SHROPSHIRE CHESS ASSOCIATION AGM held Wednesday, July 13, 2011,
at Telepost, Shrewsbury.
1. Apologies for absence.
Received from Keith Tabner, John Casewell, Steve Rooney and Peter Kitchen.
2. Minutes of 2010 AGM. were not read out but approved and adopted.
3. Officers reports.
a. Francis Best opened with a light hearted slide show .
The Good, Juniors taken to the mega final at Hereford, The Bad Shrewsbury winning the title with John Parrot 14/14, The Ugly photo of old Salopian Carl Portman,Glyn Pugh Trevor Brotherton Colin Roberts and Richard Archer. Talked about future Nigel Short Simultaneous event. Then talked about the future – in the constitution about promoting chess while there is a list of aims is this enough? Need to be active, getting new members,getting more views from Shropshire chess members by starting a presidents blog. Francis intends to organise one event a year.
b. General Secretary no comments.
c. League Controller: Vincent Crean said he had very few problems, just the withdraw of Newport Juniors, but the database Graham Ives how developed coped well and Vinny thanked him as the database automatically updated tables etc..
Vinny asked for teams for the 2011/12 season to be given by September 10th as the season would start later in September. He congratulated the winners of Division 1 Shrewsbury A with 27pts only conceding one draw, Division 2 winners Church Stretton and Division 3 CODDON C after play off.
The trophies were then presented. Third Division still held by Alf Evans not presented
Second Division given to Francis Best for Steve Rooney
First division presented to Francis Best.
Richard Thompson asked if he could check the week’s of the Wolverhampton league to ensure they did not clash and would send fixture list to Vinny.
d. Treasurer: Alf Evans stated accounts similar to last year. Recommended club fees staying the same £50 divisions 1 & 2, and £45 division 3.
The accounts were adopted and approved.
e. Auditor: Richard Thompson happy with accounts and no need for report.
f. Grading officer: Nick Rutter said the database had made it easy to prepare league,club, individual and cup results.The grades were going to come out at the end of December and June. The grades can be now be updated quicker and be of use for congresses. Grades at the start of year recommended to be used throughout year.
g. County individual: Nick Rutter said there had been 20 players. Winner was himself, on 6, with Trevor Brotherton on 5.5 Under 160 grading prize went to Andy Tunks, and under 140 prize to Marvin Carbin, and under 120 prize to Derrick Powell.
The trophy was presented to winner Nick Rutter.
h. Cox - Toby Neal submitted a report stating nine teams entered the new quickplay format on the night. With the final being between Priorslee A and Shifnal & Telford A, and was won by Priorslee on time, in the last game to finish.No trophy was presented. Toby asked if a it was possible to fund a replacement of shield for the Cox
Minor – Jonathan hoped to play all games on time and locally paired so that the competition was completed. This was won by Shifnal and Telford. – the trophy was not presented as it was still held by Derrick Powell.
i. Publicity officer: Toby Neal said weekly columns in the Shropshire Star, mainly came from information of the web and by word of mouth. He was asked about having a chance of a problem put in column and replied about space and copyright. It was pointed out that there were a few problems on different pages of the web site, from simple to the more complex.
j. Website editor: In the absence of Keith Tabner, Vinny Crean reported that there had been almost 3500 / 400 per month , Graham Ives had done a lot of work on the database, and there was a daily puzzle. Web hosting fees were going up.
k. Congress organiser: mainly Shifnal and Telford – numbers had been lower but congress had gone well. Winners from Shropshire in both the Open (Gavin Cooper) and the Minor (Roger Brown). Not sure of the venue for next year as Madeley Court School was moving after Christmas and was looking for an alternative venue. Hope to get more Shropshire players but can’t move the date as dates in the chess calendar were fixed. Richard hoped to give more publicity for the next congress.
l. County junior organiser has given apologies but made a short report. Play was mainly at Shrewsbury although they had a session at Idsall School. It had been a struggle to do more than one session per month but it was a long term project and more help would be welcomed. Training was often promoted by teachers at various Shropshire schools, but it was proving difficult to pin youngsters down to a specific time for the training sessions.
m.A report was presented by Roger Brown stating five matches were played. All the matches were close, but had only won one match 8.5-7.5 and lost four 9-7. Although Roger had struggled to get players he had only defaulted four games that season.
n. County first team – G Pugh gave a report. Shropshire finished their county first team program after Worcestershire defaulted the match on 12th March and Shropshire finished third. This had concluded an unsatisfactory season in the fact that we actually only played wo matches.
Glyn would like to thank all those who played in the Leicestershire match and all those of you who agreed to play in the Worcestershire match which was won by default. While more players made themselves available for this match, I felt we were still too dependent on the U140 side for players, putting a lot of commitment on some players who were having to play consecutive weekends for the county. I know that if we were to field a full strength side both home and away, Shropshire can qualify for the later stages as we have done in the past. From my short experience as Shropshire Team Captain trying to organise a team, I think it is important that only one person holds this role as this makes for better communication and co-ordination between the team and captain. G Pugh.
p. MCCU delegates: Rebate on levy based on the number of players was to be given to the county. ECF funding details were not sorted and were still being finalised.
q: ECF delegate: Nick Rutter – nothing apart from the ECF funding
4 ELECTION OF OFFICERS
Agreed the present officers on block.
5 Review of Division 3 – No defaults apart from Newport Juniors dropping out. Season before had 17.8% . This is a positive which resulted in it being easier to get team. Substitutes had got plenty of chess, often ending up tied to higher teams, but with only four players in division three teams had coped.
A debate followed with Fred Harris being against four players saying distance was relative and defaults were responsibility of each club. Richard Thompson (RT) asked for a straw poll ofthe third division and basically everyone wanted just four players. John Casewll said it had promoted chess and had prevented teams folding. RT said the Wolverhampton league played with a different number of players in various divisions, Div 1,2 had 6players while Div 3 5players.
A vote was conducted to continue with four players, 1 against, 1 abstention, the rest for.
7 Proposal to reduce league teams to four players
John Casewell proposed saying people would get more games of chess with additional teams and it would save two separate cars travelling as the players would all fit in one. Keith Tabner seconded it although he would prefer five in a team but wanted to promote more teams.
In the following debate the following points were raised There was more chance of a result with five players. Displaced players from a five man team may have problems in getting games as an ‘extra team’ may not be viable. Would extra teams cause fixture list problems? Nick Rutter felt Division 1 players would be unhappy and result in losing members. Extra teams would mean extra captains and clubs found it difficult to find captains. Teams would have players in same division and so cause problems with reserves.
An amended proposal that only Div 2 & Div 3 would consist of four players was voted on - 7 for 12 against – so Division 2 still remains with 5 players
6 Review of Cox Trophy
While the quickplay format had been a success , people would like the Cox trophy to be a normal team knockout over several evenings and the new additional quickplay format an additional event
8 Proposed amendment to League rule 21.
Vince Cream proposed that additional wording should be inserted to clarify the position of teams at the end of season. This motion was carried unopposed.
9 Proposal concerning defaulted matches and imposing a penalty.
Defaulted matches had an impact on the result of division 2 promotion. S Tenant commented that he did have a team but unfortunately players had dropped out and had to default match. Graham Shepherd said defaulted matches were due to lack of people not the distance to travel. Derrick Powell felt Vince Crean should have some control about postponements. Vince commented that fixtures around Christmas and Easter were difficult due to holidays and venues. A flexible venue was suggested but how would it be implemented fairly.
There was apathy at the end of the season when it didn’t matter to a team what the result was, even accepting a penalty. Gary White said the matches should be played on date and G Shepherd commented who would be penalised if a rearranged match didn’t take place or if one team wanted to rearrange and the other didn’t. Peter Crean felt that trying to create rules was creating a ‘monster’ for implementation and lead to disputes.
The vote of imposing a two point penalty was defeated by 6 votes for and 14 against.
10 Proposal to amend item 6 concerning holding of Council Meeting in September
Glyn Pugh proposed cancelling the Council meeting but withdrew it, after it was agreed that Council Meeting would only consist of any new items on reports, and agreement of fixtures list.
11 Funding of ECF
A short discussion took place about ECF funding, but as there were no firm proposals from the ECF nothing definite could be decided, although it was felt it would benefit the county as the levy system would be reduced.
12 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
No other items were raised due to time pressure.
The meeting closed at 11.10pm. |