Minutes of the Committee Meeting of the DBA held on Wednesday 7 May2008
Note : these are draft minutes awaiting approval at the next meeting

Present Keith Ponsford (in the Chair, East), Terence Treeby(Hon. Sec.), John Lankshear (Hon. Treas.), Terry Cannon (East), David Hugo(West), Paul Ainsworth (South)

1. Apologies Tim Walton and Pam Ward (Paul Ainsworth deputised),John Boxall.

2. Minutes of meeting of 5 December 2007 were taken as read and signed as acorrect record.

3. Mattersarising from last meeting

3.1. (Dec 3.1). Duplimate : the North machine is up and working with Deep Finesseplay analysis.
3.2. (Dec 3.2). West subsidised seminar early in 2008 - section progressing butnothing fixed yet. Committee to consider (a) how we can help teachers startteaching and (b) a package whereby a prominent teacher (e.g. Andrew Robson) isavailable within the county to all sections over, say, a 4-day period.Discussion held over.
3.3. (Dec 3.3). Vacancy for TournamentSecretary not filled. Hon Sec and Hon Treas named to share taking entries. Keeplooking for a volunteer.
3.4. (Dec 3.4). Ann Slee's last deadlineis in June for the August magazine. Areplacement is now urgently required.
3.5. (Dec 5.2). Western League : verbal report from Selector to Hon Sec. (i) last match / endof season meeting is next Sat; (ii) one or two counties would like A to beteams of 8 on Tolle lines by agreement. Unlikely we could get 8 so non-starter;(iii) Selector has had to go outside original squad for A team but (iv) still agood idea to have one person responsible for A team as contact for opposition.Agreed not to have a pool in future and ask Selector to keep sections informedin advance of his selections so they can select their B teams.
3.6. (Dec 6.1). South : anincrease in expenses for Western League matches is proposed. Agreed to increaseto 25p per mile for one car per team for away matches.
3.7. (Dec 6.3). July swissteams Exmouth. Brochures soon. Exeter Rugby Club suggested as possible futurevenue.
3.8. (Dec 7.1). (Strategy) see separate agenda item.
3.9. (Dec 8.1). Request from Kingsbridge and Regal for Directors courses: Honiton Bridge Club and the EBUhave arranged Tournament Director Training Days at Honiton. Agreed that theCounty would refund half the costs to DBA members after they had attended, inorder to promote more qualified Directors within the County. In addition there is a CountyDirectors' Course, Birmingham on 13^th and 14th Sep. The County is interested in any applicationsto attend and has traditionally paid half the cost.

4. Treasurer'sreport

4.1. The Treasurer's report waspresented. Account balances £1940.63 + £25049.92. EBU list shows 523 paid-upmembers plus 201 unpaid.
4.2. (Dec 4.2). Duplimate : £120 approx needed forservicing plus £400 to replace cards. Agreed to reinstate hire charge forboards to non-DBA events. Charge to be 20p per board of which the operator gets11p.
4.3. County printer has been replaced andDBA has paid for repairs to Hon Sec's printer which he has been using.Clarified that the Hon Sec controls usage of the county computer and printer,mainly for congress scoring.
4.4.
(i) Agreed to propose toAGM that the County part of the EBU sub stays at £3 for 2009-10.
(ii) Agreed to propose to AGM that we accept request from EBUYouth Committee to waive county junior fee for 2009-10.

5. Secretary's report andcorrespondence (including shareholder's report on EBU matters)

5.1. Bridgemates were on offer at £60 each until 30 April provided they were solelyfor County use (ie not shared with a club). Since we rent the Exeter ones formany of our events, a discussion with the Treasurer led to the conclusion thatthis was not helpful.
5.2. Afterconsultation it was confirmed that Cornwall members may play in any Devon eventexcept the Devon Teams and the Devon Pairs, under the long-standing reciprocalarrangement. i.e. they may play in area league matches for example.
5.3. DevonPairs (2-session). Note that in the scoring for the A final the tops on theboards in the 2^nd half were factored to 28, the same as in the 1^sthalf, so that all boards carried equal weight. This may not have been theimpression given on the day. Since this is the premier pairs event and must beover at least 36 boards, it was agreed to change to a 2-session format with allpairs playing as many of the other pairs as possible.
5.4. The North will benominating Amos Bridgman as Chairman at the AGM. West are now asked to nominatea vice-Chairman in addition to the Treasurer and their two members as Southhave forfeited their turn.
5.5. (EBU) Youth report tabled.
5.6. Devon Community Directoryupdated
5.7. Midland Teams ChallengeBowl - offer declined.
5.8. EBU sent 130+ brochuresfor Riviera Congress (200 requested after none sent last year).
5.9. EBU AGM minutes tabled(also available on EBU website).
5.10. EBU March minutes notyet circulated (expected on website soon).
5.11. Congress report tabled.Profit down to £848 approx partly due to more expensive Director and failure toexceed break-even numbers. A lower attendance target will be set next year,with reduction in total prize money.

6. Section Reports

6.1 West : Plymouth Congress atbig new conference centre between A38 and Derriford. Difficulty in recruitingcommittee members.
6.2 South : Winter pairssuccessful. Charity sims about £800 again, will raise fees to £1.25 next yearand change charity. League finished, profit about £100. Petit Congress breakeven but will run again.
6.3 East : League finished.Section profit about £430. Woolcott weekend attendance up.

6.4 North : not represented

7. Handbook 2008-09

7.1. Draft Handbook circulated. Some corrections etc noted.
7.2. Tournament review tabled. Agreed (i) change of formatfor Devon Pairs (see 5.3.), (ii) discontinue Pivot Teams, (iii) entry fees forevents at Isca to rise to £8.00 because of increased costs, Devon Teams toremain at £16.00, (iv) pay a prize to Plate winners (in addition to main 4semi-finalists).

8. EBU Strategy Document

8.1. Final proposals circulated to all in April 2008.Effective date 1 April 2010 if accepted.
8.2. (circulated between meeting) Financialimplications for Devon, from which we deduced that the Devon P2P could be 3p.
8.3. Hon Sec reported on responses from clubs : 8 outof 29 had given views since the final document, another 12 had given views earlierand these were assumed to be unchanged, 9 had given no views and some of thosehad not replied to requests from EBU and DBA for information. The committeejudged from the replies that there was a clear majority in favour of thestrategy and instructed the Shareholder to vote for the strategy at the EBU EGMon 4 June. He was also asked to bear in mind the various reservations expressedand to use his judgement on how to act at the EGM.
8.4. Hon Sec reported that there were some suggestionsand reservations that were appropriate to be considered at the implementationstage and these were held over to the next meeting.

9. Next meeting

9.1. Wed 23 July at 7.30

Documents

1. Minutes of last meeting previouslycirculated.
2. Draft handbook 2008-09 previouslycirculated.
3. Congress report tabled.
4. Tournament review tabled.
5. EBU minutes etc tabled and / or available onwebsite.

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