1. Since Hale Conservative Club decided to bring in an estate agent and advertise for our bridge hall to be used for office accommodation, events have moved with seeming rapidity. As you all know, we finally had the choice of two venues and we settled for the Assembly rooms of St Peter’s in Hale.

We have signed an Agreement with St Peter’s PCC which is very similar to the Agreement we originally had with Hale Conservative club when we first moved there. Any member who would like to read the Agreement need only ask our Secretary, Norman Killey and he will provide them with a copy.

2. St Peter’s have gone out of their way to accommodate us. They have completely renovated the nearby toilet; installed a new fire door with curtains in the hall: removed furniture out of the hall: moved items out of the adjacent vestibule where we will store our equipment & could also erect three card tables; made a large metal cabinet & a lockable cupboard available for us; placed new closure springs on the top of every door: made provision for us to fix a notice board to one of the walls, etc.

If all goes well, we will soon have the use of a set of new, more comfortable chairs towards which our Bridge Club has agreed to pay 50% of the cost.

St Peter’s normally have a resident caretaker who lives in the first house past the Assembly rooms and he would ensure that we have access to the hall at the appropriate times & that the tables and chairs are set out ready for us. Unfortunately, we are in a transition period awaiting the advertising and appointing of a new caretaker. In the absence of a caretaker, we cannot make arrangements to put out cups and have them washed up after every meeting so, for the time being, we will use disposable plastic cups with a re-usable plastic holder.

3. In the first 12 months of our occupancy, there are 4 occasions when we cannot meet because of prior advance booking of the hall. There will also be no meetings when a local or parliamentary election takes place. Overall, this involves three Wednesday afternoons and two Thursday evenings. On the 3 Wednesday afternoons, the hall will be available on each of the preceding Monday afternoons. On the 2 Thursday evenings, the hall will be available on the preceding Wednesday evenings.

Please try & turn up on the adjusted dates.

I have already printed the actual dates on a dark blue paper, but they are given again for convenience:-

NO BRIDGE ON: MEET INSTEAD ON :

Wed. afternoon 14th March Mon. afternoon 12th March

Thurs. evening 22nd March Wed. evening 21st March

Wed. afternoon 25th April Mon. afternoon 23rd April

Thurs. evening 3rd May Wed. evening 2nd May

Wed. afternoon 24th October Mon. afternoon 22nd October

4. As well as our meetings which we hold as before four times a week, we also have the use of the hall on each Monday afternoon and each Wednesday evening. We intend to schedule our beginners’ classes, improvers’ classes, committee meetings, league matches, simultaneous pairs events etc on Wednesday evenings. What we will do on a Monday afternoon has yet to be decided.

5. The one thing that we are not short of is paid up members! We have 260 members (there is always a drop at each 1st November when subs are due but the numbers then increase steadily throughout the next 11 months) and this compares very favourably with the month of February in previous years.

Whilst we still have a good weekly table attendance, it is a few tables down on the previous year. Should your partner be unavailable, or you have no partner, then please make use of the telephone numbers of members and try to obtain a partner – don’t just sit back and watch Coronation street!

6. On 31st January 2001, our Club received a letter from Hale Conservative Club, stating that we would owe them money when we leave on 1st March. This matter has yet to be resolved, although you will note that this was discussed by your committee at their 14th March meeting (see later in this newsletter).

7. Membership Secretary

Roger Richardson has kindly agreed to act as Membership Secretary and he will be responsible to the Treasurer for the collection of all joining and annual subscriptions. Furthermore, he will maintain a list of all paid up members, making this available to our Secretary and anyone else who needs it.

8. Welcome Parties

In the first week of our move to St Peter’s, we held a welcome party on each of our four meetings at the half way stage of the bridge. This took the form of a ½ hour break when we had sandwiches, cake and wine. On the four occasions during the week we had a total of 55 tables (split from Monday to Thursday as: 17 : 12 : 9 : 17 ).

Several of our members under the guidance of Sheila Wild put in a lot of hard work during the week and on behalf of members, I would like to thank them all.

9. Committee Meeting, 14th March.

Arising from the above committee meeting, the following information is made available to members:

a) The AGM of the Club will be held on Wednesday, 17th October 2001 at 7.30pm. Book this date in your diary!

b) Improvers Course.

It was noted that there was a very poor attendance at the recent Improvers Course.

c) Notice Board

Permission has been given by St Peter’s & we will shortly erect a notice board on an appropriate wall in our hall.

d) Monday Afternoons.

A discussion was held and it was decided to investigate the possibility of supervised play, which may be under the direction of a suitable person, who may not be a member of our Club.

e) The letter sent to us by Hale Conservative club, stating that we owed them £4,374 for unpaid contributions, due when we gave them notice to leave, was discussed. On legal advice, we have written back to them stating that we do not consider we owe them this money.

f) It was accepted that we should pay 50% of the cost of buying 70 new chairs. This will amount to about £1,300. We are hopeful that St Peter’s will agree to go ahead.

g) The Treasurer presented a report to the meeting. This showed that on a calculated budget to 1st November this year, we should just about break even and retain a bank balance of about £7,000. This does not include any figure to take account of para e) above.

h) Contingency fund.

This was discussed at length. Bearing in mind our financial position, it was eventually decided by a large majority, to continue with it to the AGM, when it will be an item on the agenda. Points noted were:

(remember: no spaces and only three dots in it). This site contains all sorts of information about our Club and usually has the duplicate results one day after they have been played.

11. Caretaker at St Peter’s

On 1st March, the newly installed caretaker at St Peter’s gave one day’s notice and left the following day.

This should not affect our Bridge Club because a member of St Peter’s will be looking after the caretaking whilst the job is advertised and a new caretaker fills the position. Needless to say, unforeseen problems always seem to arise, so please bear with us should this be the case. Please give me a phone call if something occurs that you think I should know about.

12. We have several members who may find it difficult to climb the few steps in the entrance to the bridge hall from the car park. All you have to do is knock on the outside of the fire exit door and we will open it for you. This is only a service to those who need it: all other members should use the entrance up the steps both for entrance and for exit.

13. I have noticed that some of our members fall down in two areas with regard to bidding boxes and to the plastic boards and I thought that a gentle reminder would not come astray. Please remember:-

14. I had to recently announce to members the death of Gladys Halsall, who has been a member for many years, regularly attending on a Monday &/or a Thursday. We sent a card expressing our deepest sympathy to her family.

Information only seems to get round the Club slowly, so many members may not be aware that another of our members, Cynthia Cowan, is very ill in hospital. Our best wishes go out to her.

15. EGM held on Thursday 8th March 2001.

At this meeting, the members approved a change of Rule, which had previously been circulated to all members. This only affects Rule 5.3 and new copies of our Rules and Regulations are in the carousel in the bridge hall.

   Peter Dawson

( 19th March 2001)