LINCOLNSHIRE CONTRACT BRIDGE ASSOCIATION
(Affiliated to the English Bridge Union)
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at Dunholme Village Hall:
Sunday 21st June 2015
- Members Present
There were 25 members present including Guy Grainger (Chairman), Mike Llewellyn
(Treasurer), Paul Wokes (Secretary), Glynn Elwick (Competition Secretary)
and Adrian Underwood (Vice Chairman)
- Apologies were received from Stuart Knox, Bill Parsons, Chris Phillips,
Drene & Alan Brown, Ted & Brenda Goodacre, Alan Andrews, Dennis Mellor,
Vic Llewellyn, Nick Hunter and Ruby Schnalke.
- The Chairman informed the meeting that there were insufficient members present
to form a quorum (the minimum number being 30 members who have played in an
affiliated club or a county event). He, therefore, asked the Secretary to call an
Extraordinary General Meeting within a period of 28 to 42 days from today’s date.
It was agreed that the AGM should go ahead, but any decisions reached should be
ratified at an EGM called within the time frame laid down by the constitution.
The Secretary promised to organise the EGM at Scunthorpe within the next few weeks.
- Waitrose Cup:
A representative from Waitrose, in Lincoln, carried out the presentation of the
Waitrose Cup. This trophy is awarded to the pair who score the highest percentage
at any club event in the county (with a minimum of 8 tables). This year the trophy
was won by: Andrew Green & John Longmuir with a score of 78.3%.
- The Minutes of the 2014 AGM were circulated to all members present at the meeting.
Accuracy
Proposed: Adrian Underwood
Seconded: Bill Herbert
The members unanimously approved the minutes as an accurate record of the meeting.
- Matters arising: there were no matters arising.
- Chairman’s Address:
Guy started by welcoming all the members who were present at the AGM.
He went on to thank the members of the Management Committee for their hard
work throughout the year, but gave special mention to Mike Llewellyn, the Treasurer
and Paul Wokes, the Secretary for quietly and efficiently carrying out their tasks.
He also praised the tireless work and effort put in by Glynn Elwick, the Competition
Secretary.
Giving a summary of his first year as Chairman, he stated that the Association must
take a realistic view of the situation as regards the number of members that want to
play in County events. Although many people play bridge in Lincolnshire, most of those
have made a conscious decision not to play in LCBA events. There is a diminishing pool
of players that play in County events; there is another small group that can be cajoled to
play occasionally; but there is no stream of new players that can be tapped.
In these circumstances, the LCBA can pursue a policy of managed decline:
- Holding some events every year
- Encouraging participation in these events
- Engaging with the wider bridge community to look for common ground
- Looking to use the LCBA financial resources to spread the playing and teaching of
bridge throughout the County.
The good news is that thanks to P2P the LCBA is solvent!
- Treasurer’s report:
Mike Llewellyn reported that the accounts showed a profit of £1,040, compared to
£1,098 the previous season. The county’s assets now stand at £8,337 compared with
£7,297 at the start of the financial year. P2P income remained constant at £1,800, but
income from county competitions had nearly halved to £497. This was as a result of the
continuing downward trend in competition entries and the fact there were two Annual
Championships in last year’s figures.
Mike pointed out that the reason the surplus had remained constant was that expenditure
had also fallen. Expenditure on trophies was significantly down this year as were EBU
and Inter-Counties expenses (because we withdrew from the Midland Counties League)
and we did not send a team to the Tollemache or the Pachabo competitions:
our only expenses were for the Corwen and a small contribution to the Garden Cities.
Mike recommended that the County levy on P2P should remain at 7p
Proposed: Andrew Green
Seconded: Glynn Elwick
It was unanimously agreed.
The accounts were accepted as a true record of the Counties financial position:
Proposed: Deidre Fell
Seconded: Adrian Underwood
The members unanimously approved the accounts.
Mike was thanked for all his work as Treasurer by Guy, as was Nick Hunter
for acting as the Independent Examiner.
- The Competition Secretary’s report:
Glynn thanked Vic Llewellyn and Stuart Knox for all the help they had given
him with the Lincolnshire Bridge web page.
He reported that entries for County events had continued to fall. During the
current season one event had to be cancelled on the day of the competition and
this caused great disruption to the players who did turn up to play as well as to
the Dunholme Village Hall committee. He mentioned that the Management
Committee had already reduced the number of events being run by the County,
but pointed out that further pruning may be necessary for next season.
Glynn’s greatest disappointment was the attendance at the County Championships:
only 25 pairs attended the Pairs event and only 10 teams played in the Teams’
competition.
Glynn also reported that although only 5 teams had entered the Lincoln Gold
and the Lincolnshire League, there had been disputes and problems in arranging
some of the matches and the League had finished just a few days before the AGM.
For next season, he urged all teams to have at least 5 members so that it would be
easier to arrange and complete the fixtures.
On a positive note, he congratulated the City of Lincoln Bridge Club for reaching
the final of the Garden Cities competition and Horncastle Grammar School for
finishing second in the National Schools’ Competition. He also mentioned that
Scunthorpe Bridge Club had reached the last 32 of the NICKO national competition
before losing to a very strong Sheffield side by 1 IMP.
Glynn urged all club reps to try and persuade their members to enter the County
Competitions, warning the meeting that if entries did not improve he would resign
as Competition Secretary at next year’s AGM.
Because there seemed so little support for County Competitions, Glynn raised the
idea of Lincolnshire Bridge Association amalgamating with other counties, rather
than continuing as a separate entity.
Glynn finished his report by informing the members that Mrs Leake, who has provided
refreshments at many of the Counties events, is no longer willing to undertake this task.
He thanked her for all the work, over the many years, that she has supported us.
This was echoed by the members with a round of applause.
- Honoraria
Maurice Ladlow proposed that the Honoraria should be raised to £200 for the
3 officials who receive it. This was seconded by Phil Harland.
23 members voted in favour of this proposal, with 2 abstentions; so the motion
was passed and will come into force next year. For this year it will remain at £150.
- Election of Officers for 2015 – 2016
Chairman: Guy Grainger – proposed Vic Llewellyn, seconded Keith Stewart
Vice Chairman: Adrian Underwood – proposed: Vic Llewellyn, seconded Keith Stewart
Treasurer: Mike Llewellyn - proposed: Glynn Elwick, seconded Keith Stewart
Secretary: Paul Wokes - proposed: Vic Llewellyn, seconded Allan Marshall
Competition
Secretary: Glynn Elwick – proposed Vic Llewellyn, seconded Keith Stewart
As there were no further nominations the said officers were (unanimously) duly elected.
- Affiliated club representatives:
Boston Paul Wokes
Central Louth Bridge Club not advised
Heighington David Williams
Horncastle Maurice Ladlow
Lincoln Chris Phillips
Louth Deidre Fell
Market Rasen Adrian Underwood
Pinchbeck not advised
Scunthorpe Stuart Knox
Welton Jenny Fisher
Falconer Adrian Underwood
- Independent Examiner:
Nick Hunter was thanked for his work as Independent Examiner and the meeting proposed
that he be asked if he would carry out the task again next year.
- Any other business:
There was a proposal on the agenda to reduce the quorum for next year’s AGM from
30 to 18. The Chairman invited discussion on this matter. After members had talked about
this issue, a counter proposal was put forward and seconded that the number for a quorum
should be 20.
Proposed: Adrian Underwood
Seconded: Glynn Elwick
This revised figure of 20 members was unanimously approved by the meeting and
subject to ratification at the EGM will come into force for next year’s AGM.
Phil Harland proposed that all County events should be by prior entry at least
3 days before the event takes place. This was seconded by Sue Barraclough.
After some discussion, a counter proposal was put forward that all County
events should be by pre-entry 7 days before the event. At this point Phil
and Sue withdrew their original proposal in favour of the amendment.
A vote was taken and 22 members voted for the proposal with 2 abstentions
and 1 vote against. This rule will come into effect this year subject to ratification
by the EGM.
Deidre Fell mentioned the progress at Horncastle Grammar School and
Alford Grammar School and asked members who were interested to collect
entry forms from the EBU for Youth Bridge National Teaching.
- Glynn Elwick presented Maurice Ladlow with Honorary Membership
of the Lincolnshire County Bridge Association.
- With no further business the Meeting closed at 2.50pm.
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