HIWCBA SHAREHOLDER'S REPORT

EBU ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - 5th OCTOBER 2011

1.         Theannual elections of EBU Officers and Board Members and Sub-Committee Members tookplace and the Minutes of the previous AGM and Sub-Committee Minutes wereapproved.   There was nothing of interestto HIWCBA Members to report from these. The annual presentations of the DimmieFlemming awards were also made.  The mainitems of interest to HIWCBA Members from the rest of the Meeting are below.

2.         FINANCE.   The EBU currently has liquid assets of about£315k.

            a.         FY2010/11.    The Annual Accounts showeda loss of £47,209, a significant          improvementon the deficit of £71k predicted.

            b.         FY2011/12.     The loss of £60k predicted for this year is likely to be less as

            the EBU is continuing to seeksavings, an example being the renegotiation of the   printing contract for English Bridge.

            c.         Internationals.           The cost of these was raised by Shareholders. It was            explained that the cost of these isdependent upon how many English Teams qualify   andthe cyclical 4 Year Programme.   2012 islikely to be an expensive year as it      includesthe Olympiad and European Championships and could cost the Union as         much as £140k compared to the £80.8k spentin 2010/11 and the projected £97.5k for       2011/12.  The majority of the Shareholderssupported the continued funding of our          InternationalTeams

            d.         MembershipSubscriptions for the Year 2012/13.   The following increases        wereapproved:

                        (1).       P2P.    The EBU P2P rate will be 33p, up from 31p.

                        (2).       DirectMembers.        Up to £25 from £24.

                        (3).       ClubAffiliation.        Up to £32 from £30- In line with inflation.

                        Note:   A P2P rise of 1p raises £16k to £17k annually

3.         EBU CONVERSION TO A CHARITY.   The Shareholders approved an EnablingResolution to permit the EBU to put in an Application for Registration as aCharity.   This will allow negotiationswith The Charity Commission to proceed and should a final agreement be reached,the approval of the Shareholders for the EBU to become a Charity will besought.   The EBU considers that CharityRegistration will bring significant benefits to the Union.

4.         ROLEAND RESPONSIBILITIES OF EBU SHAREHOLDERS.  The EBU asked Counties for their views on this matter and received 35 diversereplies. After due consideration: 

            a.         TheStatutory Responsibilities of EBU Shareholders will remain as:

                        ●          Approving the EBU Annual Accounts.

                        ●          Approving the annual membership fee.

                        ●          Electing Directors, Officers andStanding Committee members.

                        ●          Approving the appointment ofVice-Presidents.

                        ●          Voting on other special and generalresolutions.

                        ●          Puttingforward for consideration Member Proposed Resolutions as                                    appropriate.

            b.         The EBU does not consider itappropriate for the EBU to define non-statutory      responsibilities in detail. This is left to Counties if they wish to do so.

            c.         The EBUMeeting structure will continue to be:

            ●          An AGM in October

            ●          A second General Meeting in the Spring(usually April)

o  Both with statutory and non-statutoryelements which will be highlighted on each agenda for information purposes only

·                     A meeting for County Chairmen covering strategic issues

            d.         The EBUwill continue to carry out electronic consultations with the Counties        and consult with Clubs and individualmembers through online surveys and make      extensiveinformation available through channels such as English Bridge, Meeting        minutes, Newsletters   (e.g. Tournament and Club Focus), On-linearticles and blogs    and  e-mail.

5.         SILVERAWARD.    County Associations cannominate individuals who have made an oustanding contribution to Bridge for the EBU Dimmie Fleming Award(s) eachyear.   The EBU have  introduced a new award - The Silver Award - torecognise achievements above and beyond the Dimmie Fleming Award.   This will be a very rare award and notnecessarily awarded each year.   Aproposal from one County to call this award the Tony Priday Award as 'Silver'does not reflect its worth, was voted down on the grounds that people's nameson awards lose their meaning as time progresses and people do not know who theywere.

6.         SCHEDULEOF MISDEMEANORS.    A Regulation isto be produced by the Laws and Ethics Committee for Directors at EBU events toprovide guidance and consistency in handling a wide range of errors and offencessuch as rudeness, not filling in a traveller, use of unauthorised informationetc.   It is hoped that this will bepublished for the next Shareholder's Meeting in April 2012.   Clubs will be at liberty to adopt theRegulation for Club use.

7.         EBUAND BRITISH SIMULTANEOUS PAIRS.            TheEBU will be organising and scoring these events with effect from 1st April2012.   A Trial Event to prove thesoftware will be held in December 2011.which will be free to Clubs that applyto enter.

8.         BLUE POINTS.   Blue Points will be introduced from 1stJanuary 2013.   They are being introducedfor those EBU Members who have difficulties either with travelling to majorGreen Point  EBU events or with the costinvolved.   A limited number of eventswill be able to offer Blue Points.   Theconditions etc are:

            ●          Must be 2-session events, open to anyEBU member and must be licensed by          Aylesbury. All licensed Blue point events willbe shown on a new page of the EBU           website.

            ●          Clubs can hold up to 2 annually and aCounty up to 4 (cannot be a County Sim).

            ●          Clubevent awards will be to District Scale, County event awards to County                      Scale.

            ●          EBUsessions not awarding any Greens.

            ●          EBU Simultaneous Pairs (will replaceGreens).

            ●          3Blue Points will be equivalent to one Green Point for EBU Ranking                                 purposes up to amaximum of 50 Green Points.

This could have a significant impact onHIWCBA as 36 + Board events with a Tea Break should qualify and attract moreentries.   The Licence Fee is likely tobe about £2.60 per Table but no P2P Fee, £0.66 per table from 1 April 2012,will be charged.

9.         KOEVENTS.           The TournamentCommittee are to discuss ways of preventing the same teams meeting each otheryear after year in early rounds of EBU KO Events.

10.       NATIONALGRADING SCHEME.    This will beintroduced in early 2012 with 2 year's history of members playing results thatwill calculate their ranking under this scheme.

11.       BGB.              BGB has not died and will continueto be the Regulatory Authority for The Gold Cup and Camrose/Lady Milne HomeInternationals.   Organisation of theGold Cup will be put out to tender - the EBU will be tendering for it.  The location for the Gold Cup Finals is underdiscussion and will continue to be organised by BGB.   The EBU will be running the Silver PlateCompetition.   The Scottish Bridge Unionhas agreed to participate in the British Simultaneous Pairs which replace theBGB Sims and which the EBU is to run on an increased 5 days in a week.   The Welsh Bridge Union has not yet agreed todo so..

Margaret Gale, Keith Palmer and Richard Ray

HIWCBA Shareholders