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Monday 10th June

AGM 7pm

Free F2F Bridge

Bennett End

AGM Minutes 2014

HEMEL HEMPSTEAD BRIDGE CLUB

 

Minutes of 55th AGM held on Monday 30 June 2014

 

Attendance     40  members

 

1          Apologies for Absence   
Tim Cooper, John Pelley, Pat Henry, Susie Bond, Cynthia Wheatley, Sita Piggot, Barbara and Terry Neal, Jean and Clive Walters.

 

2          Minutes of Last Meeting    

Copies had been available on the website and these were accepted as a true record. There were no  matters arising.

 

3          Chairman’s Report   

David Stimson  said that all evenings use duplimated boards and he thanked David Blasebalk for running the Duplimate machine. The club’s membership was slightly up on last year but the average number of tables per week was down by about a table due to a decline in those playing on a Thursday. There was a standby system on Thursdays, and David thanked Pat Hogger, Jane Farndon, Clive Walters, Peter Thomas and Ian Grant for volunteering to be a standby. However the committee would need to look at Thursdays due to low attendance.The rota is on the web site Members just have to turn up before 7.20p.m. to get a game. Alternatively they can do the same as Monday and Tuesday, and contact the Chair.

 

We purchase new sets of cards in February in readiness for the Club’s Swiss pairs. Those playing enjoyed the day and therefore we will be running the event again in Februay 2015.  We are not planning any significant changes to the calendar or competition rules, and we will continue with our local rule (as per the noticeboard), which has helped to speed up play.

 

The Club won the Herts inter-club event, the Desmond Flockhart trophy, for only the second time in our history. Our team was Roger Edmonds (Captain), Derek & Julian Peers, Cliff &  Anne Short, David Stimson, June Ball and Helen Robinson.

 

He thanked Susie and Pat for organising the Christmas Party. We managed to hold the ticket price at £9...again!  .

 

The sad loss of Meg Evans  and Julie Snell who both passed away last year was reported. Meg was a regular player on both Monday and Tuesday evenings. Julie played on Thursdays. They will be sadly missed.

 

Finally he gave a big thank you to all those who have served on the Committee;  Cliff Short,  Paula Morton, Lesley Peers,  Susie Bond, David Blasebalk, Tim Cooper, Martyn McDonald and  Pat Jacobs.Martyn moved to the West Country and  Naomi Gibbs has joined the committee.

Tim Cooper is having to resign as he is now Chairman of Berkhamsted BC.

 

David also thanked  Derek Gowlett for organising  Tuesday’s bridge;  all our Directors;  Roger Edmonds for the web site;  Anne Short as our membership secretary and  Cynthia Wheatley for acquiring all our provisions. The Club couldn’t function without their help


4          Treasurer’s Report
Cliff Short reported that the accounts had no surprises.  Income was healthy and similar to last year’s figures and expenditure was also in line with forecasts .  The biggest item of expenditure was the cost of the hall and this had  risen slowly for a few years and for the forthcoming year – this helped us keep our costs down. Subscriptions and table money for the coming year would be the same as last year although P2P had gone up marginally. 

It was proposed by Derek Peers and seconded by Helen Robinson that the meeting should accept the Accounts and this was agreed.  Helen Robinson thanked the Treasurer for producing very competent accounts.

5          Appointment of Auditor
Brian Carroll was proposed as Auditor for the coming year and approved by the meeting.   

6          Election of Officers and Committee

 

Proposed Chairman:   David Stimson.

 

Proposed Treasurer:   Cliff Short.

 

Other committee members who had agreed to serve for 2013/2014 were :
David Blasebalk, Pat Jacobs, Susie Bond, Paula Morton, Lesley Peers and Naomi Gibbs
It was proposed from the floor by June Ball and seconded by
Patricia Hobson that the existing Chairman (DS), Treasurer (CS) and Committee Members (DB, PJ, SB, PM, LP and NG) should be re- elected en bloc. This proposal was carried unanimously, and those listed above were duly elected to serve for the coming year. 

 

Jonathan Harris thanked the Chairman and the committee for all their work on behalf of the Club and its members.

 

7          Any Other Business

 

A          Thursdays - J Harris asked if Thursdays were being subsidised as the table money did not cover the hall hire.  The Treasurer explained that many Thursday players were season ticket holders so Thursday was paying its way.  David explained that if Thursday evenings were cancelled this could affect our hall charges for the other nights and also season ticket income. The low Thursday numbers were more a Bridge problem than a financial problem.  He asked for comments on why people did not attend Thursdays.  Several people felt it was too intense with hands being discussed all the time and no social intercourse. Others did not want to play more than once or twice a week. C Cross suggested a handicap system based on EBU ranking might encourage more people although we were not sure how this could be calculated.

 

B          There was a request for scorers to show the contract as well as the score for the results.  One of the scorers explained that this had been trialled and not only was it a lot of additional work, contracts were often entered inaccurately, even though the score was correct. Travellers were  available the following week.

 

C         Bridgemates - June Ball instigated a further discussion on the use of Bridgemates and David explained last year’s discussion and the outcome. He also explained the committee discussed this regularly as part of their watching brief. After the discussion for and against Bridgemates a vote on the introduction of Bridgemates was taken with the following outcome:-

For:9

Against: 16

Continue watching brief: 14

 

D         Christmas Party.  The Chair explained that if we kept to the first Thursday in December, in 2015 the party would be very early in December.  He asked for a show of hands on whether people wanted to change the date.  The overwhelming majority voted to leave this decision to the committee.

 

E          B  Moule asked about slow play and was told that known people had all been spoken to and that we were managing 24 boards which was normal for three hours Bridge.
9          Presentation of Prizes

 

TUESDAY TROPHY                                          Jean Bunyan & Douglas Beard

CHAIRMAN’S CUP                                            Jean Wilding & Vic Symons

 

SMITH CUP                                                       Naomi Gibbs & John McBryde

 

HOBSON BOWL                                                Jane Farndon & Pat Jacobs

                                                Pat Hogger & John Jackson     

FELDENWOOD TROPHY                                  Lesley & Derek Peer

 

SUTCLIFFE PLATE                                            Barbara & Terry Neal     

                                                Roger Edmonds & David Stimson 

 

TUESDAY BOWL                                              Paula & Graham Morton

 

BYRON CUP                                                     Jackie Davies & Mike Minting

                                                                        Tim Cooper & Chris Eveleigh     

 

HUDSON SALVER                                            Jonathan Harris & Barry Moule                                      

 

 

CARPENTER CUP (Married Couple)                   Barbara & Terry Neal

 

TONY WEATHERLEY (Monday Ladder)              Anne & Cliff Short

 

TUESDAY TANKARD (Tuesday Ladder)             Pat MacIntyre

WENDY COTTON (Thursday Ladder)                  Roger Edmonds

NEAL VASE                                                      Cliff Short

HEMMINGS INDIVIDUAL                                   Cliff Short

JANET FITZGERALD TROPHY                           Lesley & Derek Peers

           

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