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On Saturday 14 July our Club hosted a very special celebration - for the 75th Wedding Anniversary of Una and Colin Mingay. Following an early start/finish game of bridge there was a party, splendidly organised and catered by Sue Riley.
Colin delivered a fond and often amusing history of his and Una’s meeting, wedding and subsequent history together. Their son, David, accompanied the talk with a photo presentation and appropriate interjections.
Colin’s verse on marriage, read aloud by Shirley Corbett, should be salutary reading for all couples!
There was an excellent turnout for the Charlie Mitchell Shield on Saturday 7 July - though it seemed several players were unaware that the Charlie Mitchell Shield had come to their normal Saturday session, despite being listed in the Diary, on the website and being announced in the previous week's session announcements.
Many were also unaware of who Charlie Mitchell was, and what he had done to help make the club the success it is today. Fortunately Sue Riley, with a little help from Ada Duignan and others, was able to fill us in on his part in the club's rich history.
The much awaited celebration of Colin and Una Mingay's amazing 75th wedding anniversary has been rescheduled for Saturday 14 July.
The arrangements are as they were originally planned. Bridge will start at 12.15pm and run without a tea break till about 3pm - and then the celebration will commence to allow all to have a good time and still not leave the club any later than normal.
Sue Riley (0412 175 367) is coordinating the event and will respond to any questions. Come and join Colin and Una if you can.
Member Robin Ho teamed up with guest expert Ed Barnes to win the Swiss Pairs on Tue 26 July, ahead of directors Alan Davies and David Farmer, and visitors Margaret Foster and Patrick Neary.
You can check the full results.
The Swiss Pairs followed a free pre-session talk by Ed Barnes on "Declarer play - Avoiding the hidden traps". This in turn followed his excellent one hour PBI workshop on "Passive defense - when and how to think about it" - and several hands in the Swiss Pairs benefited from the key points.
I spoke last month to you about the importance of preparing for the future security of our Clubhouse.
It has been wonderful to hear back from you, and that you are overwhelmingly in support of this strategic direction. Thank you to all of you who took the time and interest to communicate your support, questions and suggestions for future savings.
The decision to no longer issue winner’s tickets is one part of a broader review of the club’s finances, to ensure that we continue to add to our surplus.
Our bridge education has been and is a critical activity for our club, essential for the ongoing renewal of our club, and for maintaining our vibrant member body and promoting our game. It has been instrumental in our change from a club with declining membership more than five years ago to one that now has stable, stronger membership trends.
Some members have raised the question of how our bridge education activities are managed and accounted for.
The direction, scope and course fees of our bridge education program are agreed between the Committee and the Bridge Education Sub-Committee every six months. This year for example we reduced the number of beginners classes in favour of more courses focused on our improver players. This shift probably contributed to our club membership falling slightly this year in contrast to growth in recent years.
The club runs on the contributions of a large number of members. As we have been reviewing our expenses and the way we manage our activities, I am impressed at how much different people do to help our club be as good as it is. We don't yet have a full list of the different contributors and their contributions, but I am convinced that the size of some of these contributions are largely unknown to our overall membership. For some of the roles, possibly only the persons who have held the role previously can comprehend the amount of time, effort and responsibility involved.
Take for example the House Manager role, currently filled by Bill Fitzsimons. In recent months a sample of things I am aware that Bill has been involved in, completely on a voluntary basis, include:
Club members will have heard of the grant money we received as part of the federal Stronger Communities Program. We received $7,500 plus GST to be used to fund 50% of $15,000 in eligible spending on bridge equipment to improve the club. We are pleased to note (as we are required to do) that “This project received grant funding from the Australian Government.”
We would also like to note the huge voluntary time commitments that planning and implementing these purchases involved from the Committee and others, and particularly from Bill Fitzsimons, Ken Watson and David Farmer.
We have used this grant money as follows:
