Page 30 - Summer 2017

ESMBA Meeting:Layout 1 14-Jul-17 8:46 AM Page 1

ESMBA EMERGENCY
30 ESMBA EMERGENCY
GENERAL MEETING
GENERAL MEETING
An Emergency General Meeting, called by the ESMBA
Management Committee for a vote to increase annual
subscription fees by £1 per member to cover a personal
insurance scheme negotiated with insurance brokers
Sutton Winson, was supported by county delegates and
the proposal was passed by 31 votes to 16.

A similar proposal failed at the last AGM. The meeting,
which counties had been informed would begin at
6.30pm, actually began around six o’clock and was over by 6.20pm.

The Norfolk Management Committee had voted by a heavy majority to instruct their delegates
to oppose the proposal as they thought it poorly thought out and would result in members
paying out for personal insurance that many have already. After taking advice the NCSMBA
decided that it would not be of any saving to the NCSMBA as it would still need to continue
its current insurance policy with Axa that costs the NCSMBA almost £1,000 for the protection
of its members.

The NCSMBA had tried to persuade the ESMBA to negotiate an umbrella policy with
Sutton Winson to enable the NCSMBA to discontinue this policy but were unsuccessful in that
attempt. The fee increase will be effective as from 1-9-17.

It was queried by one delegate whether it was unconstitutional for the vote to take place
and some delegates claimed they had received no paperwork regarding the matter. The NC-
SMBA had already informed the ESMBA Chairman that in their opinion there is nothing in the
Constitution that allows an EGM to be called, the Constitution only contains the options of
Special General Meetings as well as AGMs but this advice was ignored.

Ed - this seems to be yet another case of the ESMBA Committee riding roughshod over
the rights of its members to get what they want. No doubt they would have tried and tried
again to get this through. I am not intrinsically against the idea but I understand that Sutton
Winson pay thousands of pounds each year to the “ESMBA” for administration.

In previous years this has gone directly into people’s pockets and has never been in-
cluded as part of the ESMBA funds and I’m sure that few people are aware of it. Personally I
regard this as members money as it is paid for a scheme solely for the ESMBA members.
With the Chairman having stated at last year’s AGM that in future it will be included, it will be
interesting to see what is in this year’s accounts.

CANADA UPDATE
CANADA UPDATE
The new Canadian Short Mat Bowls Association
(CSMBA) now boasts 6 member clubs with over
300 players. The first Canadian Short Mat Na-
tional Championships are taking place in the
Toronto area this November. The winners will
qualifying to play for Canada in Sweden for the
Short Mat World Championships in March of 2018.
Please check out our website: www.canadian-
shortmat.org.
Dave Burrows President CSMBA