MINUTES OF THE REMOTE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON SATURDAY 20 MAY 2023 COMMENCING AT 4.30 PM

Present: Mark Goddard (Chairman), Julia Staniforth (Secretary), Roger Stock (Treasurer), Keith Spencer (Chief TD), Ann Adkin, Shirley Ashtari, Clare Batten, David Dunford, Geoff Caldwell, Chris Frost, Jane Hall, John Sandwell, Mel Shepherd, Ken Smith, Jane Stock and Dave Treharne.

1) Welcome and Apologies

The Chair welcomed everyone and thanked them for their attendance. Apologies were duly recorded from:

Rosemary Gunn, Ewa Hardwick, Dawn Ingham, Margaret Litchfield, Lynne Lomas, Elly O’ Connor, Richard Page, Valerie Scott, Louise Scull and Sue Wright.

2) Minutes of last AGM

The minutes were agreed as a correct record for publication on the website.

3) Matters arising from the minutes

There were no separate matters arising.

4) Chair’s report

The Chair reported an improving situation in respect of bridge play with around 35,000 UMS member sessions played over 1,400 events. Whilst the number of F2F was continuing to increase there was still a mix of F2F and online sessions with members generally having preference for one or the other.

Three teams had been fielded in the Midland County League with two of the matches played F2F against Derbyshire and Leicestershire but most other counties preferred online. A message of appreciation was extended to Shirley Ashtari for leading the organisation of teams for the matches.

There had been good attendance at all the county events, the Priday Cup (9 High pairs event) and Journal Cup (qualifier for the EBU Corwen Trophy) had been held F2F, the Mixed Pairs and Teams of 4 event played on Realbridge, all at no cost to NCBA members. Keith Spencer was thanked for directing these events

Twelve teams had again competed in the county leagues of 8 with Nottingham A the winners of Division 1 and had entered the Garden Cities regional final. Jane Hall was thanked for her work administering the league.

Six pairs had entered a recent Midland County 9 High event with pairs finishing 2nd , 3rd and 8th out of 24 pairs thereby Notts had been designated the leading county.

One coaching session had taken place and it was intended to arrange further session on a variety of topics later in the year.

The Chair thanked the officers and members of the committee for their work throughout the year.

There were no questions relating to the report.

5) Treasurers report

The treasurer introduced himself and thanked Ian Dovey (the previous treasurer) for his help and support with the transfer of information. He drew attention to the accounts that had been made available in advance of the meeting and outlined that as in the previous year the accounts reflected a loss due to little or no income being received and an amount of expenditure being incurred in providing events free of charge to

members and in the current year an increase in the take up of members participating in EBU events following county qualification. The teams of eight entry fees were also subsidised.

In order to improve income receipts a sum of £11k that was held in a Scottish Widows accounts paying less than 2% had now been transferred to the Cambridge and Counties bank paying 4% which would be reflected in the accounts for 24/25.

The following questions were raised:

Q: What were the costs of hosting the Journal and Priday Cup competitions?

A: £82 for the Priday Cup and £254 for the Journal Cup

Q: Was it intended to reintroduce any one day Green Point events?

A: No discussion or decision had been taken at the present time.

Q: Was there a reserve policy?

A: There was no formal written policy and it was accepted that £15k was a large amount and equivalent to a number of years expected expenditure.

Q: What was the expected cost of the annual programme of events?

A: This was approximately £1.5k but this could increase if all events were F2F.

The treasurer concluded his report by denoting that the Independent Examiner (Dave Beaumont) had approved the accounts and these were recommended and duly adopted.

6) Appointment of an Independent Examiner

The treasurer explained that as he lived in the north of the county the handing over and collection of the accounts involved a substantial amount of travel and it was proposed that John Rolph (Chairman of Retford BC) a former qualified accountant be appointed, he had indicated his willingness to accept the appointment.

Members agreed the proposal.

7) Approval of EBU UMS Fees for 2024/25

Discussion took place on the committee’s proposal to reinstate the county UMS rate of £0.04p with effect from 1 April 2024. Members enquired as to whether it was necessary to reinstate the levy in view of the substantial reserves which would fund several years’ costs. It was suggested that monies collected should be returned to members in some form. The treasurer reported that the levy was expected to raise around £1.4k and so would meet most but not all of the expected expenditure.

A vote was taken and the motion was carried with thirteen votes for and three abstentions that were requested to be recorded from Ann Adkin, David Dunford and Roger Stock.

8) Members’ Motion for future AGMs to be held In Person

Ann Adkin who had formally submitted the proposal explained that she felt that a face to face AGM to coincide with an event would provide for greater interaction with members. A question was raised regarding the venue and that the north of the county may be more accessible. It was noted that Mansfield Mechanics BC owned their premises and this could be explored as a possible venue. The Chair outlined that in the past there had been situations when the AGM had not been quorate and there was no evidence that attendance would improve by holding the meeting face to face.

The secretary explained that the current constitution provided for the executive committee to determine the arrangements for the AGM and any AGM needed the support and attendance of the committee officers. However the wishes of members would need to be considered.

A vote took place and was carried by 7 votes to 5 with four abstentions.

9) Election of Committee

The following were duly elected to the committee:

Mark Goddard Chair)

Julia Staniforth (Secretary)

Roger Stock (Treasurer)

Keith Spencer (Tournament Director)

Shirley Ashtari

Chris Frost

Mel Shepherd

David Treharne

Sue Wright

10) Election of EBU Shareholders – Nominees: Keith Spencer and Julia Staniforth

The Shareholders were duly elected.

11) Items Raised by Members

A comment was made that the league tables displayed on the county’s website were difficult to read and it was felt that the tables used by the EBU were an improved format. The league secretary responded that the county recorded the results from the scorecards supplied by the team captains using actual imps. It was suggested that team captains be asked to input the results directly into the EBU via its website as a number of other counties did. It was agreed that this would be discussed at the next committee meeting.

A vote of thanks was extended to the officers of the committee and to the Independent Examiner for his work over the past years.

12) Date of the Next Annual General Meeting

On closing the meeting the Chair again thanked officers of the committee and members present for their attendance and support and advised that the next AGM would be held over the weekend of 18/19 May.