Updates from Aylesbury


Dear Club and County Chairs, Secretaries and Main Contacts,

Below is your monthly update from the EBU. Please note there are a number of important topics covered in the below. This email is also available on the EBU website, along with all past EBU Updates, here.

Competition Planning

As previously confirmed, the Easter Congress in London will go ahead live as planned, but in a smaller space at the same venue. Please make your members aware of the Special offers available for group entries. Due to an unfortunate lack of entries, we have closed the face-to-face NGS-9-High Pairs and are referring candidates instead to the events being run by Kent CBA on BBO on Easter Sunday. The Northern Easter Festival will also go ahead Easter weekend in Ilkley. 

The Schapiro Spring Foursomes, taking place two weeks later, is not under threat of cancellation, with 29 teams so far entered.

DATE CHANGE. The Summer Meeting at Eastbourne, will now take place from the evening of Thursday 11th - Sunday 14th August. This is confirmed Face-to-Face and we would ask all clubs and counties to advertise and promote the Summer Meeting.

There will be a mixed/open pairs event on the Thursday evening, a Swiss Teams event on the Friday, and the main Swiss Pairs event will run over the Saturday and Sunday.

To book your accommodation please go to the Visit Eastbourne Website.

Our affiliated Eastbourne Clubs are also welcoming visitors on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday prior to the Summer Meeting start.

Promotional Materials Play Bridge 2022

By now, some counties will have received your Membership Drive packs. These packs, along with new banners, will be available to pick up at the Easter Congress in London. 

Clubs and Teachers are invited to order their packs from the EBU Bridge Warehouse.

We are asking every County, Club and Teacher to put at least one Poster up with associated Leaflets, though more is fantastic. By working together we hope to introduce many more people to the game of Bridge.

Job vacancy for Tournaments Administrator

We are recruiting a new Tournaments Administrator, to give professional secretarial and admin support to the EBU Tournaments section. The job is based in Aylesbury. For more information, and details of how to apply, see the job description.

Easter Offers at Bridge Warehouse

Twin pack tables SAVE £10.00 – Order online. Exclusive offer to EBU affiliated clubs and counties. USE CODE EBU124 at checkout to receive £10.00 off our normal price of £75.00 for a twin pack of club tables – equivalent to £32.50 each. Postage £7.50 per pack.

Superluxe Playing cards SAVE £5.00 - Order online. Normally £17.00 per dozen (6 Black & 6 Red in each pack) Now only £12.00 per dozen. Postage not included.

Offers end Easter Monday 18th April - Hurry while stocks last!

Celebration of Master Point Promotions

EBU  master points are a great way to celebrate bridge achievements and we have made a number of enhancements to the way these are presented on our website. The latest improvement is that clubs can easily see the ranks of all their members. To do this, log into My EBU with a club login and go to Reports – Member Master Points. Then click Retrieve Report. This report shows all members with their ranks, where previously it only showed the number of points. You can sort by Total to see who is best ranked, or by Rank to group all players of the same rank together.

We also have a Member Promotions report showing recent promotions – perhaps significant promotions are something to announce at the start of a session or include in a club email? Members who have chosen not to publicise their master points are not included in either report.

New Condensed Transition Course

The new condensed Transition course is now available as a single PowerPoint presentation for counties or clubs to use to introduce existing bridge players to duplicate bridge. The current course may be downloaded from your club’s MY EBU.

Affiliation offer for non-affiliated clubs

The EBU is currently offering free trial affiliation to clubs which have not been affiliated since the introduction of Pay to Play (now UMS) in 2010. This trial will give clubs most of the benefits of EBU affiliation but at no cost until end of December 2022. We hope that this great offer will attract many unaffiliated clubs to try affiliating and that they will then be impressed with the benefits of being affiliated to the EBU. We have had an encouraging response with more than ten clubs already signed up and many more showing interest.

Counties agreed to work in collaboration with the EBU on this project and it would be great if you would support this initiative by reaching out to your local unaffiliated clubs to make them fully aware of the offer and encourage their participation. Remember it is free and there is nothing to lose by allowing their members to experience membership of the EBU before making a final decision about affiliation.

For further details please contact Jonathan Lillycrop.

EBED

EBED are looking for help with the editing of videos. Anybody willing to offer their experience should contact the EBED Chief Executive giorgio@ebedcio.org.uk

New Director Training dates announced

EBED has scheduled new events in several locations, with more dates to come

Check the course calendar for details.

Any questions? Contact mark@ebedcio.org.uk or call 01296 317218

Advertising with the EBU 

The EBU offer three types of paid for online advertising, exclusive to clubs and counties, in addition to our printed adverts in the English Bridge magazine. This includes, adverts on the EBU website home page; advertising within competitions newsletters, for example Event Focus; and within the digital version of the magazine hosted by MyeBook, as a “skyscraper” side banner shown on each page of the magazine.

If you would like to discuss how these options could benefit your next Congress or club event please contact Chris Danby on 01603 898678 or email Chris@danby-online.co.uk for more information. 

Social Media and Blogs

Please let us know if you would like to suggest a blog article that can then be shared across social media. There is no cost for this, and we welcome your ideas. Examples of blogs include:

  1. Interesting hands and conundrums
  2. Why your county is an attractive place to visit whilst joining in an evening’s Bridge or a local congress.
  3. Anniversaries – Lymington Bridge Club will be celebrating 150 years in 2022 and Chelmsford 70 years.
  4. Charity Activity in your county – perhaps a Café Bridge Event?

This is a chance to reinvigorate your Facebook Followers.

Please make suggestions to sam@ebu.co.uk

Don't forget to like our social media pages, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

Kind Regards, 
EBU Board and Staff 

 
 

This email has been sent to  in your capacity as a County Official. If you wish to update this please let us know - kay@ebu.co.uk. If you wish to unsubscribe, Unsubscribe here.

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