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Updated 28.7.10
SCCU NEWS


SCCU ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Saturday 26th June 2010 (start 2.15 pm) at the Fountains Abbey, Praed St, London W2 1RL. It was to have been the Exmouth Arms, but the Exmouth Arms somehow unbooked itself. 11 attended.
(1) Officers' Reports The Officers who declared Nothing to Report are omitted, and there was otherwise not very much you didn't know about. But we'll mention two points.
(a) Junior Organiser. Neill Cooper was not present but reported in writing. He mentioned his intention to change the U14/140's grading limit to U130 next year, and someone made noises about it being against the rules. The time to change the rules was now, and no proposal had been received. Last year, oddly enough, a proposal on the grading limit had been received but the meeting took no decision and left it to the Organiser anyway. It was agreed, this time, to go by the book and hold a Special General Meeting for this purpose immediately before, if not in the middle of, the next Executive meeting. The SGM might also consider a rule permitting a single jamboree instead of Groups-plus-Final should the number of entries be low.
(b) Bulletin Editor. Remember the SCCU Bulletin? The Editor remarked that the Annual edition, which is all that remains of the printed Bulletin, had sold Two copies last year. He proposed to go on for another year at least.
     There had been recent, and very limited, experiments with digitisation of old pre-website Bulletins. The Editor has discovered, to his childlike glee, that his new scanner will do pdfs that are not just pretty pictures but actually searchable as text. It's scarcely a one-man undertaking, though. We're talking about 240-odd issues, averaging maybe 10 pages each, going back to October 1958.
(2) Money. The meeting approved the examined (or "audited") Accounts, showing a surplus of £227 and a bank balance of £3871. (The surplus might boil down to maybe £85 in "real" terms, after allowing for things like expenses not paid yet.) It was noted that no affiliation fee had been received from Buckinghamshire, though their AGM had resolved to pay it. No one at the meeting quite knew what the Bucks situation was. [They have since made it clear that they intended, and still intend, to remain affiliated. What happened to their 2008-9 payment is not clear.]
     The Treasurer's proposed Budget envisaged no change in fees and a deficit of £54. (Fees, as you will recall, are County affiliation £50; NCM affiliation half of that but with a £5 discount for prompt payment; and Counties Championship entry fees £20 per team.) The budget provided £110 expenditure for replacement of three missing junior individual trophies; a figure which the meeting increased to £300 including engraving. After other adjustments, including the restoration of our £40 Patron's subscription to the Friends of Chess, the deficit rose to something like £400. This was approved.
     The meeting wondered, at some length, whether we should go on insuring our Trophies. It wasn't on the agenda, but there was some feeling it should be looked at.
(3) Elections & Appointment. All Officers were re-elected. (The Treasurer, appointed last year on a pro tem acting basis, may yet have hoped to get away with a one-year tenure; but it doesn't happen that way.) We still don't have a Deputy President. Stephen Hill, Auditor since we don't know when, took his well earned retirement and was succeeded by Peter Baker MA FCA from Harpenden.
(4) ECF Counties Team Rapidplay. The meeting discussed the topic reported further down (Executive Committee 9.4.10, item 6).
     To expand a bit on its history, the Championship seems to have been for teams of 12 since the last century, generally over 4 rounds at 30 minutes each, and usually - perhaps always - incorporating a handicap competition based on grades. It was last held in April 2007 at Hatfield with a disappointing entry of 4 teams. Previous venues, working backwards, have been Bedford (2005: 2 teams); Spondon Derbys (September 2003: 7 teams); Gloucester (September 2002: 10 teams); Stevenage (September 2001: 9 teams); Bedford (October 2000: 12 teams, "believed to be a record"); and Sheffield (October 1999: 7 teams). Before this the event was always in the Midlands, and perhaps originally over 16 boards. It was certainly over 16 boards in 1994. We think the competition goes back to 1988, perhaps continuously except for a gap in the early nineties.
     We could probably live with the risk of losing money. Opinion swung towards the Wanstead House venue, which tends to be flexible with bookings and would be unlikely to hold us to a 100-player hall if the entry only justified something smaller. Not that Wanstead is an ideal venue for teams from Manchester, but the even more improbable venue of Wallington had attracted two of those for the ECF Junior Jamborees due to be held next day. Wanstead House was available on Saturday 18th September, at £120 for a large hall. It was agreed to go ahead with this date at Wanstead. Entry fee £36 per team, 4 rounds 30/30, with a handicap along the Hatfield lines mentioned below. (The competition appears to have used at least three modes of grading-based handicap over the years. The Hatfield one is sensible.)
     We would need to advertise the event speedily.
(5) Chess Sets for Schools. Council noted that the CfS fiasco threatened to precipitate an ECF Extraordinary General Meeting. [See the EC Forum. But the threat seems to have gone away since.]
(6) SCCU U185/U150 Jamborees. The meeting inconclusively discussed changes to the format, including throwing the event open to non-Member organisations. It would be something for the Executive to think about over the year, unless someone cared to bring specific proposals at the SGM that 1(a) had already agreed on.
(7) Missing Trophy. We wanted to put this below item (2), but that's not where it came. The Fleming Trophy (perhaps not the most familiar of our Trophies, but you'll find it in the Trophies page) was suddenly not where the Trophies page thought it was. No one remembered seeing it for five years. This was quite important, considering its 2005 insurance valuation of £1950. Is there a statute of limitation on insurance claims? The meeting thought there were one or two avenues to explore before we took that route. [Note 22.7.10. One of them led to it, and the Trophies page is updated.]
(8) Rule Changes.
     (a) County Match Rule 23: appeals. The Executive felt that the rule lacked rigour and proposed a revised version. It was approved by 6 votes to 2. The County Match Rules page is revised.
     (b) Financial Year. The Treasurer proposed that the Union's financial year be changed, to end on 31st May instead of 30th April. The idea was to bring it more into line with the chess season. Some doubted whether this would leave time for preparation and "audit" of the Accounts before the AGM, and the proposal was lost by 2 votes to 6 (falling some way short of the required two-thirds majority).

The meeting closed at 6.04 pm, to be followed by the traditional post-AGM


EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
whose attendance was slightly different. It appointed, or re-appointed, the ECF and BCF reps and the Rules & Appeals Sub-Committee (see Who's Who); but not the London CA rep because the London CA has at last been deemed defunct. The Executive also fixed the date of the
Next Executive Committee meeting: Friday 1st October 2010.

The meeting cosed at 6.32 pm, ten minutes earlier than last year.
rjh 22.7.10, revised 23.7.10, 24.7.10, 28.7.10


SCCU OPEN FIXTURES 2010-11
29.5.10
The County Match Controller writes:
Here are the fixtures for the Open Division of the SCCU Counties Championship for next season 20010-11 Still six entries, same as the season just ended.

Oct 23
Nov 20
Jan 8
Feb 5
Mar 5
SxK     SyE     HM
ESx     MSy     KH
HE      SxSy    KM
EK      SyH     MSx
KSy     HSx     ME

May I emphasise that at this stage the fixtures are provisional only and can be changed by mutual agreement between the Counties and Match Captains concerned. If changes are made however please ensure that the following points are observed:
     (a) Ensure that both myself and the SCCU Webmaster Richard Haddrell are advised.
     (b) Please do not re-arrange matches for the weekend of 26th - 27th March 2011 or later, as these dates are too late to ensure timely nominations for the 2011 ECF National Stages.

At the moment Kent are in the process of electing/appointing a new Match Captain for their Open teams, so I will provide this information once it is known to me. As far as I am aware, all other County Open Match Captains remain the same as in 2009-10.

If there are any queries or problems please advise me as soon as possible.

David Smith davidandjanesmith@ntlworld.com


SCCU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
Friday 9th April 2010 (start 7 pm) at the Exmouth Arms, London NW1
8 attended. Chronologically:
(1) BCET Award. The Executive agreed on the Union's 2009-10 nomination for a British Chess Educatonal Trust award. We won't say which school it is until the awards are announced. It occurs to us we said the same about last year's nominee and have never named them yet. It was Hamilton Primary School, High Wycombe, and the presentation was made to them last summer.
(2) SCCU Bulletin. The Editor said he had produced the (40 page) 2008-9 issue and two people had bought it. It's still available for £5. Think of all those copies lying around gathering dust on the shelf. Actually they're not, it's printed to order, but even so.
     The mirror topic - digitisation of old printed Bulletins - came up again. Progress has been nil.
(3) British Championship qualifying places 2011 and SCCU Individual Championship 20010-11. The Executive's decision was made simpler by the fact that only four congresses had applied for the four places. SCCU Championship: Hastings Masters. BCQ: Thanet (August 2010), Hertfordshire (November/December 2010), and Essex (May 2011).
(4) SCCU County matches: the role of match captains. This arose, indirectly, from the Surrey/Sussex dispute (U180 13.2.10) which went to the Rules & Appeals Sub-Committee last month. We've not published any details of the case and we don't propose to, but the Sub-Committee (along with the Tournament Controller) felt that the match captains might have been able to sort things on the spot had they been clearer about their rights and responsibilities. The Executive thought that match captains should always try to step in where necessary to resolve problems, and that it was reasonable for them to stop their own clocks if need be. The Controller will publish some guidelines at the start of next season.
     The same case also prompted some proposals for tightening up item 23 of the County Match Rules, but we'll spare you the details. You'll be meeting them soon enough if you're at the AGM.
(5) ECF Finance Council meeting. The papers of the meeting are on the ECF website (click here), with the exception of one missing report which may have appeared by the time you read this. (If you didn't pick up the comedy first issue of the Budget Report, you're too late. They replaced it.) The Executive concentrated on two things.
     (a) Money. (It is a Finance meeting.) Specifically, the Board's proposal to raise Game Fee from 50p to 54p. You know the disastrous financial history of the ECF over the last year or two, or however many it is, and the Executive recognised that the Game Fee hike was part of a serious effort to get on track. One rep didn't see how he was going to get his County to agree to an 8% increase. Another remarked - it has been said before - that the Federation shot itself in the foot by setting Game Fee too low in the first place; and the majority felt that the 8% increase should be supported. Our ECF rep will support it.
     It should be said that the ECF propose similar, or larger, increases in Direct Membership subscriptions.
     (b) Chess for Schools. It was noted that the Good News expected just before the Council meeting had come a week early this time. (See the ECF website.) It was also noted that the CfS Report was the only thing still missing from the ECF website's Council papers. The Executive was no more impressed by the progress of the operation than it had been last autumn. It was particularly concerned by the ECF's budgeted expenditure of £6000 in connection with CfS. No one knew what this was for, but staff time seemed a reasonable guess.
     It was resolved unanimously to move an amendment in Council removing the £6000; and by 6 votes to 1 to oppose future ECF involvement with CfS.
(6) Counties Team Rapidplay Championship. The ECF Home Director is interested in reviving this event, last held in 2007 at Hatfield. (There is some history of the event on the English Chess Forum, and the results for certain years appear in our own Archive under "Congress Results". See especially the Spondon event in 2003-4, infamous in Essex memory and notable for its marvellous accident which caused the points to add up to two more than they ought to have.)
     Back to the present, after that historical indulgence. In correspondence with the Home Director it had been established that he would be interested in farming a 2010-11 event out to the SCCU, for the Union's own financial benefit or burden. (There was at the same time a suggestion that any profit might be ploughed back into next year's event, which sounds to your Webmaster like all burden no benefit.) It was agreed "in principle" to go ahead.
     Proposed date: Saturday 18th September 2010. Teams of 12 as (probably) always. Entry fee: not more than £36 per team. Four rounds at 30 minutes each was favoured, rather than the five rounds (presumably at a faster rate) which the Director would have preferred. Venue? Wanstead House was proposed. Someone remarked that Wanstead House was the worst possible venue, Margate excepted, for an event hoping to attract a national entry. It was agreed to try for Stevenage, with Wanstead House as a backup. "Will the event incorporate a handicap championship?" Not decided. Someone said: if it does, let us at least have the Hatfield handicap not the Spondon one.
     But it is early days. Watch this space.
(7) County matches: games on line? It was noted that some Counties are using duplicate scoresheets at matches. Apparently this has given rise to suspicions in some quarters that they are building up secret databases or something. (What if they are?) But at least one is using them to publish games in pgn format on its website. Would it be possible for the SCCU site to host games from other Counties? The SCCU site doesn't know how, but said it might think about it if someone offered to do the work. (It does have a Games page which hasn't been updated since Noah was a lad, and feels guilty about it sometimes. But the page is not up to the technical standards you'd be looking for.)

The meeting closed at 9.30 pm.
rjh 12.4.10


SCCU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
Friday 2nd October 2009 (start 7 pm) at the Exmouth Arms, London NW1
rjh 3.10.09
9 attended. More or less chronologically:
(1) Berkshire. It was reported that the recent Berkshire AGM had debated a motion to re-affiliate to the SCCU. And, apparently, defeated it only quite narrowly. We have no details. We can't find anything on the Berkshire website.
(2) Coulsdon CF. CCF have withdrawn from the Union. They gave reasons which we won't report. It goes back to an old dispute, not an SCCU one, which tediously resurfaces every so often. The result of the withdrawal is that the Union no longer has more than five NCMs, so all of the remaining ones now have their own rep on the Executive. It's unlikely to swamp meetings. There were five places before, but only two were filled for want of nominations.
(3) County matches. David Smith said it had been a frustrating start to the season, what with the grades coming out late and Counties having difficulty coming to terms with the new bands. The number of teams would have been the same as last year had Kent U180 not withdrawn captainless.
     Said withdrawal had occasioned more delay while the section was rewritten (by agreement) as double round. This had meant a clash with Hastings, but it was noted that fixtures could always be re-arranged.
     It was remarked that the new grading bands seemed about half a team too low. Last year's team squads were tending to get split.
(4) Juniors. One question. Was the U14/140, with its one-hour-each time limit, still Rapidplay now FIDE had switched the rule? The ECF haven't switched. It was a bit of a non-question really, considering the ECF have always been ambiguous about it. ("It's Rapidplay, but we'll grade it as Standard if you like.") Despite this flexibility, events have been known to avoid the question by lying about their rate of play. Anyway, this one has always been Rapid and we don't think it's going to change now.
(5) SCCU Bulletin. The Editor had hoped to have the bumper 2008-9 issue ready for distribution at the meeting, but other things had got in the way. It should be available in the next two or three weeks. Orders to the Editor please, with cheque for £5 payable to SCCU. Copies will be printed to order.
(6) SCCU Website. Someone asked, "Is the site's SCCU Calendar last year's?" Of course it is, it's the last thing to get updated when a new season starts. Sorry. We'll try to have it done by Christmas.
(7) ECF Elections. You'll have noticed there are some contested elections coming up at the ECF Annual General Meeting on 17th October. The Executive discussed the merits of the candidates and resolved that our rep will vote for: President CJ de Mooi; Home Director Adam Raoof; Non-Executive Directors Sean Hewitt, John Wickham; FIDE Delegate Nigel Short. Unopposed candidates: all.
(8) ECF Grading.There was some feeling that the new junior grades were too high. (You've probably heard this before.) It was also remarked that treating juniors as new players every year made it impossible for their opponents to keep track of their performance. Actually, Surrey had tried to get a motion onto the agenda of the ECF AGM to the effect that juniors should not be so treated, but had failed to find the necessary support. No one suggested action now, but it was felt that these things would need the ECF's attention before long.
(9) Chess for Schools. The Executive was not wholly convinced that the project is viable. We may expand on this later.
(10) Dates of future meetings.
     March Executive meeting: to be decided when the date of the ECF Finance Council meeting is known. (The idea is to fix a date when the ECF finance papers will, or should, be available.) The date of the ECF Finance Council meeting will be fixed by this month's AGM.
     SCCU AGM: Saturday 26th June 2010.

The meeting closed at 9.20 pm. It was the shortest Executive meeting for four years.


Earlier material is in the Archive.


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