Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the North Eastern Bridge Association held at St Georges on 26th May 2010
Present: Ken Spragg (Chair), Sue Caygill (Treasurer) Ian Rankin (Chief Tournament Secretary), Beverley Godfrey (Congress Secretary) John McCourt (Secretary), Ann Caygill (vice Chair) and over 30 members

 Apologies: Ann Bell, Jocelyn Gordon, Ann Hauxwell, Liz Muir

Chair’s Report.
The Chair thanked St Georges for their hospitality.
Teams and players representing NEBA have had a very successful year. The highlight was a our best ever finish in the Tollemache (5th.) and the team of Clive Owen, Malcolm Oliver, John Atthey & Bill March qualified for the final of the Hubert Philips Bowl. Congratulations also to Chris Owen & John Atthey who were selected to play for England in the Junior Camrose match. Clive & John were also part of a team that reached the final of the Scottish Cup. Durham University were beaten finalists in the Portland bowl by 1 imp.
In the 2009 EBU Master Point award scheme Frank Springett & Clive Owen finished 3rd. & 4th. in the Level 1 category and Janet Springett finished first in the level 3 scoring enough points to have ranked her 5th. in the Level 1 category.
The EBU have recognised Ken Pattison’s decade long commitment to teaching bridge in local schools by giving him the Tom Bradley award. I have been with him when he teaches and I know what a good job he does.
The EBU’s change to Pay to Play led to 2 clubs disaffiliating. (Guisborough & East Cleveland)
My thanks to the Tournament Secretaries, especially to Anne Hauxwell who is standing down.
Neil Aiston deserves a special mention for producing another outstanding NEBA website.
I would like to thank all those, including the executive members, who have given me support during this interesting year.
  Minutes of the 2009 AGM.

Peter Burnip proposed that the minutes be accepted as read. This was seconded by Nigel Durie. The proposal was carried and there were no matters arising.

 Treasurer’s report.

The Treasurer produced the accounts. The Treasurer said the Association had made a loss and listed the reasons for this. Acceptance of the accounts was proposed by Tom Robinson, seconded by Peter Burnip, and carried unanimously.
The Treasurer then informed the meeting that entry fees for Teams competitions would be increased from September 2010 to cover the P2P charges the EBU were imposing on these events

New Constitution

Ian Rankin explained that the changes to constitution brought in at the 2009 AGM had not removed all the inconsistencies caused by the introduction of P2P. The EBU had published a Model Constitution for County Associations in March 2010 and Ian had amended this model to produce the proposed NEBA constitution. He had to make alterations to the model to account for NEBA having both a Council and an Executive, having no subscriptions, and for NEBA holding its AGM in May. The motion to accept the new constitution was proposed by Peter Lisle seconded by Bev Godfrey and accepted by the meeting.

Election of Officers

The only nominations received were from the present Executive. The block adoption of these nominations was proposed by Chris Smith and seconded by Peter Burnip. The exec therefore is still
Chairman: Ken Spragg
Vice Chairman: Ann Caygill
Treasurer: Sue Caygill
Secretary: John McCourt
Chief Tournament Secretary: Ian Rankin

 Election of Auditor.

Chris Hope was proposed by Chris Smith, seconded by Peter Burnip, and re-elected unanimously.

 Any Other Business

Bill March asked about the Executive decision to cancel the result of the Hartlepool Wearside inter club match. After discussion Bill March proposed the result of this delayed match be reinstated. This motion was seconded by Clive Owen and put to the vote. The motion was defeated by 16 votes to 8

The meeting closed at 7:10pm