Published 9 August 2009

Delegates' report: MCCU AGM 2008

Worcestershire was represented at the meeting held 29 June 2008 by Andrew Farthing and Ray Collett.

Elections:

There were few changes. The following changes were made:

  • President - Peter Gibbs
  • Director for Public Relations - Ray Collett
  • Non-executive director - Andrew Farthing

The other officials remain as follows:

  • Chairman - Cyril Johnson
  • Chief Executive and ECF Delegate - Julie Johnson
  • Finance Director - Andrew Leadbetter
  • Director for Junior Chess - Graham Humphries (with assistance from Cyril Johnson)
  • Director for Grading - Peter Sherlock
  • Director for Events and Webmaster - Sean Hewitt
  • Non-executive director - Chris Gibson

Issues discussed:

Considerable discussion took place at the meeting (and in subsequent e-mail exchanges) on the question of whether to include the new Milton Keynes congress in the MCCU Grand Prix. The Events Director, Sean Hewitt, had done so, but the Chairman and Chief Exec were opposed on the basis that Milton Keynes is in Buckinghamshire, which is not a part of the MCCU. This debate has relevance because the winner of the Grand Prix (or highest placed player not already qualified) is awarded the "closed" MCCU nomination to the British Championship. Only an MCCU-registered player may qualify through this channel. Given that the inclusion of Milton Keynes was a published fait accompli, it was accepted for 2008/9, but the meeting asked for options to be presented at the 2009 AGM for further consideration.

On a related topic, the AGM was asked to decide on the mechanism for choosing the three automatic MCCU British Championship places. These are currently the winners of the Leicester, Warwickshire and Nottingham congresses respectively. The places are "open", i.e. the winner of the event qualifies, regardless of whether s/he is MCCU-registered. A complication has arisen because the Bolton congress has applied to become a qualifying event. Bolton is part of the Manchester county unit, which is a member of the MCCU, and the congress is part of the MCCU Grand Prix. The decision on this was postponed, with the status quo to continue until the 2009 AGM, when options would be debated. As proposed, these are:

  • Retain the status quo.
  • If more applicants than places simply draw names "out of a hat"
  • Set up a rota, any new applicants being added in subsequent years.

Other considerations:

  1. Whether any congress asking for a place must be part of the MCCU Grand Prix.
  2. Whether a congress has to fulfil any other criteria, if so, what.
  3. What happens if a congress that has been awarded a place is cancelled.

One of the county championship competitions suffered from the late withdrawal of Nottinghamshire, which left one of the two zones with only three teams (the minimum should be four). The counties affected - Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire - were unhappy at only having two fixtures. We should note that the Board empowered the MCCU to levy a fine of up to £50 on counties withdrawing at a late stage from County championship events.

Sean Hewitt's report (he was not present at the AGM) proposed the establishment of a Midlands Club Championship, in a format to be determined following feedback. As far as I can tell, there have been no concrete developments in this direction, so there may still be scope to express an interest and/or influence the design. Do member clubs have any thoughts on this?

Chess for Schools was discussed at some length. Given the subsequent delays and uncertainties over delivery, this discussion may have been moot. However, should the project succeed - see below for the latest press release — the WCA will need to consider how it will support the delivery of free sets and boards to local schools.

ECF Partners Holloid Plastics in Ground Breaking Chess Project for English Schools

As part of a new Chess for Schools initiative, Holloid Plastics will finance and project manage the manufacturing and distribution of 100,000 free chess sets to 10,000 schools.
May 2009: The English Chess Federation's flagship project for the coming year is Chess for Schools - an endeavour to put chess sets in every school in England, and then follow up with the objective of establishing new school chess clubs. The original concept for the projectcame from the child of a Holloid employee bemoaning the lack of chess facilities at their school.
"This is a chess project on a scale never previously attempted in England, involving the delivery of thousands of free chess sets and supporting material - an opportunity that comes thanks to the generous leadership and sponsorship of Holloid Plastics", says the ECF's Chief Executive, Chris Majer.
Holloid Plastics has put together a specialist team to work on the Chess for Schools project. Project Manager Caroline Morris is supported by Emily Watts as Project Assistant. Public relations is being conducted by Clive Couldwell (Account Director, SE10) and sponsorship coordination by Jonathan Steffen (Managing Director, The Corporate Story). The project's Production Manager is Keith Elliott, Holloid Plastics' Technical Sales Director.
During the first year of the project it is planned to provide approximately 100,000 free chess sets to those schools that have registered. The proposed method of distribution is to hold regional launch days during which the recipients of the sets will collect their sets. Three or four small preliminary events in Surrey, Hampshire and Oxfordshire will be held in May and June 2009. Further details will be published in due course. The events will officially start in September 2009 and the chess sets will be manufactured by Holloid Plastics.
Henning von Spreckelsen, Holloid Plastics' Executive Chairman, says "Working with the English Chess Federation and our sponsors, we are committed to making the Chess for Schools project a resounding success. Uniquely, this project offers me an ideal opportunity to give something back for the support I have received from others in the past."
Says Chris Majer: "This initiative is the largest sponsorship that English chess has received. Thanks to Holloid Plastics' meticulous planning I am confident that the Chess for Schools programme will be a great success."

Subsequent developments

Following the ECF Council meeting in April, Sean Hewitt resigned from all of his MCCU posts. Sean had consulted with the MCCU county team captains on whether to support the SCCU proposals to change the grading bands. Apparently, all captains were opposed to the changes (which is how Sean voted), but Sean was concerned that some of the MCCU County representatives at the meeting voted in favour of the SCCU's proposals. He felt that he had been wasting his time and resigned the following day.

Next meeting

The next MCCU AGM will be held on Sunday, 28th June at 2 p.m. at The Bowling Green, Friary Rd, Lichfield, Staffordshire WS13 6QJ. If there are any motions to be put before the AGM, they must be advised to the Chief Executive by 1st June. If you wish me to raise anything on your behalf, I may be contacted on 01905 358949 or by e-mail.

Andrew Farthing 15 May 2009