SHROPSHIRE CHESS ASSOCIATION COUNCIL MEETING at the Telepost Club, Shrewsbury, Tuesday, September 8, 2009.

Present: President Iain Wilson, league controller Vincent Crean, Francis Best, Nick Rutter, John Casewell, Keith Tabner, Derrick Powell, Toby Neal, Richard Thompson, Glyn Pugh, Graham Ives, Roger Brown.

1 Apologies:
Steve Rooney, Colin Roberts.

2 Minutes of the last council meeting:
Approved, no matters arising.

3 County teams proposal:
Iain Wilson said it had been decided to have three teams - an Open, under-160, and under-140, the latter being mostly of juniors, but padded out as necessary with adults.

4 Grading limit proposal:
Iain Wilson said that, following the inflation of grades under the rebased gradings system,  the grading officer, Nick Rutter, had initially suggested that Rule 9 (governing the use of reserves between teams) should be revamped, changing the under 75 grading limit to under 100; the 90 limit to 120; and the 110 limit to 140. However, a number of people had thought that those grades were a bit high. Both Colin Roberts and Steve Rooney felt the Division One limit was too high, and under 130 would be more appropriate; in Division Two that a limit of 110 would be better; and that in Division Three a grading limit of 90 was reasonable.
Colin Roberts' proposal was to amend Rule 9, a and b, to grading limits of 90, 110, and 130.
Nick Rutter said the old grading limits converted to 106, 118, and 135 in the new system. Francis Best said they should err on the side of helping out clubs, being generous with the allowance.
Richard Thompson proposed that the grading limits should be 100, 120, and 135. This was agreed.

5 Officers reports:

A. General Secretary.
Iain Wilson said Colin Roberts, the general secretary, had resigned. It was over two issues. Colin felt he was being ignored and undermined in two areas. He had felt other people had taken out of his hands many of the arrangements for this meeting. Wilson said he did not think that was justified, it was just the nature of email. Emails were sent to all the officers and secretaries in the county, and occasionally the name of the last person who sent an email was at the top. Colin had seen this as other people taking over.
The other issue was that a decision had to be made on the format of the county teams by an August 31 deadline. Colin had gone on holiday without telling anyone and came back on the 31st and started all his calculations then. Wilson said that, because of the deadline, he took soundings himself and made a submission to the MCCU to make the August 31 deadline. So when Colin returned on August 31, he told him he was too late.  
Wilson said he had tried unsuccessfully to persuade Roberts to remain as secretary, and felt his concerns were somewhat exaggerated.

B. League controller.
Vincent Crean said that Shifnal & Telford D and Church Stretton B had both withdrawn from the Third Division. There were also indications that Oswestry B might fold, which meant Division Three would have been down to five teams to start with, and possibly four later. Divisions One and Two both had eight teams. He felt the divisions needed evening out. Shifnal & Telford D had been promoted from the Third Division last season as runners up. The only way he could see of solving the imbalance in the divisions was to have a First Division of eight teams, a Second Division of seven teams, and a Third Division of six teams, and the only way of doing this was only promoting one team from the Third Division. That was his proposal.
In response, he said, Iain Wilson and Richard Thompson of the Shifnal & Telford club had suggested that instead teams in the Third Division should have to play opponents three times, or even four times. But that would mean one team having to travel once, and the other twice. He thought in any event that if there was to be such a change all players would need to be involved, and an EGM or AGM set up for the rule change.
Richard Thompson said the players in Shifnal & Telford D were not at all happy at the proposal. They were new to chess and had gained promotion. When he had told them they could be back in Division Three, they were very upset. It was a case of moving the goalposts. It was something which should be done if there was no alternative, and with the consent of the team, and the team had not consented. His proposal was that there should be three rounds of matches.
Toby Neal said he thought this idea was wrong in principle, and players should play the widest range of opponents.
Thompson said his club might be prepared to reinstate its fourth team, and he put this forward as a last resort. It was feasible, and he hoped that such a fourth team would survive the season.
The meeting agreed that the preferred solution should be for Shifnal & Telford to try to raise a fourth team, to play in the Third Division. It was also agreed that the situation should be monitored throughout the season, to give fair warning should any change in the promotions and relegations regime need to be introduced for the 2010-11 season.
Crean said that fixtures for a Third Division of six teams would start on October 12.

C. Treasurer.
Francis Best said the issue of insurance was raised at the AGM, but he had not been able to find any information on the ECF website. The question had been whether the association could insure all clubs. He suspected that the answer was that it was up to individual clubs to take out insurance.

D. Auditor.
Nothing to report.

E. Grading Officer.
Nick Rutter said the new grading list out on August 11 had been updated on August 30th, and now there was a third updated list.

F. County Individual.
Nick Rutter said the winner was Nigel Ferrington.

G. Cox and Minor Trophies.
Derrick Powell said the Cox Trophy was won by Shrewsbury A, the Minor by Wellington B. There were delays in playing the final, so he was proposing to start the Minor earlier next year.
The Cox Trophy was presented by Iain Wilson to Francis Best at the meeting.

H. Publicity officer.
Nothing to report.

I. Website.
Keith Tabner said with the loss of Colin Roberts, more help would be appreciated.

Election of officers

Open team captain: Peter Kitchen. Under-160 captain, Roger Brown.

General secretary:
Iain Wilson said it was an important role and the association could not last long without one. There was a fair amount of work involved.
There being no volunteers or nominations for the post, it was agreed to publicise the need for a new general secretary through clubs, the Shropshire Star, and the chess website.

Iain Wilson added that he had said at the AGM that he would carry on as president for one more year. He said he would be standing down at the next AGM.

Any other business
Toby Neal said that at the start of the AGM it had been said that notice should be given of rule change proposals, and yet at the AGM a decision had been taken which was effectively a return to adjudications, but there had been nothing before the meeting about the change.
Iain Wilson said it had been an amendment which had been carried. He did not think the change would make much difference in practice.
Francis Best said the Shrewsbury club's premises at Shelton Hospital had changed slightly. They were now round the back near the chapel.  
Keith Tabner said Telepost A's club night continued to be Tuesdays, but for the B and C teams it was now Wednesdays. This was because a C team player could not play on Tuesdays, and an A team player could only play on Tuesdays.

Meeting closed at 9.37pm.