Home Office and Justice Chess Club AGM
29 April 2010
••Agenda
1. Minutes of 2009 AGM and matters arising
2. Secretary’s report
3. Match captains’ reports
4. Treasurer’s report
5. Report on Grand Prix
6. Civil Service League AGM
7. Election of Officers
8. Club venue for 2010/11
9. League entries for 2010/11
10. Any other business
••Minutes
Present: Tony Ashby, Keith Dunmore, Michael Keane, Tim Pelling, Maria Sant, James Toon.
1. Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising
1.1 The minutes of the 2009 AGM were approved.
1.2 (Paragraph 1.3) James Toon said that he had made some space at home and would be able to catalogue and house the club library. He would liaise with Tim Pelling about transferring the books.
Action: James Toon
1.3 (Paragraph 4.1) Tony Ashby had audited the accounts for 2008/09 shortly after the 2009 AGM.
1.4 (Paragraph 8.2) James Toon had sent the club's handbook entries to Ian Pheby and John McAllister.
1.5 (Paragraph 8.3) Tony Ashby had not produced a paper issue of the club magazine "Across the Board." Given that the club website covered all club events, there did not seem to be a need for a magazine as well.
1.6 (Paragraph 10.1) The Committee had not considered the idea of introducing an award for the most improved player. This would overlap with the Grand Prix and there was no real enthusiasm for a separate award.
2. Secretary’s report
2.1 Four social events had taken place, in the summer of 2009 at the Jugged Hare (Annual Quiz), in September 2009 (Variants Evening), in December 2009 (Christmas Party), and in April 2010 (Celebration Evening). The last of these had been very well attended. James Toon said that he hoped to produce another chess film for next year, to be called "Chess on TV and on the Internet."
2.2 Membership had risen slightly and now stood at 25. This was lower than some Civil Service League clubs and higher than others.
3. Match captains’ reports
3.1 James Toon reported on the performance of all teams. The Civil Service League 1st team had been very successful, winning the cup, and finishing runners up in Division 1 for the second year in a row.
3.2 The Civil Service League 2nd team had also done very well, winning Division 3 and gaining promotion to Division 2. The meeting was pleased to hear that David Lacey would be available for the 2nd team again next year and hoped to play regularly.
3.3 The London Commercial League team would finish either second or third in Division 1, depending on the outcome of matches that were still to be played. This was a solid performance and an improvement on the previous year. The team had been unfortunate to go out of the cup at the quarter-final stage.
3.4 This season the club had entered the National Club Championship (Major Section) for the first time. The club had lost both its matches but it had been interesting to play different opposition, and (in the second match) to experience weekend play at a much longer time limit than usual. Against that, the matches had been difficult to arrange. If the club took part in this event again, a captain would need to come forward (James Toon and Peter Biggs did not want to take this on), and a squad of players would need to commit themselves to playing on a weekend and travelling if necessary. Michael Keane said that he would be happy to play in this event next season.
4. Treasurer’s report
4.1 Tony Ashby said that he had not yet audited the accounts for 2009/10 but would do so in about a month's time. The accounts were therefore provisional at this stage.
Action: Richard Fries and Tony Ashby to arrange auditing
4.2 The Treasurer's report showed a surplus for the season of £78.23 and a healthy closing balance of £280.42. All of the surplus had come from book sales. This was not a guaranteed source of income, but at present there was no need to raise the subscription from its current level of £12. The meeting agreed to leave the subscription unchanged.
4.3 The meeting also agreed that the club should subsidise the cost of social evenings, which was met entirely by James Toon at present.
Action: Richard Fries and Tony Ashby to take forward
5. Grand Prix report
5.1 The Grand Prix had been won this year by Matthew Baker, who had finished well clear of Peter Biggs in second place and James Toon in third.
Action: Richard Fries to send Matthew Baker a cheque for £20.
5.2 The meeting discussed the formula for calculating the Grand Prix score. On one view, it should not take so much account of the number of games played, at the expense of actual performance. However, the consensus was that player activity was an important component of the formula and that no changes should be made.
5.3 It was noted that those at the bottom end of the Grand Prix table tended to be lower-graded club members who had little opportunity to play. James Toon said that the appropriate response would be to offer such members other outlets to play, if they wanted more games. One possibility was the Minor Division of the London League, for teams of four [Secretary's note: all players must be graded under 145, and no more than two players in the team may be graded 135 to 144]. It would provide about 10 to 12 matches a season, which it was thought could be played at the club's home venue. A captain would be needed.
Action: James Toon to canvass the level of support for entering a team in this competition.
6. Civil Service League AGM
6.1 The Civil Service League AGM would take place on Thursday 13 May. James Toon, Peter Biggs and Tony Ashby would all attend. The AGM then discussed a number of proposals from clubs and the Executive Committee.
6.2 GLCC proposal
Deduct half a match point where four boards in a match were defaulted, and a whole match point where more than four boards were defaulted.
Opposed. The meeting had some sympathy with GLCC, who had been effectively relegated when Revenue & Customs had defaulted a match against fellow relegation-strugglers Metropolitan Police. However, the response seemed disproportionate. A team defaulting a match would in any event score no match points or board points for that match. And the defaulting team might not be able to do anything to stop the default either.
6.3 PHSO paper
Defaults must be taken on the lowest boards, rather than the higher boards.
Opposed. Where defaults were known in advance, captains always took them on the lowest boards anyway. Higher boards were defaulted only when a player was expected to turn up for a match and then did not turn up. It would also be impractical to enforce this proposal if defaults became known after a match had started. Also, teams who defaulted on higher boards four or more times in league matches would be deducted half a match point anyway.
6.4 Executive Committee proposals
(a) Proposed Rules for Grand Prix.
Supported. No amendment thought necessary.
(b) Technical proposals to update the wording of the League Rules and remove ambiguity.
Supported. These were uncontroversial and would improve the Rules.
(c) increase player fixture fee to £0.65.
Supported.
This reflected an increase in the national game fee charged by the ECF for grading.
(d) increase the fee for frivolous adjudications from £15.00 to £22.50.
Supported. Adjudicators would not declare a position frivolous unless the result was obvious. Captains should not be deterred from submitting claims where there was some doubt about the outcome. Often, referring the position to a senior player in the club would remove the need for an adjudication anyway. This proposal was thought preferable to the idea of raising fees for adjudications themselves. The meeting thought it was important that match captains should be given some guidance on when to submit adjudications. [Secretary's note: I will contact Ian Pheby about this.]
7. Election of officers
7.1 The following were elected to serve as officers of the Home Office and Justice Chess Club until the next AGM:
| Chairman: | Tony Ashby |
| Vice-Chairman | Tim Pelling |
| Secretary: | James Toon |
| Treasurer: | Richard Fries |
| Webmaster: | James Toon |
| CSCL 1st team captain: | James Toon |
| CSCL 2nd team captain: | Peter Biggs |
| LCCL captain: | Peter Biggs |
| National Club captain: | Vacant |
| Committee members: | Keith Dunmore, Michael Keane |
7.2 James Toon agreed to send details to Ian Pheby and John McAllister for inclusion in the Civil Service League and London Commercial League handbooks.
Action: James Toon
7.3 Michael Keane offered to help as an unofficial deputy captain of the London Commercial League team. James Toon reported that Richard Fries had also offered to help, but could not provide access to the venue.
8. Club venue for 2010/11
8.1 James Toon explained that Cleland House and Abell House would both be unavailable from September 2010. The Ministry of Justice HQ building in Petty France was unsuitable because of the stringent requirements imposed on evening meetings. That left Clive House, currently being refurbished, and the Home Office HQ in Marsham Street. The choice depended crucially on which of the team captains would have access to which buildings next season. It was too early to decide now but this issue would have to be resolved by September.
8.2 The meeting also discussed looking for an external venue, as GLCC had done. This would remove the access problems. On the other hand, the club would have to pay for use of the venue (possibly £50 an evening) and this could only be financed by a very significant rise in the subscription.
9. League entries for 2010/11
9.1 The meeting agreed to enter two teams in the Civil Service League and one team in the London Commercial League. The teams would play in league and cup competitions in both leagues.
9.2 A decision on the National Club Championship was deferred until the autumn as the closing date for entries was not until October 2010.
9.3 As discussed earlier (see paragraph 5.3), the club might want to enter a team in the Minor Division of the London League.
10. Any other business
10.1 It was decided to hold the Annual Blitz Tournament on a separate evening from the AGM in the hope of attracting more entries, since the AGM was never very well attended. (This might be increased if the AGM was coupled with a popular event such as a film showing.)
Action: James Toon to arrange a date
10.2 Tony Ashby proposed reinstating the trophy for the Annual Blitz Tournament. The previous one had gone missing some years ago. Having consulted Richard Fries about the finances, he proposed buying a new trophy and calling it the James Toon Trophy in recognition of James's services to the club. The meeting agreed to the proposal.
Action: Tony Ashby and Richard Fries to buy a suitable trophy
10.3 Michael Keane asked whether it would be possible to publicise the club by means of a stand or a display, or possibly a trophy cabinet, in the reception of whatever building the club eventually found itself playing in. However, James Toon said he did not think either the Ministry of Justice or the Home Office would agree to this.
10.4 James Toon asked for views on the idea that the Civil Service League website should include a league table showing player statistics for all games in future. The meeting recognised that this might be some use to captains but was concerned at the level of work likely to be involved in creating and maintaining such a table.
The meeting finished at 8.06pm.