Annual General Meeting Minutes
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
23rd June 2025
The meeting was held at the Umbrella Bar on Glenhuntly Road in Elsternwick and commenced at 6:59pm.
PRESENT:
Anthony Sacker, Amos Samia, Eleni Alvertis, Dan Aulerian, Guy Dollman, Eva Sapunar, Jon Chambers, Keith Gillett; Gene Elder, Reece McLean, Simon Ustick, Henry Wise, Richard Gray, Steven West, Bill Marczak, Chris Kateifides, Maricar Ustick (minute taker)
Minutes:
Simon chaired the meeting.
Minutes of the previous AGM were tabled.
Moved Gene; seconded Anthony
“that minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting be approved as a true version”.
Committee Report:
The chairperson gave a report that summarises the financial position of the VBA (cash in bank $738) and tabled the events of the club transitioning from online during the pandemic period to the Australian Bridge Club and now the Umbrella Bar.
Thanks were given to Kevin J Diana A, Jesse B and Temo with acknowledgement to Bill as a founding silver member previously unrecognised..
Moved Reece. Seconded Henry.
“that the President’s report be accepted as tabled”.
Election of Office Bearers:
All positions were declared vacant.
President: Kevin Jessup confirmed he was stepping down from the VBA committee this year.
Simon Ustick for President;
Moved Eleni, Seconded Amos and unanimously elected.
Vice President: Previously vacant.
Eleni Alvertis for Vice President;
Moved Anthony, Seconded Simon and unanimously elected.
Secretary: Previously vacant.
Anthony Sacker for Secretary;
Moved Simon, Seconded Eleni and unanimously elected.
Treasurer: Simon Ustick previously occupied the Treasurer position.
Guy Dollman for Treasurer
Moved Anthony, Seconded Simon and unanimously elected.
Committee Member: Andy Liepens was a committee member and was not re-nominating.
Richard Gray for Committee Member
Moved Eleni, Seconded Simon and was unanimously elected.
General Business:
Issues raised were:
* Anthony Sacker volunteered to assist on front desk registration at 10:00am this Saturday for the ANZBGF Tournament at Glen Waverley RSL.
Meeting Closed:
There being no further business the meeting closed at 7.05pm.
Action Item:
Simon to investigate VBA Constitution (‘Model Rules’) regarding the Sub-Committee clauses and discuss further with Gene for a potential Youth/Junior initiative.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
29th May 2023
The meeting was held at Umbrella Bar on Glenhuntly Road in Elsternwick and commenced at 7:00pm.
PRESENT:
Kevin Jessup – President; Reece McLean – Treasurer; Simon Ustick; Henry Wise; John Levin; Anthony Sacker; Rob Bell; Jon Chambers; Jesse Beer; Keith Gillett; David McAllister; Andy Liepens; Gene Elder; Alison Lam
Minutes:
Minutes of the previous meeting were tabled. Moved Henry Wise; seconded Reece McLean “that minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting be approved as a true version”.
President’s Report:
The President gave a report that summarised the financial position of the VBA (cash in bank $738) and tabled the events of the club transitioning from online during Covid to the Australian Bridge Club and now the Umbrella Bar. Moved Reece McLean; seconded Henry Wise “that the President’s report be accepted as tabled”.
Election of Office Bearers:
President: Kevin Jessup confirmed he was prepared to continue in the position of President and as there were no other nominations he was duly elected.
Vice President: Vacant and no nominations received.
Treasurer: Reece McLean previously occupied the Treasurer position. Simon Ustick was the sole nomination and was duly elected.
Secretary: Kevin Jessup previously occupied the Secretary position. Andy Liepens was the sole nomination and was duly elected.
General Business:
Issues raised were:
* the possibility of improving the lighting in the back room at the Umbrella Bar.
* the possibility of having some front end marketing at the Umbrella Bar.
Meeting Closed:
There being no further business the meeting closed at 7.20pm.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
31st March 2022
The meeting was held per Jitsi and commenced at 8.00pm.
PRESENT:
Kevin Jessup – President; Reece McLean – Treasurer; Michael Myszka – General Committee.
Henry Wise; Jesse Beer; Steve Quinn; Gene McIntyre; Andy Liepens; Jennifer Costelloe; Steve Roberts. (Some members did not join the meeting until part way through).
Minutes:
Minutes of the previous meeting were tabled. Moved Henry Wise; seconded Kevin Jessup “that minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting be approved as a true version”.
President’s Report:
The President gave a lengthy report that will subsequently be circulated. The report included a summary of the financial position of the VBA. Moved Michael Myszka; seconded Steve Roberts “that the President’s report be accepted as tabled”.
Election of Office Bearers:
President: Kevin Jessup confirmed he was prepared to continue in the position of President and as there were no other nominations he was duly elected.
Treasurer: Reece McLean confirmed he was prepared to continue in the position of Treasurer and as there were no other nominations he was duly elected.
Secretary: Simon Ustick previously occupied the Secretary position. As there have been no nominations Kevin Jessup has accepted the position for the time being.
General Business:
The issue raised was the possibility of return to live play and the organisation of a suitable venue. Kevin Jessup advised that the Tower Hotel are only interested in hosting various groups for meetings if they guarantee an expenditure of a minimum $30 per head. Henry Wise mentioned the possibility of the Chapelli Restaurant in Richmond. Jennifer Costelloe mentioned the possibility of the Bridge Club in Murrumbeena. It was agreed that Henry and Jennifer would make enquiry concerning these venues and report back to Kevin or Reece.
Meeting Closed:
There being no further business the meeting closed at 8.45pm.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2021
Welcome everybody to what I believe is our third annual general meeting. It is stating the obvious to note the turmoil we have been through in the past couple of years with the ongoing Covid pandemic.
We have continued to provide a Monday night facility for online backgammon under the VBA umbrella and special thanks must go to Reece McLean who acts as convenor and tourney organiser on most of those nights. I do note that participation on those nights has diminished considerably in recent months. I sent out an email some time back asking for any suggestions as to who we could change the Monday night format. There was a very limited response. One person who had been a regular participator suggested there should be tourneys with cash prizes along the lines of when we played live at the Tower Hotel. We can consider doing this but it adds another layer of administrative work in organising and collecting entry fees and accounting for and arranging payouts. It was very simple when tourneys were conducted live. Another person said he felt the format of continuous running tournaments was disjointed and it would be better if the tourneys were finished on the night. This format had been considered but we thought that it actually denied players who were logged in on the night fairly continuous play rather than sitting around waiting for matches to finish.
Further to this there have been some who have asked when can we resume live play. I have been in contact with the Tower Hotel, which I believe most of us felt was quite a good venue for us to meet in. The owner of the hotel originally advised when density rules applied that his first priority was to provide a service to normal patrons and those patronising the gaming area. When the density rules were no longer applied he then advised he did not want clubs meeting there unless they guaranteed a $30 per head spend on meals and/or drinks. We were not in a position to give such a guarantee. When I indicated we would seek to go elsewhere he basically said “Go for it and good luck”.
If anyone has any good suggestions in relation to this please put them forward. I feel we have to take into account that of the small number of people currently participating on Monday nights roughly half of them are from other states or Victorian country side.
We also have an uncompleted tournament from back in 2019 that we probably should look to move to complete. I suggest we should contact all players and ask them play the matches on line to get it finalised. I believe we are holding in cash something in excess of $600 in entry fees for this tourney – Reece can confirm.
For those of you who are not aware and would be interested there are cash prize tournaments run out of Sydney on a regular basis with $10, $30 and $100 entry fees. I can provide further information if you want to consider participating. There are also two monthly tournaments run by the Australian Backgammon Federation on the WarpGammon.com website. The organiser of these is Melinda Kelf and Reece or I can assist you to gain entry to them. They are free entry tourneys. Ratings are given.
A profit and loss statement covering the period from when VBA was incorporated up to 31st December 2021 will be displayed tonight. It shows a current balance in credit to the extent of $755.34. It should be noted that we are missing some bank information between October 2019 and June 2020. As soon as this information is obtained the financial records will be updated. The income of the VBA is made up of solely of membership receipts. We currently have 27 paid up members comprising Gold, Silver, Full and Social Members. Given the occurrence of the Covid pandemic all memberships have been extended to 31st December 2022. There have been minor expenditures on printing and stationery, advertising, ABF affiliation fees and Stripe fees incurred when entry fee money was collected for the major VBA tourney that was successfully run back in late 2020.
This tourney was considered by most who played in it to be the best run online tourney in Australia. The main reason for this was single-handed efforts of Reece McLean who managed the tourney from beginning to end. I received a lot of enquiries as to when the next one would be organised but Reece has been somewhat reticent in putting his hand up to be involved.
I should note that we also have a high quality web-site established. As time permits there will be material added to this web-site with particular emphasis on historical information as we acquire it. If anyone has any information or photos going back to the 80’s and 90’s it would be great if you could provide it to me. Once again thanks must go to Reece McLean who personally covers the cost of maintaining the domain name.
If anyone has any comments to add they can be addressed when we open the floor for general business. If you have any specific questions in relation to any of the material in this report please ask those questions now. If there are no further questions it would be appreciated if there can be a mover and seconder for acceptance of this report.
Thank you
KEVIN JESSUP
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
15th April 2019
Minutes of First Annual General Meeting – Victorian Backgammon Association
Held on Monday, 15th April, 2019 at 6:45pm at the Tower Hotel, 686 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, Victoria.
Attendees (15): Maricar Ustick, Reece McLean, Michael Myska, Jon Chambers, Henry Wise, Julie Wise, Simon Ustick, Kevin Jessup, Dale Kerr, David Van Praagh, William Van Praagh, Alex Barrett, Steve Quinn, Anthony Sacker, Bill Marczak
Apologies & Best Wishes: Jay Deva
Meeting Agenda
- To establish ‘Club Objectives’ for Model Rules
- To vote whether to incorporate the club
- To nominate and vote (if required) for Office Bearers
- To nominate and accept Committee Members
- General Business incl. Membership Structure Proposal Discussion
Minutes
The VBA was founded in January 2018 and within 18 months has hosted 61 individual players (largest in Australia) and played over 1000 Backgammon tournament matches almost every Monday night.
The Association’s Facebook Page page has interactions with 100+ people around the world.
Discussion of club objectives resolved with the following:
“The purpose of the association is to promote a safe and enjoyable community for playing backgammon in order to increase participation in the game.”
A unanimous vote was carried to register the association with Consumer Affairs Victoria as:
“Victorian Backgammon Association Inc”
With the financial year of the Association ending on 31 December.
To be registered by Simon Ustick and to adopt the “model rules”.
The following positions were declared vacant. Nominations and unanimous vote declared for:
- President : Kevin Jessup
- Vice-President: Bill Marczak
- Secretary: Simon Ustick
- Treasurer: Reece McLean
Three General Committee nominations were received and unanimously supported:
- Alex Barrett
- Romeo Lopez
- Michael Myska
General Business
Membership Structure Discussion supported the committee to work with a recommendation:
- Full Member – $20
- Social Member (non-voting) – $1
- Silver Member – $200
- Gold Member $500
It was noted that playing social members should be encouraged to become full-members after 3-5 weeks of playing club tournaments.
The following initiatives were mentioned as potential opportunities for the club to prioritise and pursue in the medium-term:
- Membership kit
- Yearbook or Quarterly newsletter
- Expansion to other venues and time-slots
- Major Tournament(s)
- Club Calendar
- Club Sponsorship
The Meeting was closed by VBA President Kevin Jessup with thanks to everyone present and special acknowledgement to Steve Quinn, Henry and Julie Wise, Dr John Levin, Amos Samia and Sonja and Pierre for significant roles in the club’s formation and on-going support.
Simon Ustick
Secretary – Victorian Backgammon Association