EGCA

1 Apologies for Absence

Apologies were received from: Kevin Staveley, Moira MacDonald, Mike Gale, Dai James

2 Approval of the Minutes from Previous Meeting

Minutes from AGM 2023 were accepted as true record

3 Matters Arising from Previous Minutes

No matters arising from AGM 2023 minutes

4 Correspondence

The only correspondence was from one gentleman asking about paper match archives from the 70s

5 Presentation of Reports

1. Report from the Secretary

“I Have enjoyed my first season as League Secretary, I would like to thank the committee for welcoming me on board and for their patience while arranging this year' s meetings. A majority of the work I havdone as secretary was relating to scam emails. I just would like to remind all members to never respond to requests for money from any of the committee or any other member in general, any doubt of authenticity, reach out and confirm with myself, should I get re-elected”

(b) Report from the Treasurer

The Treasurer would like to thank all Club Officials who provide him with registration details and funds, it helps greatly with processing the memberships with the WCU.

The accounts have been prepared and audited by the Auditor and no queries have been raised. Highlights include:

1 A shortfall in EGCA funds of £274

2 This shortfall was planned due to the agreed waiver of EGCA membership this season.

3 It is a reduction in the shortfall created in the 2022-23 season of £644. This was achieved with

reduced Junior spending and a reduction in the cost of Trophies. Also the Honoria for the Covid Officer

has been removed.

4 Bank balance is currently at £4267. With the Auditors agreement in the aim to reduce the bank

balance The treasurer will be proposing at the AGM to waive the EGCA membership fee for a further

season.

5 The Treasurer is not aware of any changes to the WCU for the 2024-25 season

6 The Treasurer would like to remind clubs to double check if a player is already registered directly with

the WCU or not as it has caused several issues this season.

(c) Report from the Executive Director.

“I have found this to be a difficult season. In 2023 I had some health issues and in 2024 I

have encountered issues with my laptop. In addition, everything seems to take much longer

to complete than previously although perhaps that is an age issue.

2 new issues arose this season. There was difficulty in completing the registration of players

and towards the end of the season there were a considerable number of postponements. I

did at one stage think we might struggle to complete all the matches before the end of the

season. A few penalties were imposed for these reasons.

Regarding postponement, remember that you can have a valid match if only 1 board is

played. There were requests such as “I don’t have my normal team”, “some of my players

took part in a congress on the weekend” and “I only have 2 players”. These are not valid

reasons to postpone. Also note that teams are only allowed 2 postponements per season.

Perhaps it is significant that the smaller clubs are the ones who do not request a

postponement. Remember that if you know you have a problem with a future match you can

always bring it forward. Hopefully next season will see a significant reduction in requests to

postpone a match.”

(d) Report from the Ratings Officer

No report Submitted

6 Reports of delegates to WCU

a) Management Board

Chairman of Selectors

At the AGM Howard Williams had indicated he wished to retire from this post. He agreed to carry on

in position until a suitable replacement could be found.

Tim Kett has agreed to take on this role. Howard is to be advised and would need to formally resign

before Tim can take over.

Membership

We discussed the financial position of the WCU. We are making losses and it was decided to increase

the registration fee and give new members a 50% reduction in fees for their first year only. Jason

Garcia confirmed that the cut off for membership is the end of May. Any new members do not need

to be registered and paid up until the annual subscriptions are due as at 1 st September.

Premier League and U1850

New rules are being prepared for the 23/24 competition, Squad sizes may be amended with possibly

one squad to cover both sections.

FIDE Grant

Application for this year's grant will be due shortly. The sub-committee will need to call a meeting to

consider the FIDE requirements in relation to KPI’s and projects we can apply for.

(b) Home Committee - No report Submitted

(c) Development Committee - No report Submitted

(d) Publicity Committee - No report Submitted

(e) International Committee - No report Submitted

(f) Junior Committee - No report Submitted

(g) Ladies’ Committee - No report Submitted

7 Review of membership fees

The Treasurer proposed to make no change to the fee structure and to waive the fee for EGCA Membership for the 2024-25 season.

This proposal was passed with a Majority vote and will apply to the upcoming season.

8 Presentation of Trophies

(a) Divisional trophies

Division 1 - The Chairman presented the North Cardiff Woodpushers with the Division 1 Trophies

Division 2- The Chairman presented the Caerphilly Rooks with the Division 2 Trophies

Division 3- The Chairman presented the Barry Gambits with the Division 3 Trophies

QP League

Division 1- The Chairman presented the Cardiff Explorers with the Division 1 QP Medals

Division 2- The Chairman presented Barry with the Division 2 QP Medals

(b) The Alec Wood Trophy was awarded by the Chairman to Arush Ajai Murthy of Bridgend for his

increase in grade (July 2023-June 2024)

9 Election of Officers for 2024-25

(a) Chairman - Anthony Baker was duly re-elected without Opposition

(b) Vice Chairman - Bill Harle was duly re-elected without Opposition

(c) Secretary - Anthony Williams was duly re-elected without Opposition

(d) Treasurer/ Zonal membership Secretary - Martin Ricketts was duly re-elected without Opposition

(e) Executive Director - Phil Jones was duly re-elected without Opposition

(f) Rules Director - Kevin Stavely was duly re-elected without Opposition

(g) Designated Safeguarding Officer - Alan MacDonald was duly re-elected without Opposition

10 Election of delegates to WCU

(a) Management Board - Phil Jones was duly re-elected without Opposition

(b) Home Committee - Dai James was duly re-elected without Opposition

(c) Development Committee - Post left Vacant after no election

(d) Publicity Committee (this person will be our publicity officer) - Post left Vacant after no election

(e) Junior Committee (this person is our junior organiser) - Post left Vacant after no election

(f) International Committee (this person is automatically the rep. to the Selection Committee) - Tom

Brown was duly re-elected without Opposition

(g) Ladies’ Committee - Post left Vacant after no election

11 Election of Other Officers

 (a) Quickplay League Secretary - Phil Jones was duly re-elected without Opposition

(b) Ratings Officer - Paul Orton was duly re-elected without Opposition

12 Election of Other Officers

(a) Vice President to the WCU -Roy Thomas was duly re-elected without Opposition

(b) Dai James - Paul Orton was duly re-elected without Opposition

13 Association’s Junior Grant

The current Grant of £300 was approved by a majority vote for the upcoming season.

14 Honoraria

The current honoraria of £125 for the Executive Director and £50 for the Treasurer was approved by a

majority vote for the upcoming season.

15 WCU Rating Uplift

The Executive director updated the meeting on the recent ratings uplift and proposed the following to

keep the EGCA rules in line with this change of ratings.

Rule 8 (c) and (d) need to be uplifted to

increase the game restrictions The 2 limits are currently 1400 and 1900. It is proposed to

increase these to 1640 and 1940 respectively.

This proposal was passed with a Majority vote and will apply to the upcoming season.

16 Proposed changes to the EG Rules of Play

A Proposal was made by Sam Jukes and seconded by Bill Harle which was the following:

Suggested change to section 7(a)(i)(b)

All games shall be played to a finish on the night at a rate of 30 moves in 60 minutes and then an

additional 25 minutes to complete the game.

All games shall be played to a finish on the night at a rate of all moves in 60 minutes with 15 second

increments.

Suggest remove section 7(a)(i)(c)

Suggest remove all of section 10

Suggested change to Appendix 1: Article 8.4

If a player has less than five minutes left on his clock and does not have additional time of 30 seconds

or more added with each move, then he is not obliged to meet the requirements of Article 8.1. If the

increments result in a time exceeding 5 minutes, the player is still not required to record their moves.

Immediately after one flag has fallen the player must update his scoresheet completely.

This proposal was recommended from the Pre AGM for voting at this meeting. John Thornton submitted

the following as an amendment to Sam's Pre AGM recommendation. This was aimed to give the

meeting alternate time controls to discuss.

Those present to vote on the 5 suggested time limits below, eliminating the least preferred of

the alternatives below one by

one with a final vote on this issue whether to replace the current ‘30 in 1 hr + 25 minutes to

finish’ with the final remaining

alternative.

A: Time + Increment from move 1

A1: 60 minutes + 15 sec/move (+ required rule for occasional over-runs past 10:20p.m.)

(The committee recommendation)

A2: 60 minutes + 13 sec/move

B: Intermediate Time Control (without increment) then Additional Time + increment

B1: 30 moves in 60 minutes then 15 minutes added with a 7 second increment

B2: 30 moves in 55 minutes then 15 minutes added with a 10 second increment

C: Change to the current time control with no increment

C1: 40 moves in 70 minutes then 15 minutes to finish

Both options in category B were deemed by the Chairman to be unsuitable for the chess clocks to

control so were removed from the list.

The Chairman ran an elimination vote between A1, A2 and C1 and the majority vote passed on Option

A2, All moves in 60 minutes with a time increment of 13 seconds per move for the upcoming season.

A vote was then held to vote on the other original sections of the the proposal, which were:

Suggested change to section 7(a)(i)(b)

Suggest remove section 7(a)(i)(c)

Suggest remove all of section 10

Suggested change to Appendix 1: Article 8.4

These proposals were passed with a Majority vote and will apply to the upcoming season.

A Proposal was made by Mike Gale and seconded by Phil Jones which was the following:

Change rule 3b(i) to read ' Promotion and relegation will be on the basis of two up and two down”

This proposal was passed with a Majority vote and will apply to the upcoming season.

The proposal recommended at the Pre AGM by Phil Jones,

Addition to APPENDIX 2 – PENALTIES

Postponements without due notice (14 days) can only do so with the agreement of their

opponents andAND the Ex.D. Failure to obtain the agreement of the Ex.Dir will incur 12PP.

This proposal was passed with a Majority vote and will apply to the upcoming season.

17 AOB

There was no other business to discuss.

18 Close

The chair called the meeting to a close at 21.10