Stockport and District Chess League AGM 2015
Minutes
The 2015 Annual General Meeting of Stockport and District Chess League was held at 7.30 pm on
Monday May 18th 2015 at Cheadle Hulme Conservative Club, Mellor Road, Cheadle Hulme, SK8
5AT.
1 Attendance and apologies (2014-15 Offices in brackets)
Present (22) were:
Officers and Officials:
John M Turner (Chair, President, Holmes Chapel)
Ian Vaughan (Minutes, Secretary, East Cheshire)
Geoff Laurence (Fixtures Secretary, Macclesfield)
Reg Clucas (Website Manager, Altrincham).
Phil Cattermole (Treasurer, Macclesfield)
Mike Tunstall (Grading Officer, Stockport)
Alex Longson (Auditor, Marple)
Chorlton:
David Kierman.
Denton:
Ivan Urwin, Malcolm Furlong.
East Cheshire:
Keith Hodgson, David Taylor.
Macclesfield:
Mick Renshaw, John-Paul Taylor.
Marple and District:
Neil Dainty, Glenn Trueman, Terry Cowling, Jeff Barlow.
Stockport:
Peter Taylor, Jeff Mason, Ian Anderson.
Wilmslow:
Tony Flynn
Apologies were received from
Sean Hewitt (ECF Representative) and David Holt.
2 Minutes of the 2014 AGM
These were accepted.
3 Matters arising
There were no matters arising.
4 Officers' reports
Officers’ Reports were given, and are appended to these Minutes, apart from the Reports of the
Treasurer and of the ECF Representative.
4.1 President (J Turner) - Appendix A
4.2 Secretary (I Vaughan) - Appendix B
4.3 Fixtures Secretary (G Laurence) - Appendix C
4.4 Registrations Secretary (R Clucas), and
4.5 Website Manager (R Clucas) - Appendix D.
4.6 Grading Officer (M Tunstall) - - Appendix E
4.7 Treasurer (P Cattermole) - Appendix F .
The accounts were accepted by the Meeting.
It was noted that there was an action to chase Sale CC for outstanding fees.
4.8 English Chess Federation Representative - Appendix G (Forwarded subsequently) .
Sean Hewitt sent his apologies and will forward a Report by email. Sean sent
word that at the ECF a vote to increase the ECF Membership Fees was passed by
one vote; Sean had voted against.
5. Team and player fees for 2015
The Team Fees for 2015 will be unchanged at £5.00 per Team, on the recommendation of the
Treasurer.
6. Presentation of trophies
Trophies were presented to:
Division 1 Champions:
Marple A
Division 2 Champions:
Macclesfield A
Division 3 Champions:
Macclesfield B
Limit League Champions: Marple
Charnley Cup Winners: Marple
President’s Cup:
Macclesfield
Vic Knox Trophy:
Michael P Crowther (Stockport, 100% in 6 games) - collected on
his behalf.
(Please note: the Eric Harrison Cup was not awarded this year. The Cup has been returned
by last year’s winner and is with Marple Chess Club).
7. Election of Officers
The following were elected for office unopposed:
President - John Turner
Fixtures Secretary - Geoff Laurence
Registrations Secretary - Reg Clucas,
Website Manager - Reg Clucas
Grading Officer - Mike Tunstall
Treasurer - Phil Cattermole
ECF Representative - Sean Hewitt
Auditor - Alex Longson
No nominations were received for the post of League Secretary.
8. Election of Disputes Committee.
The Disputes Committee members of last season are all able to continue to serve, and this
being approved by the Meeting, the Committee will comprise:
Geoff Laurence (Macclesfield, Fixtures Secretary)
Robert Shaw (Macclesfield)
Mike Taylor (Stockport)
Ian Bates (Holmes Chapel)
David Holt (Denton)
Tony Flynn (Wilmslow)
9. Proposals to change League Rules: Two Proposals were received, without any amendments
having been received prior to the meeting.
9.1 A proposal by Phil Cattermole to amend Rules 22 and 23, clarifying the procedure for
promotion, relegation, and structuring the number of division and the number of teams within the
division, was defeated by 6 votes to 10. (For the proposal in full, see Appendix).
9.2 A proposal by Ian Vaughan not to have a print Handbook or a Handbook Editor next season
was passed unanimously. It was noted that Reg Clucas would be able to provide printable versions
of key information on the Website.
10. “The Spirit of Chess”: John Turner hoped that Clubs might display this article (Marple CC do
so already), and Reg will make “The Spirit of Chess” easier to find on the Website.
11. Any other business.
The Stockport Blitz will be at 1.00 p.m. on Sunday July 12th. Details on the League and Stockport CC
websites, and will be emailed around.
It was reported that Urmston C.C. may well rejoin the League next season.
Ian Vaughan requested that the duty of obtaining trophies for the Stockport Rapidplay be reassigned,
to make the League Secretary role easier for a new nominee.
John Turner requested that all those present consider who in their Club might be prepared to stand
for League Secretary.
It was noted that a new Secretary will need to be appointed 5 to 6 weeks before the Annual Fixtures
Meeting, partly in order to book the meeting.
The Meeting was informed that time penalties for illegal moves can be added to a digital clock, if one
studies the manual.
It was noted that in Fischer Time, once move recording becomes unnecessary because less than 5
minutes remains on the clock, recording remains unnecessary even if the time is increased to over 5
minutes.
It was noted that any individual match player can request and require that an available digital clock
be used, including if a visiting individual player were to bring his or her own clock. (Standard /
Fischer timekeeping is not up to the individual player, however.)
John Turner stated that he would favour the appointment of a Vice President.
Geoff Laurence stated that a player had indicated his dislike of the name ‘Limit League’, as being
pejorative. Ian Vaughan said he regarded the name as descriptive and not pejorative; he hoped the
name would be retained, but it would be possible to replace the plaque on the Trophy.
Appendix A
President’s Report
"Firstly it is my duty and pleasure to thank all the Committee members for their work during the
season, much appreciated by me. Also a thank you to all others who have worked on behalf of the
League to ensure smooth and efficient arrangements. There has scarcely been a dispute all season,
and nothing that wasn't resolved quickly. That is all I have to say, but will be saying more under
agenda items 9 and 10."
Appendix B
Secretary’s Report
In November 2014, a request to host an advertisement on the League Website was declined by a
majority vote of the Officers.
Appendix C
Fixtures Secretary’s Report
It has been a successful season with every league and every cup match being played. Also there
were only a handful of individual game defaults -
Chorlton had 4 in div 1
Denton B had 5 and East Cheshire B 1 in div 2
Macclesfield B had 1 in div 3
Macclesfield and Marple 1 each in the limit league
No disputes were brought to my attention and I received no reports of unwelcome behaviour.
In the Limit League one game had to be defaulted because of illegal board order and one because
the grade total of a team exceeded 400.
I would like to thank once again the vast majority of captains who submitted results on time enabling
me to forward them in a format for Reg to put on the website - on many occasions this could be
achieved within 24 hours of the match finishing. The only regret is that those failing to do this and
having to be chased were almost exclusively div 1 captains. I ask them to respond to this and so
avoid me proposing a stiffening of rule 32 next year!
One issue that needs consideration is the requirement of players playing over 3 games to be ECF
members. Unfortunately I cannot rely on the ECF site being up-to-date on membership and in any
case it is clearly impractical to check every time a result arrives. Having identified 3 players from
Denton who appeared to be at fault regarding this in early April, I e-mailed the Denton secretary and
asked for his comments. 2 of the 3 showed as members by the end of April, but Tom Ireland (11
games ) didn’t. I applied the rules and games 4 to 11 were considered to be defaulted - I did this
regrettably but it has to be recorded that at no point has anyone at Denton replied to explain or argue
the point. Tom Ireland now appears as a member so at least the issue of the £2s is avoided.
Is it reasonable to use April 30 as the cut-off point for this?!
(Secretary’s note: The Executive Committee replied that, yes, this cut-off date was reasonable.)
Appendix D
Website Manager/Registration Secretary’s Report
There have been no problems in running the website this year. The process of putting the results on
the site is very quick, and can be done within a few minutes of receiving results from the Fixtures
Secretary.
Last summer I reorganised the site to make accessing previous years' results and other historical
information easier. Aside from that there have been only a few cosmetic changes, such as adding
percentages to the performance rating table, and allowing match notes to be added on the game
results pages (e.g. explanation of forfeited games, etc.).
The role of Registration Secretary sits quite well with that of Website Manager. Any newly registered
players can be added to the website within minutes of being received, so opponents can see
immediately who is registered. Also, the program I run to process the results depends on an up to
date Registration list, so combining the roles avoids delays in updating the results on the site.
There have been no instances of unregistered players this season, although on occasions the
registration has been left very late. I would encourage team captains to advise me of new
registrations in plenty of time before the player is used.
Appendix E
Grading Officer’s Report
The ECF Grading Submission is now an easy job as Reg supplies the results file in the format
needed for ECF. It was accepted first time without any errors but with 6 warning messages. (Warning
messages are when a player's name format or club is different from the ECF database. Four of these
I knew about and the other 2 were quickly resolved.) The ECF reply checks the players against the
current ECF membership database. This is the first time that we find how much we will be charged
for games fees. The player's registration list shows ECF membership number but not if the player is a
current member or not.
Appendix F
Treasurer’s Report
Income and Expenditure Account for the year ended 18th May 2015
2013/2014
2014/2015
INCOME
125.00
Subscriptions
105.00
16.00
Unregistered players
0.00
0.74
Interest received
1.64
--------
106.64
EXPENDITURE
69.30
Handbook + Game Records
0.00
70.00
Trophies (Engraving and Rapidplay)
150.50
6.10
Expenses for ECF meeting
7.00
--------
(157.50)
-----------
Deficit for the year
(50.86)
======
Balance Sheet as at 18 th May 2015
Current Assets
Bank Balance at 18th May 2015
821.32
Accumulated Fund
Opening Balance (16/05/2014)
872.18
Loss for the year
(50.86)
------------
821.32
=======
Appendix G
English Chess Federation Representative’s Report
On behalf of the League’s representative, a summary report was given to the meeting. The
subscriptions by individuals to the Platinum, Gold, and Bronze memberships will be increased by one
or two pounds each. This resolution was passed by the narrowest of majorities, our representative
voting against.
Appendix H
Proposal by Phil Cattermole (see Section 9.1, above)
Phil’s proposed Rule was :
“Rule 22 and 23
At the fixtures meeting a vote (using normal voting procedure) will be held to decide the
number of divisions and the number of teams in each division for the coming season.
In order to facilitate some movement of teams between divisions, there shall be relegation and
promotion, and the specific teams in each division will be decided by the following rules. The
teams in Division 1 will be sorted first, then Division 2, then Division 3, then Division 4 (if
applicable) then new teams entering the league, then any other adjustments due to a
reduction in the number of teams (see below).
“Division 1.
At least one team must be relegated from division 1 into division 2
At least one team must be promoted from division 2 into division 1.
If there are more places available in Division 1 because of the restructuring, then a 2nd or 3rd
team from division 2 may be promoted (one team still has to be relegated)
If there are fewer places available in Division 1 because of the restructuring, then a 2nd or 3rd
team may need to be relegated.
Once the promotional issues have been taken into account, the remaining teams in Division 1
are selected in order from last year’s league position.
“Division 2.
At least one team must be relegated from division 2 into division 3
At least one team must be promoted from division 3 into division 2.
Team(s) relegated from division 1 must now be accommodated in division 2.
If there are still places available in Division 2 because of the restructuring, then a 2nd or 3rd
team from division 3 may be promoted (one team still has to be relegated)
If there are fewer places available in Division 2 because of the restructuring, then a 2nd or 3rd
team may need to be relegated.
Once the promotional issues have been taken into account, the remaining teams in Division 2
are selected from last year’s league position.
“Division 3.
At least one team must be relegated from division 3 into division 4 (assuming there are 4
divisions)
At least one team must be promoted from division 4 into division 3 (assuming there were 4
divisions)
Team(s) relegated from division 2 must now be accommodated in division 3.
If there are still places available in Division 3 because of the restructuring, then a 2nd or 3rd
team from division 4 may be promoted (one team still has to be relegated)
If there are fewer places available in Division 3 because of the restructuring, then a 2nd or 3rd
team may need to be relegated.
Once the promotional issues have been taken into account, the remaining teams in Division 3
are selected from last year’s league position.
“Division 4
At least one team must be relegated from division 3 into division 4 (assuming there are 4
divisions)
The remaining teams are placed in division 4
“Limit League.
There is no promotion or relegation from the Limit League.
“Additional Teams
New clubs to the League, or existing clubs entering additional teams, should enter them into
the lowest league available for the new season. If a new team is particularly strong and wants
to play in a higher division, they may make a request to the committee. The committee must
ensure that there is no objection from EVERY other team in the lower division(s) that have
been leapfrogged, and especially the team (from the same division) that would have to drop
down a division to make way (in order to keep the voted upon divisional structure); if there is
any objection, then the new team MUST enter the lowest division.
“Reduction in number of teams
If a club wishes to reduce the number of teams in the League, then it should lose the lowest
placed team (e.g. div 1, div 1, div 3, then the place in division 3 is lost). If one of the remaining
teams from that club feels that it is in too high a division, it may request via the committee to
go into a lower division; in this case an offer is made to the teams in the division below in strict
descending order (after the promotion issues detailed above have been enacted) to see if they
wish to exchange places. If no exchange offer is accepted then no movement is allowed.”
