2016

Minutes of 5th AGM of Austin Friars /Carlisle Chess Club

Held at on Thursday 1st September 2016 in the clubroom.

Attended by Alan Little, Alan Hiatt, Phil Walters, John Lydon, Mike Hodgkinson, Drew Millar, Ian Mackay and Bill Hardwick (8).

1 Apologies – were received from Dave Siddall, Mike Byrne and Dave Bogle.

2 Chairman’s Address (GG) – George Glover was not present at the meeting.

3 Minutes of the 2015 AGM (no 4) – The minutes have been circulated and are accepted as being correct.

4 Secretary’s Report (BH)

I believe that it has been another good year for the club. We again entered 3 teams in the Cumbria league with our A team finishing 3rd league (4th last season). We also entered 3 teams in the Whitaker Cup with one team reaching the semi-finals. In the South Tyne League we once again had two teams and the Friars tied for first place in the table. We also entered a team in the NCCU club competition for the first time for some years and “reached” the semi-final – only four teams took part. I’m pleased to say that this year we won both the Borders Cup and the Eden Trophy matches – against Dumfries and against Penrith.

We had two innovations during the season with, at Phil Walter’s suggestion, the Club Championship becoming an all-play-all as both black and as white event, and with 3 points for a win and 1 point for draw for the first time. The winner once again was George Glover, so congratulation to him. The new format has been well received with the vast majority of scheduled games being completed and competitive games taking place more or less every Thursday evening.

The other innovation, for which we must thank John Lydon both for the idea and for organising the competiton, was the Knockout Cup which again was very well received and the winner of the new Trophy was John Kelly.

Last season we began a having a few coaching evenings on Club nights, making use of our new Demonstration boards and this season Phil Walters also organised a Puzzle Night which was a great success and suitable challenging. Congratulations again to Ian Mackay for winning on the night. I’m sure we would welcome a repeat of any of these one-night specials and it has also been suggested that we could set aside some Thursday night for perhaps a Blitz completion. If anyone would like to pursue any of these ideas it would be appreciated and supported.

5 Treasurer’s Report (BH)

Firstly my apologies because the cash statement that I sent out with the agenda was wrong and the correct version has now been circulated. You will see that there was a loss for the year of £16.59 after disregarding the cash we had been holding from the Cumbria Individual Championships which we knew was payable to the ECF. During the year we bought a new Trophy for the Knockout Cup which was a one-off item.

In the past I have always assumed that the cost of engraving any team trophies should be covered by the club but that Individual winners should meet the cost themselves, because that is what we have always done. However, Phil Walters happened to mention in passing that he felt that all engraving costs should be met by the club and I now tend to think that is probably right. This was discussed and agreed upon.

I propose that we should keep our membership fees unchanged this year at £5.00 (Juniors £2.00).

Cumbria Chess fees have been left the same at £6.00 (Juniors £1.00) and ECF fees are also unchanged at Bronze £15.00, Silver £22.00 and Gold £32.00.

6 Membership Secretary’s Report (BH)

Numbers this year rose to 21 adults but no juniors for the first time. Last year it was 17 adults and 2 juniors. This season I am assuming that we will lose Jason Maxwell and Dave Bogle will not usually be coming to our club nights but say he could play the odd match if needed. On the other hand we can welcome Tammy Jones and Stavros Karampatos would like to play for us in the same way that Mike Green does. I have also been contacted by Terry Tyson who is due to move to Cumbria from Spain this month and looks likely to join us.

7 Website Organiser’s report (DB) – Dave Bogle set up a new club website for us and we now need someone to maintain it with regular updates of information. John Lydon and Ian Mackay have volunteered for this and Dave Bogle has offered to provide the necessary training once we can arrange to meet up. He is due to be away for the next 5 or 6 weeks.

8 Election of Officers :-
Chairman (GG)
Secretary (BH)
Membership Secretary (BH)
Treasurer (BH)
Website Organiser (DB)

Each of these positions was confirmed.

9 How many teams should we enter in the Cumbria League, the Whitaker Cup and the South Tyne League this season?

After discussion we agreed to enter teams as we did last year – three in the Cumbrian league and in the Whitaker Cup and two teams in the South Tyne league.

10 Election of Team Captains;-

“A Team” – (PR)

“B” Team – (IM) – Ian Mackay said that he would be prepared to stand down and Alan Hiatt has agreed to be the new B team captain.

“C” Team – (BH)

Austins – (BH)

Friars – (??) Phil Walters will not be playing in the South Tyne League this year and we have still to appoint a new Friars captain.

Whitaker Cup “A” Team (JL)

Whitaker Cup “B” Team (IM)

Whitaker Cup “C” Team (??) – Alan Hiatt has agreed to take over from Phil Walters

11 Club Championship 2016;- Winner George Glover

Club Knockout Cup 2016;– Winner John Kelly

Both trophies have already been presented to the winners.

12 Proposals; – None were received

13 Next AGM – Date and venue – The next meeting will be held in late August or early September 2017, provided that a meeting is required.

14 Any other business

a) We discussed the issue of Fischer Timing and agreed that as before, there are no objections to using this in any club league or cup match if both players are agreeable. It was suggested that if possible a Fischer time match should try to commence at say 7.15pm because of the possibility of a longer than usual game. Alternatively, one of the players may be a keyholder.
b) We have already agreed that the new Club Championship format went down very well but agreed that it was unfortunate that it was eventually decided with a few important matches being unplayed – even though the vast majority of scheduled games were completed. It was suggested by Phil Walters and Ian Mackay that we need not adhere rigorously to a completion date. This was discussed and it was agreed that in future we will state a date by which matches should ideally be completed but if by then there are any games outstanding , particularly ones which may have a bearing on the competition winner, then these can take place any time prior to the following AGM.

Everyone was thanked for attending and the meeting closed.

Bill Hardwick – Secretary.