2017-09-04
Minutes of Macclesfield Chess Club AGM 2017
Held At The Queens Hotel: 19:37
Present: A. Brough, G. Laurence, D. Styles, R. Gray, R. Shaw, M. Renshaw, P. Cattermole,
P. Colville, A. Soames, M. Jouannet, D. Risley, A. Green, C Davison, D. Lobo, R. Murphy, J. Trier,
F. Moan
Apologies: C. Sizeland, J-P Taylor, D. Mallinson, K. Smallbone, A. Renshaw
Minutes Of AGM Sept 12, 2016: Accepted as a true record
Matters Arising: The secretary reported that the New Liberal Club premises were still up for sale and hence there was no progress in recovering owed fees. He also reported that 6 boards had been purchased, 6 new clocks, and 1000 scoresheets. Two £50 charity donations had been made.
Officer’s Reports:
Stockport A Capt, Rob Shaw: A mid-table finish in div 1 and losing finalists in the Charnley Cup reflected a good season. He expressed thanks for the support given by his players.
Stockport B Capt, John-Paul Taylor: No report submitted. (The B team finished as div 2 champions)
Stockport C Team Capt, Mick Renshaw: After last season’s heroics there was only one serious objective – to avoid finishing last! 3 consecutive wins in mid-season followed by a magnificent point away at Altrincham took the team to the brink of safety. Unfortunately our impressive form did not go unnoticed by the other clubs who began to field stronger teams. Losing our last 4 matches we were left biting fingernails. Macclesfield and Denton were left at the bottom with Macclesfield ahead by a solitary game point and the narrowest of margins. A big thank you to all who played in what was a remarkable season.
Stockport Limit League Team Capt, Richard Murphy: Macclesfield's Limit League team finished in third place (out of 4) in a closely-contested season with 9 match points, behind Denton on 11 and Stockport on 10, but well ahead of East Cheshire on 6.Of our 9 matches we won 4, drew 1 and lost 4, with most matches ending on scores of 2.5-1.5 for or against us. My thanks to the squad: David Mallinson; David Styles; Tom Robson; Brian Woodhall; Patrick Curr; Steve Dawson; Tony Lane; Angie Renshaw and me. Special thanks to those who provided lifts to and from away matches.
Stoke League Capt, Phil Cattermole: We finished 3rd. Highlight was beating winners Cheddleton B by 4-1, but we had poor results against Crewe. Phil thanked all players and especially Roy Gray who stood in at short notice.
Secretary, Geoff Laurence: Had been unable to attend the Stockport League AGM where there was discussion, in particular, into use of ECF software for fixture setting – to be trialled in the coming season. Also there was discussion as to whether raising the limit league cut-off from 400 to 420 grading points would encourage more entries.
He did attend the Stoke League AGM. Robert Milner resigned as secretary, David Hulme as chairman. Some changes have been made to the rules of chess. Perhaps we should aim to have a set of rules in the clock bag. The Stoke League are using the ECF software – but for result entry. There are more teams in div 2 this year – meaning 14 matches.
No reports had been submitted to the Macclesfield Express in view of their reluctance to publish them. The sudden death of the Macclesfield Today editor, Martin Regan, also meant no reports there either.
Treasurer and Membership Secretary, Roy Gray:We have £674.88 in the bank and this is £78.72 up on last season’s balance
Although the figures seem to add up the account owes me £15 for engraving and so it is in reality -£15 in error and I can only apologise and tender my resignation.
In that case the £674.88 in the bank should be £659.88.
My records show 6 new members last season but not all stuck.
We had 27 paying members but 37 ‘on the books’.
Website Manager, Denzil Lobo
Website
The website is a communal website.
It has updated by the captains (Robert , Mick), myself , David Styles and Geoff
Captains Richard , John –Paul , Phil Cattermole still need to do his.
I have brought my laptop in to show people who have struggled to log on to the website how to access the website and modify it.
Results
(Do it themselves or send results to me/someone)
Geoff as Stockport Fixtures secretary and having played in a lot of Stoke fixtures has put the results on the website last season .This is not ideal .
General:
Blog- We have a blog page instead of a news page which is intended for captains to put a few interesting reports about matches. Only Mick ,Geoff and myself have posted blogs.
Maccbook - We have a facebook page which has about 600 “friends “ so there are some keen chess players posting stuff if anybody is interested. It was initially meant for club members who wanted to post anything of interest.
New links – links to popular websites.
ECF grades page - On members page the ECF grades are imported so all current can be found on this page
Other Website page - Stockport and Stoke tables are also imported so current league positions can be seen here.
Chess Clocks:
We have had digital clocks for two years or more now. We ran a “learn to set the digital clocks” session at the last quickplay tournament .There are instruction available which are in the storage boxes. Everyone should now learn to set the clocks as they are here to stay.
Rapidplay Organiser, Dave Mallinson: Not present – but last year’s rapidplays were won by Colin, Dave and Robert with Colin and Robert joint winners of the Pollard Trophy.
Tournament Controller, David Styles: David noted some debate over the way he arranged the draw for the knockout stages of both competitions. He urged players to accept the organiser’s decisions once the tournaments were underway. He congratulated the winners – Geoff Laurence and Phil Colville. Denzil thanked David for taking this job on last year.
Presentation of Trophies:
Club Championship : Geoff Laurence
Pomeroy Cup: Phil Colville
Pollard Trophy: Robert Shaw and Colin Davison
Most Improved Player: Joachim Trier
No of Teams for 2017-8 and Election of Captains
It was decided to enter the same number of teams in each league as in the previous season. All the current captains agreed to continue and were elected unanimously.
Format of Club Championship and Pomeroy Cup Competitions and Election of Tournament Controller:
There was a lot of discussion about the format . Dave Risley was elected as the controller and has undertaken to seek further views from participants before starting this season’s programme.
Rapidplay Competitions: Tony Soames and Denzil Lobo agreed to take on the organisation of the 3 events between themselves. Sept 18 and Dec 18 were set aside for the first 2 of these.
Election Of Chaiman, Secretary, Treasurer and Membership Secretary, and Website Manager:
Anthony Brough, Geoff Laurence, Roy Gray and Denzil Lobo were re-elected respectively.
Life Membership Proposal: Dave Risley proposed that Ray Pomeroy be elected as a life member. This was passed unanimously.
Subscriptions: After discussion, these were set at £15 full, £8 unemployed, retired, team captains. Juniors free.
Junior Members: The secretary pointed out that, following presentations at the Stoke League AGMs, it would be necessary to have a clear statement about the club’s position – particularly with regard to child safety. Junior members will need to be accompanied by parents as we don’t have a qualified child safety officer. (We don’t currently have any junior members – but interest has been expressed over the summer.)
AOB : None Raised
Meeting Closed 21:14