Committee and roles

This discussion of the committee, its role and the role of office bearers is based on a club that is an incorporated association. The general rinciples apply to unincorporated associations and to a company limited by guarantee.

The committee and its role

The composition of the committee and its functions will be specified in the club’s constitution. In general, a committee is charged with the power to manage the operation of the association in the interests of members. Where professional staff are hired to perform any administrative tasks the committee retains responsibility for any tasks delegated to staff.

Organisation of work

The old adage that many hands make light work is particularly true of bridge clubs. The work is made even lighter if these many hands are well organised. (You can lift a heavy box if you have a person on each corner, you can’t if you have four people trying to lift it on one edge only).

The core of organising the work are the three essential roles of President or Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. Good Presidents are good listeners and good delegators. Good Secretaries ensure that everyone is well informed; this covers ensuring incoming correspondence is sent to the right person to take action, ensuring participants are informed on what is to be discussed and decided at meetings, and ensuring decisions taken at meetings are recorded and actioned. Good Treasurers ensure that the financial position of the organisation is known at all times and that the drivers of costs and revenues are well known.

Bridge Clubs typically have other specific roles, notably a Masterpoint Secretary, a Recorder and a Chief Director.

The work of individuals can, if desired, be supported by sub-committees. These sub-committees can and should be staffed by co-opting club members from outside the main Committee. Keeping in mind the fact that committee people are volunteers and have a private and a professional life outside the Club, it is better to spread the workload. It also has the effect of grooming club members for future Committee positions, thus avoiding the race every year before the AGM to fill positions from too small a pool of volunteers. However, poorly performing sub-committees can wind up being a hinerance rather than a help to the sub-committee chair.

Sub-committees should be chaired by a Committee member, which makes for easy reporting and which ensures that the Committee policy is followed. Possible sub-committees include:

  • Finance
  • Tournament (which may have two further sub-committees: Rules & Ethics and Appeals)
  • House (looking after premises)
  • Teaching / Lessons
  • Social / Entertainment

The general principle is that most of the actual work is delegated to the sub-committees and that the agenda for the Committee meeting is a list of the sub-committees reports (apart from the procedural requirements of minutes approval) plus the Chairman’s report. Should this principle be adopted, three important consequences will ensue:

  1. The incoming correspondence must be copied and distributed for action by the Secretary to the relevant sub-committees WITHIN 48 HOURS of receiving it;
  2. The main Committee meeting will be short.
  3. The outgoing correspondence, generated by the sub-committees, must be copied to the Secretary who will keep the main correspondence file for the Club.

This system cannot work if the Club does not practice proper delegation, i.e. delegation of both authority and responsibility to the sub-committees chairpersons. For instance, your Club may want to give all the sub-committees authority to spend up to $xxx without reference to the main Committee, or authority to deal on behalf of the Club with administrations and outsiders in their areas of responsibility.

The core to effective delegation is documentation of specific roles and responsiblities.

Conduct of meetings

Meetings are the bane of many people’s existence. They can be so bad in business settings that people refer to “Death by Meetings”. In an excellent little instructional novel of that name Patrick Lencioni outlines that meetings are meant to have some tension because they are making decisions about things on which people can disagree. He outlines that the role of the Chair is like that of the role of a director of a movie, to manage that tension to a successful outcome.

A good guide to the health of your meetings is their frequency. It is sometimes assumed that committees meeting less frequently is a sign of a committee that is working well, while in reality it is more often a sign that everyone just wants to avoid the meeting. The Committee should meet as frequently as there are material changes, which for a Bridge club is probably monthly.

In order to have smooth, productive meetings, observe the following rules (or something similar):

  • Before preparing the meeting agenda, the Secretary should check with all members whether they have some matter they want to add to the agenda
  • The agenda for the meeting and minutes of last meeting to be distributed to all  members one week in advance; this will serve as a notice of the meeting
  •  Reports from the sub-committees to be included in the meeting papers and distributed together with the agenda

This should ensure that everybody arrives at the meeting with a good idea of the points that will be discussed and no time will be lost briefing members.

Once assembled meeting procedure is also important. It isn’t necessary to write standing orders but the following can act as a guide.

  1. It should always be clear to the meeting what the current matter before the meeting is. This can be facilitated by including proposed resolutions in the agenda paper. For example, don’t just write the item as “Minutes of the last meeting”, write it as “Adoption of the Minutes.” It is not usually necessary to restrict speakers to one in favour and one opposed, but the Chair can use this device to restrict discussion.
  2. Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessary for formal resolutions to have a mover and a seconder. All that is required is that the Chair clearly states the resolution that the Committee is being asked to vote on. Where the Chair believes there is strong support for the resolution this can be put by saying, “The resolution before us is X, is there anybody opposed to that resolution. If not, I declare the motion carried”. Where there is dispute it is important to call for those in favour to say Aye, those against No and then the Chair should state the outcome as “I believe the Ayes (or Nos) have it” and then pause so that anyone who wants a show of hands can ask for it, and then conclude with “I declre the motion carried (or lost).” Clear demarkation of when decisions are made is useful for the Committee and the Secretary recording Minutes.
  3. The standard agenda for a meeting should be:
    Attendence and Apologies
    Conflist of Interest
    Minutes and Business Arising from the Minutes
    Correspondence
    Treasurer’s Report
    Items requiring action
    Items requiring noting
    Next meeting
  4. Anything in the Business Arising from the Minutes that is substantive should be separately included later in the agenda. If the meeting spends any more than five minutes on business arising you have a problem.

Finally the third important part of meetings is the recording of the Minutes. Minutes should not be a record of discussion. They are purely a record of the decisions actually made by the Committee.

Reporting to members

The Commitee is merely charged with administering the club, the club itself is its members.

Often members express a disregard for the activities of the Committee, that is to their detriment. It is the Committee’s responsibility to ensure members are kept well informed of the operation of the Committee.

Communicating with members is a two-way process as well. A suggestion box is one way of capturing input from members.

Bridge provides a unique opportunity for good communication flow with announcements at the start of sessions and informal catch-ups at tee breaks or at the end of a round. Anything substantial also needs to be communicated to all members via email. Pianola and MyABF as membership platforms both provide good email capabilities.

A club newsletter also works well to communicate to club members on substantial matters but also to add to the social connection within the club. Similarly keeping the club website or facebook page up to date is esential. (If your club does not have a Facebook presence see our guide on establishing a Facebook page.)

Insurance

Insurance is a subject clubs often don’t think about and thankfully they largely don’t need to.

The ABF maintains insurance policies that cover all affiliated clubs for management liability insurance, public liability insurance and voluntary worer insurance. Clubs should also consider whether they should take out contents insurance to cover equipment stored at club premises. This is available from the ABF’s insurance brokers TBIB.

TBIB also provides special ABF Travel Inurance.

The role of office bearers

Every committee will have a president, a secretary and a treasurer. A bridge club is also required to have a Masterpoints Secretary and should have a person designated as the “recorder”. The core roles of each are detailed below.

President/Chair

Broadly, the primary responsibilities of the Chair are to preside over committee and general meetings. Between meetings their job is to  and ensure that the club is operating efficiently and effectively.

It falls to the Chair to

  •  Manage the committee recruitment and induction processes
  • Communicate, both internally and externally, the culture and philosophy of the club
  • Moderate  meetings to ensure that they are constructive, efficient and respectful
  • Promote the development of a positive committee board culture
  • Maintain a good working relationship with any employed staff (eg a club manager, and
  • Review the performance of the committee and its members
Secretary

The short description of the position is that the Club Secretary is in charge of the records of the club, and handles all correspondence. In effect, it means that the Secretary is the hub of the Club.

The three core functions are:

  • Prepare all material required (including but not limited to Minutes of the previous meeting, Agendas, Notice of Motions, Summary of correspondence, etc) for the Committee and General Meetings including Motions passed by the Committee and requiring member ratification;
  • Recording and maintaining in an appropriate hard cover register all Minutes of the Committee and  General Meetings of the Club;
  • Manage the club’s correspondence including:
    • receive and distribute correspondence to the relevant person or Sub-Committee
    • acknowledge receipt of all important letters
    • write all letters, and answer correspondence on behalf of club (except for the letters written by sub-committees of which the Secretary is given a copy).

The Secretary is likely to be the busiest member of the Management Committee. It is expected that a minimum of six hours per month is required to carry out this role, not including time in meetings. A notebook for keeping a record of enquiries whilst playing club events is advantageous. Clubs should carefully consider whether there are parts of the Secretary’s job that could be conducted by another member, one example is dealing with the local council if you occupy a community facility.

Treasurer

As the title suggests the Treasurer is responsible for all aspects of the club;’s fnanaces. They do not need to be qualified, but they certainly should be numerate and able to use a spreadsheet. 

The duties include:

  • Managing the receipt of income and the payment of bills. The MyABF platform significantly simplifies the process of receiving payments for sessions and congresses. 
  • Manage the bank account and payments, including access to electronic banking.
  • Keep the books and prepare annual accounts. Online accounting platforms are becoming cheaper to use. The ABF and Bridge NSW both use Xero and we recommend it if the club is interested in making life much simpler for the Treasurer.
  • Organise an audit if required by the club (or legislation)
    The requirement for an audit of the accounts will often be set in the Constitution of the Club. If there is no such requirement, it is a matter for the Committee to decide whether an audit is necessary (most clubs fall below thresholds for legislative requirements, but audits may be required by others such as important creditors).
  • Prepare budgets and reports. Platforms such as Xero facilitate the ability to provide management accounting reports as well as financial reports. An example of the former is a breakdown of the income and expenses from a congress.
  • Consider tax implications. The Treasurer needs to determine if the club has tax liabilities, including income tax and GST. Payment of directors and for other services provided by members need to consider tax requirements. 

 

Masterpoints Secretary

Each club needs to appoint a Club Masterpoint Secretary. This person has the following responsibilities:

  • To ensure the correct masterpoint awards are made for all sessions conducted by the club.
  • To upload results to the ABF Masterpoint Centre and print relevant reports for your members.
  • To ensure that details the ABF Masterpoint Centre maintains about your club’s membership are kept up-to-date.

Bridge NSW has produced a handbook to help Club Masterpoint Secretaries in their duties. It explains how masterpoint awards are calculated for both pairs and teams events and includes many example calculations.
Procedures and responsibilities relating to the ABF Masterpoint Centre, such as uploading awards, downloading reports and maintaining your membership are also explained.

All new Club Masterpoint Secretaries should read the Bridge NSW Club Masterpoint Secretary’s Handbook. 

More details can be found on the Using Masterpoints page.

Recorder (or Ombudsman)

Bridge NSW recommends appointing a Recorder. They are responsible for recording any events which occur at the club, which are seen as not being in the best interest of the Club.
Members should report to the Recorder, perhaps after first consulting the Director, events in the following categories:

  • Suspicion of cheating or deliberate passing of illegal information;
  • Offensive behaviour;
  • The occurrence of psychic bids.

Periodically, the Committee may request to see the Recorder’s book, and may take action if an individual has repeatedly been reported.

Members should make their Reports in writing and placed in an envelope and the Club should provide a secure place for the reports to be deposited. The Club should develop rules for the treatment of these reports. The general principle that no member can be accused without being made aware of the source and nature of the accusation and without being given the right to answer must apply.

The Club needs to specify the reporting line for the Recorder which may be to the President, the Committee or a Sub-Committee.