Page published 2006

Minutes of the 2006 MCCU General Meeting

19th November 2006 2.30 pm at Erdington Conservative Club, Erdington

1) Apologies

Roy Woodcock, Bruce Holland, David Pardoe, Graham Humphries, Peter Gibbs

2) Minutes of the 2006 AGM

2.1) Accuracy - minutes accepted

2.2) Matters Arising. – Neil Graham passed on his thanks regarding his expenses claim.

3) President's Address

Roy is currently in hospital, preventing him from providing a report.

4) Reports

4.1) Chief Executive – written report received

4.2) Finance Director - the first part of year sees little activity. An application had been received for donation relating to the Braille Chess Championships to be held in England, it was agreed to donate £40.

4.3) Junior Chesss – Graham Humphries wife is still ill, but he has recently secured some assistance with her care.

4.4) Events:

4.4.1) Midland Individual

4.4.2) Midland Open

Previously comment has indicated little support for the MCCU to attempt to run these events.

4.5) Public Relations – The CEO continues to produce the Newsletter.

4.6) Grading – Only one request had been received for a small number of hardcopy grading books. It was clearly not viable to produce small numbers.

4.7) County Teams – The U175 Jamboree was set up for Blackfords Club near Cannock, with 3 teams entered. The meeting agreed that should any of the teams withdraw they will still be responsible for 1/3rd of the costs.

Some discussion ensued concerning team numbers in the graded sections, with suggestions that 12 a side would perhaps make it easier for counties to raise teams & thus provide more entries. As the matter had not been a specific agenda item the meeting felt that no firm decision could be made by the meeting.

It was pointed out that, although the MCCU stage rules do not need to mirror the ECF rules, the situation as ECF level would be felt to be an important factor. However, changes to the ECF rules are made at the April Council Meeting, because the AGM in October takes place after the event starts. Thus if the MCCU wished to make any proposals relating to the 2007/8 competition, they would have to be made at the April 2007 Council Meeting. The CEO expressed doubts that any motion for a reduction in team numbers at ECF level would find majority support across the country.

It was agreed that –

Consultation should take place and if there was support for a reduction from 16 to 12 boards per county team in the graded sections, a motion should be put to the ECF Council Meeting April 2007 & to the MCCU AGM.

The issue of qualification for the Minor Counties at ECF level was raised. The meeting felt that whether a team competed in Div 1 or 2 should not determine eligibility for the event. For the current season existing arrangements will need to be applied.

Going forward it was agreed that - For the ECF Minor Championship the 1st place be offered to the highest eligible team in Division 1 & 2nd place be offered to teams in descending finishing order.

4.8) Correspondence Chess

4.8.1) Individual

4.8.2) Team

The CEO reported that there were problems with both events. The Controller of the Individual did not consider it part of his remit to solicit entries for the event. The CEO had been in contact with counties but very few counties had nominated players and it was not considered a viable event. The meeting agreed that, rather than limiting the event to a single nomination from each county, the event could be opened out to anyone within the MCCU.

4.9) Webmaster – Sean reported that he was looking to provide facilities to submit county match results on line.

4.10) ECF – a written report was provided. It was agreed to support a proposal that –

It is recommended to the ECF that their Council meetings are held in Greater Birmingham.

4.11) Non-executives – nothing to report.

5) Vacancies

At the time of the AGM Cyril Johnson was Junior Director & acting CEO of the ECF, due to the workload these posts involved he was unwilling to be nominated to be re-elected to the MCCU Events post. As that situation has changed he is available to work for the MCCU and would be happy to take up the Events reigns again.

The meeting agreed that Cyril resume the post of Events Director.

6) Constitution

The CEO proposes that a sub-committee be set up to review the current constitution. The terms of reference of the committee “to review the constitution, produce a new draft constitution to be widely circulated across the MCCU, to revise the content to take account of feedback received, & to produce a final draft for the 2007 AGM”.

This was agreed with the CEO, Finance Director & Non-Executive Director Gordon Christie to form the committee.

6) County Team Rules –

The CEO proposes the insertion of new clauses to the County team rules as follows:-

i) Where a team finds itself unable to fulfil a fixture the captain must ensure he/she speaks to the opposing captain in person. The sending of email or text messages, or leaving messages on a telephone answering service is not sufficient. If the opposing captain is not available, another officer of that county must be made aware of the situation.

ii) Where a team defaults or concedes a fixture, that county will be responsible for reimbursing the opposing county for any reasonable expenses incurred.

There have been a number of instances where matches have been called off at short notice. In some cases the opposing captain has been unaware of the situation because the other captain has not actual spoken to them & messages sent by other means have not reached them. Whilst the ECF rules cater for reimbursement of reasonable expenses incurred by the withdrawing/defaulting team, the MCCU rules do not.

It was pointed out before the meeting that the rules already provide for part ii) thus it was withdrawn. Part i) was agreed with the addition of the following “A fine of up to £50 may be imposed for failure to do so”.

7) MCCU & ECF Membership Scheme

A report on the problems relating to the MCCU and the ECF membership scheme had been circulated prior to the meeting. The CEO provided a written update. Essentially the new ECF Board did not feel that the MCCU version of the scheme would meet the “best endeavours” requirement. The meeting felt quite strongly that this assertion was flawed and had more to do with the new Board attitude towards the MO scheme than any foundation in fact. They also felt that the MCCU had not been treated equitably in comparison to other scheme applications. The meeting agreed that the CEO make the Union feelings known to the ECF Board and left the wording of this to her.

8) AOB

none

9) Date & location of AGM

It is due to be held in the West Midlands. The GM was content for the AGM to be held at the Erdington Conservative club, possibly 17th June.