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Constitution

St Albans Duplicate Bridge Club - Constitution

1. Name. The Club shall be called the St Albans Duplicate Bridge Club.

2. Object. The object of the Club shall be to provide facilities for and to encourage the playing of duplicate bridge.

3. The Club Year. The Club Year (hereafter called the year) for competitions and finances starts on 1st April and ends on 31st March. The membership year runs from AGM to AGM.

4. Committee.

(i) The affairs of the Club shall be managed by a Committee which shall be elected annually at the Annual General Meeting and shall consist, as a minimum, of the following Honorary Officers:-

        (a)   Chairman

        (b)   Treasurer

        (c)   Secretary

and such other representatives as the Committee deem appropriate. The maximum size of the Committee shall be 10 members including the Honorary Officers.

Nominations for the Committee shall be made in writing to the Secretary not less than seven days before the General Meeting at which the elections are to be held and shall state the names of the Proposer and Seconder, the permission of the nominated member having been obtained in advance.

(ii)    The Committee may co-opt other members onto the Committee.

(iii)    The quorum for a Committee Meeting shall be four elected members two of whom shall be officers.

5. Membership.

Membership of the Club shall be open to all persons on payment of the annual subscription, provided that the Committee of the Club shall have the right to limit the total membership; to refuse any applicant; or to ask an applicant to agree to the club constitution and rules.

Honorary Life Membership shall be conferred by the AGM, on the recommendation of the Committee, to a club member who has given long and valuable service to the club. Such members shall be exempt the annual membership subscription. The Committee will keep a list of Honorary Life Members.

6. Subscriptions and Fees. The annual subscription and table money are set at the AGM and are then due. The amount of the subscription and table money levied at the Club shall be determined only by a resolution passed at a General Meeting of the Club or by a resolution passed by the Committee and subsequently approved at the next General Meeting

7. Finances.  The day-to-day control of all monies and of the Club shall be vested in the Committee. The Treasurer shall be responsible for the collection of all subscriptions, table monies and other monies due to the Club, the payment of all accounts and the keeping of books of account and shall present statements of accounts to the Committee and present a report and audited accounts to each Annual General Meeting. 4 Committee members (one of whom will be the Treasurer) shall have authority to sign cheques on behalf of the Club. Two such authorised signatures shall be required on each cheque. The accounts shall be audited annually. The auditor shall be appointed annually at the Annual General Meeting and shall not be a member of the Committee.

8. General Meetings. The quorum for a General Meeting shall be 25 members.

(i) Annual General Meeting. This shall be held as soon as possible at the start of the year, on a date decided by the Committee and publicised in the club. The Meeting shall consider the minutes of the previous AGM and any intervening SGM, receive officers' reports and transact all business required by this constitution, including that of which 2 week’s notice has been given to the Secretary, and any other business relating to the affairs of the club. The agenda of the meeting and the accounts for the preceding year shall be available at meetings of the club for at least two weeks prior to the AGM.

No financial decisions will be taken on matters at an AGM unless they have been properly notified to the Secretary by the giving of at least 2 week’s notice.

(ii) Special General Meeting. A SGM shall be called at the direction of the Committee, or within 42 days of receipt by the Secretary of a written requisition signed by at least eight members, stating the purpose for which the meeting is to be called. Notice of the date, time and place of any SGM shall be given to each member not less than fourteen days beforehand together with a copy of the agenda.

9. Alterations of Constitution.

(i) Any proposed change shall be notified in writing to the Secretary:-

(a) By the 1st February in the case of the Annual General Meeting, or

            (b) By inclusion in the requisition of a Special General Meeting.

(ii) Details of any proposed change shall be included in the Agenda for the relevant meeting.

(iii) No change shall be made to the Constitution except by votes of two-thirds of the members present and voting at a General Meeting.

10. Competitions. The Committee is the “Tournament Organizer” and has the assigned options of the “Regulating Authority” as defined in the “Laws of Duplicate Bridge”.

11. Play. Play shall be governed by the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge as published by the English Bridge Union.

12. Disputes. In the event any dispute arising the Committee will refer to The Constitution of the Hertfordshire Bridge Association.

13. The committee have decided to appoint a “Best Behaviour at Bridge” subcommittee.

Selection Policy for SADBC Representation at County and Other Events

 

There cannot be a simple, cut and dried formula for the selection of members to play in County/National competitions but it is a balance of the following criteria:-

    

     1)  Be Bona Fide, regular club members

      2) Eligibility for the event. i.e. Master Point rankings/ winners of Club Competitions.

      3) Availability to play on the day/evening of the event of the eligible members in (1&2) above.

      4) Willingness/ability to participate. This includes dislike of competitions, refusal to play, infirmity or the ability to cope with the demands of the actual competition’s conditions. Willingness to host/arrange the events. (Volunteers always welcome)

5) Form – The players must have either a reasonable chance of success (although not necessarily of winning) or to gain experience of participating in extra-club events.

6) Spread representation as widely as possible in club amongst those who qualify under the above criteria.

7) (Often) last man/woman standing who can be persuaded to play (arm twisting involved) especially when people drop out at the last minute and one runs out of preselected subs.

8) Careful timing of selection and asking participants – can be too long before or too close to the event – sometimes an impossible balance to strike!

 

SADBC Policy for Payment of Entry Fees

 

We pay the full entry fee for events where it is the club which is being represented by name:-

 

               Club Winners Cup

        Eccles Cup (team of 8)

        Desmond Flockhart Trophy (team of 8)

        Cadet Team (team of 4)

 

We pay full or part fees for the NICKO where the club enters the team but the event is entered by the club for individuals who wish to organise and travel/host in own homes. This is a National Knock Out event. The entry fee (which is quite large) is paid by the following formula:-

One team – full fee

Two teams – half each

Three teams – one third each

Etc for further teams

 

We pay the full fee so that we encourage entry by club members in events which have been poorly represented previously, to encourage future entries and to get the club more widely known. Eg.s are:-

 

Cadet Pairs

Rose Bowl

 

We do not currently pay for the following events which are individual events and not directly club representative ones;-

 

National Pairs, Mixed Pairs, Seniors’ Pairs &Teams, Cadet Pairs, Marjorie Lukyn Pairs, Hertfordshire Leagues, Humble Cup, Championship Pairs, Swiss Pairs & Teams, Sims Pairs.

 

This constitution was adopted at the AGM dated 30 April 2012 and amended at the AGM dated 25 April 2016