Executive Committee

This page contains minutes of Executive Committee meetings, Objectives of the Executive Committee, and Standing Orders of the Executive Committee.

Minutes – 2016–17

• 7 April 2017
• 20 January 2017
• 30 September 2016

Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting 7th April 2017 held at 2 Park Terrace

Present: A.N.Walker (ANW) , R.Abrahart (RA), S.Burke (SB) , M.Hill (MH) , R.Richmond (RR)

Apologies: S.Luland

In Attendance: J.T.Swain (JTS)

1. JTS was welcomed to the meeting

2. Minutes Previous Meeting and Matters Arising

The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted

Matters Arising:

1. (3.1) Publicise logo
2. (4.3) Arbiters course fees had been paid for Simon Scott and Mike Naylor
3. (6.1) Pairing software. Still pending. Action RR
4. (7.7) Phill Beckett appointed safegyarding officer, with SB as Deputy
5. (11.1) Social media
6. Article 9 of constitution updated on the website
7. 20 digital clocks had been purchased, and 5 already sold onto clubs at cost.
8. NottsBase - SB had discussed with David Coates, and would progress further over the summer

3. ECF Finance Council (April 22nd)

RR outlined thoughts on the main items at the coming ECF meeting

Abolition of Game Fee - The simplification was good in principle, but the £25 fee for individuals playing 4 or more games in the league was too high. Preferable to retain Game Fee for Junior events (such as the U15 and U12 Championships - see item 5 below) rather than chase juniors to take up the introductory free Junior Silver Membership

ECF Budget - Likely to be approved. A large (£17K) deficit budget was planned, but with areas of obvious padding

Voting Reform - ECF naval gazing, designed to silence the vocal, but numerically insignificant, OMOV (One-man-one-vote) lobby. Even the most modest proposal of one-third voting to Direct Member delegates goes too far, and likely to vote against.

4. Congress (April 1-2)

Entry was 163, up on last years 160, despite there being no bonus of a party from Holland and the clash with the St.Albans Congress. First estimate of surplus around £660.

RR to discuss with Marcel Taylor a possible scheme for giving titled players free entry and accommodation. Action RR

Modest honoraria payable to controllers? EC was not against the principle.

5. County Championship

Changes agreed to the County Championship for this coming season:

• Introduction of U15 and U12 Championships, to be run as a one-day Rapidplay on the Sunday
• Senior Prize to be upgraded to Senior (over 60) Championship
• Incremental time limits to be piloted in the Championship and U155 (as agreed at the last meeting)
• Late Penalty Fee to be introduced (10 entries were received in the 2 days prior to the event in 2016)

U15 and U12 Champions to be provided with permanent momentos. The cost of a trophy for Senior Champion to be investigated. Action RR

RR to do note for the website and Rules Revision Meeting on the changes. Action RR

6. Nottingham Rugby

ANW and RR had met with Michael Burke , Commercial & events Manager, Nottingham Rugby. He was to be invited to the Rules Revision Meeting to give a brief presentation on possible links. Action ANW

7. Marcel Taylor

Marcel had discussed ideas for a "Grandmaster Weekend", to possibly include coaching session with juniors, simultaneous display, and a presentation of some Grandmaster games. EC, on behalf of NCA, was happy to endorse such ideas. ANW to write to Marcel. Action ANW

8. Vacant Posts

• Bulletin Editor and Correspondence Captain - Phil Morgan was appointed
• Publicity Officer, Schools Liason and Special Events - Noted that David Levens had resigned these posts. No attempt at finding a replacement would be made before the AGM.
• Secretary - Still vacant. SB to produce the agenda for and RR to take the minutes at the coming Rules Revision Meeting
• Safeguarding Officer - Phil Beckett appointed, with SB as Deputy

9. Hon Life Vice President

David Levens would be nominated at the coming AGM

10. Minutes of recent General Meetings

SB had circulated the minutes of the 2015 and 2016 General Meetings. SB to forward to David Coates, for addition to the website. Action SB

11. Website

SB was in discussion with David Coates about incorporating the logo, the general design and brightening up the website. SB to progress. Action SB

It was noted this years EC minutes were hard to find

[Update - EC minutes were just in the "News" section. SB to ask D.Coates to link to "Current Minutes". Action SB]

12. Junior

JTS reported:
The Junior Committee e-mail address was proving useful
Letter to year 6's had now been prepared, and would be circulated in the next month
The introduction of an U15 and particularly an U12 Championship within the County Championship was an important part of the strategy to retain current year 6's after they move to Secondary School.
Notts had come 3rd in the recent 4-Counties U130
JTS had become an ECF accredited coach

ANW thanked JTS for the report

13. Rules Revision Meeting

SB had circulated a draft agenda. The following additions were agreed: Presentation of League Prizes, County Championship Changes (item 5 above) , possible presentation by Michael Burke of Nottingham Rugby (item 6 above)

The following items were to be added to the agenda

• Associate Membership of NCA for organisations other than clubs running teams in the league, on a no fee/no vote basis
• Converting Schedule A if the League Rules into LMC Standing Orders

ANW to draft changes to the constitution / League Rules for the above. Action ANW

14. Best Game Prize

SB to organise and collect games. Action SB

The meeting closed at 10.00pm

Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting 20th January 2017 held at 2 Park Terrace

Present: Andy Walker (ANW), Bob Abrahart (RA), Steve Burke (SB), Maurice Hill (MH), Steve Luland (SL) , Robert Richmond (RR)

1. Minutes previous meeting and matters arising

3.1 Logo - ANW reported new design now agreed. RR had presented the clock prize to D.Griffiths
SB to publicise. Action SB

4.3 Arbiters Course - D.Levens, M.Naylor and S,Scott attending course near Birmingham this coming weekend. NCA to pay £30 fee. Action SB.

6.1 Pairing software - No progress had been made by RR. Action RR.

7.7 Safeguarding - No volunteer found for Child Protection officer. SJB reported that no insurance had been paid, since the requirement of the policy to have such an officer could not be complied with. RR had asked the High School to confirm that premises related risks were covered by their Public Liability policy.

11.1 Social Media - SL to set up Facebook and Twitter accounts if practical. Action SL

2. Constitution

Drag Sudar had submitted a corrected version of Article 9 than on the website. EC agreed the wording. Action SB

3. Purchase of Clocks

Agreed to purchase a further 20 digital clocks for league prizes and onward sale to clubs. Action RR

4. Incremental Time Limits

The new Laws of Chess (effective 1st July 2017) required incremental time limits for FIDE rated events. The Congress would have an incremental time limit from 2018. EC additionally approved the piloting of an incremental time limit for the CC. Both changes would be subject to the availability of digital clocks, so only likely for the top two sections. RR to draft note for RRM. Action RR

5. Consequences of League Dispute

LMC should have discretion to ban players, under Laws of Chess for bringing the game into disrepute. EC to leave it to LMC if they wanted to propose a rule change. No EC action re constitution.

6. Junior

SL summarised the report from the junior committee. ANW to write thank you note to J.Swain. Action ANW
RR had reservations about the suggestion of a Junior Rapidplay being added to the Congress. RR to discuss with the Junior Committee at the Rapidplay on Jan 29th. Action RR

7.Vacant Posts

D.Levens was appointed as Special Events Organiser
There were still vacancies for Secretary, Child Protection Officer and Bulletin Editor

8. NottsBase

SJB suggested a NottsBase addition to the website, of annotated games by Notts players. This could include historic as well as recent games. EC agreed. Action SB

9. Dates of Meetings

RRM - Monday 15th May, at West Nottingham - subject to venue being available
EC - Provisionally Friday March 24th.

10. AOB

New West Bridgford venue - Wilford Social and Bowls club. RR to send SJB full details. Action RR

ECF consultation on British Championship Qualification - RR reported that ECF were proposing limiting qualifying tournaments to FIDE rated events from 2018, and consequently the congress would lose its qualification place.

The meeting closed at 9.50pm

Minutes of Executive Committee Meeting 30th September 2016 held at 2 Park Terrace

Present - A.N.Walker (ANW) , R.Abrahart (RA), S.Burke (SB) , M.Hill (MH) , S.Luland (SL) , R.Richmond (RR)
In Attendance : S.Scott (SS)
Apologies: A Kenyon

1. Welcome

RA and SL were welcomed to their first meeting of EC. Also SS attending on behalf of the new NCA Junior Committee.

2. EC Minutes

RR was re-appointed for the year as Minute Secretary. Minutes to be agreed by the Thursday after the meeting.

3. Minutes of last meeting and matters arising

3.1. New Logo - Dave Griffith had won the prize. EC suggested various possible improvements to the design. ANW to contact Dave. Action ANW

3.2. Best game prizes - Jonah and Hambel Willow (both WN) had won the OPEN and U140 respectively. Arrangements for 2016/17 to be discussed at next meeting.

4. Matters Arising from the AGM

4.1 Association Secretary - The post was still vacant. In the interim ANW to be the contact point for the Association, and the website would be amended accordingly. Expressions of interest in the job welcome. Action ANW

4.2 Controllers - RR reported he had put a note advertising for controllers on the website. Mike Naylor had volunteered for the Rapidplay. SL additionally volunteered at the meeting.

4.3. Arbiter Course - There had been 5 expressions of interest in doing the ECF Arbiters course. RR to contact Matthew Carr (ECF Manager of Arbiters) to request a course be held in Notts, find a suitable venue and negotiate suitable financial terms (the new Arbiter regulations leave open who pays for the venue and whether ECF or the host organisation takes the financial risk of running such an event) Action RR

4.4. ECF Arbiter Consultation - RR reported he had responded on behalf of the Association to the ECF consultation, expressing opposition to the requirement for a qualified arbiter to be on LMC, and suggesting the minimum threshold for a tournament to be accepted for grading be increased from the suggested 30 (The County Championship would not be graded with such a limit). Revised Arbiter Regulations were on the agenda for the ECF AGM on October 15th. These were mostly in line with the proposals in the consultation. There was however no mention of the two issues raised above - presumably they come under the Grading Regulations. RR to seek clarification at the meeting. Action RR

4.5 Donation to Congress - The donation from Marcel Taylor was noted, with thanks. An agreement with him had been drafted but not yet signed. Action ANW / SB

5. ECF AGM (Oct 15th)

5.1 RR reported that this was a rather thin agenda, had no particularly strong views on any of the items and was not seeking any instructions from EC on how to vote.

5.2 Matters likely to be contentious were:

Item 8.1 Increase in the maximum size of the Board from 10 to 12.

Item 8.2 Board be given the power to dismiss the FIDE Delegate in exceptional circumstances.

Item 10.5 The only contested election was for Non-Executive Director. RR to vote for Julie Denning (incumbent) and whichever of the three other candidates seems best.

Item 13 Finance - The Board are seeking an extra £10K to the current budget for "bookkeeping".

[Note: Future plans were for a £1 increase in Bronze Membership in 2017/18 and 2019/20, with the resulting deficits met by contributions from the John Robinson Trust and Permanent Investment fund, so as to maintain reserves at £100K]

Item 14 - SCCU are proposing a reduction in the fine for defaulting a match in the National stages of the County Championship from £100 to £25.

Update (21/10/16):

Items 8.1 / 8.2 Approved Nem Con

Item 10.5 Voting - Julie Denning 240, Stephen Woodhouse 193, Peter Hornsby 55, John Foley 31 [I voted for Denning and Hornsby, the two successful candidates - RR]

Item 13 Budget addition and forward strategy approved

Item 14 Counter-Proposal from the Board to put back the date for the CC draw to early March, when the actual teams would be known, was approved

6. Tournaments

6.1 Pairing software - RR now had a laptop with suitable battery life and would seek advice on the best package at the ECF AGM (Oct 15th) Action RR

6.2 Entry forms had been printed, and the County Championship (Nov 19/20) entry forms would be circulated shortly. Action RR

7. Junior

7.1 The minutes of the new NCA Junior Committee previously circulated were noted

7.2 SS further outlined the strategy of the Committee

7.3 The excellent recent performance of the U14 team in the National Championships was noted. Also the coming quadrangular tournament (6th Nov) this year at Nottingham High School and possible entry of a team into the National U16 Championships

7.4 Fees - The policy of NCA to pay reasonable entry fees or venue costs for Secondary School age County Junior teams was confirmed.

7.5 Membership - Desirable for there to be some overlap in Membership of EC and NCA Junior Committee. SL outlined previous Junior experience and was appointed to the Junior Committee. SS to inform the rest of the Committee Action SS

7.6 Need for more formal liaison with Notts Primary Schools CA? SS to discuss with John Crawley. Action SS

7.7 The ECF Child Safeguarding Policy had been adopted at the AGM. A named individual to be approached to become NCA safeguarding officer. These are requirements of the insurance policy. SB to investigate with the insurers what happens if no appointment made. Action ANW and possibly SB

7.8 Clubs to be reminded of their child protection responsibilities. Action ANW

7.9 EC thanked the Junior Committee for their work.

8. County Teams

8.1 The report from Neil Graham was noted.

9.Ludorati

The recent simul. by Mickey Adams and Rapidplay events this weekend were noted.

10. Social Events

10.1 Desirability of events, such as an individual blitz agreed. Volunteer(s) wanted as always...

11.AOB

11.1 Social Media - SL suggested NCA should have a social media presence. ANW to introduce him to David Coates, to discuss how this would interact with the website. Action ANW

12.Date of next Meeting

Provisionally fixed for Friday 20th January, 2017 at 2 Park Terrace

Meeting closed at 10.18pm