Minutes of AGM held 29th June 2005

 

Started at 19:45

 

27 Attendees :- Iain Wilson, Colin Roberts(CR), Francis Best(FB), Toby Neal(RB), Richard Thompson (RT), Roger Brown, Nick Rutter(NR), Martin Patterson, Keith Tabner(KT), Vincent Crean (VC) John Casewell(JC), John Westhead, Steve Jones, Windsor Peck, Richard Tapley, Alan Shaw,?Verma.

 

  1. Apologies for absence were given by Glyn Pugh, Keith Grice, Ian Davies, David Everington, David Foster & Neil Lancaster.
  2. Minutes of AGM agreed.
    1. Matters arising – RT understood that we were going to have a review of the new time control. After a brief discussion it was decided to have a review under “any other business”.
    2. The division 3 trophy has still not surfaced and it was agreed that Francis Best would see what was available up to a value of £100 and report back to the council meeting.
    3. It was also agreed that all trophies were to be returned for the AGM whether to be presented or not.
    4. It was suggested that the secretary get all trophies engraved at the same time. It was not felt to be the reason for the division 3 trophy going missing and clubs were reminded that reimbursement of the cost of engraving could be obtained from the treasurer.

 

  1. Officers reports
    1. CR – nothing to report.
    2. JC - verbal report – Thanks were conveyed to all teams for making his job easier and to VC for help with website. All three divisions had undecided issues up until the last week of the season. Div 1 winner Telepost A Keith Tabner presented with trophy. Division 2 winner Ludlow A Richard Tapley presented with trophy. Division 3 winner Shrewsbury C Francis Best presented with old 4th division trophy. Next seasons 1st division fixtures were on the website division 2&3 to be put on end August.
    3. FB- verbal report - increase of league fees to £45 per team had boosted income. Contribution from congress £200 without which we would have had a modest surplus which is what we should be aiming to achieve.  Prizes were down due partly to NR making the individual self-financing. County teams expenses up but this is a good sign as it is reflective of us progressing to the latter stages of the MCCU/BCF competitions. FB was authorised to investigate alternative banking options as interest rates were low. RT suggested better use of the deposit a/c but these rates are not very good either.
    4. GP - not present but had audited the accounts.
    5. NR – results submitted, new grading list due out end July, grades to go on BCF website. Not sure what search facilities were going to be available may be an individual search.
    6. NR - 7 round swiss 30 entries. 1st N Rutter 6, U140 W Peck 5, U100 A Lewis 4, The unfinished matches have a bearing on all other prizes. There has been a slight cut in prizes due to the increase in the game fee.
    7. KG – had given apologies. Report on the web. Nick Rutter won. Date of this year’s event to be put on web when known.
    8. DP – not present. Final to be played next Wednesday between Telepost A & Newport B. Minor K.O. had reached semi final stage. CR reported that Derrick had found it difficult to run this year due to results going onto the net and not to him. He had said he would be resigning but CR would get formal confirmation for the council meeting. Anyone interested in taking over please note. Nick Rutter took Cox trophy to be presented at final.
    9.  TN – Apologised for referring to Telepost as reigning champions until it was pointed out that Shrewsbury were champions. County results had not been included in the articles until later in the year. The regular articles in the Shropshire Star continue to give us regular exposure.
    10. JC – reported that event would be from 17-24 september. His idea was to have one tournament, one four hour match over six days. It was suggested that this may be over ambitious but to canvas possible participants. John may be away on the dates of the event and KT, AS and CR to help organise.
    11. KT – since being set up in September 04 we had had 7,200 hits on the site. The aim of the site was to promote Shropshire Chess past, present and future. The past would be entered as time permits. The present is working well the scorecard is a major plus. For the future clubs could make better use of the website as a marketing tool. Offered his thanks to Vinnie for all his hard work. Discussion about the advertising banner at the top of the site. This could be removed if we wanted to increase our annual charge by £38 it was agreed that it should be left at present.
    12. DG – not available. CR gave report on accounts. Congress profit can be split into sponsorship £160, which we cannot guarantee, refreshments £300 a small profit on entries £73. He felt that the congress should be under the umbrella of the SCA but it had worked well with one person running the congress as apposed to a committee. Not sure if DG intends to continue in the role CR said he would check where we were up to.  RT  felt that the congress should not come under the SCA and that it should be allowed to fold if DG not prepared to continue. Regarding the surplus CR said that it would be discussed at the S&T AGM and DG’s views obtained. Vote of thanks to DG for rescuing the congress, which had been a success.
    13. AS – U11 match AS had asked 30 kids to make up a team of 20 got 18 players. 80 children had entered the congress. Steve Rooney and Francis Best had stepped in to help whilst Alan was recovering from his operation he also offered his thanks to Nick Graham for his help. The county has five individual age group champions. Thanks were expressed for all Alan’s hard work and it was noted that he had been involved in junior chess for 40 years. To commemorate this he was given a plaque and voucher from the association.
    14. WP – Probably our best ever year! We won two matches and lost one and therefore qualified for the County Championship. We then lost to Kent but this was a good result considering the difference in strengh of the two sides. 6 players played all matches. 29 players used in total. Due to change in rules we would be in the open division one next year.
    15. JW – fairly good year W 2 D 2 L 1 RU MCCU. Lost in semi to Middlesex 10-6.
    16. ID – written report. Web reporter needed for this team if VC goes to New Zealand as planned.
    17. IW – as already mentioned divisions for open next year. Not decided if there will be an MCCU grading list. A child protection policy was agreed any clubs needing a policy please refer to Iain.
    18. NR – BCF to become ECF from October.
  2. Election of officers

a. incumbents re-elected.

b. Steve Rooney / Francis Best elected as junior chess delegates.

  1. Any other business
    1. CR - Simultaneous display by two Romanian masters organised by Neil Lancaster (Bishop Castle). Unfortunately he was unable to attend. The cost would be £300 for a maximum of 30 people. It was felt that this was quite expensive for an international master. We have previously had G.M.’s for less. Anyone interested in holding an evening please contact Neil direct.   
    2. Time control review – general discussion. Some people felt that the new limits were not ideal. The point was made that any time constraints caused difficulty whether 30 in hour and quarter or 1 hour 35 for all. Agreed that the benefits of getting matches finished on the night outweighed the disadvantage of the time constraint. RT proposed that “we revert to 30 moves in an hour and 15 mins followed by 20 mins to finish.” This will be forwarded to the next AGM as a proposal. For the current year we will continue with 1 hour 35 mins for all moves.
    3. IW mentioned the national rapidplay on the 17th July at Stafford. This was the closest it had been for a while and we should support this event.

 

Meeting closed at 10:30.