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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