English Bridge Union
At the Annual General Meeting of the EBU in October, the following paper was distributed to counties for their comments. Some of the proposals affect clubs, and we welcome your comments as detailed at the end of the article.
Note — unless specified otherwise, these changes will take effect from 1 April 2012
1. Subject to the provisions below, Counties may hold any number of events awarding MPs at County level (or below). These events may be of any format and Counties may allow any person (EBU member or not) to enter. NB:
2. From 1 April 2011 the licence fee for County Green Point events (ODGPs and Congresses) will be £6.80. As the current fee would have normally been increased from £7.50 to £7.80, in line with inflation, this represents a reduction of 13%. This will reduce income to the EBU by approximately £4K. The facility of a cap to the licence fee will no longer be available. (Subject to Shareholder approval at the October AGM)
3. All County events will become subject to a P2P fee set at 50% of the standard rate. Non-EBU members will pay the full national rate. It is estimated that this will provide income to the EBU of around £4.8K.
4. Teams Leagues and team K/O matches (at all levels) will be subject to a P2P fee at 50% of the prevailing rate. Non-EBU members will pay the full national rate. An online system will be available to enable organisers to upload results and this system will also provide a full league management system for organisers. For a typical league consisting of 7 matches with all EBU players it is estimated this will represent a reduction of 15% in annual charges. These matches will also then count towards the member's tally of sessions required to qualify for the magazine and diary (12).
5. Existing transition arrangements will be extended to the end of March 2012
6. The NICKO and Garden Cities are events for bona fide members of bona fide affiliated bridge clubs. Although it was considered that 12 plays in a year certainly gave a good indication of a bona fide member, not playing 12 times did not provide a good indicator of not being a bona fide member. Therefore no absolute level will be set in the regulations and clubs will be asked themselves to ensure that their teams meet the aims of the events and guidelines will be provided to help them in this.
7. To protect the integrity of the MP scheme, with the exception of any events particularly specified in the MP&L Handbook, any event awarding MPs at an enhanced level will require a licence from the EBU and only the EBU will be able to issue such licences (i.e. Counties will no longer be able to issue licences).
8. The main regulations regarding County Sim Pairs are:
9. From 1 April 2011, Aylesbury will collect on behalf of Counties their direct member's annual county subscription, as long as we have the agreement of the member.
10. Clubs may open any of their events to any person (EBU member or non-EBU member), provided the MP status is club. The National P2P charge will be levied on all players. With the exception of those events specifically defined in the MP&L Handbook, if a status above Club level is deemed appropriate for a particular event, the club must apply to Aylesbury for a licence. NOTE: This provision will replace Regulation 1.2.5 in the Handbook.
11. There are a small number of other minor changes to the MP&L Handbook and these will be detailed on the EBU Website
Counties and clubs wishing to comment further on these recommendations should do so to mplreview@ebu.co.uk by the end of 2010. The issue will then be discussed in more detail at the next Shareholders' Meeting in April 2011.
