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Updated 5.7.02
SCCU NEWS


SCCU AGM
Exmouth Arms 29.6.02
rjh 30.6.02
Fourteen attended (to everyone's relief, after the disaster of twelve months ago). Some had two votes because they wore two hats, and some held proxies, and the total number of votes floating around will have been close to twenty. But the consensus was usually so obvious no one bothered a lot about the extra votes. It was a serious meeting, but not a difficult one. Main points, in more or less chronological order:
(1) Sponsorship. The Coulsdon people are to hold a high-profile Ron Banwell Masters International tournament 19-27 August 2002, in place of the Mind Sports Olympiad event which has run for the last two seasons. (It will no longer incorporate the Commonwealth Championship.) The BCF has already pledged £1000 for this event, on condition that all English participants are paid-up BCF Members, and the SCCU has been invited to contribute as well.
     Opinion was divided. Some felt that requests like this should at least be made well in advance so we could have it on the agenda. (It hadn't been, so wasn't.) But it was recognised that timescales had been unavoidably short this year. It was agreed, by 6 votes to 4, to offer £50 towards the event.
(2) British Schools Educational Trust awards. Bit of a mix-up here. We submitted a nomination last year, but never heard the outcome. The BCF has it that an award was made, to someone or other, but they've not said who to and we've found no record of an announcement. Perhaps we'll ask the Office. At all events, it seems established that our nomination was not received and we will re-submit it this year.
(3) BCF Meetings. Arising out of item 8 in the Executive meeting 10.5.02 below, the SCCU Deputy President had written to the BCF seeking improvements in future meetings. He had had no formal reply yet, but would press for one and would report back at the September Executive meeting.
(4) Grading. Howard Grist said he had done all his SCCU grading and sent it in. [rjh: I'm clean as well, but there are people who've barely started. The deadline's today.] SCCU events graded: Counties Championship; U180/135 Jamborees; U18 Jamborees; U14/90. This grading will have been complete, because there are no results missing. Howard said he knew of no reason why the List should be late this year, and the Chairman (who happens to be Grading Director) agreed.
     One rep said his organisation had had trouble finding a grader this year. Were graders getting scarce? The Director said the turnover of graders is heavy but he had not noticed a decline in numbers. (There are about a hundred.) Occasionally he would give a list to organisers in need. He added that there would be changes in personnel on the BCF team as well, at the end of the year. He was also thinking about changes to bring the rules more in line with FIDE, so that 15-minute games, say, would become gradable as Rapid. Additionally there would be a change in the formula for converting between BCF grades and FIDE ones. The formula we've got is accurate enough above about 215 grade, it appears, but undervalues BCF below that. The new formula was not divulged.
(5) County Match Controller. David Smith was absent but had said he had nothing in particular to add to the end-of season results. However two points were raised:
     The recently published Open fixture list (see below) had been arranged to avoid clashes with the 4NCL, but the 4NCL dates had changed since and there now was a clash. (No one said so, but it's on the 8th March.) Would the SCCU dates be changed? It wasn't known, but David would be asked. Someone said, if we've going to have changes let's have them quick.
     Nothing had happened about merging with the Chilterns in the U125. Apparently there had been little response. Perhaps we should let this drop. On the other hand, a Chiltern person present said there had not been much discussion in his County. He hadn't been aware that the Union's proposals, while generating an extra BCF qualifying place, would leave the Chiltern competition essentially unchanged. We'd ask David if he wanted to have another go at getting the message across.
(6) SCCU Bulletin. The Editor said circulation continued to decline. It was now 75, ten less than a year ago. How the Bulletin went on making a profit was beyond him, considering all the free copies. Did he foresee a time when it should be dropped? Maybe, but some people liked a permanent and portable hard-copy version of the Website, and there still were some without internet access.
(7) Money. The audited Accounts 2001-2 showed a deficit of £469 (budgeted deficit was £931, but you know what the Union is about spending money). We currently had about £2800 in the bank.
     The Treasurer and Executive proposed no change in fees. There was some debate about this. How far did we want to let the reserves drop? As far as £2000, seemed to be the consensus. Should we make some modest increases now? The meeting decided not, partly on the ground that no changes had been announced and the Counties needed notice. (Some said they would need to know by March.) We'd look at it next year, and for the present we'd have another deficit budget. The plan is to lose £1000 over the year, but you know what the Union is about spending money.
(8) Election of Officers. Roy Heppinstall took over from Chris Majer as President. Otherwise it's no change, except:
     Junior Organiser. Pat Aarons came back, and we fancy she's already got some plans for the year. But she had expressed a wish for someone else to look after the U14/90, and we've got someone. David Millward of Essex was elected Assistant Junior Organiser and will do this job.
     Treasurer. Tony Suttill stood down after 19 years in the job. A possible successor is lined up, but has not actually said "yes" yet.
     Curator of Equipment. Fred Manning stood down after even longer than Tony (29 years in various jobs, often more than one at a time). The equipment is now at Coulsdon, and Scott Freeman was elected to take over. Fred was made a Life Vice-President of the Union, an honour shared by only three other people.
     Who's Who? has been updated to reflect the changes.
(9) General Rules. The meeting agreed changes defining eligibility to play for NCMs in Union competitions. New applicants will in future be required to say who they regard as eligible to play for them, and if Council doesn't like their ideas it doesn't have to elect them.
     The opportunity was also taken to shift the County eligibility rules out of the County Match Rules and into the General ones where they belong. A proposal to change "Non-County Member" to "Associate Member" throughout was rejected. Council was unworried by the fact that one of the Non-County Members is a County.
     The General and County Match Rules in the Rules Section of the Site have been updated.
(10) A New NCM. The Richmond Junior Chess Club was elected nem con as a Non-County Member of the Union. They will play in the U14/90 and maybe other things. Their idea of eligibility, not surprisingly, is "paid-up membership of the Richmond Junior Chess Club". (The sub is £60 a year.)
(11) U14/90 Rules. The meeting adopted a new set of U14/90 Rules. (There had previously been only an incomplete set which had never been to Council.)
     The new Rules are on the Site in the Rules Section.
(12) A new U18 competition? The idea of an U18, along the same sort of lines as the U14/90, was discussed briefly. David Millward, the new U14/90 man, said he would be willing to run one this year if there was the demand. He would ask the Counties, and any competition that emerged would be tailored to suit their requirements.
(13) Provision for the Disabled. On a motion by Bruce Birchall, it was agreed to propose at the BCF's October Council meeting that the Federation form a committee to make recommendations on policy and procedures. The committee would report back to the April Council meeting.
     Guilty note by Webmaster 5.7.02. I was recently asked by the Braille Chess Association to publicisise their new website http://www.braillechess.org.uk, and I said I'd mention it at the meeting and report the fact here. I forgot to mention it at the meeting. By way of amends I belatedly mention it here. It is in the Links page.
(14) Central Venues for BCF County Finals. This has already had an airing in Open Forum, and Council now had an opportunity to make its mind up. It did so, by a bigger margin than your Webmaster expected. One argument advanced in favour of central venues, perhaps the only one, was the sense of occasion they generated. Others said maybe, if there were substantial sponsorship and prize money making it worth the teams' while [and free eats? - rjh]. But there isn't. Central venues are expensive in time and money, and make it hard to get your strongest team out. The Midlands Counties were said to have an obvious advantage. (They do seem to win their Finals a lot.) Someone said there were Counties which actually did not enter because of the travel problem.
     Voting was 9 - 3 in favour of seeking a rule change to delete the compulsory central venue. A proposal will be made at the BCF's October Council meeting.
(15) Other Business. There wasn't any, but it was not for lack of time. The meeting, having started at 2 o'clock, closed at 5.55 pm. That's a longish AGM, but not longer than it needed to be. The meeting got through a heavy agenda with a commendable minimum of fuss.


SCCU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Exmouth Arms 29.6.02
The Executive, as always, met briefly after the AGM. It did the usual routine things, like electing sub-committees and reps. The results are all in Who's Who?.
     It also discussed arrangements for the election of Non-County reps on the Executive. They will be the same as last year (a postal/email/telephone ballot of all NCMs, assuming more than five are willing to stand). There had been a small bloomer over NCM reps. A number of the outgoing ones had gone away at the end of the AGM, thinking they were no longer required. There had been no announcement about this. There wasn't even a policy. But the policy now is that NCM reps are NCM reps until the next election. They could have stayed.
     Next meeting: Friday 6th September 2002.


SCCU OPEN FIXTURES 2002-3
31.5.02
amended 4.7.02 to avoid 4NCL clash on 8th March
David Smith davidandjanesmith@cwcom.net, County Match Controller, advises these provisional fixtures for next year. Match captains are invited to check for problems, and if they make any changes by agreement they are asked to inform both David and the Webmaster rjh@sccu.ndo.co.uk as soon as possible.
     David is not aware of any changes in match captains, except that Cambs will have a new one (not appointed yet).

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Entries for the grading-limited divisions will be taken after the grading list is out. Entry deadline 15th August.


SCCU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Exmouth Arms 10.5.02
Nine attended, and the chair was taken in Chris Majer's absence by Deputy President Roy Heppinstall. Main items:
(1) Officers' Reports
     (a) Secretary. The Secretary said Richmond Junior CC had applied for Non-County Membership. Their application will go to the AGM on the 29th June. (The Surrey Girls Chess League have given notice that they will play in the U14/90, but they have no need to apply for membership because their entry will be under the Surrey aegis.)
     (b) Grading Secretary. Howard Grist had sent a brief note saying there was nothing to report on the SCCU front, but on the BCF one the lack of new codes was a cause for concern. The Secretary explained that before a grader can enter results for an event he first has to get codes from the BCF for all his new players; and the BCF officer responsible for supplying them had been extremely slow. However, after delays of three months and more, it appeared that codes were now starting to emerge. While things obviously weren't right, it looked as though the backlog would be cleared and the Secretary knew of no reason why the grading list should not be on schedule.
     Someone asked for an assurance that the item that appeared on the Site's Grading page on the 1st April was indeed an April Fool. The Webmaster reassured him.
     (c) County Match Controller. David Smith said he had contacted the Chiltern people again [see report of previous meeting, item 3] but had no positive responses to date.
     (d) "Junior Organiser". The caretaker U14/90 organiser said the groups were completed and the Final had been moved to the 1st June in Oxford.
     There was a suggestion that we ought to have an U18 event on similar lines. This will be put to the AGM.
(2) Money. The Treasurer had not yet been able to put together the Accounts 2001-2. In his absence the Secretary read out some facts the Treasurer had given him by phone. Essentially, we were doing much as last year (which naturally means we had failed to achieve our targeted deficit). We had about £2500 in the bank. When reserves fell below £2000 the Treasurer thought it would be time to think about putting our fees up; until then he recommended no change. Someone remarked that the fees had been unchanged for several years and it would be unfortunate if we made a sudden big increase in a year or two's time. But it looks as though "no change" will be the order of the day again.
     [What are the fees? (a) Membership: County Members £30, and NCMs automatically half of that. (b) Counties Championship entry fees: £12 per team or thereabouts (your Webmaster doesn't know the exact figure). There is a separate BCF entry fee of near enough the same, collected by the Union and passed on to the BCF. Game Fee, also collected by the Union on the BCF's behalf, is in addition. (c) Entry fees for anything else we happen to run. These vary and are sometimes zero. (d) Bulletin sub £9.]
     The Accounts will be available for circulation with the AGM papers.
(3) SCCU Championship 2002-3 (with a prepaid BCF Championship place) was awarded to Ilford. The Union's other BCQ places 2003 went to Hitchin and Southend. (Thanet and Coulsdon had also applied.)
(4) U14/90 Rules underwent some massaging in draft, and the result will be presented to the AGM.
(5) Eligibility to play for an NCM. More time was spent on this than anything else. Two ideas were discussed.
     (a) Require NCMs to register their players in advance so everyone would know who they were likely to use. This was proposed as an answer to the dual-eligibility problem. Some supported it, some thought it wasn't an answer, and some thought there wasn't a problem in the first place. Some thought it far too heavily bureaucratic. It was not agreed to propose it to the AGM.
     (b) Require new applicants to define their membership so Council would know what it was voting for when it elected them. This was agreed, as a proposed change to the General Rules. Then the Executive went further. Existing NCMs have never been required to make such a declaration, so in principle can use almost anyone in team events. But it will be proposed that in future they must make this declaration whenever they enter a competition. It could be different for different competitions. It can be whatever they like, but if it's "any player in England" they do risk calls for expulsion from the Union at the end of the season. Whatever their declaration, for any particular event, they must abide by it. Well, this one is worth a try if Council likes it.
(6) Officers for next year. We are now looking for two. The Treasurer has said he will not seek re-election at the AGM. Pat Aarons, the late Junior Organiser, is willing to come back but would seek an officer to manage the U14/90 on her behalf. (The Caretaker is strictly a caretaker.) Any volunteers out there?
(7) BCF central venue. This was resurrected from the September Executive meeting [7.9.01 near the bottom of this page: item 2(d)]. It will be put to the AGM, with no recommendation either way from the Executive.
(8) BCF meetings. Someone, not your Webmaster, remarked on the wholly excessive amount of talking done habitually by two BCF Directors at Council meetings. Could the BCF not ensure a more equitable division of time between speakers? This was not directed specifically at the other weekend's Council meeting. However, it emerged that no one who'd been there had fond memories of it.

This Executive one, in contrast, got through all its business and finished at 9.42 pm. The norm is more like 10.30. Our new chairman has yet to learn the ways of the SCCU. Well chaired, Roy.
rjh 11.5.02


SCCU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Exmouth Arms 8.3.02
Fifteen attended. The Executive, refreshed by its six-month break, applied itself with zeal to a problem that had been boiling up over the season. But still much was routine. Main items:
(1) President. Chris Majer, as anticipated, has been out of the country on business since January. He is sometimes home at the weekend and, as who would not, had made a point of being in England for this meeting and the following day's BCF one. He remarked that it has not always been easy keeping in touch, from his apartment in Rome. But he has a very capable deputy in Roy Heppinstall.
(2) Money. Your Webmaster always reports financial things when he understands them. No County had paid its dues yet, but that would be because the bills had only just gone out. (Sorry, treasurers, you're not getting away with it.) Some of the NCMs had already paid without waiting to be asked. Much of the money gets passed on to the BCF, which gives a discount for early payment. The meeting was assured that the Union had passed it on, in trusting anticipation, and had secured the discount.
(3) County matches. The County Match Controller summarised the state of play in the various divisions, but you've got that in the League tables page. Four Champions had already emerged: Kent in the Open, Essex in the U175, Herts in the U125 and Surrey in the U100.
     The CMC noted the correspondence in Open Forum about mobile phones. He felt that this was best left to the good sense of match captains. It was only one of a number of possible distractions, and as such did not need separate legislation.
     He had not yet renewed his approach to the Chiltern people about possibly merging in the U125. He would do so.
(4) Juniors: U18. There was some disquiet about the BCF U18 Team Championships scheduled for Saturday 13th April. The venue in Nuneaton was known to be booked, but it was not clear that the BCF had yet announced the date or invited entries. There was a suggestion that, perhaps because of the size of the venue, the Director might be treating the Union Jamborees as BCF qualifiers (which they are not). The SCCU rep would raise this at the next day's Management Board meeting. [Note 12.3.02. He did, and there is an important item about this in his account of the meeting in the BCF page.]
(5) Juniors: U14/90 Dispute
We will start by saying that the SCCU Junior Organiser, Pat Aarons, has resigned. Her reasons will become apparent as you read on. The Executive gave her a warm and unanimous vote of thanks for her unstinting work and enthusiasm over the season, and noted especially her achievement in arranging possibly the most successful SCCU U18 Jamboree there has ever been. We are also indebted to her for securing five new Junior trophies, from a donor whose name she has not revealed.
     Richard Haddrell has agreed to act as caretaker controller for the U14/90, just till the end of the season.
     The problems begin with the Middlesex Girls Chess Association. Things were never sweetness and light in their Zone of the U14/90. Two other teams objected to their (late) entry, for various reasons, and it was only after protracted wrangling that the MGCA played its first match, against Essex on the 19th January. And it instantly led to a
    Dispute. To simplify a bit, Essex claimed that seven of the Girls were ineligible because they were boys. (There was another claim, which we omit because it was specific to the match and of less general importance.) Essex also formally objected to the behaviour of the MGCA's Mr Birchall, with particular reference to the nature and number of his emails in the course of the wrangling. The emails had been widely copied, to the Junior Organiser among others.
     A three-man arbitration panel ruled unanimously that the boys were eligible (and also rejected the other claim), and their ruling now came to the Executive for ratification.
     There could be only one answer, because the boys were eligible. But rules and rectitude are not always carefully distinguished, and discussion was fierce. The panel got its ratification, but only by 10 votes to 1. Now perhaps it's time for another heading.
(6) NCMs: Eligibility solutions? No one, we think, defended Mr Birchall's team selection. (It is true he said at the outset that he might use a minority of boys to make the numbers up. But seven out of 12 is quite a large minority, if outdone by the 10 that turned out against Herts the other day.)
     Throwing him out of the competition, as someone wanted to, isn't an option. Nor is changing the rules mid-season. Moreover, it's not just about boys in Girls teams. There had also been lengthy and acrimonious correspondence about the possibility of MGCA pinching Middx players (we don't think that's actually happened), and about the propriety of NCMs playing in the competition in the first place. It should be said that only three teams, in one Zone, have been involved in all this infighting. The other seven, including Hertfordshire to their credit as the fourth team in the troubled Zone, have just got on with playing chess. But even so, you may be starting to see why Dr Aarons had had enough.
     And it's not just about the Middx Girls CA. The Richmond Junior club has made informal approaches, with next year's U14/90 in mind. The Surrey Girls Chess League, probably less masculine than MGCA, has made them formally. And in the end, it's not just about Juniors. The Executive felt we badly needed some rules about who could play for NCMs, in the U14/90 or anything else. Maybe they could be required to register their players in advance. Perhaps an NCM, when applying for membership, should have to "define" itself in some way. Perhaps the Member Counties themselves should be more tightly regulated?
     This doesn't sound easy. But the Rules & Appeals Sub-Committee is going to have a look at it. We might have something in place for next season.
(7) Trophies and Titles. For clarification it was agreed:
(a) that engraving on SCCU trophies should always be at the Union's expense. This is the practice with team trophies, but it has never been very clear with individual ones.
(b) that individual titles (and trophies) should be shared.
(8) SCCU Individual Championship 2002-3 / BCQ places 2003. Which congresses were these to go with? We would decide at the May meeting. The Thanet Congress had already applied for a BCQ place, and Coulsdon and Hitchin said at the meeting that they were interested. Applications are invited from others.
(9) Hastings Congress. The Hastings rep said that the Premier, threatened with the axe, had been reprieved for one year only by funds from Hastings Council.
rjh 9.3.02


A STATEMENT FROM THE SCCU PRESIDENT
Dear All,
Those of you who have read the report on the BCF Council meeting from September 29th will be aware that there is a possibility that I will be working overseas for a period. I have delayed making a statement since the Council meeting, because I was hoping to wait until I could make a definitive statement on what was happening. However, I consider it appropriate to clarify the situation as much as I can now.
     It is most likely that I will go abroad for a period of 18 months starting from January. However, I would expect to be back in the UK at least once a month and should be able to arrange to make it to SCCU meetings. I would be contactable by email although phone calls could be more difficult. I aim to meet with Roy Heppinstall shortly to discuss the best way to proceed for the SCCU during the remainder of the season.
     I will make a further statement after my meeting with Roy.
Chris Majer
19.11.01


SCCU SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING
Council met on Friday 7th September 2001 at the Exmouth Arms, and did the business the inquorate AGM had been unable to. Amazingly 20 attended, or 22 counting the NCM reps who became accredited members half way through. We'll have to start holding all our Council meetings on Friday nights.
     It was, of course, a bare-bones meeting. Little things like Minutes, and Matters Arising, and Officers' Reports, and Presentation of Trophies, had already been Irregularly covered by the Irregular meeting and were not repeated. (Not quite true. The Harry Woolverton was presented to Kent.)
(1) Accounts 2000-1. The audited Accounts, showing a deficit of £323, were adopted. The budgeted provision had been for a deficit of £850, but everyone knows the SCCU never meets its target deficit. Someone asked why we deliberately lose money. The answer is that Union reserves were deemed, some years ago, to be more than adequate and we've been trying ever since to reduce them to a more appropriate level. Net current assets are now something over £3600.
(2) Budget 2001-2. This year we're aiming to offload £946, but don't hold your breath. Fees (and Bulletin subscription) are unchanged.
(3) Election of Officers/Appointment of Auditor. No changes, except that we are again without a Junior Organiser. Graham Snow had found the responsibilities of the job much greater than he had anticipated.
     It goes without saying that suitable persons who happen to see this are invited to volunteer. A delegate asked for a brief job description, and the answer went something like this. (a) Arrange the Under 14/90, delegating as desired in the group stage (largely done, for this year). (b) Arrange (but not necessarily attend in person) the U14/90 Finals. (c) Ditto the SCCU U18 Jamborees in (?) December or January. (d) Liaise with whichever congress or congresses host the SCCU Junior Individual Championships (done, for this year). (e) Make the SCCU nominations for BCET Shields, after appropriate consultation (will require action in the spring or earlier). (f) Anything else we haven't thought of.
     It was agreed that all Officers should have a job description, and that descriptions should go on the Website.
(4) SCCU General Rules. The proposed Constitutional changes went through, and an updated version is in the Rules pages. Mainly the changes were about the election, and rights, of Non-County Members. NCMs are henceforth entitled to play in all Union competitions except the mainstream County leagues, and their members are eligible for Union individual titles. The Rules have also been tidied up in a few places, and (ironically considering the attendance) the quorum for General Meetings has been reduced from 12 to 10.
(5) Applications for Non-County Membership. There were four applications. To go with their new rights, NCMs now need a two-thirds majority in Council in order to get in. They all made it. Two (the North Circular League and the Thanet League) received no opposition at all, that you'd notice.
     A third (Berkshire Juniors) had a tougher time but in the end went through as easily as the first two. The background is that the adult Berkshire Association seems likely, though it has not told us so, to withdraw from the Union for at least this season. (Its AGM was imminent, and perhaps we'd hear something after that.) If Berkshire withdraw as expected, their Junior department needs to be an NCM so the County can go on playing in the Under 14/90. Perhaps surprisingly, there were objections at the meeting on the ground that the Berkshire adults had been uncommunicative and the Union ought not to consider an application which, until we knew for sure what Berks were doing, could only be provisional. Others said that if we didn't elect the Juniors now we wouldn't get another chance till the season was over. If the adults joined unexpectedly, no harm would have been done: the Juniors would simply not pay their £15, and the Non-County membership would be ineffective. This view prevailed, and the election was made.
     Your Webmaster would add that Berks rep Gareth Ward, who was present, has always passed on such information as was available to him. The Non-County application came from him.
     The fourth application (Middlesex Girls CA) was expected to be contentious, and was. The sticking points were potential conflict between MGCA and MCCA entries, and personal animosities we won't go into. Harsh things were said, and the MGCA was elected by 8 votes to 4.
     There are now nine NCMs (all contact details are in Who's Who?). They will have to elect five representatives from their number to serve on the Executive Committee. They still have one rep each in Council.
The meeting took an hour and three-quarters, and was rapidly followed by a meeting of the


SCCU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
(Exmouth Arms 7.9.01)
Only 19 attended. Business for the most part was mercifully routine. So, briefly:
(1) Officers' Reports. David Smith, County Match Controller, reported 28 entries (one more than last year). His Chiltern soundings had come to nothing, but it was agreed to persevere with the attempt to amalgamate. Maybe the Counties would think differently in a year's time.
     The Bulletin Editor never reports anything, so it's news when he does. He said paid subscriptions looked to be still on the decline, presumably because of the Website. Costs were not going down in proportion, because the number of free copies remained constant.
(2) BCF Council Meeting 29.9.01. Papers of the meeting had not surfaced but were believed to be in the post. The Executive discussed some proposals known to be on the agenda.
     (a) County eligibility. This was the Cambridgeshire thing. The Director proposed, rather loosely, that "club membership" should involve playing for the club, or paying a sub, in the previous one or two seasons. After discussion which embraced the history of Yorkshire Cricket Club, the Executive decided to support a cautious approach. Refer it back to the Management Board.
     (b) BCF-Stage dates. The Director had a proposal which we can't resist quoting in full.
  • That when the finals are held in a year whose last digit is an odd number, the following dates shall apply: Preliminary Round, fourth Saturday in April; Quarter-finals, third Saturday in May; Semi-finals, second Saturday in June; Finals, first Saturday in July
  • and that when the finals are held in a year whose last digit is an even number or nought, the following dates shall apply: Preliminary Round, third Saturday in April; Quarter-finals, second Saturday in May; Semi-finals, first Saturday in June; Finals, last Saturday in July.
Actually there seems to be an error with one of those dates, and we understand there's a clash with a bank holiday in there somewhere. (And nought's an even number.) [Note 30.9.01. The erroneous date was someone else's typing accident, not the Director's.] The Executive decided to leave this one to delegates' intelligence.
     We know now, because the papers came this morning, that the Director's intention is to avoid clashes with the MCCU Championship Congress. Presumably the date of the MCCU Championship Congress varies with the oddness of the year.
     (c) BCF Membership. The NCCU proposed phasing in a scheme which would lead, eventually, to the replacement of Game Fee by Direct Membership. Anyone wanting a grade would have to be a Member. An intermediate step would be a Membership requirement for all BCF officers, not just Directors but also those who do jobs like running competitions (so you give up your time to run something for the BCF, and they charge you twelve quid for the privilege). The Executive agreed to oppose the proposal.
     (d) Central venues. Actually this isn't on the agenda, but the Sussex delegate raised it. He opposed the use of a Midlands venue when (say) Sussex played Kent in a Final. The central venue is written into the BCF rules, and the only way to change it would be to propose a rule change. The Executive would look at it at a future meeting.
(3) Honorary Life Vice-Presidency. The Executive agreed to offer a Life Vice-Presidency to Lester Millin, who has just stood down after many years service as Oxon rep. [This item added 19.9.01. We couldn't report it until Lester had accepted. He now has.]
(4) Dates. The Executive's September meeting normally fixes dates for the March and May ones and the AGM. It did not on this occasion, for want of time. The dates will be fixed and notified as soon as possible.
The meeting finished at 10.35 pm, which wasn't bad going considering.


SCCU ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
30th June 2001 at the Exmouth Arms, Starcross St, London NW1
did not occur. Ten people came, and the quorum's 12. Those who were there held a meeting anyway and did the easy and non-contentious things in an Irregular sort of way, but the real meat of an AGM was impossible. This included election of Officers and Non-County Members, not to mention the adoption of proposed revisions to the Constitution.
     We said 10, but actually an 11th member turned up after an hour and a half. The pub cat was not to be found, and the meeting remained determinedly inquorate. Frustratingly a 12th person was present. He represented a body whose application for Non-County Membership was on the agenda, and he could not count towards a quorum until a quorate meeting had said so. The quorum was finally "achieved" after the meeting had broken up, when a freshly arrived county rep was discovered in the bar downstairs. By this time, naturally, some of the others had gone away.
     Anyway, here's (some of) what the meeting did. It was all unofficial.
(1) Minutes of the previous AGM were "approved" by the meeting, and signed (no doubt improperly) by the President.
(2) Officers' Reports
(a) Grading Secretary. Howard Grist said it had been "an interesting year", but things seemed to be falling into place. The BCF Grading Director, who happened to be present, said his target date for publication was the first week of the British. He expected to meet it. The meeting felt, and the Director agreed, that the list should not be held up waiting for late results. It is the intention to include a list of events which have been left out because their results were not received in time.
(b) County Match Controller. David Smith said he had written to all the Chiltern people about the suggestion to amalgamate the U125. A Chiltern person present said the Chiltern secretary had also written to the Counties, in a very loaded way, advising against acceptance. One County had replied favourably nonetheless. Hampshire were not thought to be interested in qualifying through the SCCU, but it would be easy enough to count their matches as friendlies for SCCU purposes.
     This seems to leave two counties whose views are not known yet. The Chiltern AGM was past. However, there seemed no reason why we should not go ahead anyway, in the coming season, if it turned out to be what the Counties wanted. DS would continue his explorations. He was given the go-ahead to act, in consultation with the President, if the situation was clarified by August.
(3) Money. Even quorate, the meeting could not have adopted the Accounts. They were unaudited. (The Auditor has been going through a very busy period.) But details are still as reported under the next-but-one meeting down. The membership and entry fees remain what they were. No one wanted to change them anyway.
(4) Presentation of Trophies was made, to such Counties as were there to receive them. We will not say which Counties were not.
(5) Election of Officers did not take place, as we have said. This does not mean we are without Officers. The Constitution places no term on tenure of an Office. The incumbents therefore remain in post for the moment, so long as they are willing. The Officers were all present and no one said no.
(6) Constitution. While we could not adopt the new Constitution, the opportunity was taken to make one or two changes to the draft. One was a reduction of the quorum from 12 to 10.
The meeting closed after two hours, and turned into a meeting of the


SCCU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
This was legal, because the quorum for Executive meetings is 6. The Executive did two things. Firstly it elected the various SCCU reps and the Rules & Appeals Sub-Committee (see the updated Who's Who?), and co-opted Fred Manning as Curator of Equipment as always. Secondly it set the date for its next meeting as Friday 7th September (7 pm at the Exmouth Arms).
     This is an important date, because the meeting will also be a SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING to do the things the "AGM" could not do. It will be confined to essentials: Accounts, Elections, and the new Constitution.
     It is unusual to hold a General Meeting on a Friday evening. The Executive knew this, but thought a Friday attendance could scarcely be lower than the Saturday one we'd just had.


Earlier material is in the Archive.

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