Blog 25 - Bringing people in...

Last year we reviewed our teacher training courses and developed a much more comprehensive programme including strategies to help teachers recruit new students and how to evolve their development from their first lesson to ‘learn and play’ fun duplicate bridge.

A total of 529 new students have embarked on first year partner teacher’s courses this year and over fifty teachers have graduated from the courses and we are now seeing the first ‘Learn and Play’ clubs being formed from those students.

People like Maggie Hadley who attended a teacher training course in August last year, has gone on to recruit over ninety students and in June this year will be starting her own Learn and Play club in Bristol.

Maggie is among many of the new Partner Teachers who have benefited from the new student course work books, comprehensive lesson plans and an array of free resources to help her develop her own teaching programme. When she starts her Partner Club with her second year students in June, the English Bridge Union will further help by giving her free Master Points, all the stationery she needs for the first twelve months and heavily discounted tables and bidding boxes.

Maggie wrote to us and said, “It seems a long time since I attended the Partner teacher course and your help so far has been crucial to us becoming established here in Bristol”

The original "Partner Club", Aylesbury Vale Bridge, which provided a blue print for the Partner Club model has now been in operation for four years. It attracts over twenty tables a week and has 100% EBU membership. They provide two teams for the Wessex league (county league) and the products of their learning academy provide ongoing refreshment to other clubs in the area with competent club players.

AVB Club proprietor Sue Maxwell says, ‘our policy is to provide our students with a development structure from the first lesson to club bridge and beyond. It is a continual process, from student recruitment to county league, with plenty of resting places in between.’

The next EBU Partner Teacher course will be held at West Midland Bridge Club on 11-13 July.

We are undertaking a lot of events to raise the profile of bridge. In mid-April we are involved in a special "Games Day" at the National Railway Museum in York on 13th April. We are using this day as a trial of a planned number of Awareness Days for bridge around the country. Non bridge players and bridge players are very welcome to come, watch and play. Click here for more information.

Very shortly John Pain, our Education Manager and a National Tournament Director, will be visiting the African state of Botswana to train a number of local people as tournament directors, at the request of the Botswana Federation. Quite apart from helping a developing bridge nation (and they apparently have lots of young people learning and playing) we hope to interest the media in what is a quite unique experience for the EBU!

If anyone has anything they think will help promote bridge please do not hesitate to contact Matt Betts at the EBU office (matt@ebu.co.uk) or on 01296 317215.

Website Waffle

Blog #24 - Web site waffle……

After the end of March we will no longer have Anna Gudge (of ECATS) as our web master. She has looked after our web site for quite some time, but now that we have capable resources in-house we have decided to have a go at doing it ourselves. Many thanks to Anna for all she has done for us and although this facet of our involvement is over, we have many other areas that we work with together, for example Simultaneous Pairs.

We already have had a fairly large involvement in the day to day updating of our web site, which is extremely active. The site receives a daily average of nearly 59,000 “hits”. A hit is a relatively inaccurate description of volume as a hit can be the act of downloading a photograph as well as text on the same page, but it provides a guide to activities, so you can tell that we have quite a busy web site.

As with most things in life we struggle to please all of the people, all of the time; we do appreciate that there are many things we can do to improve our web offering and Michael Clark, who takes over as our Web Master from April 1st has many ideas for adding to our already busy and informative site. In the recent past Michael has added a new Calendar facility, which utilises Google Calendars, an available utility from Google. We now have in one place all of our events, including county events and there are facilities available for much more.

For example, Michael will be working on a plan to completely revise our events and results service. This will include direct links from the EBU scoring software to our website making it much easier for quick updating of results. Those results will be stored in a new form, so that when wanting to know something about a particular event, or a particular persons results, all will be available with ease.

Michael, who will be aided by Matt Betts, our Communications Officer, has constructed a programme of improvements which he will work on as soon as he can. I am hopeful that these changes will make our site even more useful and more accurate than it is at present.

This blog is the first that has been written (almost without any technical assistance, I am pleased to say) on the new Blog facility that Michael has set up, again using Google facilities. We will be setting up other blog areas for other aspects of our organisation in due course.

We do have lots of ideas for improvements, but if anyone has any suggestions please feel free to email Michael at his usual email address.

P.S. There are some fascinating things happening on the publicity front - I hope to be able to provide more information very soon.

Barry's Blog 23

It has become clear to me that not many members understand the way the EBU is structured, so I thought I would take some time to provide that information. I hope I have got my history correct!

During the 1930s a number of national bridge organisations were created to represent bridge players in England and Great Britain. Exasperated by the conflicts between these bodies and by their lack of representation, various counties and groups of counties set up the English Bridge Union in 1936 to look after duplicate and other competition contract bridge in England, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. However it was not until the end of 1946 that the EBU finally achieved complete control of Duplicate Bridge in England. The governing body was its Council, made up of representatives from the counties, the number of votes proportional to the number of members in each county. A different body, the English Bridge Union Limited, was formed in 1940; the Board of this company was also the Executive Committee of the English Bridge Union. Confused? Well, you will be glad to know that the two were merged into one limited company in 2005.

From the beginning the EBU, together with the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Unions, was part of the British Bridge League which was the national bridge organisation for Great Britain. In 2000 the countries split up and each became their own NBO.

The shares are held in the company by the Counties - not quite the same as the geographic versions - of which there are currently 39. There is no financial benefit for the shareholders but the shareholders are now the body to which the Board of Directors are responsible. The profits of the business - if any, and there is rarely a large amount - are not distributed to anyone (we are not allowed to distribute profits under the company’s Articles of Association) but retained within the business for investment into the development of bridge in England.

The shareholders, currently once a year, elect a Board of Directors, and after that election, vote for a Chairman, Vice Chairman and a Treasurer. All of the Directors have the full - and very onerous - legal responsibility of being a Company Director; for this they get paid the incredible sum of £0.00 pounds per annum. Many of them, the officers in particular, do as much as any full time employee for no salary. Along with the rest of our many volunteers, they receive a reimbursement of their out of pocket expenses.

There are also three “Standing Committees” of the Board, also elected annually by the shareholders. These are the Laws and Ethics, Tournament and Selection Committees. Each of these elected members are also volunteers.

Each County has its own constitution which must be approved by the EBU and elects their Chairman and officers each year. These people are all volunteers, and they too work extremely hard for bridge in their areas.

Finally, there is a paid team of staff at EBU headquarters in Aylesbury, who provide all of the services required of a national membership organisation. We work out of an office that a previous Board wisely purchased when property prices were relatively low, more than 20 years ago. Many of the staff are bridge players who love working in the bridge environment, which is why they do not go elsewhere for more money!

Barry's Blog 22

I have been asked a couple of times what we are doing at present, so here goes….

I am sure that most of you know that the Board’s proposals for change will ultimately be voted upon at an Extraordinary General Meeting on June 4th. The final document will be released by April. We are still gathering and analysing the data and ask any club that has not returned their form to do so as soon as possible as this information will allow us to create as accurate a figure as possible for the proposed pay to play fee.

However, there are many more areas that we are working on, for example….

We are working on “bridge awareness” days; these events, which will take place around the country during 2008, will be put on with the help and assistance of a willing club (or clubs) in the area we are in. We will be inviting dignitaries, the press and TV to come along and see what we are doing and will attempt to show people who do not play bridge what it is all about and how it helps everyone in many facets of their lives. The first of these days is slightly different, as it is at the National Railway Museum in York and is a “Mind Sports” day and is being put on in association with other mind sports. This will be publicised very soon indeed.

We have been working on plans for a bridge related TV programme, something approaching the Holy Grail to many, and something that is constantly suggested by members. No money has been spent but we have produced a proposal for such a programme, perhaps best paralleled to “Countdown”, and we are now seeking funding for the production of a pilot programme which is necessary for the very hard job of selling the idea to a TV channel. Thus far the work has been done by one of our members, Matthew Baylis a stand-up comedian and Basingstoke Bridge Club member and Matt Betts our Communications Officer. If you know anyone who may wish to fund this pilot programme we would be VERY interested to know about them!

With the Board’s unanimous approval, I am involved in detailed discussions with a specialist legal firm and we are working on plans to turn the English Bridge Union into a Charity. New laws now in place permit such a change and, although there are (as usual) many complexities to over come we hope that we can get there within a year or two. Once it is done it will save the EBU substantial tax costs each year and will allow us to receive legacies and donations for all aspects of our activities without tax implications. At the same time, I hope that we can develop a model constitution for membership owned affiliated bridge clubs to become charities in their own right, which will also provide benefits to those clubs.

We are about to commence work on an online teaching system based on the teaching software available on the ACBL web site (http://www.acbl.org/). This will provide a free and intuitive way for people to self-teach themselves the basics of the way we play in England. We thank the ACBL for granting us permission to use their software for this purpose.

We have just published our first “Club Focus”, which will be a bi-monthly electronic newsletter for clubs around the country. It is available on this website for downloading and we can email it to anyone who wants it. Please let the office know if you wish to be placed on the list to receive it by email.

There are numerous other activities taking place now or will be fairly soon – more news in due course...

Barry's Blog 21

We are fast approaching that time of year when we look back on the current one and forward to the next. For the EBU and me it has been a year of discovery….

I have discovered that working for a membership organization can be very difficult. My staff, the Board and I have tried very hard to improve things – with a reasonable measure of success. However, there are huge numbers of things that remain to be done in order to make our organization sleek, efficient and worthy of the 21st Century. Naturally that requires change; unfortunately, change in any area of our workings seems to be anathema to many people.

Of course, for the latter half of the year many of us have found ourselves immersed in the proposals for changing the way that the EBU funds itself. After seventy seven years it was no surprise that there is resistance to change from some, especially the noisy minority. Whatever happens next year our members should remember that this is the first time EVER that the EBU has consulted its membership, has listened to what they have said and absorbed as many of their suggestions as possible.

The shareholders who are representatives of the counties will eventually determine the way forward after they have consulted their county’s membership. What is sure is that whatever they agree for us to do, we will not please everyone; but it will be the shareholders that make the decision, not the Board but the shareholders. This is why we have embarked on another round of consultation and enquiry with our clubs, through our counties, and this will result in a decision being made on June 4th 2008 at an Extraordinary General Meeting that will be held specifically for that purpose.

So next year promises to be full of discussions and decisions that will affect the future of the English Bridge Union and to a large extent organized bridge in England. With all of the emotion that this will create I want to say please remember that everyone does care, each in their own way, each for their own reason, but we all want to improve things for all of us.

At this point in the calendar I would like to wish season’s greetings to all of our members, to all of my staff and especially to all of the volunteers who work at all levels of bridge administration and without whom not much would happen.

I look forward to a happy and healthy new year for all, and above all, I wish for harmony and tolerance in our decision making.

Barry's Blog 20

The Sunday Telegraph decided to write an article around our Best Behaviour at Bridge policy. This was picked up by the BBC Today programme and they chose Tony Forrester who WAS NOT representing the EBU to be on one side of the discussion and a bridge player from Hertfordshire (not an EBU member) to argue the other.

Those of you who heard the Today programme will have reached your own conclusion about the merits of the discussion; later on in the day an item appeared on the BBC web site which engendered further activity.

We produced a press release for all published media and our own web site, to correct some factual errors.

I then received a request to be interviewed on air on BBC Radio Solent; later on (how I do not know!) I was asked for an interview by ABC Radio in Australia, which I also did.

Our Best Behaviour policy is now firmly in place and, is having a beneficial effect at our congresses. This was particularly evident at the 2007 Brighton Congress where very many players commented positively on what appeared to be new attitudes engendered by this policy.

There is no doubt from our club research that bad behaviour is very off putting to newcomers to club and tournament play; thus improving player attitudes and behaviour is considered by many to be one of the keys to increasing the number of people flowing into the organized activities of bridge.

The benefits of playing bridge are legion. We want more people to take part in this wonderful game of ours. We hope that the recent media activity will encourage more people to become involved and we will continue to work to create a higher profile for bridge in this country and develop the game for all.

Click here to find out more about bridge.

Barry's Blog 19

My days are so full currently that I don’t get a chance to play much face to face bridge. When I do I am finding, more and more, that people are approaching me with questions, mostly nicely, but sometimes not, which tends to spoil my next few boards. My usual partner, Mrs. C, has got rather used to this now….

So it is as well that I am very happy to play online bridge. I have been a member of a UK based online club for around three years. During that time my TV watching has gone down dramatically, but at the expense of wearing out my cordless mouse! Internet bridge will never replace face to face bridge; the socialisation aspects are naturally huge when playing at a club or in a tournament. However, in the 21st Century, online bridge has a major role to play in bringing people into the game. I recently played with a sometime online partner of mine at the Young Chelsea bridge club in London.

This man, self taught online, was playing in only his second face to face situation, so at least he was not quite so terrified by the complexities of bidding boxes and was not so put off by the general hubbub that surrounds playing bridge in the real world as he was the first time! After consulting with the club, I picked a strong night of the week to play, as my partner needed the challenge. It was a “butler scored” session, which was a first for me; needless to say it proved challenging enough!

We ended up in a position where my partner was able to pick up his very first EBU master points! He was delighted - as was I because finishing in a scoring position is not that common for me…… I was also interested that the “Young Chelsea” was, in fact, quite young on that evening, certainly younger than the average club nights that I attend, which is very pleasant to see.

He and I had a great time and the fact that we were there can be put down entirely to the fact that an internet bridge club exists. My friend would not be playing at all but for the existence of it. I am reasonably hopeful that he will shortly become an EBU member and a bridge club member.

My friend is relatively young; but that does not apply to everyone that plays bridge online. Indeed, along with face to face bridge, many internet players are also in the golden years of their lives. For some, age and infirmity means that the online club is literally a connection with the outside world and a continuity with a hobby that has kept their minds active for years, all without leaving the safe and comfortable surroundings of their home.

I am aware that some club members consider the internet a threat. I see it as the exact opposite. Encouraging people to play online and get better, especially in a club that has an active ethics policy (e.g. quitters get thrown out, unethical behaviour is tracked down and the perpetrators removed) and active coaching and supervised play, such as in my online club, can only help bring people of all ages into the game. Playing thousands of online boards has definitely helped my game improve (no emails thank you) and can only help develop newcomers and improvers to bridge.

Getting new players into bridge is proving a challenge to everyone, the world over. We must not allow prejudices over the use of the internet to override the potential benefits that online bridge brings to us all.