ATTENDEES
G Anderson D Bryson G Clarke R Coleman T Donohue J Glendinning D Heathwood
A McFarlane L R McKenzie P Macnab F Petrie A Plato C Pritchett K Stewart
D Wilson
J Glendinning chaired the meeting and D Heathwood took the minutes.
APOLOGIES
Apologies had been received from the following: -
S Collins D Gillespie G Grant D Griffin D Leslie I Mackintosh B Marshall
D Smith R Tweedie L Wilson
PREVIOUS MEETING
The Minutes of the previous Council Meeting, 30 August 2003, were approved.
MATTERS ARISING
" CS was now registered with CRBS and was in a position to seek
disclosure information. Steve Mannion (Snr) was lead signatory and the
Executive Director would be additional signatory. CS again recorded
thanks to Steve and recognised his uniquely well-qualified experience
to undertake the role of lead signatory. It was recognised that at some
point, CS should issue advice in the form of guidance note to chess
clubs.
" A draft Code of Conduct at Chess Events had been collated and
would be submitted for Council ratification.
" Website nominations for Player of the Year should be routed to
G Anderson. Thereafter, members' voting would proceed as currently.
" The 50-mile domicile rule for Richardson Cup players living in
England had been revisited but no changes were being proposed at this
stage.
" Revised Directors' Roles and Responsibilities had been posted
on the website.
" A notice of resolution of a dispute, which had occurred at the
most recent Tri Nations Tournament, was read out to the Meeting.
DIRECTORS' ACTIVITY
Each director gave an overview of activities since the 30 August Meeting.
In summary form, the key points were: -
P Macnab, Marketing Director - organising the forthcoming Glorney
Cup competition had involved setting up a sub-committee addressing an
agreed list of tasks, creating a website, seeking sponsorship, organising
playing venue, accommodation and sports activities etc.
F Petrie, Promotions Director - continued efforts had been made
to identify suitable promotions activity, including prizes for children
participating in Fun Days.
A McFarlane, Home Chess Director - a consultation exercise had
established that there was no desire to merge the Richardson Cup and
National League competitions. It was hoped to run more junior chess
events in conjunction with congresses (following the Perth and Kinross
model). In terms of junior training, the intention was to introduce
new events of three games per day plus post game analysis with coaches;
this would act as interim step between fast junior games and adult congresses.
Arrangements had been made for the Scottish Championship to be held
at the Hamilton Academicals stadium from 10 to 18 July 2005. The application
forms had been delayed because of sponsorship related issues. Two new
categories were being introduced to the competition, under 1800 and
under 1500 Scottish Champions.
K Stewart, Technical Director - proposed rule changes which
had been raised within FIDE had been considered by the CS Arbiters and
published on the CS website. The majority of envisaged changes had not
been well received.
G Anderson, Membership Secretary - Membership cards had been
redesigned and were being issued twice a month, renewal and reminder
letters had been re-organised, application forms etc had been tidied
up with the inclusion of the CS logo, progress was ongoing with the
membership database, responsibility had been taken for the website calendar.
The question of reinstating the hard copy calendar, possibly by way
of a "printer friendly" version of the website calendar was
being considered. The question of issuing guidance to chess clubs on
insurance would be considered, either in the form of a letter to club
secretaries or in a website notice.
C Pritchett, Schools Development Director - time taken to establish
status quo following appointment in August. Issues being addressed included
how best to, (a) establish the extent of chess already being organised
in schools and identify suitable local "contact points" who
could provide ongoing information on local school chess, (b) increase
the CS influence and (c) clarify the CS vision and action plan. A Meeting
of all interested parties had been arranged for 27 March. Reference
was made to a planned European Youth Chess Meeting to be held in Germany
from 14 to 22 August.
D Bryson, Grading/Internet Director - Thanks were again recorded
to Alex Bissett for his ongoing improvements to the on-line grading
program. A windows program was now available to area graders as an option
to the old DOS version. FIDE grading data was now being collected alongside
CS data. The website was now attracting 205 unique (non-repeat in the
same 24 hour period) visitors per day. The notice board was recording
93 unique hits per day. Steps had been taken to stop the notice board
being misused for advertisements.
M McKenzie, Finance Director - in addition to the ongoing control
of CS finances the addition of the North Ayrshire project had added
extra bank accounts and records. The increase in premium for CS's insurance
had prompted a review of the existing cover but, to date, it had not
been possible to obtain any significant price reduction.
D Heathwood, Executive Director - a preliminary investigation
and interim report had been submitted on insurance cover. The Arran
course had been delivered with assistance from S Mannion (Snr) and S
Mannion (IM) and notices written for the CS website. The recall of the
Irvine course had been arranged. A Meeting had been held with CRBS to
finalise the CS policy documents. S Mannion (Snr) had attended in his
lead signatory role. The relevance of the Data Protection Act to CS
had been investigated and contact made with BCF to seek their views.
In consultation with Mac McKenzie, legal advice had been sought on the
practicalities of limited liability and related topics. DH stated that
the time commitment required of him over the last 6 months had been
unacceptable.
J Glendinning, President - accepted responsibility for updating
the website's schools pages. A Meeting had been held with the BCF President
to discuss schools chess and the change to the BCF name.
D Griffin, International Director - no report available.
FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS
The Finance Director presented budgeted income and expenditure for
the coming financial year. The proposed membership fee increases gave
rise to discussion but were accepted. A sub-group would look at the
proposals in greater detail with a view to introducing "fine tuning"
if thought appropriate.
WEBSITE CONTENT
Consideration should be given to the question of whether to re-package
the tournament organisers' information pack currently published on the
website.
FUNDAY PRIZES
Council were briefed as to the options for children's prizes and the
costs involved in customising by inclusion of the CS name and/or logo.
Car stickers were also being considered.
NEXT MEETING
It was envisaged that the next Meeting of Council would be held in
September.