This was an email that we received - there is a Microsoft Power Point presentation that came with it that is worth downloading and viewing, that is at the end of the email message.

Subject - just thinking out loud about membership...

Dear All
Membership lost by 69-83 at the extraordinary BCF meeting on Saturday
Please read through the e-mail below I have sent to the BCF management
board, and also the powerpoint presentation I gave at the management
meeting. I wish to involve all northern chess players in this debate as
soon as possible. I believe now is the time for the north to give a
lead. Please send it on to all your chess colleagues in your county,
league or club.
Would great appreciate comments, thoughts, ideas from you all please.
Regards
Bill
NCCU and Lancashire President
p.s. Rupert in the message below is the Yorkshire delegate to the BCF



Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 10:32:23 +0100
To: PBusw13724 at aol.com,
ManagementBoard at bcf.org.uk
Bcc: "Bill O\'Rourke" <worchessnu1 at ntlworld.com>
Subject: Re: just thinking out loud about membership...
From: Bill O'Rourke <worchessnu1at ntlworld.com>

Dear Colleagues
Yesterday was interesting from several points of view. Please take my
views and opinions at face value, written without emotion.

1/ I may be wrong, but I believe the views put forward by the NCCU
clearly won the battle on the day (death by decline sticking with the
game fee versus life and growth with a positive membership scheme) but
lost the war because the vast majority of votes were already fixed
before the meeting. A cynic would question why have the meeting and
debate on the day at all (at considerable expense to the membership)!

I have been in post for one week as NCCU President and learn that this
debate had not taken place at the April meeting - a discussion key to
the future of this organisation. If the debate had taken place then,
discussion could have been taken back to the individual constituencies
to discuss pro's and con's based upon facts commonly agreed by all
sides. Why did this not happen? Not recriminatatory, but attempting to
prevent it happening again.

2/In the North I am working against a background where many events now
want to take matters into their own hands and either pull out of game
fee altogether or take a one year holiday from paying game fee. There
is no real arguement against this, since the massive rises over the
last few years are threatening the very existence of these events and
so they must safeguard their events. I didn't want to bring this up
yesterday because it could have been portrayed as blackmail. It is
actually a reality.

These events and their organisers are voluntary fund raisers for the
BCF and yet feel they cannot effect the BCF decision making processes
(without taking unilateral action) - a very worrying thought - and
yesterday could be seen as confirmation of these beliefs.

3/ Again I may be wrong, but I felt I saw the top management team
captive of their own democratic process!! Looking at the final vote,
the majority of the top table voted in favour of a membership scheme.
Considering they know the financial facts behind income and game fee,
this should come as a major concern to yesterday's anti-membership
voters. Strategically, where are we going? In a nutshell, we are now
having to go forward with a failing system managed by a top team who
don't believe in it. This should worry every one of us who want to grow
and professionally organise chess in this country.

4/ Had the management team discussed membership as a team? What was
their collective view? Had they attempted to tell and sell this
collective view to their membership? People look for guidance from
their managers and leaders after consultation, believing they have the
facts and figures upon which which to base strategic decisions. Apart
from Robert's figures, I saw no evidence yesterday of guidance from the
directors. This is not a criticism of individuals - it is a
questionning of process.

5/ And finally I may yet again be wrong - but I could not help feeling
that some of the major speakers who were opposing the membership scheme
yesterday were feeling distinctly awkward after the vote - they may
have won 'their' battle within the BCF hierarchy - but what legacy have
they left chessplayers in this country with?

6/ Marc Bryant's suggestion came up in conversation between Rupert,
myself and Marc - some of you may have seen myself and Rupert rapidly
sharing notes after the final vote! We had already decided during these
scibblings that we must look at running a pilot membership scheme in
the North. The question was do we go it alone and take the £13500 game
fee into the NCCU (doing our own grading for probably one third of the
game fee - we have four graders in the north who would do it for this
price), or do we do it collectively within the BCF umbrella?

7/ Therefore Paul and John's e-mails come as some comfort in obviously
troubled times - a schism is the last thing we all need at this time.
Has this the full consent and support of the management board? If so,
we in the North will invest considerable time and effort to attempt to
make this pilot scheme work - and in a shorter time scale than most
would expect. I suspect three years would not be needed - there would
be enough indications after one year as to whether or not the scheme is
viable.

8/ I will discuss immediately with my NCCU colleagues - and see what
would be the earliest possible starting date.

Best regards to all
Bill

> Colleague:
>
> A (fairly) impressive discussion yesterday demonstrating a
> substantial minority in favour of a radical change in our whole
> financing set up.
>
> Is there any mileage in a suggestion by Marc Bryant that we pilot a
> membership scheme in one region and see how it goes? Run it for
> three years maybe, with a get out option if it was obviously
> failing?
>
> We would be risking that part of Game Fee which came
> from that region, plus the admin costs, less the income gained from
> memberships. But we'd nail the issue once and for all.
>
> The
> region would have to be NCCU, of course - the majority of chess
> organisers up there are supposed to be in favour, if we are to judge
> by the proxies, and Bill and Gerry would be selling on their own
> patch - if they couldn't deliver, no one else would anywhere else.
>
>
> All sorts of admin and procedural hurdles, but is it worth looking
> at to start in 2005?
>
> Paul Buswell
>
Down load Right Click and choose "Save Target As" - Power Point Presentation

1st Stockton Chess Championships

Report Results and Photo's

Click Here

Previous Mins - Accepted

BCF - Extraordinary Council Meeting
An extraordinary Council Meeting will be held on 26th June at the Nottingham Moat House, Nottingham from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m to discuss BCF membership.
NCCU propose £10 memberships and do away with game fee

Game fee goes up to 44p per game
Out of this 44p - 7p goes to the government in VAT!!

Derby are refusing to pay game fee to BCF next year

Scotland pay game fee of £1 per game

BCF to debate name/organisation change to Chess England

County Secretary - Phil Semp
When people sign up to new clubs or the CCA can their contact details (name , address, tel # etc) be forwarded to Phil Semp so he can mail them information to notify them of meetings etc that the CCA have planned.

Treasurer - Steve Dauber
Accounts are in good shape
Registration Fees - BCF Direct - £6.00 < this has been removed

League Organiser - Ray Pallister
Prize Presentation - 3rd week in September - Synthonia Club
Could all prize winners please try and attend - thank you

Clubs to be asked if they want the entertainment/presentation nights to return

Bob Rowe - 9 events graded, Bob happy to continue as grader
Scarborough Congress 2003 - all Swiss cards lost - the event will not be graded

Club AGM's - to be held before the 1st week in September to give Ray a chance to set the league fixtures.

Sean Marsh - no longer the junior/press organiser - resigned
Nobody offered to take the position - if interested please contact Gerry Walsh.

Webmasters
Thanked everyone for sending in results to keep the web site up to date - everything is working well.

Election Officers
All voted on-bloc - except for Sean Marsh who had resigned

Rule Changes

Phil Semp - Ray Pallister
Deadline for submitting proposals for rule changes shall be May 15th - Accepted

J Burnett - G Edwards
Players registered with one club shall be entitled to join a fresh club and play for its team/s, if chosen, during a given season, providing they have resigned in writing from their current membership - Accepted

Steve Henderson - C Carabine
No score books shall be used in Cleveland League chess to record the moves. Only individual score sheets are to be used - Withdrawn, G Walsh to look at the FIDE rules of chess and report back.

S Henderson
The rule that home team captain must confirm the fixture with the away captain at least 7 days prior to the match shall be re-instated. - Accepted

C Carabine

1. No substitutes shall be permitted to replace people who haven't turned up for games - LOST
2. Individual team sheets shall be swapped before the match starts - Accepted
3. In cup games players who play for a team must play at least 1 game before playing in the cup - LOST

AOB

Ray asked that all Winners Trophies be handed in to him.

Meeting closed approx 21.45hrs

British Champion Norman Stephenson @ The Links

Full report, games and photo's

Click Here

Agenda

1. Apologies For Absence
2. Minutes of Previous AGM > Click here to View
3. Matters Arising
4. Election of Officers
5. Report From Officers - 2003/2004
6. Proposed Rule Changes
7. Plans To Present Trophies
8. AOB

Phil Semp
League Secretary

Proposed Rule Changes

FROM - Phil Semp - Ray Pallister

The deadline for submitting proposals for rule changes shall be May 15th

FROM - Jeremy Burnett - Graham Edwards

Players registered with one club shall be entitled to join a fresh club and play for its team(s), if chosen, during a given season, provided they have resigned in writing from their current membership

FROM - Steve Henderson - Chris Carabine

No score books shall be used in the Cleveland League Chess to record the moves. Only individual score sheets are to be used.

FROM - Steve Henderson

The rule that HOME teams must confirm the fixture with the away captain at least seven days prior to the match shall be re-instated.

FROM - Chris Carabine

1. No substitutes shall be permitted to replace people who haven't turned up for games.
2. Individual team sheets shall be swapped before the match starts.
3. In Cup games players who play for a team must play at least one game before playing in the cup.

The 2004 Chess Olympiad will be held in Mallorca from 14 - 31 October later this year. The main base for accommodating the players and officials will be Magaluf, which is just a few miles away.

Magaluf is of course the very popular resort for English tourists who take their holiday in Mallorca. In addition to the Olympiad there will be a number of events for players of all strengths and ages. Gerry has visited Mallorca and met the Mascot 'Peonin' he has also visited the playing venue and a number of hotels. The Mayor of Calvia and Gerry's chess friend the President of the Spanish Chess Federation are both looking forward to welcoming you to Mallorca in October.

The opportunity to visit an Olympiad is now a real prospect for many of you and Gerry recommends that you consider arranging your holiday during this period.

Further details > http://www.36chessolympiad.com

The MB meeting prior to Finance Council on April 24th took the opportunity to formally recognise the fact that Cynthia Gurney has been with the BCF for 20 Years.

Current and past members of the MB contributed to the purchase of a number of Stuart Crystal vases which are a particular favourite of Cynthia's. Prior to the start of the MB meeting Gerry Walsh was able to present the vases to Cynthia and to thank her for the work she has done over the past twenty years.

If you do find any problems please email us and let us know

Dave & Steve
Webmasters

The Submit Results and Game forms do NOT work on the new site at present but will be fixed for the start of the new season

Dave & Steve
Webmasters.

IMPORTANT - We are about to move the web site to another web hosting company, this should take around 2 to 5 days to complete and within this time you we be unable to access the Cleveland Chess web site. The transfer of this web site will take place sometime this week.

Dave & Steve
Webmasters
 

Wednesday 23rd June
@ Queens Head Stokesley (Stokesley Chess Club Venue)

If you have any proposals please send / email these to

> Phil Semp before the 26th May 2004

All paper work will be sent out very shortly

Thank you

Mins in Brief
Previous Mins - Correction to name - Then Accepted

Matters Arising - NON

League Trophy
Sell > 32 votes -- Keep it > 37 votes

Clubs that did not return their voting forms
Billingham Synthonia
Darlington
Elmwood
Guisborough
Whitby
Woodpushers

League Matters
C Carabine v S Measey - Appeal discussed
Darlington Broke 7 day rule
Billingham Synthonia asking if they could be allowed to sign and play 2 players that had already played for 1 club in the Cleveland League.

League is running smoothly
AGM to be held end of May - start of June - @ Queens Head Stokesley
EM + Presentation - 2nd week in September @ Synthonia

Treasurer's Report - He was not present

Graders Report - He was not present

BCF Matters
BCF name change
BCF Membership
Chess in Schools and the Government initiative

AOB - NON

Games available on the PGN Viewer and PGNdload

Agenda

1. Apologies for absence
2. Minutes of Previous Meeting (Click here to view)
3. Matters Arising
4. League Trophy
5. League Matters

1. League Secretary's Report
2. Treasurer's Report
3. Graders Report
4. B.C.F Matters
    

6. A.O.B

Phil Semp
County Secretary