Back to Home Page

CHESS SCOTLAND (CS)
MINUTES OF COUNCIL MEETING

City Inn, Glasgow
Sunday 8 February 2004


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.



Home -   Congress Ads  -  Leagues  -  Grading  -  Chess Scotland Info  -  Schools  - Downloads  -  News  -  Links
— © Chess Scotland 2004—