Annual General Meeting 2013

[JustinHadi]

Biggest day for English Chess since 2004?

[John Philpott]

And we are off, with about 40 in the room but including a few guests/election candidates without votes. Minimal changes to the voting register (there is a total of 312 votes available). Chris Majer and Mike Truran appointed as tellers, although Mike will hand over to Andrew Leadbetter when he arrives. Mike Gunn indicated tight controls on the length of speeches. After 12 minutes the first five agenda items had been completed and we are on to County Championship proposals.

[John Philpott]

The original County Championship proposals by the NCCU were rejected overwhelmingly. There were a couple of amendments to Alex Holowczak's counter-proposals accepted: the vote on the substantive proposal was tied 11 - 11, with the Chairman exercising a casting vote in favour of the status quo. There was then a call for a card vote which is now in progress.

[Matthew Carr]

There was then a call for a card vote which is now in progress.

For those of us fortunate enough not to have gone to one of these meetings. Whats a card vote?

[John Philpott]

The card vote on Alex Holowczak's proposals as amended was lost by 88 to 89. The SCCU proposal on County Championship rules was lost narrowly on a show of hands: a request for a card vote was declined.

Charitable status. The summary of responses to the consultations had been published: there had been little recent progress. David Sedgwick spoke to draw attention to related developments within the EBU, which seemed to be heading in the direction of specifically hiving off junior activities.

Neville Belinfante raised a valid concern about the piecemeal appearance of papers on the website: the Board had tried to do better on this front for the present meeting, but accepted that it needed to try even harder.

[Mick Norris]

There was then a call for a card vote which is now in progress.

For those of us fortunate enough not to have gone to one of these meetings. Whats a card vote?

When you register at the start of the meeting, you are given cards - for the ECF, these show the number of votes you are entitled to (not for the BCF meeting, you only get 1 vote for that)

The MCF has 4 votes, so Amin our delegate has only 1 in a show of hands, but 4 (or more actually, as he has proxies too) by means of a card vote

[Mick Norris]

The card vote on Alex Holowczak's proposals as amended was lost by 88 to 89.

Wow, that was close (especially as there are 312 votes available)

Seems to be support for change, but no agreement as to what, hence the status quo - will be interesting to see if it surfaces again

[Matthew Carr]

There was then a call for a card vote which is now in progress.

For those of us fortunate enough not to have gone to one of these meetings. Whats a card vote?

When you register at the start of the meeting, you are given cards - for the ECF, these show the number of votes you are entitled to (not for the BCF meeting, you only get 1 vote for that)

The MCF has 4 votes, so Amin our delegate has only 1 in a show of hands, but 4 (or more actually, as he has proxies too) by means of a card vote

Thank you Mick

[David Shepherd]

A consolidated voting register with proxies is available here.

I make it that the top five vote holders are:
- Sean Hewitt with 26 votes (including 6 proxies);
- Ben Edgell 17 (5);
- David Sedgwick 16 (11); * Corrected *
- William Metcalfe 15 (10);
- Mike Truran 14 (0).

Strangely the 5 above total 88 votes - this shows what a big influence they have if they all vote the same way. Given these "huge" amounts of votes held by some a card vote could be very different to a show of hands. If the SCCU proposal was narrowly lost why was a card vote declined?

[Roger de Coverly]

Biggest day for English Chess since 2004?

What happened in 2004 of note? As far as meetings are concerned, it was 2006 that featured the only partially successful attempt to unseat Gerry Walsh and his supporters.

[Neil Graham]

Biggest day for English Chess since 2004?

What happened in 2004 of note? As far as meetings are concerned, it was 2006 that featured the only partially successful attempt to unseat Gerry Walsh and his supporters.

That was the year I stood down as Director of Congress Chess.

[Andrew Camp]

All this for a board game.

[JustinHadi]

Adams - Kasimdzhanov. Could have led to a bona fide world title shot (and associated publicity)

[John Philpott]

We are working our way through officers' reports. I ended up addressing Finance in the absence of Chris Mattos. With the financial year end now 31 August, the annual accounts will going forward be laid before the Finance Council in April rather than the AGM. Based on the work done to date I suggested a likely surplus of at least £5,000 for the 16 month period ended 31 August 2013: this was largely attributable to the high number of participants at the British Championships in Torquay, with the main area of uncertainty being the amount of Game Fee that will ultimately be collected.

There was quite a lot of discussion on the Home Director's report. I suspect that the International Director's report is not going to pass without comment given the decision not to send a Women's team to the European Team Championships: Alex Holowczak has read out a statement by Jovanka Houska.

[John McKenna]

Andrew C>All this for a board game. <
Not just a board game - the board game of choice!

I would like to echo Angus' question above about why exactly there was no card vote on the SCCU's proposal when the initial vote was so close?