Minutes of Committee Meeting on Thursday 12^th January 2006

PRESENT: N Thomson, President, in the chair, R Harkness, J Yarham, K Macdonald,
E Adamson, M Greensill, M Pumphrey, M Anderson, P Muir, S Pirmohamed, G Henderson and D Kearney.

APOLOGIES: J Steen, M Burn.

MINUTES of the previous meeting were approved.

MATTERS ARISING: The date of the Christmas part had been changed from the 23rd to the 16th. Rosie Harkness had organised the refreshment although she had missed her son’s engagement party in order to do so.

TREASURER: Bank of Scotland - £2327.20. Standard Life Bank - 234.64.
We have no outstanding bills, but we still have to paint the back of the building and the gate for Glass & Glazing. This will probably cost a little over £300.
Scottish Water repaid us £1200, which we had paid them for putting in a new connection and a water meter, since the work was not carried out.
The full cost of the building work has been paid.
We are paying £523.50 per quarter by direct debit for electricity. This is based on the amount we used before the rebuilding and is likely to come down.
The building has been re-evaluated for rating purposes, although we get 100% rebate. It’s notional value is now £6250. Before rebuilding it was £4000.
We do pay water rates - just now £52 per month. It is likely that we would pay less if it was metered.

HOUSE: Margaret has now removed most of the club’s possession from her loft and found storage for them in the club. She gave some old Christmas decorations to a charity shop.
She is considering finding the best way of fixing the corners of the table covers to stop them moving about.
There is a great deal of concern about the fact that members often leave the kitchen in a mess when they leave the club - dishwasher not switched on, dirty cups lying about, milk out of the fridge, spills not wiped up. The cleaner comes in only on Tuesday and Thursday, so we need members to help with this. It was agreed that all committee members should help with this whenever they are playing.

TOURNAMENTS: The new match pointed tournament started last week and seems to be going well. We are running out of the large score sheets used on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and propose to use the small cards instead in the meantime as they are cheaper.

PRESS: No response to our approach to the Courier.

NEWSLETTER: A new one is in preparation and should be out by the end of the month or beginning of February.

REFRESHMENTS: There had been a request to buy Gold Blend instead of the present coffee.

SOCIAL: The Christmas party had been very successful and had not cost the club a penny because members had supplied everything. We even made a profit of £93 on the raffle.
Some people had difficulty with the quiz, especially those who are deaf.
There was some discussion of possible changes for next year - e.g. a written quiz and an ’army whist drive movement’ for the bridge.

MASTER POINTS: Fine.

SBU: Sham reported that two prominent players on the national scene, David Frew and Ken Baxter, had died recently.
There had been a difficulty in selecting the Scottish Ladies’ Team because of a tied result and a disputed board

BRASS PLATE: It had tarnished far too quickly and had also been scratched. Neil was in touch with the suppliers.

HEATING: Some people and some areas of the room were still too hot and others too cold. It was decided to put the heating on at 5 o’clock instead of 6 to give the room a better chance to heat up before we come in.

BEGINNERS’ CLASSES: To start up again on 19th January.

TELEPHONES: There was some discussion about the use of mobiles in the club and it was agreed that members were very considerate in keeping them on silent mode except when really necessary, and leaving the room if they had to take a call.
There was also further discussion about the desire of many members for a payphone. Ken agreed to discuss this with BT to get a clear idea of the exact cost involved.

AOCB: None.

NEXT MEETING: 6th April.