Hello Folks
 
We’d like to take a moment look back on 2024 and update you on recent developments at MObridge.
 
Calendar Year 2024
 

Recap of 2024 MObridge events:
 

• EiE games with lunch/meal were started with great participation.  We hope to have an EIE game every quarter
• Longest Day fundraiser game – this was a new addition as well and had a highly successful day.  20 tables participated.  We raised over $1.5k through game fee donations, raffle and 50/50 drawn for the Alzheimer’s Charity. 
  • One of our members and their family, agreed to match our donation which brought the total donation to $3.1k
  • The same member has again agreed to match our donation this year.  Let’s do what we can to beat last year’s contribution!
• Erin Berry rookie-master game was held in October with over 20 tables participating.  Our winning team, Wendy Dooley & Nancy Nicowski ranked first in Ontario and second in Canada for that game.
• Barbara Seagram held a seminar at our club in December which had 12 tables.
• Christmas Party was a hit, as usual, with 20 tables
• Our education program had a large attendance this year.  2024 was by far the largest student year since Covid.
•  Our table count continues to improve with most games having at least 5 tables.  Thursday continues to be our best attended game with over 12 tables on average.
• We added a number of limited games which are well attended and changed Thursday to an open game.
• A member paid for new bidding card and boxes for the club. 
• We held two charity drives – Thanksgiving non-perishable food items (2 car loads) & Christmas unwrapped toy (1 car load)
• To encourage attendance and ensure games did not get cancelled, we’ve implemented a couple of WhatsApp groups, where members can make their game commitments known as well as find partners

 
 
2025, to date, has been very good too
 

• We had a celebration for Martin Hunter for achieving his Platinum Master level. 
• A newcomer game (0-50) was added on Saturday mornings.
• Once-a-month Sunday afternoon games have been added.  They will vary in type as we move forward.
• Seminars given by Sally Rewbotham, Danielle Gosselin & Martin Hunter have been very well received.  We will continue to add these types of events to our calendar.
• We continue to add special events to increase attendance.

 
 
2025 volunteers
 
We are trying to streamline our volunteer process and continue to need help.  It takes a community to run a bridge club. 
 
Here is the community:
 
Hospitality supplies and social events committee - Darcy Nicksy (lead), Janet Phillip, John Van Nuland, Aftab Alibhai, Jyotsna Inamdar, Branka Milojevic, Bill Asselstine, Eleanor Tegler Gibson, Wendy Smith, Catherine Griffin
 
Facilities- Diana Noel, Denys Skalskyi, Louis Daigneault, Victor Petrenko (IT)
 
WhatsApp Groups – Kaveri Raviraj (Wed eve), Ingrid D’Souza (Mon eve & Sat morn newcomers)
 
Membership – Phyllis Jones
 
Club manager- Max Rutherford
 
Lead Director- Nancy Strachan
 
Finance Committee- Mariann Glynn, Laima Stem
 
Book Keeper – Cathy Kinsella
 
Teachers – Danielle Gosselin, Ingrid D’Souza
 
Game Directors- Medhat Fawzy, Max Rutherford, Phyllis Jones, Cathy Kinsella, Nancy Strachan, Danielle Gosselin, Pam Husband
 
Communication – Catherine Griffin
 
We can only grow the game with greater awareness of the wonderful product we are offering the community. To this end, we’ve recently set up a small ‘marketing’ group – to raise awareness of MObridge in the Mississauga/Oakville/Burlington/Milton area.  Marketing – Eric, Catherine, Darcy and Iona Rodricks
 
 
We’d like to thank the volunteers and all those who have been a great help in keeping the club ‘running’. Please don’t feel shy to reach out if you are able or have a couple of free hours a month to help out.  We need you. 
 
 
The future looks bright for the club:
 
How can everyone help?

• Support all our games
• Bring your friends, tell your family and relatives about MObridge - the more we increase our table counts the better it is for everyone, and it sure helps the bottom line too
• Let people know about our lessons.
• Promote our special events to other players.  

We appreciate your support and hope you will continue to come out and encourage friends and acquaintances to do the same. 
  
Before signing off, we would like to remind you all that we have an AGM approaching (planned for June 9) – and we need to fill 2 board positions.  Historically, the board had a strategic role.  In the last year, the board has become more of a management committee –working with the club manager to establish/tweak game schedules, planning special events and working with the volunteers to ‘run’ the club.
 
Looking ahead, we still need to work on the strategic direction for MObridge.
 
If you are able to assist in any way, have ideas or inputs and some time – please consider joining the board, or one of our volunteer committees.
 
Thank you
MObridge Board of Directors-2024
Eric Pinto & Catherine Griffin  (Co-Presidents)
Carolyn Overland
Medhat Fawzy
Randy Dutka
Ron Nicksy
Amy Yin

Please be at the club at least 10 minutes before game start time.  This also applies to Virtual games.   The directors have to set up the game and late arrivals may effect the movement in F2F games.

DO NOT buy BBO Bucks on an app as there will be a 30% premium charged. Buy BBO Bucks directly from the BBO website.

All F2F games have the "HOST" feature.  Presently, you can HOST as often as you wish.  All games F2F and Virtual have the "FIND A PARTNER" feature.  For either, just hover over the game in our Calendar and select the respective Icon and take it from there.  Note that you must be a MObridge Member to use either of these features.

♠  ♥  ♦  ♣

Reminders

• Please play nice, in particular, to newer or less experienced players.  
• Please remember we are a fragrance free facility.  Some people are very sensitive to perfumes.
• As we are fast approaching cold and flu season (as well as Covid), We would like to remind people to stay home if you are sick. Masks are encouraged if you are at risk. We want everyone to stay well.  
• Please take a moment to look around and clean up after yourselves at the end of your game. The directors and your fellow members will be most appreciative of your efforts.  Thank you.
• Also take note that you can always use your purchased "Prepaid" cards to play, but if you are not a member for the current year, there is an extra $2.00 game fee, plus any additional for Special Games.

2024 Annual Table Count 2,887.5

2023 Annual Table Count 2,842

 This club, operating since 1983, was taken over by the local bridge community as a not-for-profit organization in 2015. We are a permanent bridge facility serving the western GTA, with a wide range of bridge games and educational offerings. 

♥ Mississauga-Oakville Community Bridge Club (MObridge) ♥ Sherwood Village ♥ 2225 Erin Mills Pkwy. ♥ Unit 155A ♥ Mississauga, ON ♥ L5K 1T9 ♥ (905) 403-1333 ♥ 

mail@MObridge.club  ♥  www.MObridge.club

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