Finance Council Meeting

[Sean Hewitt]

Confirmed that the financial guarantee for the legal action is from Kasparov International Management LLC, a New York registered company.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Managed to double post somehow.

Will use it to ask whether you want footie updates John? (I'm assuming you have access to info should you want it but just thought I'd check)

[Jonathan Bryant]

(a) Thanks for those providing updates.

(b) Is the server location issue something to do with national boundaries? Very much not my area of expertise but our servers at work are located in America which causes legal issues to do with the transport of data abroad. Just a thought.

[John Philpott]

Roger de Coverly wroite

Perhaps jumping to conclusions, I interpreted the "to date" column as being what the accounts say at the moment and the "Forecast" column as being what they ought to say once they are sorted out and presented for audit. As they relate to a past event, there ought not to be any additional items of income or expenditure apart from the VAT reclaim.

The "to date" column represents the figures that were extracted from the accounting records by the Finance Director at the time that the budget document was prepared: the document that appeared on the website simply repeated these figures in the forecast column. There were a number of anomalies with the allocation of items to account codes within the ledger which I have been working with the Manager of Finance and Management Services in recent weeks to try to resolve. The forecast column in the revised document represents my best take on the figures as they will appear in the books after these anomalies have been corrected.

The carried forward surplus from Canterbury does not feature in either the to date or the forecast column: these both reflect the numbers specifically relating to Sheffield. The budget for Sheffield had envisaged the possibility that a loss of up to £4,000 would be made (in the same ballpark as the Canterbury surplus): in the event a surplus of over £2,000 has been made.

[John Philpott]

The report providing an update on CAS Arbitration was rejected on a card vote by 103 votes to 73.

[Roger de Coverly]

Bequest/ Donations 8233

If this item doesn't contain any element of carried forward income from Canterbury, are we to assume this answers the question posed by various blogs as to how much was contributed directly by the President, the President's Personal Company or activities connected with the President? Noting this is the same amount as previously recorded, presumably it reflects cash going through the ECF's books?

[Richard Bates]

Bequest/ Donations 8233

If this item doesn't contain any element of carried forward income from Canterbury, are we to assume this answers the question posed by various blogs as to how much was contributed directly by the President, the President's Personal Company or activities connected with the President? Noting this is the same amount as previously recorded, presumably it reflects cash going through the ECF's books?

I think you might find that a few other people made donations.

Sims and Lander prize still going?

[Carl Hibbard]

Andrew Farthing indicated that the Board had decided in principle to contract with Cvent for the online member enrolment and renewal solution. This provoked a number of specific questions about what would this would provide and what it would cost (the answer to the latter appeared to be £5,800 pa), and a general comment from one representative with which Andrew did not agree, that a detailed specification should have been provided as part of the papers for the meeting.

Lunacy for 6K per annum that has to be some sort of specification somewhere?

[Roger de Coverly]

(b) Is the server location issue something to do with national boundaries? Very much not my area of expertise but our servers at work are located in America which causes legal issues to do with the transport of data abroad. Just a thought.

cvent appears to be an American company, so its servers are presumably in the USA. If anyone compelled against their will to become an ECF member to continue with their chess activity wished to cause an issue, refusing to agree to their data being transferred out of the UK/EU is certainly one.

[Roger de Coverly]

Lunacy for 6K per annum that has to be some sort of specification somewhere?

Quickly looking at the webpage and the online presentation, it appears that cvent is rather more of a framework into which you put your own content. It describes itself as event management software, so, at a cost, you could use it to collect and manage entries for a Chess Congress.

Reading between the lines, the annual cost is presumably for a licence fee. Someone still has to write the content and communication, either using office resources or time donated from a volunteer, Presumably also, you, the ECF, have to account and reconcile the several thousand additional payments you expect to hit your bank account every year.

[John Philpott]

Carl Hibbard wrote

Lunacy for 6K per annum that has to be some sort of specification somewhere?

I did not say that there was not a specification: the disgreement was over whether this should have formed part of the paperwork for the meeting (the volume of which has been criticised on another thread) or was going into detail which it was not the role of Council to consider.

[Roger de Coverly]

or was going into detail which it was not the role of Council to consider.

Council claims to represent individual players, even if only indirectly. Every individual player is going to be expected to visit the membership website every year, unless either a three year member or an MO member. Therefore the look, content and function of this website is the interaction between the ECF and individuals and Council should fully expect to be consulted.

[John Philpott]

The meeting has proceeded to consider the report of the Chairman of the Finance Committee which was approved with thanks. This was the point of the meeting at which the revised page of British Championship figures was presented to the meeting. The ensuing debate ultimately led to the following motion being proposed

Council considers that the conduct of the President brings his performance of his role into question and calls for a full review of his activities

This was lost on a card vote by 93 votes to 84.

[John Philpott]

Lawrence Cooper has been appointed as International Rating Officer. Sean Hewitt's proposal to move reporting responsibility from Home to International was seconded by the Home Director, supported by the Board and passed with two votes against on a show of hands.

[John Philpott]

Meanwhile at the Boleyn Ground it is West Ham 6 (Vaz Te 3, Nolan, Cole, Dicker og) Brighton 0. Given that West Ham beat Blackpool 4 - 0 on the day of the AGM last October, Sean Hewitt has suggested that it would be in West Ham's interest that I missed more matches.