Welcome to Club Management Focus.
Welcome to the Winter 2015 Club Management Newsletter. I hope there will be information of use to you in it. I'd like to highlight a few items you will find in the newsletter.
The EBU are pleased to offer all clubs some free playing cards. There are details in this newsletter. We have made some one off savings this year which we are pleased to share with our clubs and members. If you haven't already applied for these please read the instructions and do so soon.
If your club is relatively small and unable to register as a charity(or you don't want to) then you might wish to be aware of the gift aid scheme for club membership subscriptions.
More than 50 clubs have recently cleaned up their database removing members who have left the club, moved out of the area, or perhaps sadly died. We would appreciate it if you would also do this. There is some guidance in the Admin Corner section.
One issue which upsets club members is the one of slow play. When I moved and went to a new local club it was the done thing to play 24 boards in three hours and no-one had the slightest problem (they play 28 on teams night in the same time). That suggests it may, in part, be an expectation issue. However if your club experiences issues with this there are some steps you can take. Most clubs won't want to wave the big stick so as to lose members but nor will they wish to be there with a caretaker clanking his keys. There are some suggestions here which may help.
At the AGM in November we made the first draw for the new prizes for our Simultaneous Pairs with both participants and clubs in line for cash prizes of up to £1000. You've got to be in it to win it as they say. The second year of this has now started so if your club has not entered many Sims competitions for a while this is hopefully a fresh incentive to do so. You will be very welcome.
Finally if your club might be interested in running a Really Easy Afternoon satellite event please do read the appropriate section. The clubs who have done so have made a success of the event and interested less experienced players. Gordon Rainsford will be very happy to hear from you.
Jeremy Dhondy
Chairman