Chairman's Report 2007

AGM

Firstly, sincere apologies to those members who arrived for the AGM only to discover that the meeting had already finished.  To encourage attendance at the AGM in recent years we have held the meeting immediately after a District event, without a captive audience, regrettably the AGM would not have had sufficient members attending for the meeting to take place.  We will be adopting the same format for 2008, i.e. the AGM will follow a District event, but when the minutes are distributed please contact the District Secretary, Gillian Whyte on 01224 733137 if you intend to come to the AGM but not play in the event.  You will then be contacted during the event to be advised of any significant time changes.

Sybil Hay Competition

Feedback received over the past season has been favourable to the new format of all teams playing in one building.  The competition will be run on the same basis next season and as before a date for round 6 has been included in the event that an earlier round has to be cancelled due to adverse weather etc.  We would like 20 teams to participate and would encourage and new teams to contact Douglas McAllister on 01651 806700 as soon as possible to register their interest.  It is a teams of 4 competition and the dates of all rounds are available as part of the calendar – please remember it is the Team Captain’s responsibility to find substitutes if a member of their team is unavailable and not the Convenor’s. 

Teams of Eight League

Feedback from participating clubs would support the format introduced last season of allocating one match per month, so this format will continue for the forthcoming season.  There were a few problems, however, with matches being cancelled and results not being passed to the convenor in a timely manner.  At a recent District Committee meeting the following points were agreed and will be applied to the Teams of 8 League for the forthcoming season:

  1. The league calendar will run from 1 September to 30th April (giving 8 months to play 6 matches).  September and April will be ‘floating’ months available for team captains to rearrange matches without penalty.
  2. At least 10 players should be named in each player pool to allow sufficient numbers to avoid the cancellation of matches.  Please remember if you can’t field your strongest team, players from lower division can play for a team in a higher division.
  3. The convenor must be informed about dates of matches by 31 October in order to enforce penalties for cancellations.
  4. Due to the problems experienced during the last season, all results must be given to the Convenor within 7 days of the match being played.   A penalty of 1 VP per week will be given for late submission of results.  The home Captain is responsible for informing the convenor of the results.  Steve Pomeroy, League Convenor can be contacted on 01358725312 or via email 

MacPhee

The format of being able to enter the competition on more than one occasion has proved very popular and has resulted in a much higher entry.  If a player qualifies at the first attempt, any subsequent results will be for information only.  A player may not decide which partner they have qualified with or at which event.  In order to accommodate the larger entry the 2008 final will be a balloted two section final each with 8 tables and will be played with duplicate boards.  The event will not be held in Aberdeen city but will be held at a District venue to be confirmed.  We hope this approach will prove popular and spread the travelling across members within the District.

Junior Players

As you may be aware we have several promising Junior players who are now beginning to participate in events across the District.  I would ask all convenors to welcome them to their events and would remind all members that the Juniors are to be encouraged to play bridge in a friendly, positive environment.

Congress

We would like to resurrect a Congress within the District and as a first step will be holding a one day event on Sunday 23 September at the Rowett Research Institute at Bucksburn.  The event will be a Pairs tournaments with a qualifying session in the morning, followed by lunch and then a second session with all the section finals.  Prizes will be awarded in all sections to encourage the less experienced players.  More information on this event will be available nearer the time.