Staffordshire & Shropshire Contract Bridge Association
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Sunday, 4th September 2022
on Zoom at 5 p.m.
Present: The Chairman, The Treasurer, The Secretary, The Captain, The Membership Secretary, John Withers, Paul Hackett, Jan Bradley.
The Chairman, Pam Booth Jones, welcomed everyone to the AGM and noted that there was not a quorum (15).
- Apologies: Pat Ramsey (Oswestry), Rita Shepherd (Newcastle), James Vickers (Wolverhampton), Geoff Davies (Stafford).
- The Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Zoom on 5th September 2021 & EGM on 10th September 2021 were taken as read and approved.
- Matters Arising:
- None from the AGM.
- The reason for the EGM was to ratify the County’s membership fees of 6p P2P and £5 direct, and it was agreed that if there were no changes in these rates there was no need to hold an EGM for that purpose.
- Chairman’s Report: see attached. In addition, PBJ highlighted the financial difficulties for smaller clubs with low attendance in paying a high proportion of their income on UMS fees and strongly recommended that small clubs should agree to amalgamate rather than allow two clubs to fold. Jan Bradley (JB) queried whether all members were given to chance to choose f2f or online for the Championship Pairs, and PBJ reported that she sent out a survey to those who played online last year and f2f in previous years.
- Treasurer’s Report: see attached financial papers. JS reported that the larger loss than usual was partly because some bills from the previous year were paid late and there was no surplus from the Shropshire Congress. Paul Hackett (PH) said that he would send a list and pay the direct membership fees of £5 each for his group of players to JS, AS and JM.
- Acting Competitions Secretary and Congress Secretary. See attached report. JM thanked Paul Cutler (PC) for organising the League matches, Dawes matches and Midlands No Fears events; and PBJ for organising the Championship and Mixed Pairs events. The next Shropshire Congress listed on the EBU calendar, with the Swiss Pairs on Saturday, 22nd April 2023.
- Membership Secretary: See attached report. Ann Sleightholme (AS) reported that Barlaston Club had recently affiliated to the EBU and County but that sadly Stone, having come to the end of the trial period, had ceased to be affiliated. Membership numbers at the end of August 2022 was 754 and on 4th September 2022 was 727. She reckoned many were still too timid after Covid to return to f2f bridge but hoped numbers would increase when these people return. JB asked about the procedure when a member had died. It was up to club secretaries to update lists in those circumstances, but it was pointed out that it was up to individual members to keep the EBU and club secretaries up to date. PBJ recommended that we needed to know which clubs would allow beginners at their duplicate sessions. AS reported that Stafford already offered such sessions.
- Webmaster AS reported that the updates for BridgeWebs were very difficult to master but reiterated that she needed good items and pictures to put on the front page to encourage people to log on to it. There was much discussion about the EBU’s list of county members and the County’s list on our website and the difficulties of keeping them up to date and making use of the data in them.
- Captain’s Report see attached report. There were no questions.
- New Competition Secretary sought: It had proved impossible to find a new Competition Secretary. PBJ had offered to take this on if a new Chairman could be found. A couple has been sounded out but were not interested. The search goes on.
- Election of Officers. There were no nominations, and all current officers were prepared to continue and were therefore re-elected.
- Any Other Business.
- It was noted that Wolverhampton BC would be holding a special meeting on 2nd October to discuss the future with regard to their premises.
- It was agreed that the County would reimburse JS for the forthcoming year’s use of Zoom, so that we could hold meetings throughout the year. She would confirm the cost but thought it was in the region of £109 per annum.
- John Withers agreed to audit the Accounts.
- PH reported that the EBU AGM was to be held on 30th November but was likely to be out of the country at that time and asked if John Withers could stand in for him if necessary, as he had in the past. JW agreed.
- In the absence of a quorum it was agreed that there was no need for an EGM because there were no proposals and no important votes to be ratified.
The meeting was closed at 6.15 pm.
JM
10.09.22.
Copies of the Reports are available from Judy Mitchell on mitchellmj@btinternet.com.
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