General Meeting
This page contains minutes of General meetings, rules revision, appointments, amendments to constitution.
Minutes – 2012–13
Minutes of General Meeting held 7:30pm, 8 July 2013 at Nomads CC
Present: R Richmond (Chair), A Kenyon (Secretary), S Burke (Treasurer), G Wollerton, A Taylor, G Harper, S Luland, K Walters, S Foster, J Collins, N London, B Redburn, D Griffiths, M Hill, P Sherlock, B Hayward, S Swanwick, A N Walker, N Graham, J Swain, C Holt, D Sudar, T Walker.
1. Apologies: Received from D Cronshaw, G Neil, M Swanwick
2. Minutes of previous meeting, matters arising
Minutes of the previous meeting were accepted and approved subject to an amendment relating to the proposed introduction of Fischer time limits as follows; ‘Representatives from Gambit pointed out that the rule amendment had not been received in time in accordance with the league rules. This was accepted. However it was decided after a number of delegates had spoken against the proposal to take a vote in which the proposal was defeated by a clear 8-2 margin.
Matters arising: Derek Cronshaw was unable to attend the meeting but wished members to know that he was honoured to have been elected as Vice President.
3. Presentation of prizes
Prizes were awarded as follows:
Division 1 Champions - Grantham
Division 2 Winners - University
Division 3 Winners - Nomads
Division 4 Winners - Newark 2
Division 5 Winners - West Notts 5
Best game prize - Chris Budd and David Coates were awarded joint winners.
4. Election of Vice President: Keith Walters was elected as Vice President.
5. Officers Reports
- President - the paper presented at the meeting was proposed and accepted.
- Secretary/Executive Committee - A Kenyon reported that he was becoming familiar with his new role since his appointment earlier in the year.
- Finance:Treasurers Report
S Burke reported that the Association had a deficit of around £800 for the year which was largely a consequence of free entry to the County Championship. The County Championship will no longer be free entry to return the association to a break-even position. 40 Digital clocks have been purchased for £45 each of which 22 are available as prizes or to sell on to clubs. The Rapid Play event made a loss of around £275 which was believed to be due to being held during the Summer. The Association has total funds of around £5,500 which is intended to be maintained. The Auditor has signed off last year’s accounts.
ANW questioned whether ECF membership subscriptions should appear in the Association accounts since we were only collecting on behalf of the ECF. It was agreed that the accounts could separate this item fully so that this could be clearly seen.
The Treasurers Report and Auditors Report were accepted and the 2012/13 accounts were approved.
- League Secretary: the report was proposed and accepted. The suitability of Mansfield Chess Clubs venue was questioned. This had been recognised by the club who have subsequently moved to a new venue.
- Records Secretary: Captains were reminded of the importance of getting results in quickly to ensure prompt update to league tables. This has improved over recent years.
- LMC: A quiet season was reported. The handbook for the coming season will be issued shortly before the league begins to minimise changes. Fixtures will be issued by email in the first instance as last year. There are likely to be 3 less teams this year reducing the overall number to 40.
- Congress/Rapid Play/County Championship: the report was proposed and accepted.
- County Captains (U180, U160, U140, U120, U100)
Reports tabled were proposed and accepted. N Graham has conducted a survey regarding the County Senior team for next year. The outcome is that it will not be possible to play in the Minor and U180 due to the number of available players. There was no interest in entering a 4NCL team. There were 16 responses from the 35 eligible players.
There have been difficulties fielding complete teams for the U120 and U140 this year. N Graham has offered to act as Match Secretary for all teams next year - his role would involve organising the teams for matches with each team having a Captain on the day. There needs to be a clear identification of roles and responsibilities in this regard.
N Graham reported that due to the Junior Giga Final he was finding it difficult to put out a full team for the U100 final at Warwick on Saturday 13th July. 4 more players were required but he was confident a full team would turn out on the day.
- Correspondence: the report was accepted. S Foster said that the ECF have now pulled out of running correspondence chess and computers are now allowed to be used without limitation.
- Grader: The grading report was accepted. N Graham said there were a number of players on the ECF database who were deceased and he was completing a list to submit so that these could be removed. Currently 22 players. Any further names should be passed to NG.
- ECF/MCCU delegates: the report was accepted. The ECF game fee will be billed in September this year which is better timing than last year. Upgrade from Bronze to Silver membership is not automatic by ECF. NCA will send a list to ECF who will then upgrade.
- Webmaster: The Web hosting arrangements set up by Ian Kingston will be transferred to David Coates. DC is also setting up an Online entry system for the Congress, Rapid Play and County Championships next year.
6. Fees: A proposal to increase the league membership fee and affiliation fee from £12 to £15 was proposed and accepted by a motion of 12 to 2.
7. Election of Officers
The following were proposed and accepted (unless otherwise stated)
President: Tim Walker
Secretary: Alan Kenyon
League Secretary: Steve Burke
Records Secretary: David Griffiths
Congress/ Rapidplay/County Championships: Robert Richmond
Match Secretary: Neil Graham
County Captains : (deferred)
Correspondence: Stephen Foster
Grader: Peter Sherlock
Auditor: David Griffiths
ECF Delegate: Robert Richmond
MCCU Delegate: Drag Sudar, Robert Richmond, Tim Walker
Publicity/School Liaison: David Levens (proposed)
Webmaster: David Coates
LMC: Maurice Hill, Steve Burke, Tim Walker, Chris Holt, Nick London, Drag Sudar (Reserves: David
Levens, Richard Myers)
8. Constitution/league rules: papers presented by R Richmond were discussed. N Graham asked for the EC to consider the constitution/league rules and report back at a future meeting. This proposal was accepted.
9. AOB:
a) D Sudar reported that M Barnes had suggested the use of software to do tournament pairings. R Richmond thought this was a good idea and agreed to investigate.
b) S Burke proposed that signatories on Bank/Building society Accounts be changed to S Burke, R Richmond, A kenyon and T Walker. This was accepted.
The meeting closed at 9.52pm