ECF 2024 AGM

[John Reyes]

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-agm ... nations-2/

Nominations are invited for the positions detailed below, which will be the subject of elections to be held at the Annual General Meeting on 26th October 2024. Posts due for election are listed below together with the intentions of the current holders regarding re-standing.

Members of the Board
President – Dominic Lawson is intending to stand
Chief Executive – Mike Truran is intending to stand*
Director of Finance – Alex Longson is still to confirm if he wishes to continue**
Director of Women’s Chess – Aga Milewska is intending to stand
Director of Junior Chess – Alex Holowczak is intending to stand
Non-Executive Director 3 – Katarzyna Toma is not intending to stand

Other elected posts
Chair of the Council – David Eustace is intending to stand
FIDE Delegate – Malcolm Pein is intending to stand
Chair of the Governance Committee – Robert Stern is intending to stand

Members of the Governance Committee (this Committee has no fixed size) – Mark Murrell is to be nominated by the Chair of Governance
Members of the Finance Committee – Zoe Varney is to be nominated by the Chair of the Finance Committee

Notes
* Mike Truran is standing for election but wishes to stand down in October 2025 after many years of service in this role. The Board will be seeking a suitably qualified successor.
** An update on whether Alex Longson wishes to continue as Finance Director will be published on 9th September.

The rota setting out the positions on the Board that are subject to election in any given year is set out at the end of Regulation No. 2. To be eligible to stand for election, a candidate must be a member of the ECF on the day of the AGM.

Each candidate for a post must be a nominee of the Board or a person proposed by ‘the Requisitionists’ as defined in the Articles (see the website post https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-agm ... motions-3/).

Nominations must be made by Thursday 19th September by sending an email to the Chair of Council – [email protected] – entitled ‘AGM 2024 Nominations’.

By way of departure from existing practice, the AGM agenda will only set out the nominations required to enable a candidate to stand for election. Excess nominations will not be included.

Election Addresses
A duly nominated candidate has the right to have an election address published on the ECF website. The body of the election address must be no more than 750 words in length. All election addresses received by the nomination deadline will be published simultaneously on the website: any election addresses received after the deadline will not be published.
Election addresses are published in PDF format. Addresses submitted in this format will be published as received, preserving any internal formatting. Addresses submitted in other formats, including plain text, will be converted into PDF format (or referred back if the format is not known to us). Exact formatting match cannot in these cases be guaranteed. Revisions to a submitted address will be permitted up to the nomination deadline but must be complete resubmissions – the Chair or ECF staff will not make alterations on behalf of candidates. After the deadline no revised submissions will be accepted, even of a minor nature.

Conduct of Candidates
Candidates are required to comply with the Code of Conduct – Regulation No. 4 – for the election campaign period.

Responsibilities
The responsibilities of individual directors are set out in the Directors and Officers Responsibilities Regulations – Regulation No. 2 – which is available on the ECF website. Candidates should note that the Board has the power to amend these Regulations at any time.

— David Eustace, Chair of Council

[John Reyes]

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-agm ... motions-3/

Motions

The 2024 Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 26th October 2024 in London with access also by Zoom (starting time 1.30pm). In addition to the prescribed business (including the election of Directors, the Chairman of the Council, the FIDE Delegate and members of Standing Committees, which is the subject of a separate post), motions to appear on the agenda must either be proposed by the Board or be proposed by ‘the requisitionists’. The deadline for motions by requisitionists to be received is Thursday 19th September and should be sent to Chairman of Council –[email protected] – entitled ‘AGM 2024 Motion’.

‘The requisitionists’ comprise any of the following ‘full’ members (as defined by Article 1.1) –

any Director;
the Chairman of the Council;
the FIDE Delegate;
a Chairman of a Standing Committee;
any Representative Member of a Constituent Unit;
any two Representative Members of Counties;
any two Direct Members’ Representatives;
any two of a Representative Member of a County or a Direct Members’ Representative;
any five Individual Members or Representative Members of the Council.

Please contact the Chair of Council, David Eustace Email: [email protected] if any assistance is required with the drafting and presentation of a motion.

— David Eustace, Chair of Council

[David Gilbert]

John Reyes posted this ten days ago. Sure most readers would have been out like a light before they reached the end, but isn't it a bit surprising that no one has mentioned that in a year from now Mike Truran will be standing down as Chief Executive. Personally I believe Mike has done (is doing) an excellent job and it will be a real challenge to fill his shoes.

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-agm ... nations-2/


Chief Executive – Mike Truran is intending to stand*

* Mike Truran is standing for election but wishes to stand down in October 2025 after many years of service in this role. The Board will be seeking a suitably qualified successor.

[Mick Norris]

I don't know what is more surprising, that Mike is standing down or that he's stuck it out so long

He's been excellent indeed

[MJMcCready]

Is the zoom link for this going to be made available?

[John Reyes]

Is the zoom link for this going to be made available?

Only for people who will be attending the AGM

Will you be there and under which rep will you be

[John Upham]

Is the zoom link for this going to be made available?

As I recall the notion of a publicly accessible meeting was shunned on the grounds that

"it could bring the ECF into disrepute"

I did not read the justification for this assertion.

I gather the motto was "What happens in ECF Council stays in ECF Council": I'm sure the doyen of ECF Council meetings, Richard Haddrell, would concur.

[MJMcCready]

What goes on tour stays on tour huh? That doesn't sound conducive to attracting interest from members who want to know what they are paying their fees for. Don't they want to move towards transparency?

[Roger de Coverly]

Don't they want to move towards transparency?

You might well suspect not.

Every so often a piece of infighting within the Board will surface, but they try to keep it as quiet as possible and behind closed doors. Hence the embargo on directors posting to this very forum and that published minutes are often redacted in places.

[Paul Cooksey]

The lack of transparency is layered, in that the Board try to tell Council as little as possible. But you can argue it is what the members want. Only two people offered opinions when the Pearce report solicited them. 50% of those were me.

It would be fitting memorial to Mike's approach if the Board are able to appoint his successor without troubling Council.

[Roger de Coverly]

It would be fitting memorial to Mike's approach if the Board are able to appoint his successor without troubling Council.

I could imagine that was the general idea.

Council would still eventually get a vote to affirm his successor. If a majority of Council, or at least a majority of votes were unhappy with the choice, there is still the "none of the above" option.

Just checking the timetable of actions, if a successor was appointed in July 2025, the October 2025 meeting would then have to elect him or her. If it was November 2025, presumably the vote would not take place until October 2026.

[Mick Norris]

Re-electing the President would seem pointless after the change of government

It would seem to make sense to approach Angela or Maria Eagle, or Ellie Reeves to lobby her sister (apart from the general point that electing a female President would help the ECF appear more welcoming for female players)

[Richard Bates]

Re-electing the President would seem pointless after the change of government

It would seem to make sense to approach Angela or Maria Eagle, or Ellie Reeves to lobby her sister (apart from the general point that electing a female President would help the ECF appear more welcoming for female players

Notwithstanding the merits of the final point, I think it is somewhat simplistic to argue that if you are looking for a President assist from a political standpoint that you want to have somebody with a Labour background. My feeling would be that for “minority” pursuits party political background is probably pretty irrelevant and/or doesn’t represent a specific barrier. There’s still a lot of working across party lines, and if anything being able to take party politics out of it is an advantage. And the success that the ECF had in the last Parliament will have been aided by contacts/networks with officials etc that shouldn’t be lightly thrown away, even if there’s some degree of starting again.

And all your names are ministers so will be more concerned with their own portfolios I would think.

[Roger Lancaster]

Re-electing the President would seem pointless after the change of government

It would seem to make sense to approach Angela or Maria Eagle, or Ellie Reeves to lobby her sister (apart from the general point that electing a female President would help the ECF appear more welcoming for female players)

Agree with Richard above. And, apart from anything else, what Mick proposes would appear (and rightly so) as opportunistic.

[Roger Lancaster]

Every so often a piece of infighting within the Board will surface, but they try to keep it as quiet as possible and behind closed doors. Hence the embargo on directors posting to this very forum and that published minutes are often redacted in places.

Most people would consider it a healthy sign that, within any Board or similar decision-making body, there are people with different backgrounds who hold diverse opinions. However, it's also normal for such bodies to keep these differences "behind closed doors" and the current outcry over HMG special advisers' pay indicates what can happen when differences are publicly revealed. Whether, in the case of the ECF Board there's too much dissent is another matter although, if a generally well-regarded chief executive feels obliged to stand down, that's suggestive.