Hills Results for 22 February 2016 and Newsletter

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Newsletter:

HILLS BRIDGE CLUB NEWSLETTER

22 February 2016

Annual Meeting on Leap Day

It is a reasonably rare occurrence for February to have five Mondays (1 in 28), so please make sure you are ready for this one. The meeting agenda will be provided on the 22^nd of the month. If you want something on it, then please talk to me as Secretary.

The Two of Clubs Wine Prize Currently Suspended

The re-instatement or otherwise of this will be an Agenda Item for Leap Day.

Mobile Phones – Please Turn Them Off during Play

Unless you are expecting an urgent phone call, please put your mobile phone on silent ringing during play. Personally, I have two varieties of tinnitus going on in my head so for me it is just more noise, but most players prefer not to have their concentration interrupted. The same applies to loud conversation while waiting for the change to be called: I don’t notice until it becomes really loud, so when I call for silence then we are really loud.

Club Office Bearers and the Annual Meeting

For those who have not been here since Barbara Travis stopped organising Bridge in the Hills at the end of 2008, the “Hills Bridge Club” is an informal association that agreed on its current structure in November 2009. The only time there has been an actual election of an office bearer was the inaugural meeting in February 2010 when Lorraine was elected President by 19 votes to 8. At the meeting all office positions will be declared vacant and new nominations called will be called for President, Secretary and Treasurer. The same 3 people have been nominated unopposed for each of the past 5 years. Your current play director, me, usually asks whether anyone else would like to direct.

Leap Day might be a good time for a palace coup.

Club Treasurer

Chris R has been Treasurer since the beginning. She collects the table fees and banks the money, she organises the acquisition of all the things we need like cards, bidding blocks and travellers (what we pedants called scoresheets) and co-signs the cheques to pay the bills such as those for the Golf Club for the venue and the club’s component for the annual lunch. She keeps the book and presents a statement at the annual meeting. Goodness knows who does her job when she’s not available.

Club Secretary

Norman B has been Secretary since the beginning. I keep a record of contact details for all regular and potential regular players. I provide a postal address and an email (both my own) for the Club but there has never been actual official mail or email communication with the club; all the mail received so far has been advertising. I make sure club contact information is available somewhere (currently SA Bridge Federation web site and The Weekend Herald). I make sure that if someone approaches the Club wanting to learn they get some sort of support. I produce minutes for the Annual Meeting and I produce an occasional Newsletter (when there is “news”). I try to coordinate players temporarily without partners. I make the Director get off his arse and do things.

Club President

Lorraine W has been President since the beginning. She makes sure the Treasurer and Secretary are doing their jobs properly and co-signs the cheques. She listens to players’ comments and complaints and tries to keep everyone happy. She chairs the annual meeting. She provides another point of Contact for the Club.

Play Director

The Inaugural Meeting agreed that the directing would be done by “Senior Players” the main one of whom was Les Hortons. Les did the scores but after a while that began to be too big a chore (ask Val about inadequately entered AND CHECKED entries on the travellers) and Les left us at the beginning of 2010. I took over doing the scores and because I have a loud voice, getting the play started.

By the end of 2010 I had taken over all the functions of a play director and those functions have gradually expanded to where we are today with me play director for two clubs.

I am expecting that I will continue to be play director but if someone else wants to have a shot, I will be only too happy to step aside.

Further Reading

This newsletter and an extended exposition of exactly what I do as play Director will be posted on the Alexandrina Hills Blog. To save paper (and ink) only 16 copies of this will be distributed. If you can see the blog on line and you need a hard copy, then feel free to print one.