SUSSEX COUNTY CONTRACT BRIDGE ASSOCIATION
Minutes of the meeting of the Management Committee of the SCCBA, held at the Eastbourne Bridge Club at 1030 hrs on Sunday 3rd October 2004.
Present:
Mr M Pool Chairman
Mr P Kent Hon. Secretary
Mr D Galpin Hon. Treasurer
Mr T Bradley (President), Mr P Bates, Mrs K Batting, Mrs S Bugden, Mr R Buddery, Mr B Gould, Mrs M Langmaid, Mr B Loasby, Mrs J Newton, Mr D Newton, Mr A Southwell and Mrs C Watson.
Delegates: None
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from: Mrs V Chandler, Mr D Clifton, Mrs J Clinton and Mr E Williams.
2. Minutes of the meeting of 25th July 2004
2.1 Accuracy
The minutes were approved subject to changing "Sussex Pairs Semi-Final" to "Sussex Ladies and Men’s Pairs Final" [item 3.2] and were signed as being a true record of the meeting.
2.2 Matters Arising
2.2.2 Andrew Southwell said that the injury complaint is in the hands of SCCBA’s insurers [3.2].
2.2.3 The President said that there was nothing to report on practice matches for the England Team [3.4].
2.2.4 The Chairman has written to all SCCBA Tournament Directors with regard to placing more emphasis on the Zero Tolerance policy. The number of Directors per event will be increased where appropriate [3.5].
2.2.5 Duplimate Machine, Cards and Tables [10]:
3. Chairman’s Report
3.1 The Chairman congratulated Julian Mitchell’s team (Sarah Mitchell, Nigel Urban, Chris Jepson and David Clifton) for winning the Crockford Plate.
3.2 The Chairman congratulated Julian Mitchell’s team (Sarah Mitchell, Nannette and Alan Gillespie) for winning the Mid Week Teams at the Brighton Congress.
3.3 The Chairman has received some correspondence with regard to Compulsory Membership referred to in the last minutes. The letter, dated 12th August 2004 sent to clubs clearly stated that the SCCBA were canvassing opinion on a possible reduction of membership fees with 100% membership. This topic has been clarified in the SCCBA Newsletter, which will be issued shortly.
3.4 The EBU have given 80 used tables to the SCCBA and are in need of some refurbishment. They are currently being stored at the Avenue Bridge Club and Andrew Southwell agreed to draw up an agreement between the SCCBA and Avenue Bridge Club. A working party is required to refurbish the tables and Brian Loasby agreed to look into this.
3.5 At present all boards are numbered 1 –32 and it was agreed nem.con. at the Chairman’s suggestion that they should be renumbered 1 – 49, which should increase usage by 25%.
3.6 The Gladys Hakki award and charities selection are to be made at next January’s meeting. Pat Kent said that the Gladys Hakki nomination forms have already been sent out to clubs.
4. Secretary’s Report
4.1 The Secretary reported that the EBU had reduced the number of shares held by the SCCBA from four down to three (shares held by the Secretary) because our membership numbers had dropped below the threshold level of 1,501. This means that the SCCBA voting strength has dropped from four votes down to three votes.
4.2 The Secretary reported that there would be a slight delay in implementing the "Single Entity" issue due to a hold-up with Disciplinary Rules. The paper work should be ready for the next Council meeting in January 2005.
4.3 The Secretary had received a letter from the EBU Education Manager requesting the SCCBA to appoint a County Youth Officer and update a list of schools in Sussex who do or have in the past participated in bridge. This was discussed at some length and the following agreements were reached:
4.3.2 If anyone wishes to promote Youth Bridge on a local scale, this should be pursued and supported by the SCCBA and the Chairman reported that there was an anonymous donor willing to provide some funds for youth development in bridge. The EBU were also willing to help.
4.3.3 Parents should be encouraged to learn bridge with their children.
4.3.4 The present listing of twenty-seven schools was out of date and needed updating.
5. Treasurer’s Report
5.1 As of the time of the meeting there is £12,000 in the current account and £21,400 in the savings account. We have recently spent £2,450 for the Duplimate Machine. We expect to spend another £3-5,000 on playing cards.
5.2 Both Green Pointed events were very successful. The entries for the Autumn Congress were down resulting in a reduced surplus.
5.3 The Treasurer reported that he was having difficulty apportioning credits and requested that everyone banking on behalf of the SCCBA e-mail him the details.
5.4 The Treasurer reported that he had received a letter from a person who runs clubs on either side of the Kent/Sussex border saying that the club affiliation fees for Kent CCBA were £5.00 and for the SCCBA they were £15.00 and why were ours so high. The committee discussed this and it was thought that our fees are good value, covering items such as:
It was decided nem.con that the fees would remain as they are and the Treasurer would write back to the correspondent.
6. Membership Secretary’s Report
The Membership Secretary had sent in his apologies and gave the latest membership figures to the Secretary to report to the committee:
Type of member |
No. of members end August 2004 |
No. of members end December 2003 |
| Full | 1,191 |
1,377 |
| Under seventeen years | 2 |
- |
| Dual | 18 |
40 |
| Bridge-for-all | 78 |
103 |
The decline in membership was noted and confirmed our loss in status to a three-share county (see 4.1). This would also mean that the number of pairs allowed for the Corwen Trophy would be reduced from five down to four. Tom Bradley said that the EBU were also experiencing a drop in membership and that their new membership accounting system, when fully operational should help to improve the situation.
7. Tournament Committee Report
The Tournament Manager said that the Tournament Committee had not met since the last Management Committee meeting. The following was reported:
7.1 The Autumn Congress was down in numbers from 34 teams in ’03 to 23 in ’04, with a reduced profit of £1,800 in ’02 to £500 in ’04. There was a lot of discussion as to how this could be improved;
7.1.2 Change the format of the Friday evening session e.g. Pivot Teams, review the pricing schedule for the event e.g. play three days and pay for two days. The Chairman said that the Tournament Committee should discuss this.
7.1.3 In general, it was suggested by Sally Bugden that entries might be increased by placing entry forms on the SCCBA website. This was agreed nem.con and the Webmaster was requested to action this.
7.2 Eddie Williams is unable to organise next year’s Spring Congress and Carol Watson agreed to step in the breach.
7.3 We had some good results in the Metropolitan Cup:
Team |
Result |
"A" |
2nd out of 6 |
"B" |
4th out of 6 |
"C" (Brighton) |
2nd out of 8 |
"C" (County) |
7th out of 8 |
The Chairman said that it was generally agreed that the organisation has improved since Sussex took over from Surrey.
8. Selectors Report
8.1 The Tollemache team has been selected and has received some coaching from Sandra Landy.
8.2 Sussex has been invited to enter a team in the Annual Inter-County Team of Eight for the metropolitan area. Ron Buddery has agreed to raise a team for this competition with help from David Galpin. This competition is for those players who do not represent the county at the highest level (e.g. Tollemache). Players from Division One, Division Two and some from Division Three have been contacted. It was agreed nem.con. that there would be some subsidy for train fares and sandwiches.
9. Conduct Committee’s Report
There was nothing to report.
10. Levels of Competition
The Chairman said that the Laws and Ethics Committee of the EBU were revising the Orange Book and it was likely that the number of playing levels would be simplified. He said that we used level three and some level four in our congresses/competitions (except No Fears events which use Standard English). It was agreed nem.con. that we would discuss this issue further in a future meeting.
11. Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held at the Henfield Hall on 2nd January 2005, starting at 10-30 am. He asked all Committee members to arrive at 10-00 am to help with setting up the tables and chairs.
12. Any Other Business
12.1 Membership - Club Survey
The Secretary said that he had received ten replies so far, from the forty-eight clubs affiliated to the SCCBA. On the whole, they were not in favour of 100% membership if an incentive of reduced club fees and membership subscriptions was offered.
12.2 Membership - Market Survey
12.2.1 Sally Bugden reported that she had prepared a package, which was passed to the committee as a draft. She requested that a list of members who had not renewed their membership be obtained from the Membership Secretary. A request was made to add a space for "Any comments" to the questionnaire and Sally agreed to do this.
12.2.2 Pat Kent handed out a revised draft list of Ambassadors (who would be carrying out the survey) and the committee reviewed this and some changes were made.
12.2.3 Sally requested that the Ambassadors carry out the marketing survey in the next three months. She said that for a significant survey, 50 replies from a sample population of 200 were required for example. She suggested that the forms be completed in one of the following ways:
12.2.4 Pat Kent agreed to send out a package to the Clubs informing them of what was to take place and a revised package to the Ambassadors.