Published 20 August 2009

MCCU AGM 2009: Delegates' Report

The latest AGM was held in Lichfield on 29 June 2009. Ray Collett (Director for Public Relations) and Andrew Farthing (Non-Executive Director) attended on behalf of Worcestershire.

Elected officials were unchanged apart from:

  • Ray Collett becomes MCCU Webmaster (bravely stepping into the breach after Sean Hewitt's resignation);
  • John Pakenham (Warks) is one of the two Non-Executive Directors, replacing Chris Gibson.

A review of the MCCU accounts revealed another substantial annual surplus (£483) for 2008/09. This followed a surplus of £542 the previous year. The accounts show that the MCCU has simply not been spending much money: just £113 in 2007/08 and £96 in 2008/09. The largest unspent item was for Junior Chess, which has been affected by the longstanding illness of the Director for Junior Chess. After some discussion, the Finance Director's proposed expenditure budget was reduced.
As a result of the financial surplus, it was moved that the levy should be reduced. However, because it was argued that more would be spent in 2009/10, the decision taken (by 7 votes to 2) was as follows:

  • Leave the levy at £12; but
  • Issue a rebate to members of £8 for the past year.

Following the ECF Council's decision to amend the County championship categories to Open, U180, U160, U140, U120 and U100, the meeting unanimously voted to follow suit in the MCCU. Entries to the 2009/10 event will be invited by 1st September.

The issue of British Championship qualifying places (much debated at the previous AGM and in subsequent e-mail exchanges) was resolved. It was agreed to establish a rota for the three places granted to individual congresses. At the moment, this is moot, because the Leicester congress no longer requires its qualifying place and, as a result, there are only three congresses currently applying to produce a qualifier. In future, other congresses (e.g. the Worcestershire Open!) may apply to be added to the rota, subject to certain criteria.

Rules for the MCCU Grand Prix, which also provides a British Championship place to the highest placed MCCU player, were proposed and agreed. The 2008/09 Grand Prix was won by Mark Hebden.

There was some discussion of the difficulties affecting the new grades at that time (no longer relevant following the launch of the new database a week ago). Similarly, the brief discussion of the Chess for Schools project shows signs of being superseded by events, one way or another. Ray Collett made the point that the ECF's guidance on overcoming the barriers to working with juniors, such as CRB clearance, should be clarified. Cyril Johnson agreed to take the issue up with the ECF Director of Junior Chess, Peter Purland.