CHAIRMAN’S REPORT 2013

The last year has been an interesting one with a number of initiatives taken or proposed by the Committee.

The one taken was the holding of an open Swiss Pairs event last October.  This was very successful, due to the hard work of Alan Bailey in setting up the event and Martin Lee who ran it so well.  43 members and 25 visitors made up the 17 tables.  Feedback from the mini-questionnaire which participants completed was very positive.  Good publicity for the club was obtained by subsequent articles about the event in the Surrey Newsletter and  EBU magazine.  The Committee has decided to hold a similar event again this year.

Two initiatives being put forward for consideration at the AGM are the purchase of a Duplimate dealing machine and Bridgemates for scoring – the two proposals are independent of each other.  These are very important issues for the AGM to consider as they cost about £3,000 each.

Having our own Duplimate machine would mean a cost saving of around £700 a year (excluding depreciation) compared with our present practice of buying-in hands, but it would mean extra work for a Committee member.

Having Bridgemates would do away with the need to manually work out scores at the end of the evening and the results would be available at the end of the session.  However it would mean an extra cost of £150 a year (excluding depreciation) and there might be a slight delay in starting the session due to setting up the system.

There seems to be general consensus that Alan’s laptop clock and ‘four minutes to go’ warnings have been successful in speeding up play. 

As mentioned in our January Newsletter the attendance at the Pro-Am event was a disappointing 8½ tables (10 tables the previous year) and the AGM will be asked whether it wishes the event to continue.

Sadly Kath Coward and Dorothy Wharton passed away during the year.  Both had been Life members but had not played in recent years because of infirmity.  Condolences were sent to their next of kin.

I would like to thank all Committee members for the hard work they have put in and support they have given me.  Also many thanks go to those other members who have helped the club by directing, inputting scores etc.

Lastly, after 8 years on the Committee I am standing down.  The last two years as Chairman have been interesting, but I feel ‘new blood’ is needed to help support the Committee’s recent initiatives.  I am very pleased that Adrian Patrick is willing to be Chairman and hope you will support him and the rest of the Committee.

Keith Jackson