Here is your monthly update from the EBU. Please note there are a number of important topics covered in the below.
It has been agreed that in an effort to improve communications, a monthly email will be sent to the chairman and secretaries of all clubs and counties. This monthly email will replace the Club Focus that was sent quarterly and ad hoc emails.
The purpose of this mailing will be:
- To improve communications by enabling:
- all recipients to know where they can find communications (look at website)
- all recipients to know when to expect a communication so that they can be prepared (regular frequency)
- all recipients to be confident that they have received all communications (by reference to the monthly mail)
- all recipients to be aware of when they are receiving something for information and when for their action (by indicating within the email)
- all recipients to be aware of what is important to them (by highlighting within the email what is directed to a club, what to a county and what to both)
- To increase openness by sending to both clubs and counties.
The aim is to make this email an update on what this Board has been doing and all Board members will be able to contribute. It is also available for EBU staff to send updates as required.
Copies of the emails will be held on the EBU website, under Counties and Clubs – Club Management – Updates to Clubs and Counties, so that they can be referred to at any time.
The dates of the next communications will be the first week of each month.
EBU Contacts for Clubs
A reminder to all clubs that if you require any assistance, particularly regarding restarting face to face sessions, Jonathan Lillycrop is the EBU Club Liaison Officer and will be pleased to help you. Jonathan can be reached on 01296 317206 or jonathan@ebu.co.uk. If your query is of a more general nature or you want to raise an issue with the EBU Board, then the Board Member responsible for clubs is Gayle Webb. Gayle can be contacted on gaylewebb@blueyonder.co.uk.
Competitions
Following its need to pull back on live events over the next few months, the EBU is offering to clubs the chance to entice players back for a live game by holding a hybrid session of either or both of the Open Pairs and Mixed Pairs that are played on Wednesday 29th December as part of the Year-End Congress. Full details can be found at https://www.ebu.co.uk/article/hybrid-sessions-year-end-congress.
The new EBU calendar (click here to see it) allows for Counties to add their events, and for readers of the calendar to filter the events in many different ways. If a CBA wants the capability to enter their events into the calendar, please contact charlie@ebu.co.uk.
Sim Pairs
At the time of writing the Children in Need Sim Pairs is about to start and will run from the 5th to the 11th November. If your club is taking part, please submit your results using code 06 to ensure you are not charged UM fees for this charity event. The EBU has been supporting this very worthwhile charity, in conjunction with ECATS, since 2002 and has raised a staggering £1,166,551.60 to date. Donations have increased every year, with the exception of last year which saw a decrease due to less clubs playing in the event. Let's hope we can reverse the trend this year and if your club is not planning to play, perhaps you could consider making a donation from club funds. Details can be found here:
https://www.ecatsbridge.com/sims/cin/general/donations.asp
There are several other sim pairs coming up in the next few months, so do consider entering - your club can play either online or face to face. If you need advice on how to set it up just contact Jonathan Lillycrop.
Teaching
EBED have just release a new short course (four to six weeks) called the Transition Course which is aimed at existing bridge players, with the goal of transitioning them to duplicate bridge. The target audience are social players, whether they were active before Covid or started playing (or returned to the game) during the pandemic. The course deals with those aspects of the game these players will be unfamiliar with (and often puts them off when they try a duplicate game in a club): table etiquette and equipment, infractions and director calls, convention cards and disclosure (alerts, announcements), a modicum of matchpoint strategies. The course comes with extensive teacher notes and can easily be delivered by a non-teacher (the idea is NOT to teach bridge; these players already know how to play, at least they think they do). The hope is that the course will help clubs in recruiting new members who are ready to play (not beginners that need to be taught), possibly intercepting the many players that - at least anecdotally - have learned the game or have returned to it during the pandemic. For more details contact Jonathan Lillycrop.
AGM
As a reminder, the AGM will take place Tuesday 30th November 2021 via zoom. Elections for the Board and Committees will be completed electronically, by midday, the day before the AGM, on Monday 29th November. Any voting on bye-law changes will take place on the day of the AGM. Further details with links for joining the meeting and voting will be sent in due course.
Blog
If you would like to share some of your local news in the EBU blog, please email sam@ebu.co.uk.
EBU Board and Staff