Club Hands

The LCBA policy now is twofold: we will do whatever we can to suport our clubs and we must hold the EBU board to their promises. Assuming that P2P proceeds, our financial plans are in place: we would no longer charge our members an annual subscription, instead the primary funding of the LCBA would be by an addition to the P2P fee. The combined P2P fee in Leicestershire in April 2010 would be either 37p or 38p. Much more detail about the likely membership scenarios that will affect the LCBA, the Clubs and individuals are set out in the working party report, a Word document which you can download by clicking this link. We hope that this information will answer many people’s detailed questions about “how bridge will work in 2010”.

The LCBA Committee has asked its P2P working party to remain in existence, albeit in mothballs just now. It can be activated at any time if P2P developments require the LCBA to take action. In October 2009 a three-quarters majority of shareholder votes will be required to approve the changes to the EBU bye laws and articles of association necessary for the scheme to come into operation on April 1st 2010. Peter Stocken has written "we will conscientiously review the EBU’s operations, systems, processes and structures to ensure that it is ready to meet, in particular, the challenges of universal membership and, in general, to achieve the very best for Duplicate Bridge in England." That must be done or else the shareholders will not approve the scheme.

• smaller clubs might not sustain the workload required to participate in the P2P system
• it was not economic for some clubs to participate in P2P
• clubs were not convinced about the benefits they derived from affiliating to the EBU
• if membership declined significantly then the P2P charge would increase
• the EBU might fail to deliver the software systems required for P2P
• that the budget is prudent and includes the employment of any support staff that will be required to help clubs implement P2P. It will be monitored at every turn.
• that the IT process will be rigorously examined every step of the way and volunteer clubs will be asked to test the process before going live in April 2010.
• that the people whom it is intended to make up the Project Board and the “Pay to Play” implementation team do have the appropriate IT and business skills to make this work and the ability to call on others for specialist input as and when required.