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.
Annual Fees
As a reminder, renewals for clubs annual subscription and club insurance will be due on 1st April. You will receive renewal emails in March.
The County Associations will be sent to clubs via email later this month.
EBU UM Fee: 42p
EBU UK Direct Members Annual Fee: £33
EBU Club Annual Affiliation Fee: £27
Club Affiliation fees will be due from 1st April. If your club pays by Direct Debit, we will be collecting the fees on or around 9th April. More details about licensing can be found here. Applications should be made to license@ebu.co.uk.
EBU Membership Lists
Please remember that all members of an affiliated club automatically become members of the EBU too. For new members, these should be created at club level. The new membership year will begin on 1st April.
It is also important that clubs keep membership lists up to date — telling us when new members join, and when old members leave. We have created a guide explaining how to do these things. To view click here. Emails to update club officials should be sent to kay@ebu.co.uk.
As a reminder, the new insurance year will also begin on 1st April.
Competition Planning
County Associations are reminded that:
From 1st January 2022, only one day of their usual entitlements for two One-Day Green Pointed Swiss events may be played online each calendar year, unless they have obtained a waiver from Gordon because of prior arrangements or difficulties with live games.
From 1st April 2022, the UMS charges for online One-day Green Point events will rise by 50% to £12.30 per table per session, as opposed to £8.32 when held face-to-face. This is to encourage counties to be plan face-to-face events as much as possible, in line with their remit to provide regional rather than national events, and to reduce clashes between counties. The original intention had been for the online rate to be £16.40, as agreed at the AGM, and the Board will review the increase later in the year.
The English Riviera Congress is scheduled to take place 1st - 3rd July, but the location is now uncertain. We are looking at some other options for this year and beyond, to relocate to an alternative seaside venue. These plans are yet to be finalised.
The Competitions Sub-Committee are considering options for revamping some of our competitions including the introduction of Mixed events. We plan to consult more widely on this once we have something concrete to offer.
Competitions for Clubs
There are a couple of national events coming up that are run by clubs. Clubs are able to run both the Masters Pairs and National Pairs Regional Heats events either face-to-face or online on any platform they choose (BBO, RealBridge, BCL, Stepbridge) as long as they can provide us with USEBIO files of results.
If your club would like to run either or both of these events, please email sam@ebu.co.uk so it can be publicised on the EBU website.
Masters Pairs - 27th Feb
This is the event for members below the rank of Regional Master, competing for the Ann Staveley trophy. It is a two-session event.
Clubs charge their usual table money and a surcharge of £5 per player which will be remitted to the EBU (clubs can absorb some of that if they wish). The club retains the remainder of the entry fee – whatever that may be. There will be no UMS in addition to this and it includes VAT as usual so VAT registered clubs can get the VAT element back.
National Pairs Regional Heats - 13th Mar
This is not only a qualifying event for the National Pairs final but there are also five regional trophies awarded based on the organising clubs’ geographical locations. This is also a two-session event.
For the National Pairs there will be no additional charge to the clubs other than the two-session UMS.
Bridge Warehouse Special Offer February
NEW Jannersten Bridgesorter Duplimate Machine
Special Price for Affiliated Clubs - £3,580 Normal Price £3,830 - Saving £250.00
You can use your smartphone or tablet for this machine - no need for a computer!
Free delivery - uses any bridge sized cards
PLEASE TELEPHONE SUE TO ORDER - 01296 397851 (Mon-Thurs 9am-2pm)
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 August 2022. Further new clubs who sign up from now will be given a free period of similar duration. 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.
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:
- Interesting hands and conundrums
- Why your county is an attractive place to visit whilst joining in an evening’s Bridge or a local congress.
- Anniversaries – Lymington Bridge Club will be celebrating 150 years in 2022 and Chelmsford 70 years.
- 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.
TabScore
TabScore is the free and open source system for wireless scoring using any standard Wi-Fi devices such as tablets or phones, which was developed at Bedford Bridge Club. It has been mentioned in previous newsletters here. TabScore now has a new website: tabscore.infinityfreeapp.com.
The latest version of TabScore has been designed so that players can use their own personal mobile phones for scoring, as the devices can move with the players. This not only means that clubs don't need to invest in expensive hardware, but it can also provide an element of Covid safety.
TabScore should work with any bridge scoring program that can create a .bws database, but has been built with EBUScore in mind, and the most recent versions of EBUScore have a 'TabScore' table-top device option.