My title is competitions administrator and that sums up a large amount of my work. I am involved in the processing of entries for all the events whether at a congress or at a knock-out competition either when members can do their own entries, or when members have to qualify in events like the National Pairs or the Corwen trophy.
Competition entries arrive by post (fewer these days), telephone, email and online; all have to be checked, entered and payment taken. The process ends temporarily when an entry list is handed over to Gill Pain and then subsequently to the TDs. Sometimes my involvement extends to the venue, for example at Brighton (the whole ten days), or occasional days at the busy London congresses.
After any event an audit is done, so that we can credit anybody who has withdrawn, either through illness, etc. We also invoice those members where entry and/or payment may have slipped their mind, or they thought it had been done by someone else. I am very grateful for the assistance of Dawn Mertens with all these tasks.
I also monitor the knock-out competitions (of which we now have nine), and I make the draws, with technical help from Ian Mitchell, (hopefully not upsetting too many captains), and maintain the results service on the web site.
Other tasks include: the taking of bookings and advising on Club Director courses; maintaining the EBU competitions calendar, which includes liaising with all the counties on an annual basis for the dates of Green Point days and County Congresses; and answering the varied and numerous queries from members on our events programme.
I am also secretary to the Tournament Committee for three meetings a year in London.
I have been arranging the Overseas Congresses since 2002, so together with the other congresses I work at, I have had the opportunity to get to know quite a lot of the members, so that I am not just a voice at the end of the phone!
If you wish to save time and postage you can enter all our competitions online through your personal membership area.
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