NZ Bridge - Board Vacancy

The following message has been received from Alan Morris (Chairperson of NZ Bridge):

Following the recently announced resignation of Anna Kalma from the Board of New Zealand Bridge we are keen to bring a fresh face or faces to the table.

We are fortunate to have a broad range of skills ranging from governance, finance, commercial management, communication and research, rules, and regulations.

Bridge in this country, like elsewhere around the world, is at a watershed moment.

The game has been around for a longtime and over that period we have seen the demographic age. Average age anecdotally is close to 80.

We are now experiencing players exiting for a variety reasons. Whilst Clubs are doing a wonderful job getting people into lessons our retention rate is sub-optimum.

We can go with the flow or be progressive and explore new opportunities.

Those opportunities include being recognised as a sport and all the associated benefits, raising our profile and engagement with youth, broadening our engagement and connecting with the large number who play social bridge.

Also recognising the quarter acre dream is a dream of the past. We are seeing living and work life changing and we need to adapt.

 We are keen to consider people who will bring fresh ideas. People who have skills and experience in the fields of sponsorship, fundraising, sports management, lobbying.

People who are willing to work within a close-knit team and who will support collective decision making.

Whilst we are keen explore new ideas and creative thinking, we are keen to continue to support a team ethos.

If this is, you and you are keen to give something back to the game I am keen to hear from you.

Our constitution allows us to second people to the board.

My contact details are set out below or I can be contacted on allan.morris@nzbridge.co.nz

 

  

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Inter-Village Competition 5th March

Yesterday saw the Club host a very successful "Inter-Village Bridge" event. There were 9 tables, and all involved clearly had a good afternoon.  

17 Waikanae members participated on behalf of Parkwood, who came fourth overall.  Naciye Bagci and Lois Anderson took the honours on behalf of Charles Fleming with Midlands second and Seven Oaks third. 

Special thanks go to Anne Ricketts and Margaret Gordon for their part in making the event (to quote Ann Verboeket) "a resounding success".

Assistant Secretary

I'm delighted to be able to announce that Nicky Bradley has agreed to take up the newly-established position of Assistant Club Secretary.

In this capacity, Nicky will initially have the following responsibilities:

• Deputising for the Club Secretary as required
• Acting as secondary contact person (subject to Committee approval)
• Acting as Registrar (looking after both the membership and interest registers required by the Act and our Constitution)
• Managing our membership records
• Privacy Officer
• Coordinating production of the Programme Book

Additional functions may be added over time by agreement with the Secretary (and where appropriate, the Committee).

Message Board

I've added a link in the sidebar on the right to a new "Message Board".  To start the ball rolling, it contains a message I received from Ann Hancock earlier today.

Internet Update

  Web Working Group

The working group I mentioned in my "Updating the Website" post on 25 February has now had its first meeting.  I attended as the Committee's representative.

The group (consisting of Judi Vernau, Sally Weatherley and Shelley Ross) will be taking on three broad strands of work:

• Updating and modernising the Club website to serve as the "base" source of information for our members, the wider bridge community and the general public
• Developing the "Hugh's News" blog as the primary source of "transient" information of interest to our members
• Examining the development of a (currently dormant) Facebook page as an "outwards facing" presence where we can advertise and publicise the club in a social media setting

Judi Vernau has kindly agreed to act as convenor for the group, which will be meeting again in around a month.  I'll update you on progress as it's made.

Webmaster

Shelley Ross stands down today as the club's webmaster after four years in the role.  I would like sincerely to thank her for her expertise and hard work in keeping the site current and relevant during that period and, in particular, to acknowledge with appreciation her willingness to remain involved with the working group and contribute to its ongoing work.

I am delighted that Sally Weatherley has agreed to take over the role of webmaster.  Sally will take over following her overseas travels in April.  In the meantime Judi Vernau has kindly agreed to hold the fort.

Sites of Interest

There are a number of links to external web sites in the right sidebar under the heading "Useful Links". 

These include:

• NZ Bridge Home and News (the latter includes a series of articles entitled "Daily Bridge in New Zealand")
• Wellington Regional Bridge
• Bridge Base Online
• a link to the New Zealand-wide results page on the main Compass site.

A couple of these links are experimental on my part - I'll update them if they don't work correctly.