Trustees Annual Report for the year ended on 31st March 2024
The trustees are pleased to present this annual report of Halifax Bridge Club CIO (referenced later as ‘HBC’ or ‘the club’) that was registered as charity number 1185172 on 4th September 2019, but didn't take over the running of the club until 09 June 2020. The registered office is at 44 Prescott Street, HALIFAX, HX1 2QW.
The old Halifax & District Bridge Association 1150002 was closed officially on 20 September 2023.
This report covers the period 01 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
Objectves
The club maintains premises for the purposes of providing bridge playing opportunities for its beneficiaries. Encouragement and facilities are made available to attract all those who want to engage in the sport of bridge. Membership is open and visitors are welcome.
The objects of the CIO are.
• The advancement of amateur sport by promoting the game of bridge for the benefit of the residents of Halifax and the surrounding area.
• The provision of facilities for the learning, teaching and playing of bridge for the benefit of the residents of Halifax and the surrounding area with the object of improving conditions of life.
Achievements
The club provided 7460 player sessions for its members this year………..
F2F
Teams competitions take up 2 Mondays each month and for those other Mondays we offer Pairs-for-Teams for pairs to be able to play without a full team representation. Tuesday afternoon sessions remain popular with 9+ tables most weeks. Wednesday evenings now witness a healthy average of 6 tables per week. The club wishes to thank Grant Ward for his hard work and dedication in running Tuesday afternoon sessions over the years. Thursday morning supervised sessions continue to aid improvers and those who completed the beginners modules to transition to the main room and gain confidence at duplicate bridge.
The Trustees would like to introduce another F2F session in our calendar. More
Online Bridge
Online bridge players continue to attend Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evening sessions at Halifax Bridge Club. These are essential opportunities for members who prefer this format and those who cannot or do not wish to visit the clubhouse. We also have memberships from players all around the country and new members from Newcastle-Under-Lyme Bridge Club.
More
Current positon
Over the last 12 to 15 months, there has been a slight shift towards a more social and relaxed atmosphere at our club that we can term “gentle” bridge.
Bi-monthly we held social bridge events to celebrate Halloween, Burns Night, Step-intoSpring with food and drinks that always draw a good crowd. Building repairs Relocation etc More
Equipment
At the end of 2023 Yorkshire Contract Bridge Association (YCBA) offered its clubs a grant of £1250 for new bridge operational capital equipment, so we took the opportunity to buy a laptop and tablets.
Compettons Winter League ………..
Club Competitions………..
Complaints/Appeals
The moto for all players is always to be kind and tolerant towards their partners, opponents, and TDs.
Overall, there have been few official complaints or disputes.
Beginners
Lessons for beginners started at the beginning of October 2023 and February 2024 are both progressing well with 2 to 4 tables of attendance each week. This type of teaching delivered via videos from YCBA watched at home then come to the clubhouse to play for nearly 2 hours on Thursday evenings and Monday lunchtime prove to be successful. Tuesday evenings continued as an improver’s session for the beginners of February 2023 and the club will maintain that course with the current beginners when they graduate after the 3 beginners Modules are completed.
The club wants to thank all the helpers who volunteer their time to assist our learners.
In July, 5 members from our club and three other clubs attended a teaching course hosted by HBC. David Guild from YCBA delivered some basic and useful guide from EBED……..
In September last year and February this year, the club held Open Days to welcome the public to our club and witness how bridge is played. These events brought beginners to enrol at our club and will be repeated this year.
Local Bridge Clubs Cooperaton ?
Premises
At the AGM in 2010 the trustees were given temporary special powers to acquire property to relocate the club because of parking problems. Hon Sec (G Ward) ran through the problems he saw about moving the club. He also reiterated what was happening about parking.
In 2012 consideration was being given to the purchase of Riverside house in West Vale, because it offered ample parking with everything was on the ground floor, but this ultimately fell through. Consideration was also given to claiming Gift Aid. DM pointed out that the club in the past had accommodated 18 tables at teams, and regularly had members playing upstairs.
By 2017 the trustees had failed to relocate the club and considered spending some of its reserves on 44 Prescott Street. Some of the improvements considered were: -
- a) Air conditioning b) New downstairs toilet c) Bridge+more d) Stair lift e) New fridge for kitchen f) New chairs g) Curtains for main playing area h) Lift I) Removing the wall between the main room on the hallway.
after close analysis it was determined that any spending on 44 Prescott Street would be a complete waste of money and the search for alternative premises should be restarted.
A short list was drawn up of possible alternative premises, but before any further investigations could be made COVID hit and we went into lockdown, casting doubts on the future of the club, so all activity was halted.
Now that COVID is over and things have begun to stabilise, the trustees believe it’s time to start looking for alternative premises again.
Financial Report.
The club is financially strong with £121886 in its bank accounts as of 31 March 2024 and premises valued around £150,000. The club has made a surplus this year of £4276 which will go some way to offsetting last year’s deficit of £8237.
Bank accounts
£100,000 has been placed in a Virgin Money 24-month term deposit charity account paying 4.5%. £19,268 is in a NatWest 95 Day account paying around 4%. £1032 is in a NatWest Reserve account paying around 1.5%. And £1586 is in a NatWest Current account paying 0%. A nominal amount of about £1000 is kept in the current account, we could manage with there being almost nothing in the current account at the beginning of the month, because payments in at the beginning of the month are enough to cover payments out later in the month. An additional £1000 is kept in the reserve account for unexpected expenses. Everything else, except the money in the Virgin account is kept in the 95-day account, which can be accessed without loss of interest with 95 days’ notice. It is hoped that the £100,000 in the Virgin account will one day go towards facilitating a move to alternative premises.
Financial Administraton
Because turnover is below £25,000, we are exempt from formal examination of our accounts. Finances are monitored by the Treasurer and Chair, and by monthly reports to the Trustees, members can see the financial reports below. We use free accounting software provided by NatWest (FreeAgent), and player attendance is monitored using a BridgeWebs Attendance module.
Halifax Bridge Club C.I.O. - Proft & Loss comparison between Accountng Year 2023/24 and Accountng Year 2022/23
| 2023/ | 2022/ | |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | 23 | |
| 2265 | 1371 | |
| Turnover | 1 | 4 |
| Tea, Cofee, etc Income | 1249 | 528 |
| Sunday F2F Teams of 8 Income | 200 | 240 |
| Membership Subscriptions | 2550 | 1590 |
| Players' fees | 18652 | 11356 |
| add Other Income | 2127 | 417 |
| Interest Received | 877 | 417 |
| Grant Income | 1250 | 0 |
| less Cost of Sales | 6110 | 7183 |
| EBU UMS | 3368 | 3363 |
| BBO | 2729 | 3701 |
| RealBridge | 12 | 119 |
| 1439 | 1518 | |
| less Administration Expenses | 2 | 6 |
| EBED Afliation fee | 45 | 45 |
| Gas | 708 | 545 |
| Electricity | 1786 | 894 |
| Water | 207 | 207 |
| EBU Afliation fee | 28 | 27 |
| Calderdale B.I.D. Precept | 219 | 90 |
| Calderdale Rates | 288 | 123 |
| Cards and Flowers etc | 18 | 31 |
| Sunday Online Teams of 4 Costs | 16 | 30 |
| Sign Write Honour Boards/Engrave | ||
| Trophies | 171 | 384 |
| Cleaner | 1590 | 1418 |
| Pianola | 150 | 150 |
| BridgeWebs | 133 | 133 |
| Fire Extinguisher Maintenance | 241 | 333 |
| Fire & Security Alarm Maintenance | 225 | 72 |
| Decorating | 0 | 3550 |
| Extend Front Steps | 0 | 1410 |
|---|---|---|
| BridgeTab Licence | 82 | 111 |
| Microsoft Licence | 36 | 33 |
| Zoom | 144 | 144 |
| Competition Wine Prizes | 0 | 112 |
| Tues Aft Prizes | 12 | 47 |
| Tues Aft Jubilee Party | 0 | 50 |
| Tues Aft Xmas Party | 50 | 50 |
| Sunday F2F Teams of 8 Costs | 438 | 288 |
| Social Events | 533 | 79 |
| Training | 290 | 0 |
| Adobe | 21 | 21 |
| Christmas Party | 296 | 0 |
| Ofce Costs | 34 | 0 |
| Repairs and Maintenance | 605 | 264 |
| Housekeeping Consumables | 171 | 42 |
| Tea, Cofee, etc Costs | 949 | 424 |
| Playing Cards | 204 | 250 |
| Defbrillator Battery & Pad | 0 | 305 |
| Second Duplimating Machine Purchase | 0 | 1537 |
| First Duplimating Machine Servicing and | ||
| Repair | 0 | 491 |
| Computer Software | 40 | 0 |
| Computer Hardware | 3123 | 376 |
| Ofce Equipment | 309 | 0 |
| Broadband/Wi-Fi | 376 | 342 |
| Mobile Phone | 99 | 55 |
| Stationery | 39 | 49 |
| Miscellaneous | 96 | 0 |
| Charitable Donations | 0 | 53 |
| Bank/Finance Charges | 4 | 10 |
| EBU Insurance and Subs | 264 | 264 |
| Use Of Home | 348 | 348 |
| Operating Proft | 4276 | -8239 |
| less Drawings | 0 | 0 |
| less Proft & Loss journal entries | 0 | 0 |
| Retained Proft this period: | 4276 | -8239 |
| 2676 | 2758 | |
| Retained Proft brought forward: | 11 | 49 |
| Distributable Reserves / Retained | 2718 | 2676 |
| Proft carried forward: | 86 | 11 |
Halifax Bridge Club C.I.O. - Balance Sheet as of 31 March 2024
| Capital Assets | |
|---|---|
| Other Capital Asset Brought Forward | 150000 |
| Net Book Value (Building and Contents) | 150000 |
| Current Assets | 121886 | |
|---|---|---|
| Bank Account: NatWest Current | 1586 | |
| Bank Account: NatWest Reserve | 1032 | |
| Bank Account: NatWest 95 Day | 19268 | |
| Bank Account: Virgin 24 Month | 100000 | |
| Net Current Assets | 121886 | |
| Total Assets | 271886 | |
| Owner's Equity: | ||
| Retained Proft | 271886 | |
| Total Owner's Equity | 271886 |
Payments to Trustees Required for Report to Charity Commissioners
All payments agreed and supported by receipts and/or commitee meetngs
Stephen Cordingley
| Stephen Cordingley | |
|---|---|
| 05-Apr-23 Broadband/Wi-Fi 05-Apr -23 EBED Afliaton fee 09-May-23 Broadband/Wi-Fi 07-Jun-23 Broadband/Wi-Fi 06-Jul-23 Broadband/Wi-Fi 10-Aug-23 Broadband/Wi-Fi 06-Sep-23 Broadband/Wi-Fi 26-Sep-23 Ninja Oven 06-Oct-23 Broadband/Wi-Fi 06-Oct-23 Oven Shelf 06-Nov-23 Broadband/Wi-Fi 06-Dec-23 Broadband/Wi-Fi 12-Jan-24 Broadband/Wi-Fi 07-Feb-24 Broadband/Wi-Fi 07-Mar-24 Broadband/Wi-Fi Richard Wood 18-Sep-23 Computer Software Steph Binns 26-Jul-23 Cards and Flowers 02-Jan-24 Cards and Flowers 31-Jan-24 Cards and Flowers |
28.52 45 28.52 32.63 32.63 32.63 32.63 269.99 32.63 39.24 32.63 32.63 32.63 32.63 16.97 |
| 721.91 | |
| 39.99 | |
| 39.99 | |
| 5.73 5.99 5.99 |
|
| 17.71 |
Closing Statement
The club Officers and Trustees work entirely on a voluntary basis. There are no employees.
The club is affiliated to The English Bridge Union (EBU) and the Yorkshire Contract Bridge Association (YCBA). All activities at the club take place under the jurisdiction of the national body.