Stockport and District Chess League AGM 2017


Minutes


The 2017 Annual General Meeting of Stockport and District Chess League was held at 7.30 pm on Monday May 22nd. 2017 at Cheadle Hulme Conservative Club, Mellor Road, Cheadle Hulme.
 

1. Attendance and apologies (2016-17 Offices in brackets)

Present (24) were:


Officers and Officials:

John M Turner (Chair, President, Holmes Chapel)

Neil Dainty (Minutes, Secretary, Marple)

Reg Clucas (Website Manager, Altrincham)

Phil Cattermole (Treasurer, Macclesfield)

Mike Tunstall (Grading Officer, Stockport)

Sean Hewitt (E.C.F. Representative, Marple)


Chorlton: David Kierman, Denis Owen

Denton Dave Cook, Alan Williamson, David Holt, Peter Shaw, Ivan Urwin

East Cheshire: Keith Hodgson, Tudor Rickards, David Harris

Holmes Chapel: Ian Bates

Marple and District: Terry Cowling, Alex Longson

Stockport: Jeff Mason, Peter Taylor, Andy Reeve

Urmston: John Reyes

Wilmslow: Colin Mills


Apologies were received from: Geoff Laurence (Fixtures Secretary, Macclesfield)

Glenn Trueman (Marple), Stan Foulkes (Chorlton).


2. Minutes of the 2016 AGM

These were taken as read and accepted.


3. Matters arising

There were no matters arising.


4. Officers' reports


4.1 President (J Turner)

The Chairman thanked all committee members for their hard work during the year. He also thanked all club officials for their input. There had only been one or two minor disputes during the season, but he was disappointed with the number of defaults.



4.2 Fixtures Secretary (G Laurence)


The President read the following report:


This has been a less satisfactory season than last as 5 defaulted matches (3 in division one – 2 by East Cheshire A, 1 by Marple A and 1 in each of divisions two and three by Denton and Urmston respectively) testify. In addition it was disappointing that, despite the extension of the season by a fortnight, two teams, Stockport A and Chorlton A, expressed great difficulty in fitting in their fixtures. I feel that more use needs to be made of the early season and more consideration needs to be given to the number of competitions that teams enter (particularly the “successful” ones.) There does seem to me to be a case for limiting the top division to 6 teams which would ease fixture pressure.

Chorlton A won the first division for the first time; other divisional winners were Macclesfield B and Wilmslow. Denton won the Limit League. Both the Charnley and President’s Cups were won by Stockport.

From my point of view, results were sent in promptly by the majority of teams although a few had to be reminded – Denton A sent in no results which is simply unacceptable. (I hasten to add that Denton’s Limit League captain sent in all results promptly.) There was one case of an unregistered player being used and one of the 15 point rule being broken, but I feel they were merely oversights.

I would like to record my thanks to all those captains who helped make my job easy and also to Reg for his patience, given that I seemed to make rather too many mistakes in submitting results for the website this year!



4.3 Website Manager and Registrations Secretary (R Clucas).


Registrations had run smoothly and no ECF non-members had played more than three games. There were very few website issues, just a few cosmetic changes. He was pleased to have received all results promptly.

The members thanked Geoff and Reg for their contributions (following a proposal from SH).


4.4 Grading Officer (M Tunstall)


Everything went smoothly and he was willing to continue if the members wished.


4.5 English Chess Federation Representative


Sean reported that ECF membership fees would increase by £1 per member from September 2017 and that game fees for unregistered players would cease; these would be collected from the individual members when they join. New players could play up to three games in any League before they would need to pay a membership fee. John Reyes said this was not correct, it was three games in any number of games. The President asked them to email their opinion to the League Secretary.


(SH later forwarded a message from the ECF Director of Home Chess, Alex Holowczak, confirming it is three games per League).

.

4.6 Treasurer (P Cattermole)


The accounts (Appendix B) had been audited and accepted by Alex Longson and showed a deficit for the year of £52.34, the only significant costs being for trophies and engraving. The bank balance at the end of the financial year at was £793.27. All fees due for unregistered players had been collected.

Keith Hodgson asked if the Treasurer thought the deficit was likely to be repeated each year and Phil said no – there are small variations from year to year.

The accounts were accepted as a true representation.



5. Team and player fees for 2016


The Treasurer recommended that team fees for 2016 be unchanged at £5 per team and this was agreed.


6. Election of Officers

The following were elected for office unopposed:

President John Turner

League Secretary Neil Dainty

Fixtures Secretary Geoff Laurence

Registrations Secretary Reg Clucas

Website Manager Reg Clucas

Grading Officer Mike Tunstall (but see below)

Auditor Alex Longson


The President was available for re-election but said this would be his last year.


Phil Cattermole said that he would not be standing for re-election as Treasurer; Mike Tunstall offered to take on the role and Sean Hewitt offered to replace Mike as Grading Officer. This was confirmed by nineteen votes with no opposition.


ECF Representative: Sean Hewitt was willing to continue; John Reyes asked to be considered and to speak to the meeting. He said that he was an ECF representative for silver members and had attended a number of meetings when the Stockport League’s votes had not been used. He would resolve that. John was elected by 11 votes to 9.


Subsequent to the vote it was pointed out that that the vote had contravened the League Constitution and Rules. Both involved parties have therefore agreed that Sean Hewitt will be reinstated as ECF Representative, but that there will a further vote at the AFM if this is requested.


7. Presentation of trophies


Trophies were presented to:

Division 1 Champions: Chorlton A

Division 2 Champions: Macclesfield B

Division 3 Champions: Wilmslow

Limit League Champions: Denton

Charnley Cup Winners: Stockport

President’s Cup: Stockport

Vic Knox Trophy: Richard Evans (85.7%, P7, W6, L1) – .

Eric Harrison Cup: George Bell, Urmston

8. Election of Disputes Committee.

The Disputes Committee members of last season were all able to continue to serve with the exception of Tony Flynn. The remaining five were re-appointed “en bloc” with two new members, Alex and Colin:-


Geoff Laurence (Macclesfield, Fixtures Secretary)

Robert Shaw (Macclesfield)

Mike Taylor (Stockport)

Ian Bates (Holmes Chapel)

David Holt (Denton)

Alex Longson (Marple)

Colin Mills (Wilmslow)



9. Tudor Rickards The Double Houdini


Tudor told the members that, after a career involving the publication of academic works, he has now taken to self-publishing fiction though Amazon. The above title refers to a fictional chess club playing in the Stockport Chess League. He would like to offer copies to local chess clubs which they would sell on and make a small profit.


10. Any other business.


10.1 Summer Rapidplay


Last summer’s tournament had been a success and this year’s will have the same format. There was a question about game fees and Sean informed us that a rapidplay game incurs half a normal fee and that a player may play six rapidplay games before a game fee is incurred.


10.2 Denis Owen wanted to refer to an incident in a game in April 2016 where a member of Denis’ own team had not played in a sporting manner. The President replied that he was well aware of the incident but that he was unable to adjudicate and it was not appropriate to refer it to the Disputes Committee. Sean thanked Denis for speaking up against his own team and other members agreed.


10.3 Keith Hodgson wanted to encourage a discussion about the grade limits in the Limit League. As East Cheshire team captain he had had difficulty meeting the 400 grade total per team. He wondered if this explained why there were only four teams playing last season and whether the total could be raised to 420. There was considerable discussion and it was then agreed that the Secretary would ask clubs to give this some thought and make definite proposals for consideration at the Fixtures Meeting.


10.4 Andy Reeve wanted to discuss the use of generic software to produce fixtures. He felt there must be a better and less chaotic way to do this. Sean said that Malcolm Peacock from Preston had done this and that Sean would distribute this.

After a thorough discussion the President recommended a sub-committee be formed to discuss this, probably by e-mail. He asked the Secretary to progress this and for the President, Secretary and Fixtures Secretary to be kept up to date with progress. The objective and some relevant points were noted. See Appendix A

.

10.5 Andy Reeve thanked the Officers for their service over the past year.


The President closed the meeting at 8.58 p.m.


Appendix A


Objective and notes for fixtures software:

Treasurer’s Report (to be added)