SHROPSHIRE CHESS ASSOCIATION AGM held Wednesday, July 11, 2012,
at Telepost, Shrewsbury.

Attendance Richard Thompson, Dean Pennington, John Casewell, Gary White, Richard Szwajkuw, Fred Harris, Windsor Peck, Vincent Crean, Graham Ives, Steve Szwajkuw, Steve Rooney, Alf Evans, Derrick Powell, Graham Shepherd, Francis Best, Glyn Pugh, Nick Rutter, Roger Brown, Keith Tabner

1. Apologies for absence.
Received from Ian Wilson, Colin Roberts, Chris & Nathanael Paul, John Smith.

2. Minutes of 2011 AGM. Correction J Casewell did attend. Approved and adopted.

3. President’s Report. Francis Best provided a slide show of the Nigel Short Simultaneous, the pofit went back to the association. Thanked the Wrekin Housing Trust (WHT) for the venue and the goodwill of the chef.
The congress – held at WHT, thanked Steve Rooney for helping organise with over 100 entries and sent out questionnaire on how to improve. Slightly cramped.
Quickplay  - On Sunday to allow more time and allowed people interested in seeing a World Championship game via internet.
Looking forward – want discussion to try to encourage new members. Very few juniors had fed thorough into clubs generally stopping once they had left school. Also wanted to hold a social showcase event like the old Darwin event to try and encourage the public.

4.ECF memberships. Slides were shown to put points of the new ECF membership scheme.
Fred Harris (FH) felt the ECF were being heavy handed in the implantation and said it would be better to increase the board fee. Francis replied it was easier to account by player rather than games. Steve Rooney said the scheme was instigated by the loss of the £60K grant and that some players felt the game fee was a ‘tax’, but now players can play as many games as they like for the same fee.
Summary of ECF scheme - £1 discount for online registration, inflation protection could be achieved by purchasing 3 year’s worth. Can move to different levels Bronze, Silver & Gold. Clubs presented with game fee costs for non members – each game fee much larger than current charge.
Issues to Decide – ECF membership , Mandatory, encouraged or laissez fair
Collection Method – Bulk, Individual

Problems of who is / isn’t registered if individual.  A framework membership was available for those people not on line. Donations may be difficult to give and remain anonymous.  Team fees would have to be amended.

For those members who decide not to join, each club would be responsible for the £2 game fee. Balance had to be made for trying to encourage new players while not discouraging them with membership cost. Richard Thompson (RT) stated worry for club for those not joining and running up debt. FH said it was difficult to get club subscriptions. John Casewell suggested each club should have a float to cover any new players before long term commitment.

RT said we should have a mandatory registration list of all existing players before the start of the season for all teams and not just those that had to be registered for higher teams. Alf Evans would prefer a laissez fair approach for new players, and Keith Tabner (KT) recommended that up to 3 games before registration. Graham Shepherd suggested up to 6 as long as get game fee as this equalled cost of membership.

SR says it is easy to monitor as the database keeps a record and was often grateful for some players just filling a team. Derrick Powell (DP) asked if there was a delay in the systems. FB replied that the game fees were chased in arrears and backdated to September. RT pointed out some players played for more than one club and which club responsible for ensuring registration. Gary White said ECF database showed player’s membership number and their current membership level. SR said the constitution rules would have to be amended.

Vote – ECF membership was to be mandatory for players playing more than three games. 15 for  - 2 against 
Vote  - Shropshire Chess Association enter into a framework agreement for collection and transmission of Direct membership fees. 15 for  - 2 against 
Vote  - £1 discount from SCA passed back to clubs who registered players thorough framework agreement (have to be done by end of October). 12 for  - 2 against 

RT suggested players registered, and name nominated players for teams with any existing direct membership be emailed to Alf Evans before end of September. KT say it would be difficult to get before the start of the season. SR – while alist was good it may be difficult to get all money in. RT – this is to get discount for people.

Vote – Clubs required to submit lists of all members and levels of membership level by 1st Oct. ( After 1st Nov can still do thorough Alf Evans but no discounts given) 12 for  - 1 against 
A form would be designed for the process by FB,AE, Nick Rutter, RT.

After a 10 minute break a spoof click from utube was shown.

5 Officers Reports                                                                             
General Secretary: Glyn Pugh had nothing new to report.

League Controller: Vincent Crean Thanked all for a smooth season and had no issues.The database made a great difference with automatic updates of the tables. Only new players being input was difficult but would try to correct.
The season will start 17/24 September andwith Easter being at the start of March 2013 there will be some games after Easter and the Season will finish mid/end April 2013. Keith Tabner wants the start as early as possible to get fee etc in.

First division was tight with Telepost A winning while Wellington A and Ludlow were relegated.  Second division won by Telepost B with Shifnal & Telford B promoted while Oswestry A and Wellington B were relegated.                                                                                                                                                                                                    Third Division was won by Newport.

Exact promotion and relegation dependent on how many teams enter 2012/13 season and would like to know by 31 August
Francis Best still has first division trophy and it was not presented. The 2nd division trophy was presented to Keith Tabner. The 3rd division trophy still held by C Paul and was not presented.

Treasurers Report – Alf Evans presented his report which was audited by Richard Thompson and accepted. The only matter arising was with the introduction of ECF scheme the team fees would be reduced to £10 per team with no difference for the third division.  Voted 19 for – none against.
FB asked if you can change the account to get better interest. 
Auditor Report  - easy to audit. Nothing to add.

Grading officer: Nick Rutter said grading was done every six months, at 31st Dec and 30th June. Acknowledgement was same day as sent.  

County individual: Nick Rutter said there had been 21 players. Winner was Nigel Ferrington with 6.5,  with Nick Rutter on 5.   Under 160 grading prize went to Glyn Pugh above Chris Lewis on goal difference, and under 140 prize to George Viszokai, and under 120 prize to Derrick Powell.
The trophy was collected by Keith Tabner.

Cox : Keith Tabner said this was the first time it had run with four players in a team and there were no defaulted matches with the teams being limited to the first division. Winners Church Stretton beat Newport in the final. Steve Rooney collecting the Trophy.

Minor : Organised by John Smith for second and third divisions. Telepost C being the winners and trophy collected by Vince Crean

Quickplay : Tony Neal gave a brief report of the event being held at WHT with the winners being Telepost A with a new trophy being presented on the day. It was a good event but was rough on all the B team entries. Asked if people would be interested in the event being graded.

Publicity officer: Toby Neal said weekly columns had been in the Shropshire Star each Tuesday , and most information came from the website and word of mouth.
Website editor: Keith Tabner, thanked Vince and Graham with the database making it the hub of the world and making it very easy for other competitions. RT requested more photos and praised the website saying the Wolverhampton League had tried to copy the format.

 Congress organiser: Steve Rooney said he had little to add but thanked all the Shropshire players for entering. The software had helped make it easy to organise. The date was set on the ECF calendar and next year would be the same venue on 5/6 Jan. Vinny help getting publicity out. SR had sent questionnaire out and getting comments back to improve the event. With the ECF scheme coming you would need silver membership to enter, could add supplement and upgrade from Bronze if necessary.
 
County Junior organiser –  SR mainly done at Ford Shrewsbury on a Saturday. Had got players entered into different stage of the national competitions local, mega, giga finals. Heath Pearson 4/6 in giga final was a promising prospect. Some juniors came from the schools as well as through the clubs. It is a long term project and would try next year to get a league with the schools. General needs more help.

County first team captain: GP produced a separate report with a list of the three results played, having defaulted a match away to Derbyshire and getting a default from Manchester. It was very difficult to get players for away matches. For one match had contacted over 40 players, but still had to default a few boards. Many of the open team were players from the u140 team. Would only stand again, if no one else would provided that he could get a commitment from ten players to play most matches.

County under 140 team: Roger Brown beat Derby in the first match (who then gave up). All the matches were close and finished with 4 teams above and 2 below. It had been a struggle to get players, the furthest they had to travel was Nottingham, with the Leicestershire match played at a neutral venue in Wolverhampton.

MCCU delegates: Nothing to report.
ECF delegate: Nothing to report

6 ELECTION OF OFFICERS
Election was en block with the possibility of the County first team not running. Vote All for – none against.

7 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Wellington were looking for a new venue.
JC thanked the organisers of the congress and Nigel Short Simultaneous and with the county financial health being good can the association buy some more trophies ?
Nathaniel Paul – say he may try to organise an individual rapid play before the start of the season at WHT
Graham Ives – ratify rule 5 change in the constitution amending it to need only 3 players be nominated rather than 4 in the third division. Vote All for – none against.
The meeting ended at 10:30