SCCU ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Saturday 28th June 2014 at the Rotary District HQ, York Gate, London NW1
12 attended, plus the Independent Examiner as an observer. This year we remembered to establish at the start how many votes everyone had. Two people wore three hats so had 3 votes; three wore two so had 2; one wore only one hat of his own but a proxy vote boosted him to 2; and we think that leaves five people with 1 vote each. Things are much simpler on the Executive Committee where everybody has 1 vote and proxies aren't allowed. (1) Glenroy Cup (see next meeting down) is with Chris Ward now, having been presented in May at Kent's Finals Day. (2) Accounts 2013-14. The "audited" (we know that's not the right word, but is "independently examined?" said?) Accounts showed a deficit of £203 for the season and liquid assets of £4818. Annual surpluses and deficits are't really very meaningful when you're working on a cash basis. The deficit included some 2012-13 expenses paid in the wrong year, and would have been larger had it not been for a £370 surplus on junior activities. (3) Budget 2014-15. The Treasurer's proposals for fees were accepted. So County affiliation fee £50 (no change); NCM affiliation fee half of that as prescribed by the rules, but with a £5 discount if paid by 1st December; County Championship entry fee £20 per team (no change); U14/130 entry fee £35, with a £10 discount if paid by 1st December. (Was £30 but with no discount, so it's gone up or down as you will.) (4) Elections. Everyone was re-elected, or re-appointed. The meeting took the opportunity to regularise the Independent Examiner's position. The General Rules have always, forgetfully, required appointment of an Auditor though it's anyone's guess how long it is since we've had an Auditor as such. The Rules are now in line with practice. (5) SCCU County Matches
(a) Rule Change. It was proposed that County Match Rule 4 should require entries for all Competitions by 15th August (old rule said 30th April for the Open and 15th August for everything else). The proposal was carried, but not without some discussion.
Where did that 30th-April date come from? It had been there for ever. Its original purpose, we believe, was to ensure publication of dates in a national printed calendar produced annually. That reason had gone away, but there was still no harm in publishing dates as soon as possible. The upshot was, Council agreed to change the rule for consistency but publish a provisional fixture list anyway, in May or thereabouts, for all sections.
(b) FIDE ratings. "Will you be using the ECF's new FIDE conversion for the purpose of eligibility?" County Match Controller: Yes.
(c) Guidance to Match Captains. The meeting spent some time on the Union's Guidelines for Match Captains. Oddly, to your Webmaster's eye, it bore on the meaning of the word "any" in In no circumstances may the captain [when advising on draw offers] look at any game before giving their decision. It turns out there is ECF guidance (where?) with the same wording, probably cribbed from us, and it was agreed to ask the ECF what they thought it meant. (6) ECF Matters: County matches
(a) Skype meeting. The Home Director had called a Skype meeting for Union reps on 17th July (details here) to discuss various things, including the eligibility rules. Council saw little to worry about in the eligibility rules, save perhaps the "attendance as a teacher" bit. It was rather amused by the suggestion to use January grades for people who don't have August ones (now, who would have thought of that?), and had fun with the idea of allowing captains to choose between August and January grades for the purpose of the 10-point rule. "But he must be consistent and use one or the other throughout." - "I don't know, let's give him maximum freedom to use order of strength as he would have done before they brought in this 10-point thing." And as he still does down here in the SCCU stage.
The meeting won't make any actual decisions. Anthony Fulton agreed to "attend" it on the SCCU's behalf.
(b) Fines. The meeting discussed two sorts. The "county" sort, aimed at counties that accept nomination at the end of the Union stage and then default; and the "Union" sort, aimed at Unions that request, in December, more places than they are able to fill at the end of March. On the county sort, a proposal that we seek a reduction from £100 to £50 was lost by 4 votes to 8. On the Union sort, it didn't get as far as a vote. We will seek to have the penalty removed.
(c) The draw. Council inconclusively discussed the idea that the first two nominees from a Union be kept apart till the Final. It's likely to go to the ECF AGM anyway.
There was feeling that the draw should be properly monitored (eg by a representative appointed by the Unions). Someone mentioned the rather improbable coincidence that in this year's draw every single team with a quarter-final bye (seven of them) had a home match to follow. (We know at least one competition with an unwritten rule that teams with byes get an away match to follow!)
(d) Players Cleared to Play. It was noted that the names of cleared players had been published very irregularly, in some cases weeks after the player had played. (7) ECF Matters: Other. In no particular order:
(a) Insurance. Someone said his county didn't think the ECF's insurance package was good value. It wasn't on the agenda and this didn't seem the time to discuss it, but it may come up again.
(b) FIDE Laws and other rules. The meeting discussed a couple of things. (1) Mobiles, what else. No one suggests that the new FIDE rule in all its fervour is appropriate for your average English event. But ECF thinking, somewhere at the top, seems to be that a phone "found to be switched on", whether it makes noises or not, must incur automatic loss; and that games won't be graded otherwise. (Which games isn't entirely clear.) (2) Adjudication. It is suggested that, starting in 2015-16, any game potentially subject to adjudication will not be graded. We think this means any game where adjudication has not been ruled out before the game starts.
Council did not like these proposals. If the ECF wished to introduce either, we would want it to go to Council rather than the Board.
(c) ECF Player of the Year. Someone remarked that publishing running totals on the website while voting was in progress was inappropriate. Council agreed, and we would convey our feeling to the ECF CEO.
(d) ECF Minutes. Why so slow? Well, everyone's saying it.
(e) EC Forum. Was it true that ECF Directors and Officers were being "discouraged" from posting on the (non-ECF) Forum? A person who knew said yes, though no one knew how far-reaching it was. Maybe the rules might appear in the Directors and Officers Responsibilities Regulations at some point. (8) SCCU Bulletin. "Has there been any progress on digitisation of the SCCU Bulletin?" Whoops. About as much as there had been last time it came up. (Two years ago, was it?) The Editor would redirect his attention to it. No one knew what a professional job would cost, but we did have money in the bank.
The meeting closed at 6 pm, and was seamlessly followed by the traditional
SCCU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
28.6.14
which did routine things. (1) Appointment of BCF and ECF Reps. D Smith in both cases. (2) Appointment of Rules and Appeals Sub-Committee. J Denning, K Elder, A Fulton, M Gunn, RJ Haddrell, JA Philpott (3) Date of Next Meeting Friday 3rd October 2014. Dates of other meetings to be fixed then.
The meeting closed at 6.20 pm.
rjh 12.7.14
16.5.14 SCCU OPEN FIXTURES 2014-15
County Match Controller David Smith davidandjanesmith@ntlworld.com writes:
Here are the fixtures for the Open Division of the SCCU Counties Championship for next season 2014-15. Please note that venues have been reversed from 2013/2014, with one exception: the Surrey v Middlesex match, where a reversal would have led to three Middx homes and three Surrey aways, an even more unfair situation. My apologies to Anthony Fulton and his Middlesex squad for this necessary adjustment.
Oct 11
Nov 22
Jan 17
Feb 7
Mar 7
ESx SyM
KM SxSy
EK MSx
KSy ME
SxK SyE
May I emphasise that at this stage the fixtures are provisional and can be changed by agreement between the Counties and Match Captains concerned. If changes are made however please ensure that the following points are observed:
(a) Ensure that both myself and the SCCU Webmaster Richard Haddrell are advised.
(b) No matches are to be re-arranged for Saturday 28th March 2015.
Any queries, just say.
SCCU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
Friday 4th April 2014 at the Rotary District HQ, York Gate, London NW1
The Executive met at a nice new venue. 8 attended. (1) Glenroy Cup. The Glenroy, now at length repaired... What, we didn't tell you? Don't think we did at that. It is, of course, the Union's Individual Championship trophy and a seriously chunky piece of silverware. Its stem became severed, no one knows how, somewhere between the 2011-12 event where the Champion handed the trophy back after presentation, and the 12-13 event where the damage was discovered, presentation proceeded anyway, and the trophy was brought away for repair. That was in January 2013. In November at the 13-14 event it was still not repaired, for whatever reason, and new Champion Chris Ward never saw it.
But we were saying. The Glenroy Cup, now at length repaired, was at the meeting. Repaired and refurbished, and it looks rather splendid. The Secretary took it away and will arrange a suitable presentation. If he doesn't break it first. (2) Juniors. The SCCU U18 and U13 Jamborees had been a great success, with a record 22 teams - some of them very strong - and 151 players. Financially there would be a substantial surplus, possibly as much as £400. The Executive recognised the sterling work of Carol Graham, who had organised not only the Jamborees but also one Zone of the U14/130.
It was noted that next year's Jamborees will be hosted by Surrey at RGS Guildford. British Chess Educational Trust nomination. The meeting agreed a nomination for a BCET Award, and as always we won't say who the school are till the awards are announced. (3) SCCU Individual Championship 2014-15 and British Championship qualifying places 2015. Applications had been received from four congresses, matching the number of places in the Union's gift, and the Executive made awards to all four. SCCU Championship 2014-15: Hastings Masters. BCQ places: Hertfordshire Congress (November 2014); London Chess Classic Open; Weald Congress (July 2015, but places may be taken up in 2016).
You will remember (or if you don't, see item 4 from the meeting of 4th October below) that it had been hoped to make this decision slightly earlier in future. The idea was to do it by email. It hasn't happened, for reasons we won't go into, and it was agreed that the decision was best made at a meeting. (4) ECF Matters, with particular reference to the forthcoming ECF Council meeting 12.4.14.
The SCCU President was unable to attend this meeting, and it was agreed that the Deputy President would be his proxy.
(a) The Paulson proposal. The Executive had no enthusiasm for the Board's proposal that Council appoint Andrew Paulson as ECF Delegate at the 2014 ECU General Assembly. (The delegate, according to the "Directors and Officers Responsibilities Regulations", is supposed to be the Council-elected FIDE Delegate; who was understood not to favour usurpation.) The Board's proposal formed part of the package under which Mr Paulson had agreed to resign as ECF President. Some on the Executive had dark suspicions that the Board expected, if not intended, its proposal to fail. At all events the SCCU would vote against it.
(b) International The International Director (not the Board) proposed that money be allocated from the projected surplus to make good the expected shortfall in Olympiad funding. The Executive took no formal decision, but the consensus seemed to favour the Director's proposal.
Speaking of the projected surplus, the Executive noted that it was partly due to savings in the Office made possible by unpaid work done by John Philpott, the Company Secretary. We would propose a vote of thanks to him if no one else did.
(c) Game Fee. The Council agenda included two proposals, opposite if not equal, on Game Fee. One, from the Hastings club with the support of various leagues and counties, would reduce Game Fee on club internal events to 50p Standardplay, 25p Rapidplay. (Or 25% of the regular Game fee if less.) The Executive would oppose this.
The other, from the Board, was to increase Game Fee by 12½ per cent. This excludes Game Fee (unofficially, and lamentably, called pay-to-play) in congresses. The proposal is political, of course. The Board proposes no increase in Membership fees, and seeks to drive the wedge in a little bit further in the direction of compulsory Membership. We cannot say how far the Executive's view was informed by politics, but it would not support this increase. Should it go to a card vote, we would vote for the status quo.
No one knew, offhand, how much income the 12½ per cent increase would yield. Your Webmaster has done some arithmetic since and thinks about £1800 on current takeup, but you know what he is about money.
(d) ECF County Match Rules. Not about the forthcoming Council meeting, but this is as good a place to put it as any. It's about the draw methodology. There has been some discontent, we think mostly in MCCU quarters, about Unions' first and second nominees being placed in the same half of the draw. This is not against the rules, which merely stipulate that they be kept apart till the semi-finals. It is said, though we can't vouch for it, that unofficial attempts used to be made to keep them apart till the Final. This can be done - you could even make it official - and we've an idea the MCCU will propose it at the ECF AGM. What stance should the SCCU take? We'll ask the (SCCU) AGM.
There's another oddity about this year's draw. We've mentioned it elsewhere. Seven teams have quarter-final byes in the January draw, and every single one of them is at home in the semi-finals. You'd almost think the rules stipulated it.
The meeting closed at 9.09 pm.
rjh 7.4.14
SCCU SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING
Saturday 12th October 2013 (6.15 pm) at the Euston Square Hotel, London NW1 2LU (piggy-backing on an ECF AGM)
8 attended. In fact after a degree of arm-twisting to ensure a quorum of 8 there was actually a small surplus of persons, and some were excused.
This was the meeting we would have had earlier had there been time to give notice: see item 7 in the next meeting down. Council met to ratify the new County Match Rule 5(c), and did so with two amendments. The new Rules are on the site.
The meeting closed at 6.30 pm.
rjh 23.10.13
SCCU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
Friday 4th October 2013 (7 pm) at the International Students House, 229 Great Portland St, London W1W 5PN
9 (and an observer) attended. (1) Money. The Treasurer said our Game Fee bill from the ECF was just in. (Bit late? Yes.) Our county match bill is for £60-odd, so a pretty modest 30-odd halfgames by non-Members out of a total of 1900. The SCCU will bill the Counties. Our Junior (U14/130) bill is for £100, so 400 halfgames (at the Junior Rapidplay rate of 25p) out of 900, and the Union will pay it. Some wondered whether it ought to, but the entry fee covers it and the principle was established a year or two ago.
You don't want to know this, but we updated the list of Signatories. For cheques, that is. We are supposed to have four, but officers come and go and we were down to two. The two new ones will spend a pleasant few weeks waiting on the Bank's paperwork. You haven't asked, but the regular and intended four are Treasurer, President, Deputy President and Secretary. The existing two are Treasurer and Secretary.
Pedants' Corner. We refer to Item 6 in the next meeting down. The Executive noted that the AGM was not actually allowed to change the Auditor's title to Independent Examiner, because he's Auditor according to the Rules. Someone got careless and we must change the rules at the first opportunity, but in the meantime he's unapologetically Independent Examiner in Who's Who. (2) Juniors. The U14/130 is under way, as you knew. The Junior Jamborees will provisionally be hosted by Sussex in March 2014. It was noted that our BCET nomination (see two meetings down, item 5) had been accepted. It's Ravenscroft School, Canning Town. [Note 10.10.13. The award winners are now on the ECF's Council page, and we see that Barnet Knights CC are also listed. While undoubtedly in the SCCU's area, they were not nominated by the Union.] (3) ECF Matters. Or, thoughts on the following weekend's ECF AGM.
The Executive addressed four areas of the agenda.
(a) Elections. Discussions, and straw polls, on the contested elections were fairly inconclusive, if you don't count the one that involved a former and not wholly successful Manager of Home Services. There was also a straw poll on an unopposed incumbent, and None of the Above only scored 29% of the vote. We're not going to say who the Union's voting for. It wasn't even decided. Our rep will decide on the day.
(b) Requisitionists. Yes, you do. It's on the ECF website. The Executive opposed this proposal on the ground that it diminished the SCCU's right to make proposals at General Meetings (but recognised that it similarly diminished that of its proposer). Your Webmaster opposed it on the ground that he didn't understand it. What's a Full Individual Member when it's at home?
(c) County Matches. We've been here before, but the NCCU proposals from a year ago have still not reached the head of the queue. (They were NCCU proposals, but it's probably fair to say it's the Home Director who has kept the issue alive.) The Executive thought we might live with it if one division disappeared, but would not wish to change the number of boards. Of course, our practice at Union level would not obviously have to mirror ECF changes.
(d) Complaints Procedure. The ECF have now come up with a procedure which applies to officers but not Directors. Strong objections were expressed at the meeting, but we're not sure the Executive formed any conclusions. Some people can't work up much passion about Codes of Practice and Complaints Procedures, though we're not suggesting more than one of them was present. (4) SCCU Individual Titles. There has occasionally been difficulty establishing players' qualification for titles. (So-and-so isn't obviously qualified, but maybe he was born in the SCCU and emigrated aged six months, or maybe he's taken refuge from Yorkshire and belongs to an SCCU club now.) These things aren't hard to check, but no one ever seems to think of it till the last minute. So we will ask title-seekers to tick a box on the entry form in future, and if we want to query someone we can at least do so before he plays. Seems obvious, really.
It was also agreed to try and allocate the BCQ places a bit earlier in future, for the benefit of early-season congresses with entry forms to prepare. (5) Rules & Appeals Sub-Committee. The Executive appointed an additional member: Anthony Fulton of Middx. (6) Executive Meetings. The Executive spent some time discussing the regular meeting day. It has been Friday for as long as we can remember, but Friday venues seem to have become difficult. No one wanted to switch days, and the venue we came up with is very nice if a bit dearer than recent ones. (7) SCCU County Match Rules It had been hoped to double this meeting up with an SGM to ratify the new Rule 5(c). Unfortunately, venue-hunting did not leave time for the three weeks' notice prescribed for General Meetings. So an SGM has been called for Saturday 12th October piggy-backing on the ECF AGM. (8) Future meetings. Executive Friday 4.4.14; AGM Saturday 28.6.14. Plus, if quorate, the Special meeting just mentioned.
The meeting closed at 9.43 pm
rjh 10.10.13, revised 11.10.13