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Minutes of the Chess Club 2024 Annual General Meeting
University of Bedfordshire & Luton Chess Club Minutes of Annual General Meeting on 3 September 2024 (Unconfirmed).
1 ELECTION OF CHAIR AND SECRETARY FOR THE MEETING.
Humayun Mirza was elected as Chair for the meeting.
Peter Montgomery was elected as Secretary for the meeting.
2 MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING
These were agreed as a true record.
3 ELECTION OF OFFICERS
The following members were elected to serve as the club’s committee for the 2023/2024 season.
Humayun Mirza was elected as Chair.
Peter Montgomery was elected as Secretary.
Dixon Jones was elected as Treasurer.
4 TREASURER’S REPORT AND ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS
The Treasurer’s report was presented at the meeting and is Appendix 1 to the minutes. The club is now in a healthy financial position. Historical debts have been paid off. It was agreed that subscriptions for the 2024/2025 year will be:
£20 for adults in employment,
£10 for pensioners and the unwaged.
£0 for juniors. In cases of financial hardship the club’s committee will have the discretion to reduce or waive the fees.
New club members who join later in the season will be considered for a pro-rata reduced club fee.
5 CLUB TOURNAMENTS
There will be an ECF rated Club Championship run using the Swiss system. The number of rounds needed will depend on the number of entrants. Time controls will be the same as those used in the Bedfordshire Chess League (BCL).
There will be an ECF rated Club Rapid Play Tournament using the same time controls as the BCL Cordon Trophy.
There will be an ECF Ladder Tournament with a time limit of 30 minutes +5 seconds per move.
Players in the above tournaments must be English Chess Federation (ECF) members.
The club will consider running other tournaments if time and resources permit. Please discuss with the Tournament Controllers if you have any suggestions.
P Montgomery & H Mirza agreed to Act as the Tournament Controllers.
6 BEDFORDSHIRE CHESS LEAGUE
The Club has sufficient players to enter two teams in the BCL and possibly a third team.
H Mirza will be the A team captain.
D Jones will be the B Team captain. (NB D Jones will not be available between 18th October to 30th November 2024).
The Club wil seek a volunteer to run a possible C team.
The Club should be able to send at least two teams of 4 to the Cordon Trophy; date to be confirmed after the BCL AGM.
7 EQUIPMENT
There are sufficient new sets boards and clocks to host one home match plus one spare clock. There are other Digital Clocks but these are not suitable for league matches. The Club has a good supply of Scoresheets. As finances improve the club may be able to purchase more clocks for league matches.
8 LEAGUE AGM
H Mirza & J Hudson will attend. Others are welcome to attend but the club only has 2 votes at the meeting.
There are no objections to the proposed rule changes but it is noted that the wording for the proposed change to Rule 1 should read “A minimum period of 3 hours must be available for matches”.
9 COMMUNICATION AND WEBSITE
Currently the club uses WhatsApp. We also have a website,
https://www.lutonchessclub.com/
Daman Singh agreed to continue as Media Controller.
10 AOB
We need to try to do more to promote the group to students at the university and the wider community.
We will try to have younger club members at the University of Bedfordshire 2024 Freshers Fair. P Montgomery & H Mirza to discuss further.
It was noted that there are currently no female members of the club. We need to consider how we might attract female members, including students.
It was suggested that we could move to holding the club on a different evening. This would be possible, but Tuesday was the overwhelming favourite when members were consulted previously. Moving to a Thursday may make it more difficult for the BCL controlled to arrange fixtures.
Peter Montgomery has offered to contact local schools and run a simultaneous exhibition match against juniors to stimulate interest.
N. B. To play in league matches and rated club tournaments club members must have a current ECF membership.
Appendix 1: Luton Chess Club Treasurers Report 2023/2024
Treasurers note: If the member does not return to claim change owed within the current 2024-2025 season, the moeny will be deemed a donation to the club.