NORTHERN COUNTIES CHESS UNION
FOUNDED 1899
Minutes of the NCCU Meeting
Held at The Grove public house, Leeds, on Saturday December 8th 2007
PRESENT
Dave Farley (NCCU President, Merseyside representative in the chair),
George Horne (Treasurer, Cumbria representative),
Dave Cole (General Secretary, Cumbria representative),
Bryan Bainbridge (Vice President),
Graham Marshall (Durham Representative)
Graham Matthews (Durham Representative)
William Metcalfe (Cleveland Representative)
Stephen Henderson (Cleveland Representative)
Stuart Johnson (Yorkshire Representative)
Brian Driscoll (C&NW Representative)
John Turnock (Northumberland Representative)
Jim Tennant-Smith (Lancashire Representative)
1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE:
Ihor Lewyk, Tim & Abi Adams, Martin Regan, Jim Moran, Chris Underhill, Steve Fanning, Simon Woodcock
Within this item Jim Tennant-Smith reported the sad news that Mike O’Hara had died and gave a fitting eulogy to Mike for all his work and dedication to the NCCU. It was proposed and accepted that Mike be made, albeit posthumously, an ‘Honorary NCCU Life Vice-President’.
2. MINUTES OF THE AGM LEEDS 9TH JUNE 2007
The Minutes were accepted as a true and correct record. (Bill O’Rourke had requested a slight change prior to the meeting and the amended minutes were distributed at the meeting).
3. MATTERS ARISING
The highlighted actions from the minutes were noted as complete, or if not, would be considered under reports to follow. There were no other matters arising.
4. OFFICERS REPORTS
a) President
Dave Farley stated that there was nothing to report other than that he had signed the NCCU MO.
b) General Secretary
Dave Cole thanked Bill O’Rourke for his help in any outstanding matters to ensure a smooth transition. Dave Farley echoed the thanks to Bill for all his work.
c) Treasurer
The NCCU Accounts as at 30th April 2007 had been audited as correct by Neil Foxcroft, with a balance of £2,493.89 (George handed the signed statement of a/c to Dave Cole). George Horne reported that the combined balance of the General Fund and DC Harris fund was £1,567.17 to date, with £1400 in the NCCU a/c along with £4,413 in new NCCU membership fees.
SJ asked whether all counties had come into the organization. This was confirmed, even though on membership a number of counties had signed their own MO.
ACTION – All reps to consider ways in which to spend the remnant £1400 to promote chess in the NCCU – Proposals to be brought to the June 2008 AGM.
The Treasurer’s report was accepted.
d) County Championships Organiser
Jim Moran was unavailable, but there was a discussion on refreshments at County matches and that payment for venues and refreshments at ‘half-way’ venues needed clarifying.
Jim Moran would be the ‘custodian’ of the County rules and that SH would put them on the NCCU website.
ACTION – JM and SH to re-visit rules and publish an updated version. This action is still outstanding from the June 2007 Meeting.
e) Club Championship Organiser
Dave Farley apologised for the late start of the competition, but that the launch would take place in early January 2008.
Given that participation East of the Pennines has been woeful, a note went out from Dave Farley to Eastern Counties on the prospects of clubs entering if restricted initially to the East. JT said that Northumberland clubs had no interest. SJ said that Rose Forgrove may be interested. GM said that Hartlepool would be taking part. BB said that Durham would be likely to enter the U125 and U100.
The question of Central venues was discussed, but apart from the Finals, no interest was shown. JT-S put forward Heywood as a Finals day Central venue. – ACTION - D Farley to discuss and confirm
Prize money would be £100 for the winners of each section and £50 for the runners-up.
Dave Cole asked whether paying travel expenses for junior teams could be considered. It was suggested that this be raised at the AGM in 2008 in conjunction with the £1400 in item c).
The question of the NCCU Club competition being a feeder for the ECF National Club championships was mentioned. – ACTION - D Farley to contact M Regan on the possibility for the 2008-09 season.
f) Correspondence Chess Organiser Annual Report
Chris Underhill sent his apologies, but stated that the Sinclair Trophy competition was now underway with 5 Counties taking part. There is no Second Division competition.
g) Grading Officer
Dave Cole reported that the results were received for input to the ECF, but that some were missing. – These were later included, but highlighted the last minute nature of the inputs. Dave Cole asked if full results could be placed on the NCCU website so that these could be readily downloaded. – ACTION – DF and JM to send results (when they get them) to SH for the NCCU website.
Dave Cole reported that the response, on the request for ECF training for graders to enable understanding of the software instructions, from Chris Majer had been dreadful. – ACTION DC to contact Martin Regan on next steps.
h) ECF Delegates
Martin Regan sent his apologies. The Secretary having taken a telephone call from Martin the evening before, outlined ECF plans to give 250,000 chess sets free to schools in England. This initiative would be announced by the UK Government early in 2008 and would have the support of the Dept of Education and a national haulage company who would distribute these sets. Martin has earmarked 50,000 sets for the North and asked if the NCCU could help in distributing them to Northern schools. BD asked if NCCU stickers could be put on the sets to promote the organization in schools. This was thought a good idea.
Each County needed to identify which schools would require sets. GM asked about a ‘publicity campaign’ for this. - ACTION – NCCU Committee to discuss this once announcement and timetable is made.
Chess sets for schools co-ordinators are:
GM - Cleveland
BB - Durham
BD – C&NW
W O’Rourke – Lancashire
DF – Merseyside
DC/S Cassidy – Cumbria
JT/P Bielby – Northumberland
SJ/R Jones - Yorkshire
ACTION – Each rep to contact Dept of Education in their County to ascertain schools who would be interested in chess sets.
WM questioned why there were no ECF Meetings in the North and why the reps who attended did not get the Northern proxies? BD gave a history of how the meeting venues had come about and the problem of votes etc. It was thought that reps other than ECF officials should get the proxies.
ACTION - Outstanding from the June meeting - On increasing chess involvement in the North from the ECF, WOR said that the Blackpool Hilton Hotel venue was free and this could be used for new events. – ACTION – Martin Regan to investigate ECF participation.
5. PRESENTATION OF CORRESPONDENCE TROPHIES
Stuart Johnson kindly collected the trophies from Halifax and brought them to the meeting. George Horne and Dave Cole took the Sinclair and Turner Trophies and will forward on to Chris Underhill.
(For information: Wes Bell, Cumbria, has the Individual Trophy)
6. SCHOOLS AWARDS
BCET 2007/08 – Lancashire – Blackburn Knights Chess Club nominated. Citation required. – ACTION Lancashire (citation to go to ECF)
NCCU Award 2007/08 – Astley High School Northumberland was nominated with a report from Paul Bielby.
(NCCU award to include a set, board and clock to mirror BCET award. – ACTION – DC to arrange award with Chessmaze)
If awards are publicized, put photos and write up on NCCU website.
7. U18 JUNIOR JAMBOREE
To be held in Darlington on March 3rd 2008 – ACTION – Cleveland Reps to arrange
8. PENNINE CUP U16’S
This was transferred from Darlington to a match between C&NW and Lancashire. – ACTION – Lancs/C&NW Reps to arrange match in 2008
9. NCCU INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2008
This will take place at the Cleveland Congress 25-27th January 2008 (to include x1 extra British Championship place).
Current holders:
NCCU Champion - Andrew Lawson, Newcastle
Junior Champion - JL Weller, York
ACTION – NCCU reps Northumberland and Yorkshire to arrange trophy return or to Cleveland Congress.
ACTION – NCCU rules to be distributed to relevant congresses - DC
10. NCCU 2007 BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFYING CONGRESS
To be awarded at the Hartlepool Congress 30th May-1st June 2008 (x2 places).
11. NCCU MO REPORT
Dave Cole reported that the scheme was successfully launched thanks to the support of Bill O’Rourke and the numbers of members to date was as follows:
C&NW 54
Cleveland 1
Cumbria 113
Durham 30
Lancashire 289
Merseyside 19
Northumberland 2
Yorkshire 4
(Recognising that Northumberland, Cleveland, Yorkshire and Durham have their own MOs’). Martin Regan had urged that members register ASAP before the ECF office send invoices for game fee – Reps take note.
John Turnock asked to see a copy of the NCCU MO (Following the meeting, this was e-mailed to John from DC and put on the NCCU website by SH).
Discussion took place on next year and the possibility of all NCCU Counties coming under the NCCU MO. – ACTION – All Reps to confirm intentions for their Counties by June AGM.
SH mentioned that some members had objected to their DOB and sex being put on the NCCU database, when the application forms did not state this. (These items have now been removed from the NCCU MO database on the website – DC) – ACTION DC to look at revising application form for 2008/09.
Discussion also took place on the types of membership being offered, with and without the ECF white forms being signed and the difference between basic, registered and standard members. It was unclear what the difference was.
A brief discussion took place on next years’ MO and how it will be administered in terms of renewals – JT understood that for Northumberland it would be electronic.
ACTION – DC to contact the ECF on membership issues and renewals.
12. TIME & DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Saturday June 14th 2008, 12 noon The Grove in Leeds
13. AOB
The Manchester CA application for membership into the NCCU was raised. JTS gave a synopsis of what had happened back in 1987 due to boundary changes. The meeting requested that JTS give the other Reps a note on understanding the Lancashire position and BD to put forward the issues for C&NW. – ACTION - JTS & BD to produce briefs on Manchester CA situation. Request from DF, can briefs be produced before end of January 2008?
John Turnock informed the meeting that he will be the Northumberland nomination for NCCU President 2008/2009 & 2009/10.
Dave Farley announced that the British Championship would be held in Liverpool in July 2008 and the European Championship would be held in Liverpool in September 2008.
DC thanked SH for the excellent work in re-vamping the NCCU website.
The Meeting closed at 14.50.
Dave Cole
General Secretary
Note: Enclosed with the Minutes is the revised NCCU Calendar for future responsibilities.
Postscript to meeting: Informal discussion following the meeting between DF/DC/GH/BD; the NCCU would ask the ECF to provide 2 members of the ECF MB to attend NCCU meetings, or at least the AGM in June. ACTION – DF to e-mail Martin Regan with this request.