Bawburgh Bridge Club

I Chairman’s Summary

Bawburgh Bridge Club has just reached its 5^th Anniversary and our usual party days, albeit with competitive bridge, successfully celebrated the fact. We continue to attract applications for membership to the extent that a waiting list is still the norm. It is also a source of satisfaction to your committee that attendances on Wednesdays continue to grow, as detailed later in this review.

Also covered later are the elements which we may see introduced over the next year to aid the development of Bawburgh Bridge Club and add to the enjoyment of our members. Of particular importance will be the circular and ballot paper regarding affiliation to the EBU which you will receive at the same time as this review. It is essential that we receive maximum feedback from our members so that your committee can make the decision which will give most benefit to the club and its future.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity, on your behalf, to say a big ‘thank you’ to your committee who put in a lot of hours and effort to make Bawburgh Bridge Club the success it is. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the bridge table over the coming year.

II.  Finance

A. Accounts

We present below a summary of our accounts for the year ending March 31 2009.

	Values to the Nearest £
Opening Cash(Including income and expenses prepaid last year)				3348
Income
Membership		1168
Wednesdays      )Net of Direct Expenses	1428
Thursdays          )hall hire, pre-dealt cards	3431
SpecialEvents    )prizes etc	569
Event Income		5428
Bank Interest		65
Total Income			6661
General Expenditure
EBU	714
TD Training	98
Insurance	487
Computers amp; Software	435
Printing	136
Committee Expenses	295
Total Overheads		2165
Bridgemate	409
Other Equipment	606
Refreshments	1166
Playing Stationery	73
Total Shared Playing Expense		2254
Total General Expenditure			4419
Net Surplus for the Year				2242
Cash Carried forward				5680

B. Commentary

Auditing & Banking. Our accounts have been audited by Robert Cooper, and we thank him for his contribution to the club.

Income and Expenditure. Overhead expenditure exceeded our original budget due to an expansion of our playing equipment. We are also seeing above-inflation rises in the costs of using the village hall. However our income was also ahead of budget, due to higher attendance by our relatively fixed membership. The net effect was that our surplus for the year was about £570 greater than planned.

Financial Outlook.Both membership and playing income are constrained by the need to manage peak attendance on Thursdays. In the coming year, we expect no better than stable income on Thursdays, and a small growth in Wednesday attendance.

The rising cost of hall hire and other expenses have been absorbed in 2009/10. However further inflation in 2010/11, added to the possible costs of affiliation to the EBU, may occasion a small rise in table money in that year

We are unwilling to see a large erosion of our operating margins. We will almost certainly replace our Bridgemate equipment in 2009, as greatly superior terminals will be available. We retain the view that the purchase of a dealing machine is inevitable in the medium term, particularly if want to make two sections a common practice with large numbers of tables.(see Bridge Matters below.). These projects (over £4,500) are in line with our foundation goal - to provide the best available bridge playing experience. At the same time we need to continue to build the financial reserves to replace our equipment as and when required.

III Membership

Our membership hovered in upper 190’s last year and has been limited to 200 to avoid undue pressure on Thursday events. After lapses and admittance of the waiting list, we begin 2009-10 with 193 members.

On Thursdays we are averaging close to 17 tables in contrast to 14.5 reported last year. On average, 35% of our members are now appearing on Thursdays. We believe we can manage 22 tables in emergencies and are equipped for that eventuality. 22 tables are the equivalent of 44% attendance, 2.5 tables more than our record.

Our Wednesday attendance averaged over 9 tables in contrast with the 8.3 reported last year. Taking the two events together, about 50% of members attend the club each week.

V  Bridge Matters

Bridge Days. The fourth half-term bridge day in October, introduced this year, has been a great success. We now usually have to stage a draw for places at all our bridge days. To keep this process fair, those who are unlucky in the draw are automatically awarded places at future events.
All Day Availability of the Village Hall. The nursery school which uses the Village Hall in the mornings has ceased to operate. We have no plans to consider what opportunities this might present until we are sure that the hall will be permanently available in the mornings.
Simultaneous Pairs. In line with our member-survey, we include in our club program the main charity simultaneous pair’s events. These continue to be less well attended than other events. For the coming season, we have decided to drop Sim Pairs events altogether on Wednesdays, The decline in attendance for Sim Pairs was greater than for Thursdays and the last Wednesday event led to two resignations at the year end. We plan to continue with the 3 main charity events on Thursdays.
Ladder Competitions. Currently we divide the year into three unequal periods. We plan in 2009/10 to stage four equal quarterly handicapped ladder competitions, commencing June 1st. Each will be based on players’ best 8 events in the period. Results will be adjusted by handicaps derived from average scores in the previous ladder.
Two Sections. We are considering experimenting with running two sections where we have more than 17 tables. Each section will play identical boards and the results for the afternoon will be pooled to show two winners. The objective is to make the bridge fairer by ensuring that all players play the same boards, which can not happen playing 12 rounds with 19 tables. It can also increase the proportion of opponents that you have played. These two objectives are defined in the EBU movement book as the guiding principles behind fair bridge. This arrangement should also localise the movement in the bridge room. We abandoned some time ago the alternative arrangement for ensuring all play the same boards, using Appendix Mitchell movements which involve a progressive amount of sharing as the number of tables builds up. We will review the two section approach at the end of the season.

Teams of 4. The Thursday teams of four events continue to be very popular. We averaged between 17 and 18 tables throughout this competition in 2008-9. This year the event was closely contested with three teams having an equal chance of winning, based on their form in the last event. This suggests we have the handicapping about right.

The committee has agreed that permitting two substitutions in a well established event is too generous. Next season on Thursdays we will allow only one substitute in each team, but will base the event on the best 3 out of 5 rather than 4 events, giving teams more scope for managing absences. Dropping the two worst results should also increase the number of teams in contention. The team handicap will continue to be calculated by awarding each team member a positive or negative handicap of 3 imps for every point above or below an average of 50 in the summer ladder.

We have observed in other clubs a successful team’s event based on a fluctuating attendance in the range 8-12 tables and judge that this is the year to test the waters on Wednesdays. In view of the small majority for the idea, at a recent afternoon poll, we propose to begin with two independent teams’ events. To add a little spice to the events there will be a modest prize for each of the winning teams at each event. In the first year we will also provide a partner pair to enable inadvertent arrivals to play on each occasion. The events have been scheduled in the club program well away from the weeks when the Thursday team event is taking place.

IV EBU Membership Proposals.

About the same time that you receive this document, you will have received a ballot paper asking you whether the club should continue to affiliate to the EBU under the new membership proposals. These ensure that all members of affiliated clubs automatically become full members of the EBU. The club is asked to communicate its decision on this matter to the EBU by the end of July 2009. You can participate in the ballot by simply replying to the club email or letter with two “yes’s” or “no’s “.

Accompanying the ballot email will be a paper from the committee setting out the advantages and disadvantages and the effects on the club’s finances over the next two years. The club committee recommends that members should vote for affiliation if we are to preserve the club as it is.

Also on the ballot paper is an option with regard to EBU membership - for club members to be ‘anonymous’ members of the EBU. As their names will not be passed to the EBU, anonymous members will not participate in the Master Points system or the national ranking system and will forfeit most of the personal benefits of membership, the EBU magazine, the free diary, participation in EBU and county events  and the refund of excess pay-to-play payments, – i.e. in practical terms, they will closely resemble non-EBU- members at present.

If members do not return the ballot paper, we will assume they do not object to the committee’s recommendation on continued affiliation; also that they do not object sufficiently to EBU membership to ask to be anonymous.

Derek Bruce
Chairman Bawburgh BC