Yorkshire Chess Association Year Book

2017-2018

 

Contents

Calendar of Events – Results/Reports

 

I<< Year Book Home

 

Accuracy of club information &

Yearbook: further copies &

YCA Honorary Life Members &

Yorkshire Individual Championship 2018

Message from the President

Officers 2017-18

Annual Fees

County Match Fees & Petrol Allowance

Junior Contacts

YCA League Match Venues

Secretaries of Competing Clubs

Match Correspondents ‑ Woodhouse Cup

Match Correspondents ‑ IM Brown

Match Correspondents ‑ Silver Rook

YCA League Fixtures 2017-2018

ECF Game Fee Changes &c

Joining the ECF

Standard-play Grading Trends 2002-17

Notes on the YCA Grading List

Results Graded July 2016 to June 2017

YCA Grading List

Yorkshire Junior Reports

Correspondence Chess Report

U-160 Captain’s Message

2016-17 League Tables & Match Results

County Match Result Summary

English County Finals 2017

English County Championship 1921

Recent Winners of YCA Events

Constitution and Rules

YCA League Rules

Index to Rules

Individual Championship Rules

Contact Details Index

Event Calendar 2017-18

 

 

Yorkshire Chess Association Annual General Meeting 2017

 

Minutes of the 2017 YCA AGM have been posted to the web at http://yorkshirechess.org/yorkshire-chess-association-agm-minutes/.

 

NB  Buried in the Officers’ reports in the Minutes, where very few will ever read it, is the following.  “Grading Officer Jon [Griffith] said he would be willing to stand for another season.  The committee wishes to advertise for someone to take over the Chessnuts site.  This could be a team of people and an advert will be put on the YCA [i.e. yorkshirechess.org] website and circulated around club secretaries and captains.”  [Jon expressed a desire to retire at least 12 months earlier, but you probably didn’t go to that AGM either!  Nothing tangible seems to have been done to resolve the issue since then.]

 

This could well mean, after 2017-18

no YCA grades,

no local-league or other results on “Chessnuts”,

>  no free data entry of congress results for the purposes of ECF grading.

 

Having got that headline out of the way . . .

 

A personal report on the AGM by Steve Mann, 29/07/2017

 

Present were Jim Burnett (President, Sheffield), Ihor Lewyk (Secretary, Bradford) Stephen Burton(Treasurer, West Leeds), Andrew Zigmond (Competitions Controller, Harrogate), Jeremy Hamm (Year Book editor, Sheffield), Steve Mann (Sheffield), Peter Shaw (Wakefield), Noel Stewart (York).

 

A few years ago, Jim Burnett and myself (neither then YCA post-holders of any sort) sauntered into the YCA AGM, moderately late, and thereby rendered the assembly quorate.  Since then, I’ve attended the meeting as much as anything to make the meetings quorate.  There’s also the possible need to step in to fill a vital office should there be nobody else to do so.

 

Finding a “good” date is increasingly difficult.  The constitution stipulates the meeting be held on a Saturday in June.  A Committee Meeting held on 08/04/2017 had to set the date of the AGM.  Every Saturday is bad for somebody, inevitably, so the aim was primarily to avoid local chess events which would draw away those who otherwise might attend the meeting.  The 3rd (my choice – I was at the meeting for obscure reasons, though theoretically couldn’t vote) was during the South Lakes congress.  (OK, it’s not in Yorkshire, but a number of AGM attenders usually play in it.  All the same, YCA business should take precedence.)  The 10th was English Counties Semi-final day, as well as being the date of the NCCU AGM, so that was even worse.  The 17th was the date of the Heywood Congress (less popular than South Lakes), and the date of a junior event.  The 24th was during the Sheffield Congress, which would take out more people than the 17th.  Some bright spark suggested 31st June.  So, 17th it was.  No date suits all, and most dates suit too few.

 

Be that as it may, whatever the date, clubs should make a greater effort to ensure they send at least one member along to the YCA AGM.  Personally, I forego Yorkshire league matches to represent Yorkshire at ECF meetings from time to time.  Others should forego whatever it might be to attend the YCA AGM or else send somebody else.

 

This year, for the first time when I have been present, the meeting was inquorate, with no late arrivals to remedy the problem.  That meant no rule changes could be considered.  Ironically, no-one from club which had proposed a change to the Constitution’s clause which governs the AGM’s date was present.  Nor was there anyone from the club which had proposed that divisions 2 and 3 of the Yorkshire league be no longer ECF-graded.  If you propose it, then surely you ought to turn out to vote for it!

 

Between AGMs, the day-to-day business of the Association falls to the Committee.  In particular, if an officer left office mid-season (e.g. died) then the Committee would appoint an interim acting official.  Technically, the meeting wasn’t quite even quorate as a Committee meeting, a problem caused partly by two people each holding two Principle Officer posts but each counting as one person, and some elected persons not being counted as Officers (who could be co-opted to the Committee to make it quorate).

 

Substituting pragmatism for strict legitimacy, though carrying out no business specifically falling to a quorate AGM (apart from presentation of trophies), the meeting attended to such matters as the Committee would have done in the circumstances.  Accordingly, Noel Stewart of York RI succeeded, as Honorary Secretary, Ihor Lewyk, who was added to the list of Honorary Life Members.  Similarly, Steve Mann of Sheffield & DCA succeeded Jeremy Hamm as Year Book editor (not strictly an “Official” post).  Additionally, Noel Stewart stepped into the hitherto vacant role of Yorkshire Sec. for Junior Chess, without being clear what this might entail!

 

Last season Yorkshire lacked captains for Under-180, Under-120 and Under-100 teams.  However, Jeremy Hamm indicated he would probably be willing to take on captaincy of an Under-180 team, provided his new ECF grade fitted the bill.  Under-120 and Under-100 captaincies remain unfilled.  (U-120 and U-100 teams would probably have only one NCCU match each, versus Lancashire.  (See table in 2017-06-10NCCUAGM.htm.)  [P.S. Jeremy’s new ECF grade turns out to be 178.]