MAYFIELD DUPLICATE BRIDGE CLUB

 

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING   - Tuesday 16 April 2013

 

 

 

The twenty-ninth Annual General Meeting of the Mayfield Duplicate Bridge Club was held at St John’s Church Hall, Tadworth on Tuesday 16th April 2013.

 

 

The Meeting commenced at 7.15pm with 44 members present including the following  Committee Members:

 

    Keith Jackson (Chairman)           Peter Cogliatti (Treasurer)

    Roger Morton (Captain)              Adrian Patrick (Secretary)

    Helen Seymour                           Pam Jardine

    Philip Tilbrook                            Roger Sugden

                                   

                                                                                     

Apologies for Absence

Tim Cook, David Dick, Rosemary Rice, Alan Bailey, Peter Lee

Inu Kassam, Peter Slot, Liz Phillips

 

Chairman’s Report

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the Meeting and asked for questions or corrections to the minutes of the last AGM.  Being none, he signed the Minutes

 

A copy of the Chairman’s report is attached (A).

 

Secretary’s Report

Report taken as read.  There were no questions.  A copy of the report is attached (B).

 

Treasurer’s Report

The Treasurer presented the accounts, a copy of which is attached (C).

Peter stated that table money is down about 8 – 10%. We have had a whole year of duplimated boards at £873, the rent is going up and we have lost the discount that had been given for Friday evenings. The rent increase will be about £1.000.

 Peter recommended that we increase table money to £3 and do away with the weekly prize vouchers. This would make good any deficit.

John Timberlake asked if the treasurer had worked out a 5-year budget. Peter replied that he hadn’t but didn’t foresee any other increases in expenditure other those in line with inflation.

There were several questions about the viability of Friday evening bridge. It was thought that we should encourage better attendance on Fridays. Friday bridge is an important part of the bridge club but the situation should be reviewed.

Members voted to increase table money to £3 and do away with the weekly prize vouchers.

The accounts were approved. Proposed by Chris Pullan and seconded by Alan Rainbow.

 

 

Captain’s Report

The report was taken as read, a copy of which is attached (D).

 

Roger Morton then asked Bernard Pike to present the trophies to the prizewinners as set out in the Captain’s Report.  Peter Cogliatti distributed prize money to winners and runners-up after the Meeting to save time.

 

Roger congratulated Peter Lee for winning the Surrey Bridge Victor Ludorum.

Roger said that John Frosztega is willing to mentor players to help improve their game. He and Tim Cook would also be happy to help with this.

  

Elections and Appointments

The Chairman said that he was standing down.

 Adrian Patrick was elected chairman, Helen Seymour Hon Secretary, and Peter Cogliatti Treasurer.

Other committee members re-elected are; Roger Sugden, Pam Jardine, Alan Bailey, Tim Cook, Roger Morton, Phil Tilbrook and Cindy Gregory. Martin Trouse was elected as a new committee member.

 

The list of all nominees, proposers and seconders, Attachment (E), had been posted on the notice board and, with no objections raised, all were duly elected.

 

David Dick had agreed to continue as Auditor and he was proposed by Sylvia Timberlake, seconded by Elizabeth Johnson and duly elected.

Adrian Patrick took the chair and thanked Keith Jackson for all his hard work as a Committee Member and as Chairman of the club over a period of 8 years and presented him with a gift.

 

Any Other Business

 

We have been using bought-in duplimated hands for 18 months

at a cost of £900 per year. The Chairman stated the case for buying our own Duplimate Machine. The capital cost of about £2,750 would be recouped in 3 years. There are no concerns with reliability and we could offer a service to other clubs.

Tony Scouller commented that the RAC have their own machine and have had no issues with it.

Alan Rainbow asked where it would be kept. Roger Sugden has offered to keep the machine at his house and to prepare the boards. These can be done in advance to allow for holidays.

Chris Pullan asked if we were going to write off the purchase of the machine against reserves or depreciate the cost over 3 years. The Treasurer said that the plan would be to write off the purchase and he didn’t see this as being a problem.

The chairman asked members to vote in favour of purchasing a Duplimate Machine. There was a clear majority in favour.

 

The Chairman stated the case for buying Bridgemates:  hand-held scoring devices now used in most clubs.

 Results would be available at the end of the evening and it would save someone having to take home all the travellers and do the scoring.

 It would improve the perception of our club.

The cost of buying 20 machines would be about £3000 with running costs of about £100 per year.

Sylvia Timberlake expressed concern that members see the results as each round progresses and can make rude comments about other players scores. Could the % score be hidden? Could we also have paper travellers?

Richard Bass asked if we could have help for those members unfamiliar with the devices.

Fiona Clark said that we should be more sensible to people’s inadequacies and that purchase of bridgemates would increase our stature as a Surrey club.

Chris Pullan plays at a club in Bookham where the standard of play is not as high as the Mayfield and they have had no problem with coping with Bridgemates. However, it should be noted that the director must be 100% certain about the movement before starting to play. Once started, the evening proceeds more efficiently as there can be no problems with movements going wrong.  He also felt it would necessary to have a director and scorer and a tutorial on how to use the machines.

John Timberlake expressed his dislike of Bridgemates. Sylvia has been scoring hands for 30 years and it is not a problem. This would be a large hit financially for the club and we should consider this very carefully.

A vote was taken and 25 members were in favour of buying

Bridgemates. 11 were against and there were 5 abstentions.

 

Popularity of the Pro-Am evening has declined and the Chairman asked members their views about continuing the competition.

John Timberlake is strongly in favour of keeping it going, especially as this was a trophy given by Molly Slevin in memory of her husband, Charles. He suggested that we work harder to encourage more people to enter.

Roger Morton said he would lobby the better players to come along. We can use the National Grading Scheme to determine who is a Pro or an Am.

A majority voted to continue the competition and the committee to review the situation in a year’s time.

 

Geoff Whitehead gave a Vote of Thanks to the Officers and Committee for their work during the year.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 8.15 pm.

 

Adrian Patrick  -  Chairman