Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to all our members! The EBU is 75 years old today, and the staff at EBU HQ had a little celebratory lunch to raise a toast to this special day. John & Gill Pain made the sandwiches and the special 75th Birthday cake over the weekend, and others organised the room, so we could all celebrate in style. Happy Birthday to everyone!

Click on the photos to make them larger, or look here for more photos.

• Our dedicated 75th Anniversary area of the website

New Members Area

The current EBU members area is almost a year old now and we've had a lot of feedback in that time on how we might improve things. Last week we made live an updated version which has incorporated a few of the ideas and you can view it by clicking here (or following the link from the existing page).

The first thing you'll notice is the list of sessions on the right-hand side has been moved to its own tab and in its place is a summary of your latest sessions and master point credits. We've also moved the 'log out' button up here so that it's a bit more obvious.

Hover your mouse over an entry to see some more information about it.

The other major change is the sessions list.

We realised that the old list was rather basic and was getting a little too long for some people. It's now been tidied up and for those who have played a lot it will split itself into separate years, which should hopefully make it load up quicker too. The default view is by date played in reverse order, so the most recent session is at the top, but you can click the column headers to sort it however you like. As before, clicking a session will open up the full information about that session.

The other changes are mostly behind the scenes to make it load a bit faster. There's also an option to remember your login so that if you shut down the browser without clicking the 'Log Out' button you will stay logged in when you next visit the members area — useful for frequent visitors.

There's more to come in this area as we'll be adding master point promotions and National Grading Scheme information here too, but we'll announce those when they're ready.

For club administrators, the club counterpart to the members area is not available yet in this new version but should be ready soon. For now you'll have to stick with the old version.

If anyone has any suggestions or notices a problem, you can email me or leave a comment.

CCPR - new name

The EBU is pleased to advise that the CCPR has changed its name to the Sport and Recreation Alliance, so more people can understand their work. The EBU will continue to be a member of this organisation for national governing and representative bodies for sports and recreation.

From the Sport and Recreation Alliance:

January marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for our organisation. Following a long process of consultation and implementation, today is the day on which we unveil our new identity to the world – as the Sport and Recreation Alliance.

We continue to be the same organisation, with the same good people, doing the same good work on behalf of our members but we have taken the momentous decision to change our name so that more people can understand what we are doing.

Why has CCPR changed its name?

After 66 years under the name CCPR (which stood for Central Council of Physical Recreation, since you ask), it was time for change. Many people new to our organisation and its work didn’t understand our name. We would have to spend valuable time in snatched conversations to give people a clue about what our role was. People told us it was a barrier to a wider understanding of sport and recreation and the valuable function we perform for the sector.

Our new name – the Sport and Recreation Alliance – tells people much more about the organisation and its work. We are an alliance of sport and recreation organisations – the governing and representative bodies in the sector – and we work collaboratively to put forward the views of our members and provide them with the services they need.

What does the new name and brand say about us?

We hope that the new name and brand give people much more of an idea about the kind of work we do. For starters, it tells you we work in sport and recreation, which is an immediate improvement on the old name. It reflects the breadth of our membership – it’s not just sports governing bodies we work for, but also organisations such as the English Bridge Union and the British Wheel of Yoga. And it tells you we all work together for the good of our sector and our members.

We hope our new visual identity reflects some of our core values – dynamism, collaboration, authority, trustworthiness, unity. And that you like it. You can’t please all of the people all of the time but we’ve worked hard to create something which we hope will mean more to more people.

View their website here: http://www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/

House of Lords visit

History was made last week when 16 pupils from Pembury School, Tunbridge Wells, visited the Houses of Parliament to play a game of Minibridge with peers from the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Development of Bridge. The children were treated to orange squash and chocolate biscuits by the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords, Baroness Hayman and then to a grand tour of the Houses of Parliament conducted by Lord Skelmersdale.

This was followed by a Minibridge match in the River Room which the Lord Speaker had graciously made available for the event. The players representing the All Party Parliamentary Group were Lord Baker of Dorking, Lord Brougham and Vaux, Baroness Gardner of Parkes, Lord Hamilton of Epsom, Lord Harrison of Chester, Baroness Howe of Idlicote, Lord Skelmersdale, Baroness Henig of Lancaster and her husband Jack. After 8 boards of Minibridge had been played, it was announced by the Tournament Director John Pain, that the pupils had won the day.

The EBU extend their heartfelt thanks to Baroness Henig, Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for organising this event. We would also like to thank the teachers, Cindy Cole, Hilary White and Head Teacher Jane Gardner and all the pupils from Pembury School for demonstrating how Minibridge is a great way of learning maths and logic whilst having fun.

• Photos from the visit
• About Minibridge

Max Bavin

Our Chief Tournament Director, Max Bavin, holds the same position with the World Bridge Federation. Max now wants to slightly reduce his commitments and move from five days a week with the EBU to four.

Max fulfils two quite different roles with the EBU - those of Chief Tournament Director and Chief Tournament Manager. The second of these involving:

• managing all EBU Competitions
• having overall responsibility for the regulation of P2P, Licensing and Masterpoints
• advising and supporting the Tournament Committee
• advising and supporting the Selection Committee

This requires significantly more time than the first. Accordingly we are very pleased to announce that from 1 April 2011, Gordon Rainsford will be joining the EBU on a 1-day a week basis as Assistant Chief Tournament Director. Max will, for the time being, formally retain the position of Chief Tournament Director and Gordon will report to him.

Barry Capal
General Manager

Minibridge initiative

As the Christmas Term starts, the EBU are looking for more primary schools who would like to be involved in our Minibridge initiative: Minibridge 5 to 9. Minibridge has been proven to help children in their Maths, English and much more.

Minibridge 5 to 9 is aimed at children in years 5 to 9 and sometimes below (i.e. those aged from 9 to 13 years, but also age 7-8). The beauty of the game is that it can be taught by teachers who are non-bridge experts (and in many instances are new to the game themselves) following some in-service training and by using the easy-to-use instructional CD provided.

The EBU has a funded scheme (at no cost to the schools) to teach Primary School teachers the game.

Further information:

See introduction

Funding arrangements

Educational implications

If you would be interested in hosting an event at your primary school, please contact Matt Betts here.

Brighton Focus 2010

If you are in Brighton this year, please note that contributions to Brighton Focus are always welcome, and we have a contribution form available in the Durham Room for any interesting hands. We also welcome any letters or comments to the team. Simply put them in the colourful contribution box in the Durham Room. Alternatively, you can email us at: BrightonFocus@ebu.co.uk

Thanks
Matt