Exeter Chess Club Annual General Meeting
Held at 7.30pm on Tuesday 20 September 2022 at the Heavitree Social Centre, 2 East Wonford Hill, Heavitree.
MINUTES
Members presents: Tim Starkey, Tim Paulden, Sean Pope, Paul O’Neill, Richard Player, Luke Honey, Jack Turner, Dave Regis, Jeremy Amos, Steve Homer, Ken Bourne, Quillan Wilson and Jim Ross. (Sorry for any possible omissions as I don’t have complete list).
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1. Apologies Richard Truman, Richard Scholes, John Maloney, Steve Dean and Chris Lowe.
2. Minutes of previous AGM, matters arising: The AGM voted to accept the minutes of the previous AGM as accurate.
3. Reports of officers on 2021-2022 season. Tim Paulden (President) welcomed people to the meeting. Tim said that no league matches occurred during the season as other clubs hadn’t been ready to resume them. He said that the Devon CCA league and the Exeter & District league should be starting again this season. Tim thanked Paul O’Neill (Tournament Secretary) for organising both the completion of the interrupted 2019-20 competitions and the running of the 2021-22 competitions.
Paul O’Neill (Tournament secretary) See attached report below which was read out at the AGM.
Dave Regis (Junior Club and Information Officer) See attached report below which was read out at the AGM.
In addition Dave commented that this is his 29th year running the junior club. Moving the junior club to early evening on Tuesday will permit the older juniors to migrate to the senior club afterwards although this would be by application only.
A question was raised about junior safeguarding. Dave thought that there would not be a safeguarding issue as this relates to 1 to 1 meetings and where there are very regular meetings between an adult and children.
Richard Player commented that the secretary should be responsible in the unlikely event that a junior player was disruptive. He also said that we shouldn’t be too prescriptive on juniors attending and shouldn’t create artificial barriers.
Jeremy Amos (Equipment Officer) had to leave early but it was mentioned from his report at the committee meeting that the equipment is in order and he will get the champions’ board and trophies updated.
4. Election of officers for the 2022-2023 season. The following officers agreed to stand again Tim Paulden (President), Sean Pope (Secretary), John Maloney (Treasurer), Paul O’Neill (Tournament Secretary), Dave Regis (Junior Club), Dave Regis (Information Officer) and Jeremy Amos (Equipment Officer). All those standing were re-elected unanimously to the posts.
5. Statement of finances: Setting of membership fee for 2022-2023. Sean Pope (Secretary) read out John Maloney (Treasurer)’s report in his absence. The 2021-22 accounts were presented to the AGM. The club made a surplus of £8.34 in 2021-22 and the current account balance is £2,131.97. The Skipton Building Society savings stand at £12,500 which now gets an improved rate of 2.5% which amounts to £312.50 a year. John is trying to move the current account to the Natwest to avoid the HSBC’s £5 a month bank charges. There was an IT crash first time but he will try again. John proposed that the annual club subscription should be remain as £5 for all members. Paul O’Neill proposed that the member’s should have the option of paying £10 rather than just the minimum amount of £5 membership fee. Paul’s proposal was passed by the meeting.
6. Organisation of club internal competitions and selection of teams for league competitions. Paul O’Neill (Tournament Secretary) proposed that both the longplay championship and the rapidplay competition which use Swiss pairings should revert to six rounds. The meeting supported this proposal unanimously. Tim Paulden proposed that the rapidplay competition should have a default Fischer time control of 25 minutes with a 10 seconds a move increment. The meeting passed this proposal by 8 votes to three votes. Tim Paulden proposed that the longplay competition should have a default Fischer time control of 75 minutes with a 15 seconds a move increment. The meeting passed this proposal by 8 votes to two votes,
Tim Paulden said that the Devon County Chess Association league and the Exeter and District league will be resuming and a list was circulated to collect the names of interested people. Captains will need to be appointed in due course.
7. AOB. Sean Pope mentioned that the club insurance was due for renewal. The AGM voted unanimously that the club’s ECF insurance including public liability cover should be renewed.
It was mentioned that the Heavitree Social Centre membership is due for renewal.
Paul O’Neill mentioned that he has received an ECF invoice for £72 in respect of the grading of games for 4 club members who were not ECF members. The invoice has been forwarded to the secretary.
Tim Starkey said that there should be an initiative to attract new members and beginners. He also suggested that the club should have a Twitter account to help publicise the club. Dave Regis said that he could create a Twitter account and possilbly link it to the club website.
Forthcoming events (some dates still to be finalised):
It was suggested that one of these events could raise some money for charity.
Simultaneous by club champion 04/10; Bubble blitz 18/10; Christmas blitz/variants.
Gambit tournament and lightning tournament in 2023.
East Devon Chess Congress 14.04.23 – 16.04.23.
Sean Pope, Exeter Chess Club secretary, 25.09.2022.
AGM reports from Dave Regis (Junior Club and Information Officer)
1. Junior Club
The Exeter Junior Chess Club resumed its sessions after a long COVID break this very evening,
in our new Tuesday slot. We propose to meet between September and May as usual.
I am ably supported by David Beckwith, former secretary of a previous incarnation of the club.
2. Information officer
My role as Information Officer has been carried out mostly by keeping an eye on the website. Comments are invited.
I have usually added match reports to the website for matches I organise, and would be pleased to add reports from others; when you send results into the East Devon or Devon Leagues, why not send me a copy too? Games too are always welcome.
If there's anything else that an information officer should be doing, please let me know.
There is a weekend event Oct 2nd/3rd at Exeter Library where we should have a presence.
3. Coaching
In recent years I have not run Summer evening sessions but I could do so again.
Notes from previous coaching sessions are on the website, and I occasionally add to them when prompted by a student.
I have a standing invitation to anyone to submit a game score to me for constructive comment and would be happy to chat to anyone who thinks they would like an MOT for their chess.
AGM report from Paul O’Neill (Tournament secretary)
At the previous AGM - October 2021 it was decided to continue the club competitions from the 2019-20 season that was interrupted by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. And further to run both the rapid play and standard play for the upcoming 2021-22 season. All four competitions were reduced to 5 rounds from the traditional six, to have some chance of completing them in a timely manner. There was no inter-club activity.
2019-20 (finish delayed to 2021) Competitions
In the standard-play competition Tom Thorpe and Jos Haynes were leading with 3/3 before the lockdown, and everyone else at least a point behind. Jos won the match against Tom and finished the competition on 5/5 – the only 100% score since I have been at the club, Tom was second on 4/5.
In the rapidplay section, I was leading the competition with Graham, Tom and Jos, half a point behind. I finished with 4/4 taking the trophy and Tim also with a 4/4 finish took second place.
Stefano Pacetti was the winner of the general trophy in both competitions.
2021-22 Competitions
There was some delay to the intended start of the competitions due to uncertainty over a new outbreak. A few other factors, some within my control and some not, meant that the competitions ran into the summer months. I will try to avoid a re-occurrence.
The entry was very strong for these competitions with a few new players (to Exeter) and a few seriously under-graded ‘juniors’ adding a dangerous mix to the usual crowd. I think it is fair to say that any of 6 or 7 players could have won a competition and it not be a big surprise.
In the standard play I was leading towards the end dropping one fewer half point than Tim, Jos and Graham. I won tense final game against Tim, mostly due to the tournament situation, finishing on 4.5/5. Jos was half a point behind in second place, One of our younger players Luke Honey takes equal third with Stefano and Luke also took the General Trophy. Congratulations to Luke in his first games against grown-ups [sic].
The rapid-play proved to be (and continues to be) a very hard fought competition. The faster pace seeming to give an advantage to the younger players. Tom was a front runner for most of the competition, and Luke looked like a serious threat for the title. Dan Conn, in his first OTB competition, proved to be a spoiler for both and finished only half a point behind Tom. Tim after a slow start, finished with 4/4 to tie with Tom and we are still awaiting the playoff. Dan with 3rd place also takes the (as yet virtual) general section.