Minutes of EGM on charity status

Please find below the minutes of the EGM held on 10 March 2023:

Minutes of Shropshire Chess EGM. 10/03/23

Present: Matthew Clark (President), Tony Preece (General Secretary), Chris Lewis (Treasurer), Francis Best, Jonathan Smith, Nick Holmes, Munroe Morrison, Phil Love.

Apologies for absence were recorded from Peter Kitchen and Dennis Bonner.

1) Chris introduced the single item on the agenda, which was to approve the draft constitution for the Shropshire Chess Association Charity  as agreed at our last AGM. The draft constitution has been prepared using the charity commission template with minor amendments to reflect Shropshire Chess Associations governing structure. 

2) Chris reminded us of the reasons for doing this:

a) clear objective of promoting Chess in the county

b) improve trust in the organisation

c) avoid unnecessary taxation.

3) Matthew then chaired discussion of points 3-8 of the agenda.

4) We discussed broadening the language of the charity objectives, considering issues such as the use of the word amateur and including more specific reference to social inclusion. However, the consensus was that the draft language was consistent with the charity commission template. The objectives were agreed unanimously.

5) We next discussed the proposed membership of the new charity. We decided to add in the word “historic” to make clear that we included all Shropshire Chess Clubs that play in the standard play league. Thus, the new clause will say:

“Any chess club based within the historic county of Shropshire that has entered the standard play league in either the previous or current season.”

6) We next discussed the appropriate number for a quorum for the AGM for the charity. We decided that 6 would be the appropriate number for a quorum. 

7) The next item for discussion was who should be the new officers/trustees of the charity and how many trustees should there be. We all agreed that the President, General Secretary and Treasurer should all be trustees. This would mean that the minimum number of trustees would be 3. We also agreed that each Shropshire club, not represented by these three officers, should be encouraged to nominate one trustee. Thus, the maximum number of trustees would currently be 6. 

8) We moved on to some general discussion. Francis suggested that we should apply for training for the trustees and Munroe suggested the e-learning package supplied by NCVO. Matthew, Chris and Tony agreed to investigate this. We also agreed to produce job descriptions and terms of reference for the officers and trustees.

9) The amended draft constitution was approved unanimously.

Matthew Clark. 13/03/23

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