Annual General Meeting 2018

Lytham St. Annes Chess Club

Notes of the Annual General Meeting held on 30th August 2018

Present: John Cooper (Chairman), John Regan (Treasurer), John Cox (Secretary), Rob Gallagher, Roy Ellames, Ray Pomeroy, Keith Sansom, Colin Wilks, Graham Taylor, Dave Aspinall, Tom Leah

Apologies: Apologies for absence were received from Pat Coleman, Dennis Davies, Paul Evans, Peter Wilson and Phil Raynor

Minutes of Last AGM on 7th September 2017

John Cooper reported that the action to purchase a new trophy for the Club Championship had been completed and was available to be presented later in the meeting.

John Cox reported that he had received no requests for enhancements to the Club website.

John Regan (Press Secretary) said that Team Captains were providing him with reports after matches.

Officers' Reports

Chairman's Report

This has been the most successful season in the history of the club that I can remember since I joined it in 1985 when it was known as Prebonds Chess Club. The League Division A title was closely contested by no less than 3 teams until the last match of the season. Preston 1 appeared to have scored enough match points for the title when they beat Morecambe 1 in their last match until it was realized that they had fielded an ineligible player. This meant that under Rule 13 of the League Rules Preston's win became only a draw and, after winning our last match, our LSA team finished one point ahead of Preston 1. Unfortunately this was not the end of the matter because Preston vehemently contested the League Chairman's decision confirming that they had fielfded an ineligible player and the dispute was eventually referred to Bill O'Rourke, the County President, for arbitration. As a result of the arbitration the League title has been shared between LSA1 and Preston 1.
Our club has also been very successful in the Rapidplay Cup where my Lytham 1 team beat Pat Coleman's Lytham 2 team in the final.
A reduction in the number of teams available to play in the lower 2 Divisions meant that Division C was discontinued and our 2nd,3rd and 4th teams all played in Division B, a logistical nightmare for the Fixtures Secretary.
We have now completed our 3rd full season in Booths' Café and are very fortunate to have such a convenient and comfortable venue for our chess. The only downside is the imperative of starting matches promptly at 7 pm so as to ensure that they are finished by 10 pm but we have achieved this so far. All players now have to sign in in a new Visitors' Book every time they arrive at and leave the club. This will also apply to members of visiting teams and therefore team captains must ensure that this is done.
We have been told by Booths' Specialist Manager here that Booths' Marketing organization have decided to make more use of the “unused” café areas in their stores in the evenings and use the space for more marketing and community events. We have to accept this, of course, but we do have a good relationship with Booths' here and are satisfied that they will try to keep Thursdays as free as possible for us. They will be given details of League fixtures as soon as these are known.
My thanks go to our two Johns for their continuing efficiency and energy in running the club. John Cox has been involved in additional work in writing a Data Protection Policy in compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulations and this is both clear and concise. You will have seen this and John Regan will be asking you to sign a consent form when you pay your subscription.
In addition to his duties as Treasurer John Regan has once more been running the Summer Tournament, following on from last year when he introduced the event. There are 12 members playing in this event and it has ensured that the club facilities are in constant use during the summer, which is what we would want.
Thanks again to Peter Wilson for continuing to store the contents of our Club Library in his office and maintaining a catalogue of books and magazines available for members to borrow.
Finally I would like to thank Paul Evans for continuing to run the Club Championship with his unique brand of enthusiasm and good humour. He has also succeeded in winning the Championship once again after beating Roy Ellames in an exciting final round match. His name is the first one on the new trophy.

Note: There was considerable interest and debate about the arbitration of the Ineligible player that Preston fielded. John Cooper volunteered to provide the full report on the arbitration decision.

Meeting Note: John Cooper explained that at the meeting with Booths Store Manager (Jon Cooper) in June Booths offered to provide free refreshments in return for the £10 per night charge. The money would go to Booths preferred charity Blue Skies, in support of equipment for Blackpool Victoria Hospital. The proposal debated at the meeting was to pay the £10 on match nights only rather than every week. The solution eventually decided was to offer to Booths to pay the equivalent of £10 per match night upfront and present a cheque to Booths or the Charity to gain publicity for the Club and Booths.

Secretary's Report:

ECF – the Club is now recognised by ECF as Lytham St Annes Chess Club and the problem with removing the Lytham Ex-Service Chess Club as reported at last year's AGM has finally been overcome.

Website – the Club website presentation was updated to make it easier to read and to archive data. Throughout the year the website has been updated with game results and calendar changes. This has mostly been up to date but slipped a bit in the last couple of months of the season. Target is to update results within two days of match.

Data Protection – In response to the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) a Data Protection Policy document has been added to the Club Documents on the website. Note that the logonid and password for access to members details (email addresses and relephone numbers) has been changed to ‘chess' and ‘Queen' respectively.

Treasurer's Report:

This report is based on the period 1st August 2017 to 31st July 2018.

We began the year with £830.74p in the bank and £56.44p in the cash tin.

Having been presented with a bill from Norman Blade of Morecambe Chess Club on the 22nd September for the inscription of a B & F League trophy, I took the liberty of giving him a cheque for £12.00 from our chess club account. I had handed over Blackpool & Fylde Cheque paperwork and cheque book to their new Treasurer, so that avenue was not open to me at the time. Of course I later billed Blackpool & Fylde for this and received a repayment cheque on 28th November in the sum of £12.00

INCOME
In addition to the £12.00 repayment, I hold a record of 23 full time member payments of £20.00, plus £13.00 from Kit Hopkins (£7 awaited, please Kit). 23 x £20 = £460.00, plus £13.00 = £473.00p in membership fees collected. Also I received a belated £5.00 cash payment from Roy Ellames (he joined the summer 2017 competition very late). Also, since April, the club has been receiving a £5.00 monthly donation from Dennis Lane giving us a further 5 x £5.00 = £25.00. Total income for the year £1,340.74p in the bank, and £61.44p in the cash tin.

EXPENDITURE
We have drawn £172.00 costs from the bank. Expenditure was recorded on £5.00 for the engraving of the Len Gibbins Trophy, £12.00 to Norman Blade as discussed above, £80.00 for the annual team fees (4 x£20 = £80.00), £50 to John Cooper for payment of our new trophy for the Club Champion. Finally I have already paid the £25.00 fee for affiliation to the Lancashire Chess Association. Total paid out £172.00 Total Cash paid out £Nil**

.	BANK	CASH
INCOME	£1340.74	£61.44
EXPENDITURE	£172.00	00.00
BALANCE C/F	£1,168.74	61.44

(** I paid our secretary £10.64p from my own pocket for a website charge and have not got round to reclaiming this yet – I had forgotten all about it!)

Press Officer's Report:

Seven copies were submitted to the Evening Gazette and were duly published. These have also been given to the Club Librarian but have not been added to the Website library, John Cox asked if the original documents could be provided rather than scanned newspaper copies as the quality of these was not good.

Librarian's Report (Peter Wilson):

I have collected additional archives from other members.
All items continue to be stored indoors marked as the property of LCC.
The spreadsheet is up to date.
I hope in the future the library can be displayed at our home but while this is not possible I am content to store the books for next year.
Of course if anyone else would like a turn I will stand down.

Meeting Note: There were no volunteers

Team Captains' Reports

First Team Report (John Cooper)

In my report as Club Chairman I have described our success in becoming joint winners of Division A with Preston 1. Our success came about from the strengthening of the team resulting from the arrival of Rob Gallagher from Oldham and Roy Ellames, together with the return of Paul Evans as a regular player. Roy and Paul played on the top 2 boards during the 2nd half of the season and both scored at least 75%, a terrific performance. Our other stalwarts were Dave Aspinall, who played in all of our League and Cup matches, and Phil Raynor.
Having captained our first team for over 30 years it is now time for me to hand over to a younger man and I am delighted to tell you that our strongest player, Roy Ellames, has agreed to be nominated as my successor.

Second Team Report:

The second Team came third in Division B

Third Team Report (Pat Coleman):

I would like to thank all the players that represented the 3rd Team with special thanks to both Colin Wilks and John Regan for transporting Dennis Davies to and from matches.

The team performed well above expectations winning 9 games, drawing 2 and losing 2. Unfortunately, we just missed out on the Division B title by losing out to Morecambe 2 who beat us in our final match of the season.

8 players wer called upon and each played their part in what turned out to be a a very good campaign. Praises go out to Bob Tinton and Lynne Morrison who played boards 1 and 2 with good success. Also, Dennis Davies, Colin Wilks, John Regan and myself on the lower boards who all did well. Finally, not forgettng Ray Pomeroy and Ben O'Rourke who played a few games on the higher boards to good effect when called upon to play.

Many thanks to all once again!

Fourth Team Report (Keith Sansom):

The 4th Team finished bottom of Division B with 1 win, 2 draws and 9 losses. The overall game scores were 9 wins, 15 draws and 24 losses. Colin Wilks played in all 12 fixtures and was our best player with 2 wins and 5 draws.

League Challenge Cup (John Cooper):

In the League Challenge Cup we won easily in our semi-final against Bispham but lost 6-2 in the final against a very strong Preston side.

Club Championship Report (Paul Evans):

Paul Evans again won the trophy with four wins and a draw in his five matches and is the first to get his name on the new trophy. He was congratulated in his absence.

Rapidplay Cup (John Cooper):

As mentioned in my report as Club Chairman, both of our Rapidplay teams reached the final of the Handicap Rapidplay. Our first team, which consisted of Rob Gallagher, Phil Raynor, Peter Wilson and Dave Aspinall, lost just one of the 8 games played against Pat Coleman's team.

Summer Competition (John Regan):

John excused the lack of a report on the basis that the Competition was not yet completed. He hoped that the final round would be completed before the new season starts.

Election of Officials:

Committee:

Chairman – John Cooper; Treasurer – John Regan and Secretary – John Cox were re-elected unopposed

Team Captains:

1st Team – John Cooper resigned as Captain of the 1st Team. He proposed Roy Ellames as his replacement and this was seconded by John Cox. There being no other candidates, Roy was unanimously elected.
2nd Team - Phil Raynor had expressed his willingness to continue in this role and this was accepted.
3rd Team - Pat Coleman had written that he wished not to continue as Captain of the 3rd Team. However there were no volunteers to take over the role so Pat will be asked to continue.

4th Team – Keith Sansom questioned whether there was a need for a fourth team given that with the merger of Divisions B and C last year it was playing against much better teams and had unsurprisingly ended the season in bottom place. However there was much support for continuing to run four teams given the number of members now in the Club and who should have the chance to play in competitive matches. Therefore it was decided to enter four teams this year and in that case Keith stated that he was willing to remain its Captain. The debate did raise the question of whether the teams should be chosen on the basis of equal strengths or as at present on a tiered strength basis as in previous years, No decision was made on this question and John Cooper is to consult of the Team Captains.

Rapidplay

First Team – Roy Ellames refused the captaincy as he would not play in rapidplay tournaments. John Cooper will therefore continue in the position.
Second Team – as there were no objections, it was assumed that Pat Coleman will continue as Second Team Captain.

Challenge Cup

John Cooper will continue as Captain

League AGM Proposals

The League AGM is to be held at Bispham on Tuesday 11th September, partly because of the need to finish meetings at Booths at 10:00pm. Each Club has 1 vote but three representatives may speak. Phil Raynor, as League Secretary, is facing a vote of no confidence from Peter Wallace so strong support from Lytham is required. Intention to attend was confirmed by John Cooper, John Regan, Roy Ellames, Colin Wilks and John Cox.
A summary of the main proposed changes to the League Matchplay Rules had previously been sent to all Club Members and there was general agreement that the changes were good. Of particular importance is the new rule 24 which will say that “The away team will have white on odd-numbered boards. Where the home team fails to be ready to start the match on time, time lost shall be deducted from the home team's clocks.”
Also important is the requirement to nominate the two top board players in Teams 2 and 3. These nominated players would not be able to play in a lower team assuming that we stay with the three hierarchical team structure. These nominations to be submitted at least three weeks before the start of the season!
The proposal from Frank Bishop to cease production of the Handbook was supported by a large majority – mainly on the grounds of cost of production. It was agreed that the ability to print an A4 hard copy of pages from the website would be adequate, with one printed version to be held in the club cabinet.

Programme for next Season:

The Club will continue to enter four teams in the League – Team 1 in Division A and Teams B, C and D in Division B. It will also enter two teams in the Rapidplay and one team in the Challenge Cup.
Roy Ellames proposed a graded ad-hoc Rapidplay (2 legs with 30 minute each clock) to be run throughout the year. Individuals would arrange matches as and when they liked but the match must be agreed to be a graded match before commencement of the match. Roy agreed to organise the Competition and report results to Malcolm Peacock for submission to ECF for grading. The proposal was well accepted.

Silver Queen

The Silver Queen competition will be held at our Club on Thursday 13th September. John Regan asked that anybody intending to play should contact him in advance so that he can do some preparation in advance and thus reduce administration time on the night.

Presentation of club Trophies

Club Championship - Paul Evans was not at the meting so it could not be presented.
Len Gibbins Cup for services to the Club – Colin Wilks, Peter Wilson, Dave Aspinall and John Cox were nominated. After a vote John Cox was presented with the Cup by John Cooper.
Player of the Year – Prior to the meeting members had submitted votes for David Aspinall and Colin Wilks each with 8 votes, Paul Evans, Peter Wilson and Bob Tinton with 3 votes and Phil Raynor with two votes. David Aspinall and Colin Wilks each had played 22 League games and gained 13 points each. A deciding vote at the meeting determined Colin to be the winner, mainly because he had played for all four teams on an as required basis. There is no trophy for the Player of the Year so it was agreed that £50 would be provided from Club funds for John Regan to procure a trophy. John Cox requested that the three previous Players of the Year should be also named on the trophy and this was agreed.

John Cox
Secretary