The Kairangi Bridge Club (Inc) News – May 2016

News from the President

Special General Meeting (SGM)

Around 40 members attended the SGM held on Thursday 5 May to make a final decision on our future accommodation. Members voted unanimously to renovate our current building.

The Committee was delighted with the number of members who attended the SGM. Renovating the building will require a whole of club effort and we will all need to play our part in various ways. So it was great to see such strong support for the Committee’s resolution.

The Building Renovations Sub-Committee led by Brian McGlinchy has already started work on the project. We have contracted Silvester Clark to finalise the engineering designs, a fire engineer has been engaged to assess the building’s compliance with current regulations and we are getting quotes from electricians to upgrade the wiring.

We aim to get a building consent from the Wellington City Council by 23 July and to submit a funding proposal to the Lotteries Grants Board by the 31 August. The Funding Sub-Committee led by Molli-Gibbs Harris is also working on other ways of raising funds. This includes a preliminary discussion with our bank about a possible loan facility.

1 May Committee Meeting

At the most recent Committee meeting held on 1 May, we discussed whether or not we should post Committee minutes on our web-site. We decided for a number of reasons not to do so. However, I will provide a brief summary of Committee meetings in newsletters and a copy of the confirmed Minutes will continue to be posted on the notice board.

The most recent meeting of the Committee largely focused on routine administrative matters and receiving progress reports from our various sub-committees – important but not very exciting.

Membership

Regarding membership, we currently have 183 financial members. This is a bit less than the around 220 members we had at the end of last year. While we always have some drop off from the end of year peak, this year we had a large number of resignations because people moved out of Wellington.

The 30 plus people currently in our learner classes will boost our numbers when they join and start playing. Retaining as many of these people as possible is the key to increasing our membership. We are already known as a Club that is warm and welcoming, but I am sure we can do even more to encourage new members to stay with us. We all understand how difficult the transition from learner to player is and the importance of being as supportive as possible when new members begin their ‘bridge journey.’ (continued in next column)

News from the President (continued)

The Playing Bridge Sub-Committee led by Lorraine Sutich is also considering further ways to ease this transition.

This also applies when members are promoted to Monday nights. Speaking from recent experience, the transition from Tuesday to Monday is almost as scary as moving from learner to player!

Peter

Fundraising and Entertainment Memberships

The Club will be developing a strategy for fundraising so that we can show the Lotteries Commission and Charitable Trusts that the Committee has your tangible support, financial and otherwise for our upcoming project.

We will need to be able to show that our members are keen to see the club rooms earthquake strengthened and brought up to a standard where we can be proud to host interclub and tournament events, our Members are financially supporting the project and our hall hire can earn us sufficient income to support ongoing repairs and maintenance.

In the meantime you can show the conviction that you have to improve our building as a venue for Kairangi Bridge Club by supporting the sale of the Entertainment Memberships.

Sales of Memberships have been steady and we really need Members to get in behind this by not only purchasing a Membership for themselves, at a cost of just $60, but also by encouraging family, friends, work colleagues, acquaintances, etc to purchase one.

Remember, the Memberships are available for most areas of New Zealand and Australia, so no matter where people live they can purchase one and the Club will earn $12 for their efforts. So copy this link and send it in an email to them and also post it to a website or Facebook or other social media websites you subscribe to.

You also have the opportunity to win a Fiji Holiday and Cruise by promoting the sales on behalf of your Club. See the last page of the Newsletter for more information about the holiday you could win.

Your Committee will let you know when we have a fundraising strategy in place.

New Members

This month we welcome two new Members. Anthony Grigg & Paul Williamson. Many of you will have already met them as they have been playing regularly on a Tuesday evening and occasionally on a Monday.

We hope Anthony & Paul enjoy playing at Kairangi and that you will all contribute to their enjoyment of Bridge at our Club.

Is the Dealing Machine Biased?

Most Members will be aware the Club uses a Computer program to determine all the hands for each Session and a machine sorts the cards and places them in the Boards.

Sometimes it appears that the Computer is biased as on occasions the hands seem to favour the North/South partnerships whilst on others the East/West partnerships appear to get the better hands.

Some members have made claims that this is the case, so the article below, written by Brian McGlinchy outlines what he did, successfully we believe, to disprove the theory that the dealing machine is biased. Read on for Brian’s analysis.

Thirty deals of thirty boards were created and the high card points (HCP) for each deal recorded. See the example below of what is recorded at the foot of the 2

nd page of the hand records

which are available at the end of each playing session.

The HCP was added for each player direction for all thirty deals and the average for each was calculated.

From a mathematical point of view one would expect these averages to be very close to 10 unless there was a bias in the dealing programme. The graph below shows the actual result, which disproves the claim of bias.

For the record the highest value was 12.30 and lowest was 8.40. Whilst it is technically possible to set the dealing programme to have a bias, so that one hand in each deal has more than the average HCP (eg 12 or even 23), the Club never does this.

If you are interested in doing a more sophisticated analysis, please contact Brian, who is happy to provide you with the data.

Kairangi Pairs Tournament

The Club held another successful Tournament on Sunday 17th

April, with two simultaneous events, one for Intermediate players and the other for Juniors & Novices.

Of the 74 participants, 24 were Members at Kairangi, so the Committee thanks you for your support of the Club’s event.

Our thanks go to Tony Sutich who was Director on the day and to all those who helped with the supply and preparation of food, help in the kitchen and in other ways.

Without your generous gift of time and effort the Tournament would not have been successful.

We are also grateful to our many generous sponsors who help make the Tournament financially successful. Please support them and when you do tell them that you are a Member at Kairangi and are aware of their support of your Club.

The list of Sponsors, as well as the prize winners, can be found on the Tournament page of our website.

Our next ‘home’ Tournament will be the Multi-Grade Teams event which will be held on Sunday 10 July.

Your Committee would like to see an even greater participation from our Members, especially our Junior/Novice Members.

Perhaps the Intermediate and Open Grade Members could take the initiative by inviting Junior/Novice Members to form part of their Team.

2016 Lessons

Lorraine reports that the lessons are progressing well with between 28 and 34 enthusiastic new players at each session.

The formal part of the lessons will end this month and all the new knowledge will be put into practice with eight weeks of play in the small group.

The beginners are well supported each week by at least three helpers. Thanks to Michel Norrish, Rosa Mishkin, Desley Wilson, Simon Depree and Carol O’Sullivan.

Work commitments, family events and surgery have disrupted the attendance of some but a catch-up session for those people is planned for Sunday 29 May.

The established members have the opportunity to meet and welcome beginners into the club at the Social Night on 28 July.

It is perhaps timely to for all of us to read “Richard’s Thoughts” on how we can each play our part in encouraging & retaining our beginners. (See below to find out who Richard is)

Your Newsletter & Website

If you would like to see something published in the newsletter or on our website, please email David Cossar.

Email Issues

We are having issues with our email, which has been explained in email sent with this Newsletter. Please reply to the Office Manager if you received just one email with this Newsletter.

Tablets

The article that follows covers a number of issues relating to the Tablets we use for recording the Bridge Contracts and results.

New Tablets

We recently purchased 10 Tablets, which are now operational, and this brings the total the Club owns to 25.

Members may have noticed that in some areas of the new Tablets, notably the Contract and Result Screens, the suits do not display any colour.

We are working with Samsung and the supplier of the Bridge Tab App in an effort to rectify this although we are not hopeful of an early resolution.

As we have sufficient of the original Tablets for most Sessions (unless some are being recharged), we suggest that the new Tablets only be used when there is insufficient of the older ones available.

You can identify the new Tablets by reading the label affixed to the rear of them showing the ‘Device Name.’ You will also see the Device name when you initially switch the Tablets on.

The Tablets beginning with ‘Device Name C’ are the latest purchases, (A & B being the earlier models) so put those labelled ‘C’ aside unless you need to use them.

Checking Results

After each Board it is possible to check each of your results and compare them against others who played the same Board earlier in the Session. To do this, pass the Tablet anti clockwise (E to N to W to S) preferably by sliding it around the Table.

If your Table is struggling to keep to time and/or the Director has called the next move the results are not to be checked as this can delay proceedings to such an extent that the evening finishes later than most of us want.

What to do with Tablets at end of Bridge Session

At the end of Bridge:

enter any unplayed hands as ‘Not Played’ so that Bridge Tab returns to ‘Start’ screen.

check battery level to see if there is more than 30% charge remaining (alternatively the green battery displays more than one bar)

close the Bridge Tab session. A warning will appear ‘Do you want to quit.’ Click “Yes’

Next hold on/off switch onside of Tablet and click on ‘Power Off.’

If the battery level is below 30%, (or the Tablet only displays one green bar), please put the Tablet aside for recharging. The rechargers are in the downstairs playing room.

The Tablets that have sufficient charge are to be placed plastic container near the Director’s desk. Place the Tablets on their side, with the switches facing upwards, to prevent them being switched on accidentally.

If you are not sure how to do any of this, please ask someone to show you.

Website Forum

A Forum was recently added to our website. There are three categories to which Members can post questions relating to either: Bidding, Playing of Cards or Recently Played Hands. There is also a category for posting comments or suggestions for your Committee.

These will be monitored regularly and responses posted by an appropriate Club Member.

In addition there is a ‘Blog’ section where you may post anything you wish in relation to Bridge.

Please make use of this new feature. All we ask is that you show respect to others when you post to either one of the Forum categories or to the Blog section.

Other Housekeeping

Generally housekeeping at the end of the Bridge Sessions is now very good, with tables being left tidy and rubbish bins emptied.

On Monday or Thursday evenings all the stationery can be left on the tables for the following session.

The Committee would be grateful if Members would assist the Director by taking responsibility at the end of each Session with:

placing all the stationery in the cabinet

stacking the Table Number cards in numerical order in the wooden box

putting pens in the plastic container, etc.

preparing cards for the Dealers by: o stripping cards from the boards and placing them in

wooden containers (one set of cards in each slot) o stacking Boards in plastic container in numerical

order with higher numbers at bottom o taking cards and boards to door of downstairs

playing room

This will allow the Director to concentrate on getting the results printed for the noticeboard and posted on the web.

NZ Bridge Website

The New Zealand Bridge website was recently modified with significant improvements from the earlier version and is well worth looking at on a regular basis.

See the informative articles under ‘Latest News.’

The regular articles posted mostly under the heading ‘Play and Defence for Improving Players’ by Richard Solomon who is Bridge Development Officer for NZ Bridge, are especially worth reading.

The most recent articles by Richard under this heading can be accessed directly by clicking on the links in the dates below:

27 April

4 May

11 May

18 May

For Richard’s future articles and other ‘News Items’ we suggest you regularly visit the New Zealand Bridge website. There is a link to their website on our website’s home page.

You can help Kairangi Bridge Club maximise the amount we raise and also give yourself the chance to WIN 4 nights in Fiji with a Blue Lagoon Cruise, plus a $1000 Virgin Australia flight voucher for 2 adults. Bula!

Simply send examples of anything you do to promote the Entertainment™ Memberships during May and June via social media posts, flyers, newsletter articles, emails, whatever! The more frequently that you promote the fundraiser, the more entries you’ll have in the draw.

Please email your entries to winfiji@entertainmentbook.co.nz

PS - Here are a few tips to ensure your promotional activity is as effective as it can be:

Make sure to tell the story of what you are fundraising for, the more specific the better.

Share stories of how you’ve used your Entertainment™ Membership and how much you love it.

Use photos and videos, the more creative the better.

If you want help with any ideas or artwork, speak to Molli.

And always remember to include the link to our Online Order Page so customers can quickly and easily place an order.

The link you require is https://www.entertainmentbook.co.nz/orderbooks/108q348 - copy this to your entry.