Published 25 August 2010

Delegate's report: MCCU AGM 2010

I attended the last meeting held at Syston, Leicestershire on 26 June. Andrew Farthing was on holiday and I presented his apologies for absence.

ELECTIONS

There were few changes. Andrew was re-elected as one of the two non-executive directors and I was re-elected as the Director for Public relations and Webmaster, all unopposed. Graham Humphries after very many years has stood down from the post of Director of Junior Chess because of ill-health and a replacement is being sought. Julie Johnson stood down from the post of MCCU representative on the ECF and her place is taken by Andrew Leadbetter (Staffs).

FINANCES

The union maintains what I consider a large balance (£4,800) given that it no longer arranges its own congress. My move to reduce the levy on counties was resisted and only a small reduction from £12 to £10 per levy point was agreed. The meeting asked the Grading Director Peter Sherlock to review the level of current 'chess activity' in each of the counties to establish whether the existing number of levy points is still appropriate for each county.

MCCU EVENTS 2009-10

The MCCU ran team competitions for Open, Minor, u-180, u-160, u-140, u 120 sections. There were no junior competitons. The meeting agreed to retain the inter-county competitions, the individual correspondence tournament, and the Grand Prix. Two additional competitions are planned: a Team Rapidplay Handicap Tournament and a Rapidplay GP. Subject to the appointment of a Junior Director the MCCU also intend to hold a junior individual championship. The feasibility of having individual performance awards for each section of the county team tournament will be examined and a report prepared for the next meeting. There was little support for an MCCU individual congress and it was suggested that the rights to a Midland Open title could be rotated round the congresses in the MCCU area.

COUNTY TEAM RULES

Various proposals were considered and policy changes were agreed.

  1. A neutral venue is the default where counties do not share a border. Counties can still agree to play home or away.
  2. Although players are allowed to bring mobile phones into the playing area, if an electronic device sounds in the playing hall, the player's game shall be forfeit.
  3. Captains should submit results not later than 7 days after a match has been played and the controller decides what penalty to apply for non-compliance.
  4. The unconfirmed minutes suggest that there should be mutual agreement to use digital clocks whereas my recollection of the meeting is that mutual agreement was required only for use of incremental time controls.
  5. There were technical changes substituting the word team for county in recognition that counties may field more than one side.

Amended rules have not yet been circulated and the precise incremental time controls closest to the existing traditional time controls have not yet been circulated for consultation.

MCCU WEBSITE AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

The webmaster's publication policy was approved. The MCCU website with information for county captains, Midlands chess news, and administrative papers is at http://www.mccu.org.uk/

MCCU REPORTS

MCCU County Champions are Staffs with Lincs winning the Minor section. Notts won the u-140 and Staffs Bulldogs the u-120 sections. Keith McLoughlin won the PC Gibbs correspondence trophy and Don Mason (Shirley, Warks) the MCCU GP.

MCCU NATIONAL WINNERS & AWARDS

Warks won the ECF u-180 county title and Bushbury (Wolverhampton, Staffs) the ECF Minor Plate in the ECF Club Championships. MCCU Chief Executive Julie Johnson will be awarded the ECF President's award for services to chess.