(a). Jean asked if we should look for new committee members now that Keith was no longer with us. It was agreed that we should, Pauline Bishop and Julian Sykes were mentioned as names who might help.
(b). Phil R asked who should replace Keith as a key holder for the hall. Roz was concerned as she would be away on three Tuesdays before Christmas and some others in the New Year. Phil D agreed to hold the key for 30th October and perhaps further ahead as he lived near the hall and could easily go round to open up and close up even if he was not himself playing that night.
Action:- Phil D
(c). Roz reiterated her intention to announce to the Club that Keith’s funeral would be on 1st November at 1400 at St Mary’s Church, Alverstoke with a wake to follow at Hornet Sailing Club. It was suggested that we might consider naming one of the Club’s Competitions such as the Club Pairs or Mixed Pairs after Keith but the committee felt that this was a matter for the whole membership to discuss at an AGM and that we should only consider this after consulting Clare.
(d) Roz remained concerned about directors. Our current ad hoc arrangements work reasonably but it would be nice to have named directors on the programme as in the past. Only John Jones has put forward dates he is available at present. Phil D said he would try and help and Mike Mollart-Rogerson had also said he could help from time to time. Roz, Phil R and Jean said they would consider attending a course for directors in the New Year to learn more about the role.
Action:- All named above.
11. Date of next meeting.
This was agreed for Monday 7th January 2013.
The meeting ended at 2040.
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