Suffolk CBA and Pay-to-Play

Pay-to-Play

The English Bridge Union is seeking to change the way it is funded from a subscription model to one where players of duplicate bridge at clubs pay according to how much they play.

The Suffolk committee is broadly in favour of the proposal.

Now widely known as Pay-to-Play (P2P), the EBU has engaged in a long consultation with members, counties and clubs. The EBU recently (20-March-2008) summarised their intentions in the proposal upon which counties will vote.

The Suffolk association understands clubs will be conducting their own meetings to decide on their response to the proposal. In a circular to all clubs, the EBU wrote that comments and decisions should be referred through the county association and the SCBA has prepared a statement outlining their position.

The proposal is a complete revision of funding for bridge in England and affects county finances as well. The association is very interested in comments from clubs concerning its own funding options, details of which are described in the policy statement.

News

Wednesday, 4-June-2008

On 4-June the EBU held an extraordinary General Meeting to vote on the proposal. That motion was carried by 52 votes to 31 with two abstentions (and one voter absent).

Counties have varying numbers of votes according to size. As mentioned earlier, Suffolk has two and these were cast in favour of the change. You can see how all the counties voted on the EBU website.

For each affiliated club, this is how the future will look:

July 2009
First contracts go out to clubs with Pay to Play fee of 29p in today's money and county Pay to Play component [4p for Suffolk].
October 2009
Shareholders approve 29p in today's money Pay to Play fee for financial year 1-April-2010 to 31-March-2011.
April 2010
Pay to Play system is launched
October 2010
Pay to Play fee for financial year 1-April-2011 to 31-March-2012 is announced
31 December 2010
Cut off date for clubs who wish to give three months notice if they do not approve of the next year's fee.
April 2011
New Pay to Play fee charged

Wednesday, 28-May-2008

One more club, which had a meeting earlier this week, has decided to support the EBU proposal, making a clear majority in favour.

In view of the support of clubs and that of individual members shown at the county AGM, the SCBA committee voted overwhelmingly in favour of the EBU Proposal. Suffolk will therefore cast its two votes in favour of the motion to adopt P2P at the EBU EGM on 4-June.

Tuesday, 27-May-2008

Since the meeting described below, two more clubs have come out in favour of the EBU proposal (one originally recorded as undecided, one as whose views were unknown). The current reckoning is therefore:

  • 10 clubs support the EBU proposal
  • 6 clubs oppose the EBU proposal, three of those would disaffiliate from the EBU
  • 3 clubs are undecided, though meetings are to held imminently in some cases

Thursday, 22-May-2008

On Sunday 18-May-2008 Suffolk held a meeting for club representatives with an agenda to receive views and feedback on P2P from clubs and their members. The minutes are now available (as a PDF). At the meeting the state of the clubs was:

Additionally, at the AGM a motion was debated:

"This association believes that the English Bridge Union ‘Pay to Play’ scheme is ill considered and likely to have a detrimental effect on organised duplicate bridge. The SCBA shareholder should therefore be mandated to vote against the motion at the EBU meeting on 4th June."

This motion was defeated, five votes for and an overwhelming majority of those present (approximately 40 eligible voters) against.

P2P Working Party

The SCBA committee has established a working party to advise on factual matters and questions pertaining to the EBU document and receive recommendations from the involved parties:

01473 218366
01473 713726
01206 272351
 
01379 870291

All of the above are available to consult, receive opinions or represent the association at any club. You can send email or call them individually - by clicking on their name - or send a mail to the all together.

Debate

There are many individuals on both sides who take the future of English bridge seriously. One of them, Peter Hasenson (a well received bridge author and, it seems, an EBU board member), has expended considerable effort in critising the proposal, leading him to set up http://www.sayno2p2p.co.uk a website containing what he has discovered and feedback received. He has also written to Suffolk alerting us to his concerns. The EBU has replied to these and both documents are listed below.

Peter Hasenson's letter to Suffolk.

Peter Stocken's reply.

Ned Paul is a bridge writer and teacher (who on occasions, has even employed our own Jonathan Green). He is very involved in club bridge and was a representative at the London Metropolitan BA's meeting to assess the sentiments of its clubs. He wrote an open letter to the LMBA and its affiliated clubs in which he outlined his opposition to the proposal and included a number of constructive counter-proposals.

I have transcribed Ned Paul's letter for display on this site. Note that its layout does not intimate it is an official SCBA document - it just makes it easier to read.

Master copies of the EBU documents can be found on their document site in the section 'EBU Plan'.

Documents

A fuller description of the documents mentioned above:

EBU Final Proposal
More properly titled, Strategy for the future of the EBU and Duplicate Bridge in England, this is the document that outlines the EBU new funding proposal that forms the basis for the decision to be taken by EBU Shareholders on 4-Jun-2008.
SCBA Statement of Policy
How the SCBA is approaching the Pay-to-play proposal
Agenda for Meeting of Club Representatives
Meeting for club representatives to discuss EBU Proposals, 1:30pm 18th May 2008 at Stoke by Nayland Golf Club.
Minutes of Meeting of Club Representatives
Minutes of the meeting for club representatives to discuss EBU Proposals as above.
Minutes of SCBA P2P Working Party
Meeting held 9th April 2008
EBU Club Questionnaire For Strategy Development
EBU's survey of clubs: a blank copy of the form all clubs were asked to complete. The EBU and county associations have used the responses to calculate P2P costs. Following receipts of these, the EBU decided to unify the P2P charge without differentiation to Master-Point awards, the final strategy document (top) resulted.
Summary of club data
The information the SCBA has been using culled from the EBU questionnaire (above). It includes number of members and estimated yearly activity.
Summary of club responses to EBU questionnaire
A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet from the EBU with the raw information sent back to the association - it should be read with reference to the questionnaire (only questions numbers are used). [Details of club officers have been removed.]
EBU estimation of Suffolk P2P
A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet from the EBU. As Suffolk collects clubs subscriptions directly (in common with many others) this neglects an important part of our budget and the figures are inaccurate. Nevertheless, it examples both the method and the detail upon which the EBU is working.