Annual General Meeting 2017
Lytham St. Annes chess club
Notes of the Annual General Meeting held on 7th September 2017
Present: John Cooper (Chairman), John Regan (Treasurer), Colin Wilks, Ben O'Rourke, Bob Tinton. Peter Wilson, Phil Raynor, Laurence Carlisle, Dave Aspinall, Rob Gallagher, Roy Pomeroy, Pat Coleman, Keith Sansom, John Cox (Secretary)
Apologies: Lynne Morrison, Paul Evans, Colin Liddle, Dennis Davies, Graham Taylor
Minutes of AGM 4th August 2016: The Minutes were accepted without comment and signed off by the Chairman.
Actions arising: there were no outstanding actions.
Chairman's Report
At our last AGM we discussed the possible move away from the Lytham Ex-Servicemen’s Club, our venue for the past 20 years, to the new Booths’ superstore in St Annes where we now play .The decision to move here was almost unanimous and John Regan, John Cox and I negotiated the arrangements with Booths’ representatives. The club was renamed as Lytham St Annes Chess Club.
The main downside of the move was the loss of the storage space which we had at Lytham for our equipment and library. This was overcome, however, when John Regan acquired a mobile storage cabinet for all our equipment; and when Peter Wilson arranged to store the contents of the Library in his office. Peter published a catalogue of books and magazines available for our members to borrow. This involved a lot of effort and technical knowhow on Peter’s part and I would like to express my sincere thanks to him on behalf of the club.
The move took place at the end of last September after the Silver Queen and members and visiting players quickly began to appreciate the convenience and comfort of the new venue and its adjacent car-park. Because the store closes at 10 pm it was necessary to start our club matches at 7 pm to allow three hours playing time. Starting times of all matches are now shown in the League Handbook.
Club membership has thrived since the move and it has continued to do so throughout the normally quiet months of summer thanks to the Summer Tournament run by John Regan which has proved to be extremely popular. This will be covered by John later in the agenda.
I wish to thank our two Johns for their efficiency and energy in running the club, especially John Regan in introducing and running the Summer Tournament. Sadly none of our teams have won any trophies this year but I would like to thank the team captains for all their efforts in organising their teams
Finally I must thank Paul Evans for continuing to run the Club Championship with his customary good humour and enthusiasm, notwithstanding his pressing business and family commitments. He even managed to win it this year!
Secretary's Report
ECF - The Club is now recognised by ECF as The Lytham St Annes Chess Club based here at Booths. Unfortunately the ECF did not transfer the Club Members from the Lytham Ex-Servicemens Club. I have written to them asking for all members to be transferred to Lytham St Annes Club and the Ex-Servicemen Club to be deleted. I have been assured by the Grading Database Administrator that the database has now been updated but it will not appear on the ECF website until that is updated at the end of the month.
There appears to be some reason why they are unable to delete the Lytham Ex-Servicemen's Chess Club. I have not regarded this as it will be just left as an empty record like the Lytham High School entry.
Website – The club website has been maintained reasonably up to date. ECF July gradings are shown for Club Members on our website on the ‘Members’ Details’ page.
I have had to move the hosting server of our website and am taking the opportunity to update the presentation to be more easily readable and the code easier to maintain, particularly the archival aspects. The new website is not quite complete but is available at beta.lythamchess.org for review and comments. I intend to change to the new format in time for the start of this season unless there are any strong objections. Please let me know of any additional features or changes that you would like including while I am updating it.
Treasurer's Report
John Regan presented the Statement of the Club Accounts which have been externally audited. The detailed statement is appended, but to summarise the important points:
-
We had 23 fully-paid up members in the year @ £20.00 = £460.00. 3 people paid £5.00 to join for the Summer tournament and one player paid £2.00 for a casual membership.
-
The Bank balance has increased from £573.30 to £830.74, an increase of £257.44p, while the cash balance has increased from £26.54 to £56.44 a sum of £29.90. This increase reflects the fact that we have not had to pay £300+ room fees to Lytham Ex Service Club.
-
John holds a list of 40 names of members/likely members, some of whom will not join or re-join the club
There was discussion about whether there should be a donation to Booth's or a charity of their choice in recognition of the free use of their premises. It was agreed that the Club should purchase a new Trophy, to include a reference to Booth's, for the Club Championship as the present one has run out of space for the names of winners. Presentation of the introduction of the new Trophy would provide Booth's with publicity through a Photograph in the local newspapers.
John Regan said that some members have paid their ECF subscriptions through the Northern Membership Scheme but this had caused some difficulties for the Club due to delays in payment to ECF from Lancashire Chess Association. He therefore asked all members to pay their ECF fees direct to ECF.
John Regan proposed that last year's £20 subscription fee that Geoff Robinson had paid should be repaid as Geoff had been unable to attend at all this year because of illness. This was agreed.
(Post meeting note: Geoff is in Blackpool Victoria Hospital Ward 12 again at the moment).
Captains' Reports
First Team Report (John Cooper)
I regret that I have to report that our team finished at the foot of Division A, failing to score a single match point. Our two strongest players, Paul Evans and Kit Hopkins, were unable to play any games, and two other strong players, Tom Leah and Colin Liddle, could only manage to play once or twice.
My thanks go to Phil Raynor, who played in all our League matches, and to Peter Wilson, who scored 2½ points from 6 games after making his debut in the top division of the League this season. We were also strengthened by the arrival from Oldham of David Aspinall in the second half of the season and look forward to having his friend Rob Gallagher, who also hails from Oldham, available next season. Others who played more than one game for us included Lynne Morrison and Ben O’Rourke.
Second Team Report: (Phil Raynor)
The second team ended bottom of Division 2. However it is hoped that this season will be much better with the inclusion of new members and the increased availability of Ben O'Rourke.
Third Team Report: (Pat Coleman)
The third team came second in Division 3, finishing one point behind Poulton 3. The team won 6 games, drew 1 and lost 2. They were not helped by Lytham's fourth team who beat them 3.5 to 0.5 in the first match of the season and then lost the last match of the season against Poulton 3, when a win would have meant the third team drawing for the title with Poulton 3. The team scored 23 points against 13 points in the nine matches.
Six players were used: John Regan (3/8); Bob Tinton (4.5/7); Dennis Davies (6.5/9); Pat Coleman (7/9); Colin Wilks (2/2); Dave Aspinall (0.5/1)
Notable performances from: Pat Coleman (7/9); Dennis Davies (6.5/9) and Colin Wilks (2/2)
I would like to thank everyone who played and particularly John and Colin for picking up and dropping Dennis off.
Fourth Team Report: (Keith Sansom)
The 4th Team finished in third place (from 4) in Division C with 3 wins, 0 draws and 6 losses.
The overall game scores were 9 wins, 13 draws and 14 losses. Graham Taylor was our best player with 4 wins and 1 loss from 5 games. Unfortunately he was not available for the other fixtures.
The highlight of our season was a 3.5 – 0.5 win against Lytham third team in our first match, completely at odds with the grading levels. However this meant that the third team was denied finishing top of the Division when Poulton beat us in the last match of the season.
Individual scores were as follows:
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colin Wilks | 8 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| Keith Sansom | 9 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Graham Taylor | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| John Cox | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| Peter Wilson | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Dennis Davies | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Club Championship Report:
Paul Evans had not provided a report - perhaps embarrassed that he had won the trophy himself. Congratulations were expressed to Paul in his absence. The Chairman stated that the Championship had been well organised and that Paul had agreed to organise this year's competition. Bob Tinton won the trophy for players rated under 150.
Press Reports: John Regan
John requested Captains to provide him with a match summary after each match, especially home matches.
Rapidplay: (John Cooper)
The Club entered two teams. The first team (Captain: John Cooper) lost to Preston in the first round. The second Team (Captain: Pat Coleman for Geoff Robinson) beat Poulton 2 on handicap but lost to Poulton 1 in the Rapidplay Plate final.
Summer Competition: (John Regan)
- The competition was designed to produce an increased attendance at the club during the summer months – and I think that this succeeded well.
- Being in the (so-called!) summer months, some of us obviously could not play every week as we all had other things to do, but it is fitting in the end that the person with 12 weeks attendance came out as the overall winner by half a point from the runner-up who had played one game less. Many congratulations first of all to David Aspinall for his 7.5 out of 12 winning score and commiserations to Rob Gallagher the so-nearly-man who scored 7 out of 11 games played.
- We should also congratulate Tom Leah, played only 5 but with a 100% record, and late-comer to the competition Roy Ellames who scored the maximum 3 points from his three games. I would also wish to make special mention of Colin Wilks who clearly suffered from the natural light scoring only 2 points out of his ten games played, and Yvonne Taylor who failed to register a point in her games albeit she did miss out on a winning position against yours truly.
- Finally, I must offer my thanks to Paul Evans, who was forwarding the results for gradings to those in the know, to Kit Hopkins. Graham Taylor, John Cox, Peter Wilson and newcomer Laurence Carlisle for their tremendous support to this venture.
FOOTNOTE
A further success of this venture was the interest shown by a number of new players who visited and some have indicated a willingness to join the club full-time.
Election of Officials and Committee
John Regan said that he did not wish to continue as both League Treasurer and Club Treasurer and asked for a volunteer to take over one of these positions. The League Treasurer position had already been offered to the other League Clubs. In the absence of any volunteers or opposing candidates for the other Committee positions, the existing Club Committee Members: John Cooper (Chairman), John Regan (Treasurer) and John Cox (Secretary) confirmed their willingness to continue in position and were duly elected.
The existing Team Captains : John Cooper, Phil Raynor, Pat Coleman and Keith Sansom confirmed their willingness to continue and were elected unopposed.
No changes were proposed for the other Club Officials:
- Club Championship Organiser: Paul Evans
- Rapidplay Captains: John Cooper (1st Team); Pat Coleman (2nd Team)
- Summer Tournament Organiser : John Regan
Library and Press Cuttings
John Cooper thanked Peter Wilson for his efforts in taking over and storing and classifying the collection of books belonging to the Club. Peter confirmed that he would be happy to continue to do this. There is a list of the 188 books on the inside of the Equipment Cabinet and also on the Club website, but in response to a question from John Cooper, Peter confirmed that none had been borrowed in the last year. Anyone wishing to borrow one should contact Peter. Peter also holds a large stack of chess magazines.
John Cox reported that images of press cuttings are also archived on the website. He questioned whether these should really be held on the League website as they are more than the Lytham Club cuttings. It was decided to continue as is.
League AGM: Proposed Constitution and Rule Changes
The League AGM is to be held on 14th September at St Annes Booth's.
The League Committee are proposing two amendments to the Constitution. These are:- 1. to reduce the number of committee members by removing the Press Officer, League Championship Controllers and Auditor and 2. to delete the requirement in Article 6 that there should be three League Management Committee meetings per year. They also proposed a change to Rule 9 that in the case of a match being defaulted it should be reported to the League Secetary rather than the Press Officer as currently stated. There were no objections to any of these changes.
Bispham have proposed several changes to the Constitution and the Rules. Mostly these concern restriction on who can serve on the Committee and for how long. There was considerable discussion but the general view was that the changes were impractical as there would not be enough members willing to fill the various Committee vacancies under the proposed conditions. Bispham also proposed a change in the rule regarding the notice given requesting postponement of a match. Our view was that their proposed change is unworkable and the rule already provides a sensible flexibility. At the AGM each club is allowed three representatives who can speak in the debates, but only one of the three may vote. Members of the League Committee wish to be able to speak on behalf of the Committee and not be seen to be representing their Club, so the Lytham Club vote will be given by John Cox. John Cooper asked Bob Tinton and another volunteer to make up the three Lytham Club members.
Programme for next Season
Pat Coleman said that the 3rd Team would remain in Division C as it would like to win the Division and since the 2nd team came bottom of Division B there was little chance of the 3rd team doing better if promoted to Division B.
The idea of a 5th Team in view of the number of new recruits was mooted to give everyone a chance to play for a team, but did not receive any support this year so we stay at four teams.
The Silver Queen competition will be held at 7:00pm on 28th September at St Annes Booth's. Entry fee remains at £3.00, all of which goes in prize money to top three players.
Presentation of Club Trophies
Club Championship: As neither the Cup nor the recipient were present, John Cooper undertook to present the cup to Paul Evans when next convenient. The presentation to Bob Tinton for the best under 150 grade performance was also delayed.
Len Gibbins Trophy for services to the Club: There were two nominations – John Regan for facilitating the move to Booth's and for organising the Summer Tournament and Peter Wilson for his work with the Club Library. After a vote John Regan retained the Cup.
Summer Tournament: John Regan presented Dave Aspinall a new trophy for 7.5 points from the highest attendance of 12 weeks. He also had a present for Yvonne Taylor for persistence (and letting him win from a winning position?)
Player of the Year: Peter Wilson and Graham Taylor were nominated for Player of the Year. After a vote, Peter Wilson was awarded the title for his performance in the League, obtaining 8 points from 15 games, including 2.5 in Division A.
Any Other Business: There was no other business
Appendix
LYTHAM ST ANNES AGM 2017
TREASURERS REPORT
- The Club began the year (1st August 2016 – 31 July 2017) with a credit of £599.84 being £573.30 in the bank and £26.54p in the cash-tin.
- Expenditure The move from Lytham Ex Service Club meant that we had to purchase a small, mobile cabinet from E-Bay to hold our stock as Booths management would not allow us to transfer our 6 foot cabinet across. The new mobile cabinet cost £75.00. I had to pay the Blackpool & Fylde Chess League 4 x £20.00 – total £80.00 for match fees, £25.00 to the Lancashire Chess Association and £6.60p for a book of postage stamps. We also had to pay a £2.50 penalty to the ECF for playing a non-registered player. There were also odd payments to have keys cut for the new cabinet, and for one LEX room hire (before we moved from there, obviously) and 2 trophy engravings – the Len Gibbins and the trophy presented to Tom Leah. There were also various cross payments of ECF memberships to the NMS. In total the club expended £803. 10p, being £464.10 cash (£400 of which was cash to our bank), and £339.00 through the bank.
- Income We had 23 fully-paid up members in the year @ £20.00 = £460.00. 3 people paid £5.00 to join for the Summer tournament and one player paid £2.00 for a casual membership. Surprisingly, 3 fully-paid up members failed to re-appear having done so, and not so surprisingly, Geoff Robinson never turned up at the club. I also sold our old cabinet through E-Bay for £40.00 but my costs (EBAY and PAYPAL) reduced this sum to £34.44. The total income therefore was £1,690.28, being £1,169.74 to the bank and £520.54 received in cash.
- FINAL TOTALS 31 JULY 2017
| BANK | Cash | |
|---|---|---|
| Income | £1,169.74 | £520.54 |
| Minus Costs | £339.00 | £464.10 |
| C/F | £830.74 | £56.44 |
- The Bank balance has increased from £573.30 to £830.74, an increase of £257.44p, while the cash balance has increased from £26.54 to £56.44 a sum of £29.90. This increase reflects the fact that we have not had to pay £300 + room fees to Lytham Ex Service Club.
- The accounts have been audited and signed off by Roy Winter.
- I hold a list of 40 names of members/likely members, some of whom will not join or re-join the club; we shall have to wait and see.