2011 AGM: October 15th

[Roger de Coverly]

There's a recent piece about chess boxing on the Streatham blog.
http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... ot-in.html

The archive goes back five years.
http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... index.html

[Andrew Farthing]

May I ask how on earth this chessboxing guy has received two nominations for Director of Marketing, one of them from Andrew Farthing?

Prior to the last Board meeting on 31 August, Stewart had advised the Board of his proposal to appoint Tim Woolgar as his Alternate and of Tim's possible interest in the role of Director of Marketing. Stewart was overseas on 31 August and would be until after 7th Sept, the deadline for nominations. He had previously indicated that he could not be certain of accessing e-mails, so the Board agreed that, in the absence of Stewart, I should nominate Tim to ensure that the deadline was not missed.

In the event, Stewart was able to access and send e-mails and submitted his own nomination as well.

Just one of those things caused by the holiday season!

[Andrew Farthing]

Another holiday season related point.

I've been away for a week playing at Paignton and out of contact. I saw the original query and answered it before I reached the later posts giving more or less the same information.

Sorry about that.

[Neill Cooper]

I think many of us not involved in Junior Chess would find it very useful to hear from those who are what they think about the Candidate's manifestos (Neill Cooper and Richard James spring to mind, plus the vocal parents on here)

My main involvement with juniors involves them playing in representative teams (school, club, county). This has had very little direct overlap with the activities recent ECF Junior Directors who have focused on the strongest players. It is good to see in Paul's statement an interest in juniors of all abilities and school chess teams, which I think is also true of Sabrina (whose manifesto I have not seen).

[Sabrina Chevannes]

Hi Neill

I am not sure why mine wasn't posted, so I have posted it in the other thread: Sabrina Chevannes/Phil Ehr for JD

[John Philpott]

Tim Woolgar's election statement as candidate for the post of Marketing Director has now appeared on the ECF website and can be viewed at http://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-conte ... oolgar.pdf

[Sean Hewitt]

Tim Woolgar's election statement as candidate for the post of Marketing Director has now appeared on the ECF website and can be viewed at http://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-conte ... oolgar.pdf

Thanks John. Two bits interested me in particular

I was tremendously honoured to be asked to stand for the role of Marketing Director of the ECF and feel proud to be given the opportunity to present my candidacy.

So someone from the ECF approached Mr Woolgar rather than the other way around. Do we know who this was, and whether they considered the conflict of interest issue?

...we are on course for official recognition by Sport England within the next six months.

which sounds great, but which appears to be at odds with this

Woolgar is now campaigning to Sport England to have Chessboxing officially recognised. That must be true, surely?

But true, it is surely not. I emailed Sport England, to ask. An official replied:

I can confirm that Sport England has not received any recognition applications in respect of chessboxing.

Hmmm.

[David Sedgwick]

So someone from the ECF approached Mr Woolgar rather than the other way around. Do we know who this was, and whether they considered the conflict of interest issue?

Existing Directors not infrequently approach people theythink are suitable and encourage them to apply for actual or potential vacancies. There's nothing wrong with that in principle, is there?

[Sean Hewitt]

Existing Directors not infrequently approach people theythink are suitable and encourage them to apply for actual or potential vacancies. There's nothing wrong with that in principle, is there?

In principle, not at all. But...

Do we know...whether they considered the conflict of interest issue?

[Steve Rooney]

Tim Woolgar's election statement as candidate for the post of Marketing Director has now appeared on the ECF website and can be viewed at http://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-conte ... oolgar.pdf

Compared to the statements from the two candidates for the Junior Director post, this one seems to be lacking in much detail or insight.

I share Sean's concerns about conflicts of interest, and also have a strong distaste for the idea of linking the mindless sport of boxing with the mindsport, chess. I hope there is a voting option for 'none of the above'. In the marketing role, which is by definition an external-facing one, a willing volunteer is not necessarily better than a vacancy until the right candidate comes forward.

[IM Jack Rudd]

There's always a voting option for "none of the above".

[Roger de Coverly]

I hope there is a voting option for 'none of the above'.

At last year's elections, Council, despite some issues about voting procedures, decided that it preferred "none of the above" to Malcolm Pein for a vacancy as non-executive director.

There's a report at
http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/bcf.htm

[Carl Hibbard]

Tim Woolgar's election statement as candidate for the post of Marketing Director has now appeared on the ECF website and can be viewed at http://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-conte ... oolgar.pdf

Hard to support Tim for this role to be honest

[Sean Hewitt]

Tim Woolgar's election statement as candidate for the post of Marketing Director has now appeared on the ECF website and can be viewed at http://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-conte ... oolgar.pdf

Hard to support Tim for this role to be honest

Agreed. As it stands, I shall be voting none of the above. I understand at least two other council members will be doing likewise.

[Stewart Reuben]

Sean Hewitt >So someone from the ECF approached Mr Woolgar rather than the other way around. Do we know who this was, and whether they considered the conflict of interest issue?<

Of course it was I who approached Tim concerning the possibility of his having an input to marketing and from there it grew to his candidature. Nobody else has shown any interest in the post for two years and that is not for lack of hunting.

The person who has had most problems with conflict of interest when holding a post of responsibility in the BCF/ECF is of course ME. Those battles go back to 1978. They can be resolved with goodwill (though often it was on my side, not that of some Board members). Before I joined the Board there was substantial hostility to me as a fee-earning chess organiser. Clearly it must be possible to resolve any conflict issues, I have held more different posts, for a longer period than the rest of the current activity directors put together.

The current Marketing budget represents my views. Apart from the cost of the awards, I would expect to reap more money than the ECF allocated to any project. Often money has come into other director's budgets which can be regarded as coming in via marketing. Of course that directorship, like finance strectches over all of the ECF's activities.

Stewart Reuben