Minutes of the Larkhill Bridge Club AGM on Thursday 13th October 2016
1 Apologies for absence: Barry Jeffries, Pat Jeffries, Tom Hyde, Chris Embury, Carmel Williams, Leila Glancy, Pauline Boynton, Chris Medhurst, Roger Medhurst
2. Minutes of Last Meeting:
The minutes of the last meeting have been available on the website and were agreed
3. Matters arising from Minutes of Last Meeting:
No matters were arising
4. Chairman's Report:
Anne Richardson presented her report to the meeting. Anne was happy to be able to report another very successful year at Larkhill Bridge Club. Attendance at the Friday Club is slowly improving and now has duplimated boards. Anne thanked all the Committee for their hard work and especially Roger, who has now submitted his resignation after moving house, but has done a great job duplimating all the boards for our sessions.
Anne also thanked Pat Shea for taking on the role of Treasurer and having our accounts professionally audited. Pat and Bernard have taken on duplimating the boards from Roger but we urgently need a volunteer to take this over.
Anne confirmed we had a number of successes in outside competitions. Sue Bloor and Sally Duncombe came 2nd in the Players' Progress Cup, and Rak and Paul were 3rd in Kevin Comrie Cup.
Donations to charities since the club started now exceed £3,000 and we have a further charity event coming up on Saturday 5th November to raise money for the Christie Hospital Complementary Therapies Department (where Janet Hardman is a volunteer). Thanks to Maureen Beresford who convinces all sorts of companies to provide prizes for our charity events.
Membership is still buoyant and currently stands at 175. We have managed to eliminate the waiting list but still have enquiries coming through on a regular basis. Anne recommended that the current membership fee and renewal rates of £10 and £5 should remain in force for another year.
Anne reported that we have run UK and overseas holidays although sadly the planned visit to Cockermouth did not take place due to the flood damage so an alternative programme was put in place. We went to Llandudno in October and are going to the Cadiz region this October, both with Bridge Overseas. In December a group are going to Chester with another company and next April we are back with Bridge Overseas to Lake Maggiore with our largest holiday group to date.
New parking regulations came into force but fortunately the committee were successful in petitioning for the maximum permitted stay to be extended to 3 hours which should allow sufficient time for set up, play and clear up.
We have also introduced an extra round and now play 8 rounds with the help of efficient Directors managed by Moira.
Anne confirmed the Club will offer a free Christmas Party again and 3 free play sessions over the year and continue with the vouchers.
We have persuaded Kevin Comrie to offer us a special deal and are starting bridge lessons in November which we hope to continue provided we can maintain a cost effective venue.
Anne ended her report by saying thank you to every-one who stayed for the AGM.
5. Matters arising from Chairman's Report:
Bridget Warren very kindly offered to take on duplimating the boards for the club and this offer was gratefully accepted by the meeting
6. Director's Statement:
Paul West thanked all the directors for all their work. He also congratulated members for their speed and standard of play. Paul also noted that many of our club members were winning competitions elsewhere. Paul highlighted that there is vacancy for another committee member and thanked Roger for all his work in doing the boards for the club.
Paul raised the issue of members not sitting down at the tables prior to the start of play. Due to the large number of players we have for the Thursday session this is causing many difficulties for the directors and scorers. Paul asked that every-one who wants to play must be sat down so we can correctly work out how many tables we have in each section
7. Treasurer's Report:
Pat Shea confirmed that the club's financial position was still very sound. There had been quite a few items of expenditure in the year including the dealing machine, cloths replaced, new playing cards etc. The income for the year was similar to previous years. The overall balance had reduced slightly by £763.29 to £8,906.40. Pat told the meeting that the auditor, Adam Broome had asked for his fee to be given to charity, so Pat proposed that we play £100 to the Marie Curie Trust which was agreed by the meeting.
8. AOB:
There were a number of items submitted in advance for AOB.
From Mike Trenholme: Could the Directors try and reduce the level of noise during play as it has become excessive and it is particularly distracting for the users of hearing aids.
This was agreed but members were also asked to be more considerate.
From Suzanne Beckett: To ban the use of small change (1p, 2p and 5p) when paying the table money.
This was agreed by the meeting and agreed that this would be announced at the start of the next duplicate session on Thursday
From Angie Shaw:
1. To increase the pace of play
The meeting felt that the pace was generally acceptable but if a pair/table were slow we should stop the play of a board of the table where the players have only bid a board but not played a card with an average score being given to both pairs.
2. Stop having a tea break or just collect your drink and continue to play
Anne spoke against this saying we were both a bridge and social club. We want to encourage new and less experienced players. The tea break helps slower players catch up and is also useful for the committee in terms of housekeeping etc. Members were also reminded to return cups to the service hatch to help John. The meeting voted to keep the tea break.
3. Increase the playing time by half an hour
Whilst quite a few members were keen on this, it was now impossible because of the new car parking limits of 3 hours which the council were about to introduce. There was also an issue around members collecting children/grandchildren from school and the hall isn't available to allow us to start earlier. The meeting agreed that we should keep to current arrangements
4. Ban conventions or limit to only the conventions known by the opposition pair.
This was discussed by the meeting with every-one against this. It was agreed though that people need to alert bids appropriately and provide a full explanation whenever asked to explain a bid.
Close of Meeting - Mike Trenholme and Daphne Hough thanked the committee for all their hard work and thanked Roger for his work for the Committee and for duplimating the board.
9. Date of Next Meeting was provisionally set for Thursday 12th October
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