Minutes for Nottingham Contract Bridge Association Date of meeting 8th August

1. Apologies for absence. Sue Wright, Keith Spencer, Hilary Kirkland

2. Approval of the minutes of last meeting.  Jane asked that the minutes be changed the sentence  “Jane had suggested the following changes to the teams of 8 rules. “ to be replaced by the words “the committee agreed to change the rules”.  The minutes were agreed subject to this amendment.

3. Matters arising.  There were a number of action points from last committee meeting that had still to be resolved.  
These were discussed.

a. No one had sent Clare any publications that we could contact regarding advertising bridge.
b. Although Toni had agreed to write a generic letter to local organisations regarding giving a talk about bridge she did not feel that we were in a position to respond to any requests and therefore this would just raise expectations which we could not furfil.  
c. Toni and Clare had now had 2 meeting with David Treharne and Mel Sheppard to liason with NCB over bridge matters.  Clare would be directing the start of a new event called Daytime Duplicate this would start at lunchtime with food and end at 4.  Clare hoped to have 7 tables (in the event there were 9 tables).  
d. The topic of job descriptions and committee roles was ongoing. ( see note 4 below)
e. Toni said that she was willingly to write to Phoenix to ask them if they could send a rep to the meetings.
f.  Clare will produce a calendar to be checked by Ian who will then get it printed.  The calendar will start from 1st October and Clare will try and get the all the information regarding the master classes on the calendar.

4. Committee roles.  Paul Sweet has agreed to take over the newsletter.  Toni was working with Sue Wright to sort out Trophies as she had agreed to take on this role.

5. Competitions The Priday cup is now scheduled for 30th September the committee decided to open the competition up to people with an NGS of 10 or below, to give a wider pool of eligible people.  Graham will take the lead in organising that event.  Following the last minute cancellation of our recent green pointed teams it was decided to reschedule next years teams event to take place on Sunday May 19th 2019 which is in the other weekend which is available for these events.   The pairs event will remain in July.  The committee decided to run a blue pointed swiss pairs and a provisional date (14th October 2018) was  decided  but further research was needed on this type of event.

6. Correspondence  the county had received a letter from the EBU giving more information on new rules on data protection act.  The EBU had originally ask all clubs to sign a document regarding the act but had on further reflection decided on to make this compulsory.

7. Finance the money in the current account was £2944.10 but Ian was aware that £560 had to be taken off.  Toni has agreed to be the third signatory for the accounts and will liaise with Graham and Ian over arranging this.

8. Organisation of Wed nights   It was hoped that the Wed nights could be re-organised to help NBC with their issues around the lack of players coming on a Monday.  The county has offered to let the City cup to move to a Wed night although it was emphasised that the event would not be a county event. Mark Goddard was unhappy with this arrangement and in his role as President of NCB said that this would need to be discussed further by the bridge club.  The second Wed would then be filled by a master class .  The third Wed would be the night of the Winter Pairs and the last Weds would be either a committee meeting or possible a seminar/masterclass. It was agreed to ask Keith to make up the boards for the winter Pairs and the directing of this event could be shared between the directors who normally attended.

9. County squad  A separate meeting had taken place before the main committee meeting.  Toni, Clare, Shirley and Mark had attended this.  Shirley was waiting for some of the regular players to contact her but they were being chased up to do so. All people wishing to play for the county had to email Shirley so that she can create a mailing list of players.  In contacting her they are in effect giving her permission to have access to their emails.   Clare would be contacting the league secretary of the Midlands league to inform him of the new arrangements and it was hoped to have everything in place for the start of the season.  Shirley had a matrix of those people that were available , who they could partner, their availability and whether they were first, second ,third or aspiring players. Mark will act as County captain but Shirley will contact players and take responsibility for the day to day running of the squad.

10. Teams of 8 and 4 leagues.  Jane is in the process of sending out the paperwork for the new season of the league of 8.  Keith was not present at the meeting so it was decided that the position regarding division one of this league to be discussed at a later meeting.

11. Bridge teaching new courses in September.  Toni and Clare had discussed the possibility of trying to run classes in areas where it was felt that we could get more people playing bridge.  Two areas had been suggested Bingham and Sunday tigers park venue.  More investigations were needed so at the moment no classes were starting.

12. Master classes  It was hoped to run these on a Wed so we could have a complete program of events.  It was discussed whether we should opt for a day of master classes similar to the program ran in Derbyshire but it was felt this would be too difficult to co-ordinate.  Mark said in his capacity as NCB president that the bridge club would continue to not charge for the use of the room providing the county did not charge for the classes.  (This will mean that a small loss is made on these classes as the county does normally give the speaker a small token of their appreciation.)

13. Inclusivity and the Role of youth development officer. Paul felt that we should try and make bridge more inclusive and not just the domain of the white middle class he felt that if we could get into local school this may help to shed this image.  Paul had looked into what would be the role of a county youth officer.  He had contacted the EBU who had put him in touch with Liz Dale at Stamford bridge club.  He showed the committee her book “Starter bridge” designed to be used with primary school children.  He is going to “Oundle Primary school” to see how Stamford club try to train the teachers to get the pupils player bridge.  The committee felt they may be overstretched at the moment to become involved in this type of work but encouraged Paul to continue to look into the viability of supporting youth bridge.  Paul will report back at the next meeting on his findings.

14. AOB  Clare asked for volunteers to direct and host the once a month daytime duplicate. The date of the next meeting was given as 28th Nov.