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 ...
Results:
Hand record:
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