From The President

I hope this message finds you all in the best of health. We have a big month coming up in June, with our annual NSBC Festival of Bridge. There are lots of opportunities for all, from Rookie to the Emerald Grand Masters, to take part in 7 x Congress events.  To see the full program click here. 

The Club has had a good month in May, table numbers at East Lindfield beat last year, the Willis was more or less the same, and Online was steady. Thanks to the additional teaching revenue from our lessons, we will end up having a good month in May. Well done to all the staff that made this happen.

We had a hugely successful teaching workshop with Will Jenner-O’Shea. What a fabulous day with the over 100 participants. The buzz around the club was fantastic. The event ran so smoothly with Mike, Sue, and Fiona putting on their best show. This was my first face-to-face lesson and workshop, and I am a total convert. The day cost $60 and for that we learned so many valuable tips from Will. We had coffee, tea, and cakes, and then a scrumptious lunch. It was social, interactive, educational, and fun. For those of you that weren’t there - you really missed out! 

We have Andy Hung doing a similar workshop face-to-face at East Lindfield, also costing $60. Andy is an exceptionally good teacher (and Bridge Player) and we are lucky to catch him whilst he is on the East Coast. We haven’t started marketing the workshop yet - but you can be one the the first to register by clicking here.

Jo (our new Treasurer) has been getting familiar with the books and already sees opportunities where we can improve. Ian has his Sponsorship sub-committee formed and hopefully we will have some good news from them soon. Terry is back in the country and has taken over Secretary stuff from me. Terry will also chair our soon to be formed “Reserve Fund Sub-Committee” - again more on this soon. Robyn is a busy bee helping Ian on Sponsorship, helping Fiona with Supervised and Practice bridge sessions, and always in the kitchen helping Sue out. Jake has his hands full, helping out the newly formed NSWBA as they had a sudden staff resignation in a crucial stage of their transition. Do not worry - we will put him to work soon. We are very lucky to have such an active and talented Committee.

Within our membership we have a wealth of knowledge and experience that can help elevate our Club, we will not know about your skills unless you let us know. We have created a short form for you to complete and let us know your skills, area of expertise or any volunteering that you may be available for. This does not mean it is a full time role, if you are time poor it could be advisory. I would appreciate you letting us know, just in case we need your expertise in the future - we will know who to call. To complete the form click here.

I have already taken up a lot of your time, but I would like to end with an acknowledgement to our Volunteers - from all us at the Club THANK YOU.  

This month I want to tell you about Leo. Leo Goorevich offered to help Mike with the website some 6 or so years ago. Mike jumped at the opportunity as the website took up a lot of his time, he hated doing it as it wasn’t his skill set. Leo helped migrate from the old website to the newer one we use today, with his involvement enabling Mike to focus on managing the Club. In the past 2 years I have witnessed first hand Leo’s dedication and commitment to the Club. News articles updated on the website promptly with results and photos, events created and kept up to date, website pages created as required, monthly winners updated, and the list goes on. Leo also works closely with Kevin Davies ensuring our archive records are kept up to date. Leo also helps us evaluate venues and potential premises. I am sure that I haven’t mentioned everything he does, but what I can say is that Leo willingly volunteers a lot of his spare time to the Club. When you next see him at the Club or Online, please thank him. At NSBC we need more Leo’s.

That’s enough from me, I hope to see you at our Festival. It would be great to get back to our sell-out status prior to Covid for these events, so please support them.

Best wishes,
Shaz