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.

Barry's Blog 18

I was recently invited to visit the Stroud Bridge Club which has tried something different to boost their membership, with a lot of success; twice a year they run a "newcomers" evening. It was organised as a team event, with around eight newcomers to duplicate bridge playing East/West. When we played against these people only very basic systems were allowed, so as not to "scare" newcomers. We could do as we wished against "regulars"; that was interesting adding and deleting things, table by table! The pace of the game was much slower than on a usual club night, to give time to people who may have been unused to just about everything they were experiencing.

It was an extremely pleasant evening, with everyone behaving brilliantly and the newcomers had a great time. My team consisted of an English junior international who partnered one of the oldest club members, and my partner was a relatively young man who told me that he has been playing for 36 years since he retired aged 55! We came fourth, which was fine, but the experience was the interesting part.

The club has a couple of active juniors who were taught locally and are now ultra keen players. The club also feeds its new players in on nights such as this; this is very similar to the Partner Teacher / Partner Club programme that we are now running, with increasing success. Good luck Stroud Bridge Club, keep it up!

On another subject, as a result of national legislative changes I have been investigating the possibility of the EBU becoming a charitable body, and also for the possibility of many of our affiliated clubs achieving charitable status. The Board has approved an investigation into the possibility by a specialist law firm and I have now kicked off the process. They believe that it is quite possible for this to happen; if it does it will save the EBU and its members a lot of money in the future and could save clubs money as well. I will provide more details as soon as I can, but the process is complex and it is not possible to give any more details at this time.

Finally, our team of Lady Internationals have left for China where they are competing in the Venice Cup, having qualified for this event by winning a bronze medal in the last European Championships. I am sure that you will all join me in wishing them the best of good fortune in Shanghai. We will provide up to date information as best we can on this website.

Barry's Blog 17

I am recently back from Brighton, having spent both weekends and a few weekdays there. This year the Hilton Metropole seemed to be trying very hard. I have had a number of complimentary emails and broadly speaking people seemed to have a good time. Interestingly, especially bearing in mind that numbers seem to be dropping every year, the numbers at Brighton have held up very well indeed. A number of people have commented on the excellent atmosphere at the Congress this year.

It was good to have many visitors from overseas, including many Irish players who were using the tough competition in Brighton as a warm up for the upcoming World Championships. They also took away a lot of prizes!

Our competition staff and tournament directors run a logistically difficult event over ten days, with consummate skill. Not many people will know that our major events at Brighton are the largest "single field" events run anywhere in the bridge world (according to the world's number one tournament director); something to be proud of for all that help run and organise it.

I was particularly happy that we ran the Really Easy Congress during the midweek; around twenty tables played over two days; in some cases people were playing in their first Congress after only having played for six months, which I think is great for them and pretty good for the future of Bridge, but we need lots more of them, that's for sure. The feedback as the people were leaving was excellent: "I had a wonderful time, will be back next year"; "I can't wait for the next time"; "Perhaps we can try the not-so-easy Congress!".
To follow this up we will be running a "Really Easy Weekend" next April and we will soon have a website for newcomers called "ReallyEasyBridge" which should be very helpful for those concerned.

During the period in Brighton we ran another Partner Teacher training course and it is pleasing to see this programme gaining traction, with many more courses planned for the next twelve months.

The consultation over the Board's proposals continues and is now producing some very constructive input. The consultation period has been extended to allow for revised proposals (yet to be provided) to be given enough time for sensible comment. I know some people were upset at the tone of my last blog, but frankly it was necessary. Things are much better now, I am pleased to say.

There is an online survey in progress at the moment regarding Announcements and Alerts, but that closes on August 31st. Please try and complete it before it disappears.

Barry's Blog 15

By now most of you who take the time to read my blog efforts will also have seen the Board's proposals for the future of the Union. I am delighted that many members have responded positively but, of course, some have not.

What I am going to try to do in this blog is to explain some facts, from my perspective, which is wider than most because I see things from both sides of life - as an EBU member and an EBU employee involved with the people who are determining the future policy of our 77 year old organisation.

As a member; I am on a good day an average club player; time permitting I play at a few different clubs. The major problems that I see are the behaviour of players and the ageing of the membership. At the ripe old age of 56 I am frequently one of the youngest people in the room. This is, I am often told by our members, because there are not enough young people entering the game. At the time of writing we have just 243 members under the age of 25 on our books, that is less than 1% of our membership.

So I ask why that is? I learned to play card games from my parents and grandparents. It was thus not a big stretch to learn the rudiments of bridge at a relatively young age. I did little with that for many years until I was no longer working, when doing something taxing with my brain became very important. I will pose a question to all of those parents and grandparents out there; how many of you have taught your offspring to play bridge or something similar? I was astonished to discover only recently that many (perhaps 30% of) EBU affiliated clubs proudly announce on our web site that junior players are "not welcome"!!!

As a manager and employee of the EBU; what does the EBU do to encourage new entrants to our game? The answer is, not enough. We just do not have the staff resources or the funds, so we are reliant, in the main, on volunteers. Guess what? Getting volunteers is not as easy as it used to be. There are some wonderful examples for us all; for example, Dave Bessant (who was recently presented with an EBU award) from the Isle of Wight has, totally as a volunteer, put bridge onto the curriculum for all schools on the Island. There are many others too, who do a great job in their local areas.

However, as the work is voluntary, and volunteers come and go, the results are patchy. What we need is more money so that we can spend it on developing our game for future generations. As things stand at present if you are under the age of 50 it is hard to see who you will have available to play against at a club in twenty years!

As an EBU employee, apart from my staff in Aylesbury, I work very closely with many people who give their time, for no remuneration, to carry out remarkable work for bridge. They spend time ensuring that competitions are provided, that the game in England is ruled well (yes, I know you will not all agree with that, please don't email me!), that Tournament Directors are trained; teachers are trained and so on. Some of these people work much longer hours than I do and receive nothing back for it - except frequent and ill informed criticism from a small minority of members who think they know better, yet only infrequently do these people offer constructive comments.

What the Board is attempting with its new strategic proposals is a root and branch change to the manner in which the EBU engages with its members and its clubs; in order to do that they have proposed that all members who play in EBU clubs will be EBU members. This is the way that the most successful bridge organisations in Europe work. They are all increasing their membership numbers - ours steadily decline year after year. The status quo is defunct.

If every player who currently plays at EBU affiliated clubs were to continue to do so, as an EBU member after the changes, it would mean that the EBU would have something like 75,000-90,000 members. At that level of membership it is highly likely that the additional table fee we are presently estimating would be very significantly less than 30 pence per session. Please remember this is not a major fund raising exercise. Extra revenue raised will be used for immediate investment in support of members, clubs, teachers and students; not for the payment of exotic expenses or bottles of wine - just for the development and promotion of bridge in England.

What I am asking every bridge player who plays in our clubs to do is to look beyond themselves and ask, "Can I help the future of this game that I enjoy so much?" If the answer is yes, then I beg you to consider the Board's proposal positively. If the answer is no, then I doubt there is much that I or the Board can say or do to change your mind. If you have some constructive comments to make this would be a great time to pass them on, so that the Board can consider them before it is too late.

Please, please, please "look to the future, or there will not be one"...