Contract Bridge In Strathalbyn: November 2016

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Alexandrina Results for 23 November 2016

See below for the 7 December General Meeting Agenda.

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AGENDA

DECEMBER 2016 GENERAL MEETING OF

ALEXANDRINA CONTRACT BRIDGE CLUB

Venue: Rosa Hoare Room, Lutheran Church Hall

Date: 7 December 2016 Time: 2:30pm

1. Opening

a. Apologies

2. Confirmation of 2016 General Meeting Minutes

3. Address

a. Club President

b. Treasurer

4. Affiliation with SA and Australian Bridge Federations. Motion: “Alexandrina Contract Bridge Club immediately affiliate with the SA and Australian Bridge Federations with all affiliation fees to be paid by the Club and with a Special General Meeting to be held in December 2017 to decide whether to continue affiliation or not.”

5. Other Business from the floor.

6. Meeting close.

See you there.

Hills Results for 21 November 2016

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See you next week.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Alexandrina Results for 16 November 2016

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Do not forget: Special General Meeting at 2:30pm (afternoon tea time) on 7 December 2016 to consider affiliation with Australian Bridge Federation. An Agenda will appear here in two weeks.

Hills Results for 14 November 2016

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Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Alexandrina Results for 9 November 2016 & Special General Meeting Notice

There will be a Special General Meeting of Alexandrina Contract Bridge Club at The Strathalbyn Lutheran Church Hall at 2:30pm on 7 December 2016 to consider the Club's affiliation with the South Australian and Australian Bridge Federations. See the bottom of this blog entry for the background to this proposal.

Meanwhile ...

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Background for 7 December Special general Meeting:

PUBLIC LIABILITY INSURANCE

If Alexandrina Contract Bridge Club Incorporated is going to be a continuing entity then it needs to take responsibility for its own public liability insurance. We can decide to wind up the club and give our assets to Strathalbyn Senior Citizens Club then go and play Contract Bridge there as SENIOR CITIZENS or we can get ourselves organised and play as CONTRACT BRIDGE PLAYERS.

If we act independently and organise our own PLI we can expect to pay in excess of $800 per year to an insurance broker. With our current, quite reasonable, financial situation we could keep that going for two or three years before we started drastically increasing table fees and Club subscriptions. But, more likely we would factor in the cost immediately so say 30 club members and a $900 premium thus a $20 subscription and an extra dollar in the table fee.

If we join the Contract Bridge umbrella organisation, that is, affiliate with the Australian Bridge Federation, then we would be covered by their blanket PLI. But there are also fees associated with ABF affiliation: in 2014 they totalled $21.50 per player.

For ABF purposes members of multiple clubs must nominate one as their “home club” with their affiliation fees to be paid by the home club. Some members of ACBC also play regularly at other clubs where visitors’ table fees are higher than those for members. If ACBC were to affiliate then by having regular visiting players pay the standard table fee and casual visiting players paying extra, we would encourage relevant members to nominate their other club as their home club.

So if we were to affiliate and we have say 25 home club members then we are looking at about $600. We would still have to have subscriptions of more than $0 but we would be in a better position to subsidise the affiliation fees.

While there are other advantages in being affiliated with the ABF let’s ignore them and consider what might be the disadvantages. I don’t think there are any disadvantages but there may be some misconceptions: we’re paying for elite players overseas trips; the ambience of the club will change, there all these rules we have to follow, etcetera.

If the ABF is paying for elite players’ attendance it is because they are representing Australia and if you are a member of the ABF it could be you!

The vibe at ACBC playing sessions is set by the players and the Play Director and I know the latter is definitely not going to change his attitude. We will have shushing players and players urging the director to get on with it but we have them already.

The only rules not currently enforced are announcements for club and no trump openings at the one level. They are not hard and there is no penalty if you forget. If you do play somewhere else it is a good habit to have. Apart from that and the more relaxed pace, I feel no difference between playing at ACBC and playing at SABA.

If there are other misconceptions or objections, then I would expect refute them to everyone’s satisfaction. Feel free to draw my attention to them.

To move this matter along the Management Committee has agreed to have a Special General Meeting on the first playing day in December. At this meeting I will propose the following motion:

“Alexandrina Contract Bridge Club immediately affiliate with the Australian Bridge Federation with all affiliation fees payed by the Club and with a Special General Meeting to be held in December 2017 to decide whether to continue affiliation or not.”

Note that this would mean that anybody becoming a member of the club during 2017 would also have their affiliation fees paid for by the club.

The 2017 December meeting would discuss what the ACBC subscription should be, assuming continued affiliation.

Norman Bullen Treasurer ACBC

Hills Results for 7 November 2016

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See you next week.

Alexandrina results for 2 November 2016

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Don't forget: you can ask for a review of your scores for up to 12 months after you played. Your Scorer is always ready to go through the original travellers with you.