Scottish Championships 2019

[WBuchanan]

Lots of interesting points and ideas but before getting sidetracked I just want to know exactly how the vote went down and if proxies were used. 
Hopefully Alistair can publish his findings too.

You are probably referring to the 2011 AGM vote I mentioned in my reply to Alastair. That was the one referred to by Alex.
Minutes: https://chessscotland.com/documents/csin...s_2011.pdf
Agenda: https://www.chessscotland.com/documents/...a_2011.pdf
 
To answer your question Alan, 17 were present, including Matthew. A motion was passed by majority - it doesn't say overwhelmingly, so 9-12 votes in favour maybe?

1) The first thing about this vote was that the item was not on the agenda, it was under AOCB. So the issue never was put to the membership - it is not true that an AGM accepted Matthew's eligibility (I believe Alex believed this to be true, though).
There could have been no proxies, as the item/motion wasn't on the agenda.

I don't know who was what in CS then (others would); but the 17 present were mostly people who have held CS office. The ordinary members would appear to be in the minority.
In several ways this motion was hardly competent. Though, I believe few members would object to Matthew having a SCO code in itself (as he has done nothing wrong, and has contributed significantly to chess in Scotland) as long as this was not being used to bypass the criteria that bind other players.

2) The next main question is what did they vote for? The motion's wording, being ad hoc, was not on the agenda; so we must rely on the minutes which say the subject was

" 6.9  Matthew Turner nationality transfer", item 6 being AOCB.

The minutes say Andy Howie proposed that

" we process the transfer now and not leave MT stateless for another 3 months".

This does not refer to eligibility. The code is needed for FIDE to process ratings properly.

Indeed, Andy's attributed reason was that Matthew was 'stateless" - ie, didn't have a Federation code.
Nothing in the motion for transfer about eligibility for Championship or International selection.

3) In the discussion Andy preceded the call for a vote on the transfer by explaining that a motion to change the 'Scottish parent' criterion to Grandparent would be got together for an EGM. This was within the item about Matthew's nationality transfer; it looks clear there was an expectation this was needed if Matthew was to be eligible.

So...the transfer related to  the SCO code for FIDE and the suggested (future) Grandparent motion was for eligibility.

Hope helpful.