Barry's Blog 9

In this Blog I write again, unashamedly, but perhaps slightly repetitively, about the future of duplicate bridge in England and why the EBU believes so wholeheartedly, in its new education initiative Focus on Value.

My last "official" event of 2006 was to visit a very exhilarating bridge club, having been invited to their Christmas party. The club is the Aylesbury Vale Bridge Club, nice and convenient to the EBU office. The club is run by Sue Maxwell, who has been teaching bridge for many years and who has developed her own methods for doing this, of course based 100% on Bridge for All, and so successfully that over 200 new members of the EBU have been taught by her in the last four years and almost all of them remain EBU members, and active members at that!

I was joined at the party by the EBU Chairman, Peter Stocken, who has presented a trophy for their Teams tournament, while I was charged with presenting a trophy donated by Helen Schapiro. At the same time, Sue announced a list of other prize winners and members who had made notable advances. So why have I gone into all of this detail, you may ask? Well, my visit confirmed to me that what I saw was the future of duplicate bridge in England; the only future that makes sense.

These players, almost none of whom have been playing bridge for more than a couple of years, now play in the local Leagues and have begun to do very well, they have started up the ladder of achievement by winning master points, so derided by many of our more established members. It was quite something to hear people applauding new County Masters! We have received many comments on our recent survey which have been rather dismissive of the Master Point system. I defy anyone who criticises the system to come along to Aylesbury Vale, see the benefits in action and then inform us that MPs are a waste of time. Only a total cynic would say that the obvious pleasure gained by a newcomer to Bridge on receiving their first official ranking was not worthwhile.

I believe that this is the ONLY way that the EBU and duplicate bridge in England has the faintest chance of existing into the next two decades. Sue teaches delightful people, mostly in their middle age or later, who have come to bridge for reasons that are perhaps beyond Bridge itself. At the end of the evening, one of their "senior" members, Tony Schaffner, gave a short speech of thanks to Sue for what she does and included a quite emotional comment about how many of the members of the club had taken up bridge to help replace a major loss in their lives.

We have all heard descriptions of how bridge players form a community. Even the dourest competitive tournament player is part of that community, known to many thousands of people across the country. Some of us, who are fortunate to have played in other countries, or online, form communities that span the globe. It is far more than just a game - it is a way of life to many people, one that transcends master points, rankings and behaviour at the table. It is simply about community. The ability to meet in convivial company with people who have similar desires to add more to their lives, to keep their brains active and to add a wider meaning to their lives that may have well been blighted by the loss of a job or a life partner. What better thing can we contribute to the wider community?

All of this was visible to us at Aylesbury Vale Bridge club. I have seen it too at other clubs I have been able to visit in my early days in my job with the EBU, as did our membership development group on their visits last year. These clubs are always run by people who want to give something back to the game that has provided them with such enjoyment. Nearly always it relies on volunteers, the lifeblood of bridge. While at Aylesbury Vale I was introduced to one of the younger members who, having been first taught four years ago, is now a qualified Director and runs league teams. Wow! How can we replicate this level of success across the country? Should we not be concerning ourselves about this at least as much as we worry about who and how someone won the Tollemache or the Gold Cup?

If we don't worry about the future of bridge who will be competing in our tournaments in twenty years time? At the moment, I would say there is a very good chance that competitive bridge, as we presently know it, will not be around in twenty years. Our numbers are dropping year on year as our membership ages, and as fewer new people come into the game. We entered some years ago into a spiral of decline that we have not yet escaped from; now I believe our escape route is visible.

We must embrace the community that we are part of, and work towards enriching and enlarging that community. This is why the EBU have collaborated with Sue to formulate our new "Focus on Value" project. Whatever else we do, we must learn from Aylesbury Vale and similar clubs, the lessons for developing new members of our community.

Please consider joining our new way of doing things and whether you can sign up to become a partner teacher and make a big difference to your bridge community. Click here for further information.

But don't forget, you can make a difference every time you play by being welcoming and understanding to our newer less experienced players.

Aylesbury Vale and similar clubs are the future of bridge. Let's hope they can produce many more County Masters in the next twelve months. If they don't there will surely be many fewer Grand Masters in 2027.

Barry's Blog 8

This year has been fascinating; I started it as a retired person, not expecting to re-enter long term employment again. I end it having been in my second career over six months and just about feeling that I know what is going on. In the same six months I have moved house and had a son get married, so it has been quite hectic.

It has also been a busy time at the office. Personally, after remembering everyone's name, the challenge has been getting to grips with an organisation that has been around for so long; my first Board meeting, first AGM etc. I have tried very hard not to be the typical wielder of a new broom. Any organisation with the history of the EBU deserves to be understood before changes are considered; so after that necessary due consideration, we have made some changes to the way we deal with master points and we are now working on a membership management project, which I am confident will be to the benefit of everyone, removing many historical problems that have plagued Aylesbury/County relationships for a very long time.

I joined the EBU in full knowledge that many of our members have been very critical over a long period. Indeed, I had my own checklist of complaints. So during my first period here it was no surprise to have to field many communications from my fellow members, critical of a wide variety of things

Now that I do understand the organisation from within I have a slightly different view. Some members believe that they pay too much for membership, something I cannot agree with; forty pence per week of anybody's money is not very much. I have heard people say that the EBU offers "jobs for the boys", something else that is quite wrong. People criticise expenditure on our International teams; our next meeting with shareholders in February will be concentrating on this vexatious issue. Of course, changes to playing procedures have been a reason for many a letter or email. These changes will be reviewed in the near future.

The Board has had a sub committee working VERY hard on membership development and the time has now come to decide the future of the English Bridge Union. In my opinion, we are at an absolute crossroads. We must urgently do what we can to arrest what has been a declining membership, in line with the declining demographics of bridge worldwide. The Chairman, Vice-Chairman and all the Board members are very forward looking and intent on ensuring the future of the EBU.

The membership development team's new ideas will help formulate the next steps we are to take in our redevelopment of the Union. I suspect that some very important decisions will be taken in 2007 which will determine our future. It will be necessary for everyone to have an open mind when considering what is presented to them. We must have the vision to look five or ten years forward to safeguard our game for our children and grandchildren.

As a first step, we have started our "Focus on Value" project which places Teachers and Clubs firmly at the centre of the EBU universe. The new initiative has been devised to give bridge teachers the tools to create their own playing communities and to help them structure their courses so that their students can club together and enjoy their game beyond the classroom. There has been a great response to the call for Partner Teachers in the December issue of English Bridge, and we hope that many more of you will apply to join the courses taking place in the Spring. For more information on the courses email Lisa at the office and ask for our info booklet.

A lot of members have indicated interest in a "player rating"; I am quite keen to investigate a scheme (alongside master points) for providing all active players with a rating that is generated from their actual performance. My online club, Bridgeclublive, uses such a scheme and it is very good. The system would necessarily be heavily reliant on technology and this is a potential drawback, as we have a lot of different scoring programs in use around the country. If anyone has a good idea about such a scheme I would certainly like to hear about it.

Our survey (warts and all, it was our first attempt) has produced almost 2,000 responses which is truly excellent, making the results very useful. The survey does not close until January 14th, so if you have not submitted your response yet perhaps you can find some time over the holiday period to do so. Click here for more information and to go to the online version.

As was customary at the start of my blogging life, I need to clarify something from a previous blog. In my last one I mentioned that the EBU's attempt at a scoring and membership system (CASS) was a failure. The project as a whole did prove to be a failure but does not reflect at all on any person involved in developing the software and no criticism of any individual was intended.

I will be at the London end-of-year Congress and will be happy to discuss anything with members in between my miserable attempts at winning green points.

I would like to offer Seasons Greetings to all Members, my staff in Aylesbury, our webmaster(s) Anna and Mark and all of the many volunteers who help keep our organisation running. 2007 is going to be a year of very important change for the English Bridge Union. I do hope it is a happy and healthy New Year for all. I look forward to it with great interest.

Barry's Blog 7

Master points, we love them, we hate them, but we always want them on our records 5 seconds after we have won them, don’t we?

Well there are a number of changes happening around master points, so I thought it would be a good idea just to share with you all some stuff…..but first how it is done in the USA.

Over there, the ACBL is fortunate enough to have just ONE scoring program, ACBLSCORE. I believe that this is used for 99.9% of all scoring at clubs and tournaments, whatever the format. All winners of master points have their records updated once a month, automatically. In my own personal experience - somehow I managed to become an ACBL Life Master - they do not make mistakes either. No bits of paper, no worries about what year the points relate to, no phone calls to ACBL staff required.

Back here, we are in a very different place with regard to technology and master points. We have numerous scoring programs in use; some allow direct crediting of master points from clubs, others do not. The number of points being received electronically is growing, but still represents a minority of MP submissions.

None of these programs, unfortunately, can do the whole job for us at the EBU, with regard to the myriad of tournaments that we run. Max Bavin has, for many years, dreamt up scoring methods and movements that are probably unique to us in England - and perhaps the other home Unions; these methods required software to be written a very long time ago and these programs are, what is now called in the IT industry, “legacy software”. This is jargon for obsolete and impossible to change software! None of these programs allow us at the EBU to directly credit our own master points! How stupid does that make me feel you ask? Well………. it did, but now I understand the reasons I am much more tolerant of the situation.

Basically, at the end of each EBU tournament we have to run through many different processes in order to be able to credit master points to the CORRECT record. Unlike the USA, we take the vast majority of our entries before our tournaments. Then people turn up to play without pre-booking and expect us to have all of the information at our fingertips to allow for a speedy entry. Yet most EBU members cannot recall their EBU number, which is the key to everything that we do. There are many members with identical names, yet often that is all we have to go on. So, naturally, we screw up and sometimes allocate points to the wrong Smith or Jones! That is why we take a considerable time after an event to try and get it right first time.

We have been discussing the future of scoring software within the EBU. Unfortunately, the EBU’s own attempt at writing software, CASS, proved to be a failure, so we are busy identifying a market leading product as the “EBU Standard” for clubs. This program, when selected, will have the characteristics of what we believe is needed for EBU clubs, and will have the direct crediting master point functionality needed, as well as integration with Bridgemate technology. At the same time, we are working on a medium term replacement for much of the “legacy” - equals obsolete, remember - software that we use internally. That will, of course, also allow direct crediting. But this will take some time, because of the nature of our own requirements.

So please, could I ask members to be patient. We always try to get these master point updates done quickly, and we do know it can sometimes be done better.

These improvements will happen, but they are just one of a number of tasks and projects that we are undertaking to improve the quality of services that we provide to members. Everyone does their very best and we do know what the problems are and……………….. we WILL get there!

Barry's Blog 6

At the last meeting of the 2005/2006 EBU Board, they agreed to my proposal to centralise the management of all aspects of membership at Aylesbury. This process is to be eased in over the next eighteen months, and trialled by a couple of Counties, who have now committed to help, so as to ensure that we get it right first time.

I am sure that this change in administration methods will remove many of the problems that have plagued the relationships between HQ and the Counties for many years.

At the recent AGM I must say that these plans were not met by 100% acceptance. In order to allay fears I hope to meet with any interested Membership Secretaries to discuss these issues probably early in 2007. By that time we will have developed our plans to the point of being able to present them to the group and to get their opinions on our suggestions. I know that it is not possible to please all of the people all of the time, but I really believe that this development will improve things dramatically.

I recently spent a long weekend in Galway, Ireland at a “reunion” of the international online bridge club to which I belong, Bridgeclublive. I put “reunion” in quotes as actually I had never met most of the people there, and great fun it was. Present were about 110 members from 23 countries. Although it was primarily a social event we played Bridge over three sessions. We had about 10 hours of Bridge, zero director calls, no arguments and just one director for the lot of us. There were, of course, many EBU members there, so was a great chance to discuss issues with them……..and for some of them to bend my ear, an opportunity that rarely seems to be missed!

When most others had gone, my wife and I stayed on for an extra day and we visited the Galway Bridge Centre for a game. Conventional pairs, but unconventional for a number of reasons; no convention cards (required or available), no director in the room (though one was available upstairs), no score cards. The result was 27 hands with no director calls, no arguments and quite a few laughs. The Galway Bridge Centre is an affiliate of the CBAI, the equivalent of the EBU, so it was a properly organised game, but it differed so much from the majority of ours that it was striking.

Back home, despite the new Best Behaviour @ Bridge policy, we are still struggling at our congresses, within some of our clubs and even online, with less than positive behaviour from some players. This definitely puts off newcomers to duplicate bridge – it happened to me too when we suffered atrocious behaviour at the table some years ago.

We at the EBU and many club committees, owners and managers are rightly concerned about the decline in playing numbers. We are doing many things to address the issues behind the decline, but I am certain that a contributory factor in this situation is the behaviour issue. If we do not get this under control soon we will find ourselves eventually with fewer tournaments each year until the only bridge available will be of the social kind.

BB@B was launched in June. Is it working? If not, why do you think it isn’t? Do you suffer from bad behaviour in your club? Have you asked your club to implement BB@B as a policy? Email me your views so we can assess its first few months.

After the AGM, my congratulations to those elected into office, and commiserations to those that were not. My best wishes to Denis Robson upon his retirement from the Board; after only a short time in my job I find myself working with a new Chairman and Vice-Chairman - Sally has agreed to the use of that title! I am sure that the new Board will continue to move forward at great speed on the changes that we need to make within our organisation.

Finally, look out in the Christmas edition of English Bridge for two things. There will be an article about our new “Focus on Value” project. Also, we are undertaking a membership survey; you will be able to complete it either on the web site or on an insert that will be in the magazine. This survey will help us improve our communications with our members in the future and is very important. It will also offer members the opportunity to take part in further research that we intend to undertake to develop and improve our services. As an encouragement to complete the survey, all respondents may enter into a draw for a £500 Bridge Holiday voucher.

Shame I can’t enter…….

Barry's Blog 5

First things first……bye, bye M25.

Now the important stuff; last week the EBU board approved a new project which will promote Clubs and Teachers into the place they should always have been, the centre of the EBU universe.

I have always thought that many of the non EBU members in affiliated clubs get the benefits of the organised game without directly contributing towards it. They are likely to have been taught by an EBUTA trained or certified teacher, their weekly session is likely to have been run by an EBU trained director, the club stationery they use are at reasonable prices because of the EBU presence in the market place and, most importantly, their club night is assured in the long term because of the investment the EBU puts into education at all levels. Next time you are at your club maybe you should ask a non EBU member what they are doing to contribute to the future of the game that they enjoy so much, especially as it costs less than 40 pence per week.

The EBU are widely regarded as being the best when it comes to organising tournaments, and we are very fortunate in having the World Bridge Federation’s Chief Tournament Director on our permanent staff. Of course we are proud of any compliments that come our way and we are never complacent, always looking at ways to improve services to our tournament players.

However, while tournaments and congresses are very important to us it only represents a fraction of what the EBU is all about. Take the clubs for example; there are almost 1000 affiliated clubs; I wish we had time to visit them all. You cannot fail to be impressed by the amount of work done by volunteers in the clubs. I call them the unsung heroes! Week in, week out they open up the bridge room, put out all the stuff, collect table money, calculate the result, make the tea, organise competitions, collect subs, stick things on notice boards. These people are the “Real Deal EBU”.

A week or so ago, I went to one of my regular clubs and chatted to one of the Committee. He told me that he had been at work that day, came directly to set up, collect money etc, but as he was the night’s host, was unlikely to play, which he didn’t. So, selflessly, he went home!

But, probably the most undervalued people in the bridge world are the teachers. In fact without the teachers there wouldn’t be an EBU because they are the primary recruiters of new people to bridge. I think that teachers know more about the game than any of us. They know that new people enrolling on courses often do so for reasons other than the game. They know that building a new community is more important than the weakness takeout and if they are to keep their students happy, a glass of wine (or sometimes tea I suppose) is more important than a Ron Klinger flipper. Teachers are the best at spreading the word – that bridge is more than just a game.

The EBU is often accused of being out of touch with ordinary members – being more interested in bridge hands than bridge people and yet during my short experience in bridge administration I’ve found the opposite to be true. Over the summer months, a development committee, commissioned by the Board have been visiting lots of bridge clubs - big city clubs, small village hall clubs, sports centre clubs. Their task has been to find out how the EBU can improve and build on its services to members and clubs. They have listened to what members had to say. Many clubs are worried about falling numbers; some said that the average age in their club was rising every year. This agrees with our own figures – we have the same amount of affiliated clubs as we have had for decades – but membership is gradually falling.

Thanks to our teachers, the numbers of new students to the game remains buoyant and our teacher training courses are very popular. The problem lies with the transition of graduating students into our clubs. We recognise that the solution to this lies with the relationship between the EBU and its teachers. Over the coming months we will invite prospective teachers to help us bridge that vital gap between classroom and club room. We shall be introducing a new category of teacher – the EBU “Partner Teacher” along with new “Partner Teacher” courses. We are sure that our new innovative package for these teachers, with its great new incentives, will inspire ordinary members to become teachers and existing teachers to become even more effective in helping students make the transition into organised bridge.

And that’s not all. Existing clubs, fledgling clubs and even non affiliated clubs need more help in recruiting new members. We shall, in due course, be announcing new packages available to all clubs to help them achieve their aims.

These are very exciting times and I feel privileged to be a part of the EBU at a time of such optimism.

Barry's Blog 4

It is time to talk about some incredibly positive things. A couple of weekends ago our Women's International Team placed third in the European Championships and thus qualified to play in the premier Women's tournament in 2007, the Venice Cup, which will be held in China. This is a great achievement for the players concerned and I would like to add my congratulations to them.

These ladies are the present. Some of that team have already achieved wonderful success, including a World Championship and a multitude of other achievements. I am sure that there is a lot more to come, but it leads me to the weekend just past.....

During the last weekend our excellent Education team, ably led by John Pain and Alison Nicolson put on a wonderful weekend in Loughborough for our juniors. Along with a group of unsung heroes, both parents of juniors and numerous volunteer EBU members, a group of juniors ranging from 8 to 20+ years old gathered together for teaching and training, to play bridge in many different forms, to bond together as the international teams of the future, and to ensure the future of bridge in England.

What an uplifting experience.

Our new Under 20 squad manager, all of 26 years old himself, Michael Byrne, was there to help our future international stars develop. The superb junior squad management were there in force as well, providing an excellent developmental weekend for our youngest and, in the future, best players.

At the same time these people were doing what we all need to do. They were helping to ensure that the game of bridge has a future in this country. Our wonderful game is assailed on all sides by the very many different things that are available for people to do with their time. Our youngsters are able to participate in a wide variety of activities that should really exclude a card game generally, but wrongly, considered to be an old person's activity; but they don't all do that and with the loving care for the game displayed at Loughborough by our energetic members they have laid the ground work for the future European and World Champions that England will produce.

I am quite sure that this past weekend I met, and perhaps even played against, a future International star for England, including an 8 year old! I am not sure if they will be male or female, if it will be in ten or twenty years time that they will emerge and do it for their country, but do it they will. And, what is more, I also spent the weekend among a group of people who will ensure that our game will live on, despite the problems of the present. Some of the juniors will, unfortunately, not be internationals in the future, but they will all play bridge at a high level. They will run clubs, teach others, work for the EBU and do a myriad of other things; all because of the dedication of a handful of current EBU members and our limited, but highly professional staff.

All EBU members should be justly proud of our juniors and the people who work with them; they are the cutting edge of the future. I challenge our members to be positive for the benefit of all involved in the game in our country - for the future benefit of bridge players in England.

That is why the EBU exists. The future is great. Be positive; help our fellow members, especially our juniors. Watch them grow into future Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup winners, as well as the club committee members of the future.

Thanks so much to everyone involved.

Barry's Blog 3

Just back from Brighton; I hope that those of you who were there and enjoyed the superbly run Congress will join with me in being very proud of the way it was organised by all our staff. It could not be done better by any other group in the world.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the venue for the Congress. I personally received many complaints about almost every aspect of the service - or lack of it - from the Hilton Metropole. I had already formed a view that this venue had seen its best days many years ago and it was time to consider alternatives, however many people like being in Brighton in August. The level of dissatisfaction this time almost gives us no choice. From before the first event started Peter Jordan and his team attempted to rectify very many problems within the playing areas. By the last day not only were many of these faults still there, but also many more had occurred.

I am sure that many of you will be moved to complain about the venue. My strong suggestion is that if you have any complaints about the hotel you send them directly to the hotel’s General Manager at Hilton Brighton Metropole, Kings Road, Brighton, Sussex, BN1 2FU. As a participant I too was unhappy, so I know how you feel.

If you have any comments on any other aspects of the Congress then please direct them to me as you would normally.

If you have any ideas of where we should consider as an alternative venue, I am listening!