BERKHAMSTED BRIDGE CLUB

Minutes 61^st AGM 4^th October 2022

Members attending:                                                  

Apologies:         

Kathryn Sobczyk , Liz Young, Elle & David Bunn, Margaret Ainsworth, Gail Webster, John Wareham

Minutes of the last AGM:

No Matters Arising.  Acceptance proposed by George Summers and seconded by Meena Jefferys.

Chairman’s Report:

It is gratifying to note that B.B.C. has maintained a steady weekly attendance since our tentative re-start in September last year (2021), following the pause for Covid during the preceding 18 months.  The number of tables in play has dropped a little since the days before Covid, and we now expect about 6 or 7 tables on a weekly basis.  The highest two attendances during the year were 9 tables on April 12th; and 8 tables for our Jubilee Celebration on 7th June.
In total, 48 people have played at least 5 times this year. 

Last September, the committee expected that a fair proportion of our former regular players would not come back to us after Covid.  That did turn out to be an accurate assessment, and it is encouraging that our numbers are now back up to a viable level, thanks to several new players who now enjoy bridge at our Club.  All players are very welcome here, whether you are someone who has joined or re-joined us during the last year, or you have been a member for more than 40 years, as a few have. 

As you may know, since 2020 we have suspended the notion of “membership” and we have all become “players” at this club.  The Committee has decided that now we are firmly re-established as a Club, we will re-start the membership scheme, as our Club Constitution requires. As before, the Membership Fee will be £10 per person per year, and this is payable from today by all those wishing to be a Member.  Membership will be back-dated to 1^st September 2022.  Table Money for Members will at £3 per attendance.

 
Non-Members will still be very welcome to play, but Table Money for Visitors will be £4, except that NEW Visitors will have a free evening for their first visit. 

We hope this meets with your approval, and that everyone who plays will want to be a member of the Club once they feel at home here.  Our Membership Secretary, Trish Williams, will be able to take your payments (cash or cheque).

We have not been running any of our one-session Club Competitions this last year, because our numbers have been quite low, and the Committee did not think it fair to do so.  After I conclude my report, the Committee would be glad of your views on that, and if members wish it, we can re-instate some of the competitions and start to award more of the cups again.  However, we have been running two ladder competitions, the Swann Trophy and Depala Trophy. 
 

The Swann Trophy is awarded every six months for the player with the highest average percentage score over six months (needing a minimum number of scores to qualify for consideration).   This year it ran for 7 months from January to July, and was won by Maggie Moore with an average score of 57.22%.

The Depala Trophy for the player with the highest number of Local Master Points awarded by the Club during the whole year (August 2021 to July 2022)  – won by Tom Banks with 347 Local Master Points.

We have also introduced a new award for the pair achieving the highest percentage score in one of our regular weekly Pairs events.  This was won on 15th March by Maggie Moore and John Wareham with a score of 75.6%.

Looking forward, we will run a Qualifying heat of the Marjorie Lukyn competition early in 2023, as this is a charity event run every year by Hertfordshire Bridge Association.

The Committee are proposing a couple of changes to our rules, to ensure that we keep up-to-date with our reduced playing numbers. 

The first change is to the Constitution, to reduce the number of members required for a Quorum at an Annual or Extra-Ordinary General Meeting to a minimum of 12 members in attendance. This will allow the business of the Club to be decided, even if in the future our numbers drop to a very low and non-viable level.

The second change is an overhaul of our Competition rules to recognise that our regular playing numbers are not as high as they once were.  This includes (but is not limited to) minimum numbers of tables, number of events played to qualify for inclusion, and table movements used by the Director for a competition to take place.   The Committee will carry out a review and change the Competition rules as they see fit.  The website will be updated in due course.

Members Response:

Pat Hogger expressed concern that the Club Cups had not been awarded for the three competitions run this year, and also felt the committee were being rather negative regarding running additional competitions.  The Chairman agreed these points will be addressed at the next committee meeting.

Treasurers Report:

The bank balance is still healthy, and the yearly loss has been kept to £582.  We also have to recognise the removal of the £500 credit for rental with the Town Hall, which has now been used.  At 31^st July 2022 we had £9,449 in reserve down from £10,541 at the last Year-end on 31^st 2021.

Adoption of accounts and appointment of Auditor, Tom Banks:

Proposer: Trish Williams, seconded by Sue Woodhams.

Committee:

On behalf of all those who play at our Club, I want to thank those who have served on our committee this past year, and I recommend that you re-elect them for another year.  That is John Wareham, Jane Mann, Jane Farndon, Susan Woodhams, Susie Bond and Trish Williams.   We are always glad to add volunteers to the Committee, so please let a Committee member know if you can offer your services.  I told the Committee that I would like to hand over to a new Chairman this year, but they have asked me to stand for re-election again.  If you do re-elect me this year, it will be my last year as Chairman.

Proposal Accepted unanimously:

AOB:

Having no further business, the meeting closed at 19.37.

AGM MINUTES 2021

Apologies:  Trish Williams , Chris Watson, Pat Hogger, Jane Mann and  Susie Bond 

Minutes of the last  AGM:  No matters arising. Proposed by Maggie Moore and Maggie Dawson.

Chairman’s Report.

This will be a short report. As you all know, two years has elapsed since our last A.G.M. because of the Covid pandemic, but not very much bridge has taken place at Berkhamsted Bridge Club.

The Club ran normally from August 2019 until mid-March 2020, when all activities were suspended. Later on, we will award the trophies to those who won the competitions which we had completed before the lockdowns began.

During the suspension of face-to-face bridge, we arranged for our members to be included as Associate Members of Hemel Hempstead Bridge Club if they wanted to play online in the events hosted by HHBC. We have not run any online bridge ourselves, as plenty was (and still is) available online, organised by others who welcome all comers.

My thanks go to those who have served on our committee for all or part of the last two years. We are now somewhat depleted, both on the Committee and in the membership, and in attendance at our resumed face-to-face Tuesday evening sessions.

Our Club did not mark its 60th Year as we were not operational at the time in 2020. But it serves to remind us that we have a long and successful history as a Bridge Club in this town. However, recent attendances since we resumed playing here have given rise to concern for our future. Three, four and five tables are not really sufficient to provide a fair and meaningful competitive bridge session, and are certainly not enough to justify holding annual competitions for the award of Cups and Prizes. So we must consider the future of Berkhamsted Bridge Club. There is no pressing financial need for a decision, as we have funds to continue playing for many years yet. But now is the time to ask the members what they think about our situation, and how they would like it to be handled.

We have a theoretical membership of about 50, including Life Members. But only a third of them are appearing at our weekly sessions. Many Clubs have depleted numbers playing since face-to-face bridge resumed this summer, and so it is unlikely that we will see an increase in membership however hard we might try to attract new people. Over the years we have tried open evenings, free tickets to invite a friend, and advertising the Club – all with only limited effect on numbers.

It has been suggested that we might take the Club online, and that way we would attract players from other locations to join our weekly duplicate. The main problem with that is that we have no volunteers to act as facilitators for organising online bridge or for directing such sessions. These jobs require people with training and experience, people who do not seem to be available to us. We would also be adding another event to a very crowded

online space, where a wide choice of sessions is already established and available. So for these reasons I have dismissed going online as an option.

Perhaps our playing room does not create the cosy atmosphere that a smaller brighter room would have. Maybe we should look to change our location. What do members think about that ? We could also re-introduce the tea and coffee to improve the facilities for members.

So the choices before us seem to be three in number :

· Either to increase the weekly attendance from our existing membership (with any new members we might attract). If we can get back to a regular seven or more tables then we can survive.

· Or to continue as we are, providing a sociable session of duplicate bridge for a small number of members, but without any real meaningful competition. If we do that, then I think that some will decide they would rather be elsewhere on a Tuesday evening, especially during the winter months.

· Or we can choose to wind up the Club. Many of our members also play elsewhere, or they play online, so they will not be lost to the world of bridge.

The last option is not what any of us want, and we do not have to make that decision quickly. But the possibility must be faced.

I would like to propose that we should immediately make our Club more welcoming by scrapping the additional playing fee that we charge to visitors, so that we all pay £3 a session. Today’s session will be free of charge, as I believe it always has been on A.G.M. nights.

I also propose that we freeze the membership list now, removing any who have already resigned. There will be no membership fee for the year 2021 to 2022, and nobody can join as a new member this year (up till August 2022). We can vote on all these proposals if you wish, and I expect the Committee will confirm the decisions reached by the membership here tonight.

So now I would like to open up the discussion and hear what others think about our way we should go forward. 

Members Response :- there was a show of hands which supported continuing with face to face bridge for as long as possible.

Sue Woodhams propsed that we should offer some teaching prior to the main bridge evening to encourage new players to come along - it was agreed that the committe would try to intoduce this 

Tanja Summers propsed that we should start at 7.00  - this was agreed but needs careful communication before we implement the change

Treasurers Report: In the treasurer abscence John Wareham presented the accounts. The bank balance is still healthy and the loss over the two years  was kept to circa £500.  We have approx  £10,500 in reserve, The proposal by the Chair to simplfy the table money to £3,00 for members and visitors and suspension of annual subscription was agreed.

Adoption of accounts and appointment of Auditor Tom Banks: Proposer: Brenda Baldock Seconded by  Pat Hobson.

Committee: We have lost Roger Lennard, Chris Kaye and Suart Tarranr from the Committee.  The remaimimg members of the committee all agreed to stand again. John Wareham  proposed and seconded by Jane Farndon that Trish Williamd and Sue Woodhams be elected to the committee - this was passed by unanimously by the members present.

AOB –  we agreed to look to reintroduce tea and coffee

The meeting closed at 7.45 pm. Followed by the presentation of prizes.