Official website of the Suffolk Contract Bridge Association
has acted as contact on the Suffolk committee for questions and matters pertaining to UM and P2P. These are some of the queries that have arisen in correspondence and conversation. If you have a question not answered here – or comments on one that has – please get in touch (the name above is a link to email)
The straight answer is no.
The county association exists to form a bridge between club and national bridge. The county benefits from the national body's guidance, direction and training etc. for its officers and directors. It would be unfair if those clubs whose members were not contributing to the national body were to receive those advantages.
The SCBA respects the rights of clubs and their members to decide how best to run their affairs. However the county's position is that it is firmly committed to making Universal Membership a success in England and believes that only by staying within organised bridge can we hope to see the game from which we all take much enjoyment develop and prosper.
A club affiliated to the EBU and SCBA after April 2010 will have to raise its table money to balance its accounts.
Broadly speaking, that increase will be either 20p or 33p.
If the club currently issues Master-Points then the increase will be 20p as these are now free. For a club not presently paying for MPs, the increase will be 33p.
Players who were members of the EBU will no longer pay an annual subscription and the per-session fees above will replace the income for the EBU and the SCBA. Of the 33 pence, 29p goes to the EBU, 4p to Suffolk. In the last year of subscription 2009-10, the annual payment was £23.00, of which £18.00 was to the EBU, £5.00 to the SCBA.
As a separate matter, the annual club subscription paid to the EBU is rising, from £20.50, to £30.00.
You can also read in slightly more depth how the county raises funds now and how this will change.
There is no saving for the club but there is no requirement to issue them.
As part of the consultative process the EBU offered two tiers of affiliation but as a late change, this was abandoned following a questionnaire to all clubs. The majority opinion was that it was simpler to have a single P2P level.
Master-Points are recorded automatically and there is no extra work involved locally. However there is no on a club to issue Master-Points. In the scoring program there is an option to switch them off, for example, where a club might fear that the character of a duplicate session, perhaps one for relative beginners, may change if they issue master points (because of potential "master point hunters").
On the other hand, cost is no longer an issue when considering whether to issue master points, so for most clubs it makes sense to do so. Also clubs are not required to display or account for them but members may interrogate their own MP standing from the EBU – so they may be issued 'quietly'
This will be a challenge for the county after UM when there will be a large, initially inexperienced, induction of members.
There are several directions that might be developed. The county association has already started to position itself for the new club-members created by UM, for example in the change in format and distribution of Table Talk. The association has historically met with its member clubs and the next one will be very important. Certainly we might consider restricted competitions and events with a more social slant.
The association is keen to demonstrate that the benefits of UM need not all be intangible and offering new members that they are getting something relevant to them for their investment has a high priority.
Yes, but not by very much.
Suffolk has had 325 full members for the past two or three years from which the EBU raised £5850 in 2009-2010. The 19 affiliated clubs paid £389.50 in annual subscriptions. The EBU also raises money via Master-Points but not all clubs issue these and even those that do, exclude some sessions (for example, the 'afternoon duplicate').
However, if all sessions were liable for MPs the EBU would receive about £4485. This last figure uses an estimated 34500 player sessions multiplied by the cost of a MP certificate divided by 3 (only the top third of the field receives them). This is clearly an over-estimate but were it true the subscription and MP amount, £10724.50 would be slightly less than that which will be raised by P2P and club subscription, £10575 (the product of the number of sessions above [34500] and the £0.29 P2P levy to the EBU plus 19 x £30.00 annual subs in 2010).
Taking a more realistic estimate of the MP income, say three-quarters of the amount above (larger clubs who account for more player sessions tend to issue MPs), players in the county would be contributing an additional 10% to the EBU coffers. Obviously if the MP contribution is currently higher, this margin would fall.
These projections are for interest only and do not account for lost income due to changes within clubs or those clubs who might not affiliate after April 2010. Likewise relatively small payments are due in running leagues for team competition and there will be savings for the county
No. Though the EBU will require a minimum participation to receive copies of English Bridge and the diary (currently expected to be about one P2P session a month), Suffolk will make no such stipulation.
It is the intention of the SCBA to regard every member of an affiliated Suffolk club as a member of the SCBA. As such they can play in SCBA competitions, play for the county (if Suffolk is their county of allegiance) and receive Table Talk and all communications, whether by post or email.
In the main, no. With exceptions only really for beginners, county organised bridge will be for EBU members only.
Suffolk has had a low subscription base relative to our (affiliated) club membership and over the years we have reflected this with a lenient interpretation of eligibility for county competitions. After Universal Membership, there will be no need to do this because all of our club members will be county members.
That is not to say that we won't be trying to attract non-players, students and school children, social players etc. The county runs events for those in classes – the Novices and Newcomers – and we are looking to expand those. But for regular bridge, like the Winter League or the Championship Pairs, you only have to be a member of an affiliated club. If you are not - then join one!
There will also be some closed competitions, in which only members giving Suffolk their prime allegiance can play. These are those which qualify high-finishers to national competitions as representatives of Suffolk, for example, the county teams and pairs championships. But for the majority of events, if you are a member of the EBU, for example at a neighbouring county, you are welcome at Suffolk events.
Basically, if a club disaffiliates it will not be able to hold simultaneous pairs run by the EBU or the SCBA ('Suffolk Simultaneous' held in November).
It will be able to run other sims such as charity events organised by ECats. After UM Clubs will then deal with ECats as now.
Shortly after this page was published on 10-Nov-2009, the EBU publicly defined its policy on simultaneous pairs. Originally, it was thought that Bridge Great Britain ('BGB' who hold spring and autumn events) would be unavailable to non-affilliated clubs but:
EBU, [World Bridge Federation] and [European Bridge League] Simultaneous Pairs will only be open to affiliated clubs.
BGB Simultaneous Pairs events will attract a surcharge of £1 per player for all BGB sessions played in unaffiliated clubs. As for the Children In Need simultaneous, Overall Master Points will only be awarded by ECATS to EBU members in unaffiliated clubs if the results are uploaded electronically to ECatsBridge with the EBU number of such members included in the file in the correct format. These will subsequently be uploaded to the EBU by ECatsBridge once the overall results are known and the Master Points will be credited accordingly.
All other licensed simultaneous events are being reviewed and a policy will be announced in early 2010.
This text was quoted from the EBU news pages.
You might be surprised to discover there are many like you. After April 2010 you will still be able to join the EBU by subscription but only as a direct member and that does not carry any sense of association with a county.
However, if you would like to be attached to Suffolk we would be very happy to have you. The SCBA has decided to 'adopt' direct members at no extra charge. If you contact the membership secretary after April 2010 with your EBU membership number, we'll take you on as a member.
We have had a scheme of Associate Membership since the SCBA came into being for which a small subscription was made. After April 2010 we will adopt without cost any EBU member who has a connection with the county, whether by being a member of a Suffolk club or a purely historical or personal one.
We are going to cease Associate Membership for direct and members of another county. We recognise that players 'just over the border' will be members of Suffolk clubs and, effectively, pay into Suffolk and to charge them again (when full members pay nothing more) would be unfair. Likewise, direct members will pay a relatively high price for their EBU subscription (though not high compared to now) and again, to charge them again for supporting bridge and maintaining a local connection seemed disproportionate.
We will be happy to treat your beginners as county members, they will be eligible for county events and we will keep them informed of everything that goes on in the county. We will ensure your classes receive copies of Table Talk for distribution.
However, we will need to know about them somehow. We are happy to take class teachers as a contact but, increasingly, we will seek to communicate by email to reduce our costs and we would like you to pass on those. Members of Bridge for All will be known to us as will those students who become full members of your club.
Classes and tutored sessions, for example where a teacher prepares hands or issues a commentary, are not liable for P2P payments. Suffolk does not regard Bridge Schools as 'clubs' as such and does not charge a club subscription. However, where students pay club membership and become full members of the club, the SCBA will include them in the club numbers for calculation of that club's annual subscription (currently 50p per member, per year).
The EBU will not be cancelling all Direct Debits from its side, partly because some members may wish to become direct members of the EBU if their local club is not affiliated. The EBU will simply leave the mandates dormant and not action them unless requested.
Individual members are, of course, free to cancel their direct debit mandate through their bank if they wish, but it won't be necessary.
The Direct Debit site has a question and answer which addresses the concept of dormancy: (http://www.thesmartwaytopay.co.uk/did-you-know.asp):
Q: What is a dormancy period?
A: All banks hold details of Direct Debit Instructions on file for a minimum period of 13 months from lodgement of the Direct Debit Instruction, in the event of no collections, or from the date of the last payment.
Q: Why has a dormancy period been introduced?
A: The dormancy period rule was introduced as a safeguard to the Direct Debit Scheme to protect payers from Direct Debit Instructions being live on their account indefinitely. So if you should forget to cancel a Direct Debit it will be removed from the banks' system after the dormancy period has lapsed.
Q: What happens to a Direct Debit Instruction at the end of a dormancy period?
A: After the dormancy period has passed, the bank will remove details of the Instruction from their system. Before claiming further Direct Debit payments the organisation must obtain a new Direct Debit Instruction or your authority to continue collecting. If this is not done your Direct Debit payment may be returned by your bank.
So if you don't do anything, the instruction should disappear on 1-May-2010, 13 months after the last payment, on 1-Apr-2009.
The most secure accounting is to work out the cost of P2P for a year, add the (modest) increase in annual club subscription but because clubs no longer pay for Master-Points, subtract the annual M-P bill. Then divide by the number of members.
The amounts are: £1.32 per table (4 x £0.33) multipled by the number of tables per year, plus £9.50 (the increase in EBU annual club subscription), minus the club's Master-Point bill (or zero if it doesn't issue them). All divided by the number of members.
To arrive at simple figure, one might use:
number-of-tables-per-year x 4 x P2P-amount / number-of-members
Where P2P-amount is either 20p or 33p depending on whether MPs are currently issued or not and the answer is in pence.
Updated 11-Mar-2010 Originally we believed (after checking) that Suffolk events would increment the 'P2P Count' and so help infrequent players towards the magic number of 12 per year, the EBU requirement to receive diary and magazine.
But that has been authoritatively contradicted; on seeing this page Barry Capal wrote:
I am afraid that County events do not count towards the P2P quota for the magazine. The only events that qualify are club events (of course) and EBU Congress events.
The nature of Direct Membership is changing. Until now it has been for players with no county association, for example those who do not have a local connection yet play national events. To cope with dormant and low-frequency players who still wish to support bridge, those taking up direct membership after April 2010 will default to their current county association.
Barry Capal has clarified this in correspondence:
…there will be a new breed of DM who does not play in clubs but DOES play in leagues and/or EBU events. This group of people need to belong to the EBU but do not necessarily need to belong to a County. That is why the decision was taken to reduce the Direct Membership subscription from the current £28 to £23 – some people will want to pay their £4 or £5 to their County of allegiance. In addition, should any DM decide to play in a club they would still be paying their relative P2P amount when they play at that club.
Note that Suffolk will not have an individual subscription after April 2010. Moreover it is waiving the associate membership (see Q10), consequently new Direct Members may be adopted by Suffolk at no cost other than the membership of the EBU at £23.
Suffolk will consider all club members as county members immediately after April 1st 2010.
This has immediate repercussions for the County Pairs final: in the normal course of events, only subscription members would be eligible on 25-Apr-2010 despite the more lenient qualification for the heats and semis. However this year, any club member will be eligible as, by that time, they will be a county member too.
There is quite a lot of detail on the website. Much of it concerns financial matters, how clubs and the county relate to each other after UM. For player guides, the best pages to read are:
See the UM homepage for links to all the material.
Any committee member will help you with questions on UM but we have a dedicated working party to answer and pursue problems.
Other than the pages on the debate in June 2008, all the others are kept up to date on matters of both advice and fact and the page history panel reflects that.
The EBU has set up a central page for UM and P2P matters at http://www.ebu.co.uk/pay2play. All current documents describing the process together with example submissions are listed, as are the plans the EBU has for revitalising bridge in England.
Specific links:
The EBU has set up a club committee ( is our regional representative) and they have a webpage detailing their composition and explaining what they do, their email address is cc@ebu.co.uk.