Annual General meeting of the Bassingham Bridge Club
To be held on 29th April 2021 at 6pm via Zoom
Apologies
Minutes of 2019 AGM – available to view on the website.
Treasurer’s report – see separate attachment
Chairperson’s report. – see below
Election of Officers
Competition report
Pairs Slam Handicap
Proposal from the committee: That an Extraordinary General Meeting be held in September at the Hammond Hall. When full discussion of topics would be possible.
There has been another proposal from Alan Timmis as follows: –
“That in memory of our founder and all the good work he did over many years the name of the club be changed to Bassingham Hughes Bridge Club (or some such).”
A constant reminder to members of a much loved man without whom there would be no club at all.
However the committee think that this would be better deferred until the September Extraordinary meeting when a full discussion would be easier to hold.
Provisionally the club hopes to resume bridge sessions in the Hammond hall from Thursday 1st July. A further committee meeting will be held in June to confirm the restart.
Here is a link to access the zoom session on 29th April: –
Time: Apr 29, 2021 06:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us05web.zoom.us/j/85753914324?pwd=N0N0UWVsd1M3aThIVmxReDMvN1hKdz09
Meeting ID: 857 5391 4324
Passcode: jK69kE
Tony Tyler, secretary
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
What an exceptional time Bassingham Bridge Club has been through. Our last AGM was in April 2019 and Roy Hughes Chaired the meeting. Sadly he passed away in November and I assumed the role of acting Chairman. Then in March all live bridge at Bassingham stopped due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The whole committee have continued to work well together and continue to hold meetings via Zoom. Jim Wallace joined the committee in April.
Onto our Bridge year. This began with our usual very cheerful and extremely well attended (18 tables) Christmas 2019 celebration with fun bridge, mulled wine and sausage rolls (kindly donated by Derek Hickson).
The 2019/20 Individual Competition began by asking all players to use Standard English Acol. This led to virtually 80% taking part in the individual competition (compared to less than 50% previously). However, after a decline in numbers in the last 2 months of the trial, it was decided to return to the old system for the remaining 6 months and monitor how numbers were affected. They have indeed remained high, with the majority continuing to play in the Individual competition.
The first Random Seeded Competition took place on Sunday 24th November and uniquely had a tie for 1st place. These afternoons continue to be popular, with the maximum 9 tables also taking part in February. They provide pleasant afternoons of friendly team bridge with excellent afternoon tea provided by the participants. Dave Williams has kindly directed all these events.
Tuesday afternoons continue to be used for social bridge. In addition the committee, led by Andy Milner, have used this time to trial a BriAn scoring system. Once up and running it works well but it has been decided to relook at this, and possible alternatives, at a later date.
In January 2020 the Club purchased a Dealing Machine jointly with Heighington Bridge Club. This has proved to be far superior to the ‘Handydup’ method. It produces deals very quickly and the hands are easily printed out and displayed on our website.
Unfortunately the Club’s bridge year had to be brought to a premature end on 16th March when all our meetings were cancelled due to the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic. The decision was taken by the committee to end the season at this stage.
In September the Committee agreed to join BCL F2F bridge on our usual Thursday night. This has proved to be popular and regularly has 6/7 tables. We had to abandon our Charity Day in August 2020 but supported Simultaneous Pairs competitions for Children in Need. We had hoped to do a further one in March in support of Cancer Research UK and Marie Curie but unfortunately a fire affected the main server at BCL and no play was able to take place.
The online AGM scheduled for 29th April is to fulfil our constitutional obligations and, hopefully, a full EGM can be held as soon as we return to live bridge.
Pat Haslam