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  • Committee Minutes post June 2007:  Full List

January 2024 Meeting Minutes

Published February 2024

Minutes of the Committee Meeting of the DBA held online 24 January 2024

The meeting opened at 10am.

1. Officers & Members Present: Jacqui Munns (JM) chair; Jeremy Childs, vice chair (JC); Neil Marsden (NM) treasurer; Doug Dunn (DD); Bill Luscombe (BL); John Wintle (JW).

2. Apologies: Sheila Ferguson, (SF), Mike Hamon (MH).

3. Previous Minutes dated November 22, 2023

  • These were reviewed and accepted by the committee and the minutes will be posted on the website.

4. Treasurer's Update (NM)

  • (i) There is currently approximately £25k in the current Lloyds account, including the money from the Scottish Widows savings account, which has now been closed. The original plan was to open a savings account with Lloyds, giving interest on most of the money while allowing easy transfer of funds as required. However, it was noted that other banks are offering better interest rates for their business savings accounts, and whether we should use one of these accounts, at the risk of reduced ease of access, was briefly discussed.
    Actions NM will open a Lloyds savings account with instant access immediately and transfer most of the funds so that we can start earning interest. He will research whether moving money to a bank offering a higher rate of interest might be a better idea and will bring a paper for discussion to the next meeting.
  • (ii) An automatic payment has been made to the EBU in respect of the UMS for the Eastern Section League.
    Action NM to request reimbursement from Tim Barnes, Eastern Section treasurer

5. DBA AGM Date 

  • It was agreed that this will take place on Sunday, July 14, 2024 at 1100am on Zoom. To ensure a quorum, committee members and others attending will be encouraged to bring a proxy vote from a member not able to attend, as allowed by our constitution.

6. Section Reports

North Devon Section

  • The North Devon Charity Cup Swiss Teams competition took place at Filleigh Village Hall on Sunday, November 26, 2023. Sixteen teams took part, with many players not regularly playing in EBU events. The event raised £600 for charity.
  • There are currently 40 pairs and the equivalent of 20 teams signed up for the North Devon Congress in February 2024.
  • The next Filleigh event will be the Charity Teams for the Dartington Glass Trophy on Sunday, March 17, 2024. The next Bridge seminar will take place on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Both events will be advertised on the Devon Bridge website and directly to local clubs and regular attenders.

East Devon Section

  • The John Woolcott weekend – 12 pairs took part in the Saturday pairs on January 6, 2024. Congratulations to the winners Alex Maddox & Jacek Pietrzycki and many thanks to the TD Jeremy Child. The Sunday team event was cancelled due to not enough entries.
  • Exeter Bridge club (EBC) has started its ‘Pro-Am’ supervised play sessions, which are going very well. Attendance has risen to six tables from just two or three previously. The second beginners’ course has concluded, with 28 out of 34 progressing to lessons for improvers, and the third set of beginners’ lessons starts next week, with 30 people on the list.
  • The Don Pearson Memorial Teams Event, run by the EBC, will take place at the Victoria Park Club on April 21, 2024, entry is via the Easter Section website.

West Devon Section

  • None received.

South Devon Section

  • Torquay BC is getting around 7–8 tables on a Tuesday night and Newton Abbot about 6 tables on a Thursday night. The proceeds of the sale of Zion Road have not yet been shared out to Torquay members and are still in a low-interest bearing account.
  • DD is running a beginners Bridge Class on Thursday afternoons in association with Teignmouth U3A and has 13 students. Classes are currently weekly but the plan is to change to bi-weekly from March.

7. Sub-committee Reports

(i) Competitions subcommittee report including discussion in the central committee meeting
The subcommittee (JM, JC & BL) has not met since the last DBA meeting.

  • Western Morning News Teams of Four Knockout - This competition features two groups of three teams. Group matches must be played by March 31, 2024. None have yet been played and JC has sent out a reminder email to the team captains. 
  • Devon Club Teams-of-Eight - The closing date for entries is Friday, January 26, 2024 at 5pm. There is just one entry so far – Torquay. If there are no more entries this competition will be cancelled.
  • The Julia Chadwick Devon Pairs - The closing date for entries is Friday, March 15, 2024, at 5pm. There are just three pairs entered so far.
  • Western League 2023–24 - In the third round against Avon in December, only the Devon A team won their match. In the fourth round against Cornwall in January, all three Devon teams won. Currently, both Devon A, and Devon C are in 2nd place and Devon B are tied in 4th place. The next round is against Dorset on February 3, 2024.

(ii) Devon County Congress (DCC) subcommittee
The subcommittee (JM, JC & BL) has not met since the last DBA meeting but plan to do so soon.

  • There are currently eight pairs and four teams signed up. The advert for the County Congress in English Bridge will be in the February 2024 edition, out soon.

(iii) Education & Teaching Subcommittee Report including discussion in the central committee meeting
The subcommittee (JM, JC & BL) has not met since the last DBA meeting, ongoing teaching already mentioned above.

(iv) Engagement Subcommittee Report including discussion in the central committee meeting
TThe subcommittee (JM, JC & DD) has not met since the last DBA meeting. However, members of the subcommittee continue to make informal contact with clubs, enquiring about teaching, directing, and what support the clubs might want from the DBA.

8. Exeter Bridge Club (EBC) Premises Proposal  

  • JC, as chair of the EBC, informed the meeting that in the future, new premises will be required to allow the club to develop as planned. One possible option would be for the EBC to acquire their own premises. JC asked the committee if the DBA might, in principle, be interested in sharing the cost and the space. This was briefly discussed, and it was felt that the idea was worth exploring.
    Action JC will investigate the options and will bring a paper to the committee in due course..

9. Devon Equipment Inventory 

  • (i) Terence Treeby has asked that the committee find a storage solution for the equipment that he currently holds and this was briefly discussed.
    Action All committee members to enquire in their clubs if any members can offer some storage space to the DBA.
  • (ii) Torquay Bridge Club are offering to donate three congress silver trophies to the DBA. All three are sufficiently generic to be used as DBA trophies. As some of our trophies are missing, this may be very useful.

10. The International Agatha Christie Festival (IAGF), Torquay, September, 2024

  • This year, the IAGF will include a Bridge-related event to celebrate Christie’s book ‘Cards on the Table’. The event will take place on the evening of Sunday, September 15, 2024 at the Spanish Barn in Torquay. Following a talk on the book from a Christie expert along with Alex Maddocks talking about Bridge, there will be a MiniBridge competition to introduce the game to those attending.

11. EBU Festival of Bridge, September 9–15, 2024 

  • The dedicated EBU web page for this week-long event has now launched. The DBA is committed to supporting this event and using it to promote Bridge in Devon and hopefully attract new players to the game. 
    Action JW is the Devon liaison for this event and will attend the EBU Zoom meeting on February 1, 2024 and report back at the next meeting.

12. Future Meetings

  • Next DBA central committee meeting will be on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at 10am on Zoom.

Meeting ended at 11am.

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