New South Wales Chess Association Inc.

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting 30 November 2003

Meeting: The Meeting was held at the Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club commencing at 2.30pm.

Present:

Council Members: Bill Gletsos, Norman Greenwood, Peter Cassettari, Steve Carratt, Mal Murrell, Keith Farrell, Kerry Stead and Tom Accola.

Other Members: Brian Jones, Ken Macgillivray, Lloyd R Fell, Alfred Flatow, Vasil Tulevski, Matthew Sweeney, Martin Barakat, Trent Parker, Ralph Seberry, Frank Kresinger, Lachlan Benson, Henk Jens, Johnny Bolens, Amiel Rosario and Robert Keast by proxy in favour of Tom Accola..

1. Welcome and Apologies

Bill Gletsos as Vice President and Chairman opened the Meeting at 2.40pm and welcomed Members to the Meeting.

Apologies for non-attendance were received from Richard Gastineau-Hills, Robert Keast and Paul Sike

2. Confirmation of the Minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting

The Minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting held on 1 December 2002 had been circulated at the Meeting and had been available on the NSWCA website for almost twelve months. 

Motion: That the minutes of the 2002 Annual General Meeting be accepted as a true and correct record (Moved Vasil Tulevski, seconded Kerry Stead) Carried.

Matters Arising from the Minutes

a) Minutes of Council Meetings
Brian Jones raised the matter of Minutes of Council Meetings being available to Members had been referred to the Council. The Chairman advised that they would be made available upon request, but the Council had the discretion to withhold items they considered confidential.





b) Chess Centre
The Chairman referred to the matter of Peter Hanna having been invited to present a proposal and budget to Council and reported that nothing had been received from him.

3. President's Report

In the Absence of a President, Bill Gletsos as Vice President gave a verbal Presidential Report. He expressed thanks to all Council Members for their work during the year and gave special mention of Paul Sike and his efforts in regard to the proposed survey to Members. Bill reported that over all, tournaments were running to budget. Some showed losses but the net result for the year was a small profit. More digital clocks had been purchased with the result that there are sufficient clocks for all tournaments except the Australian Open. The 2004 Calendar is being finalised at present and will be available to Members shortly.

4. Treasurer's Report

The Financial Report comprising the Statement of Financial Position at 31 July 2003 (Balance Sheet) and Statement of Financial Performance for the year ended 31 July 2003 (Statement of Income and Expenditure) and the Report by the independent Auditor thereon had been circulated to Members present. The Report showed that the Association had earned a surplus for the year of $17,739 as compared to the previous year of $10,619.

Norman pointed out the following items for special mention.

An anonymous donation of $10,000 had been received and the Council had not made a decision to do anything special with the donation and at present the amount is invested as part of a term deposit.

Members' subscriptions were lower, but this year did not include the subscription to the magazine Australian Chess Forum. There had been a slight increase in City Members and a corresponding decrease in Country Members.

Tournament income had shown an increase over the previous year reflecting an increase in participants. Tournaments showed an overall profit, a contributing factor being the rent free facilities at the Ryde-Eastwood League Club.

Motion: That the Treasurer's Report be accepted (Moved Peter Cassettari, seconded Mal Murrell) Carried.

5. Other Office Bearers Reports

a. Vice President's Report 
Bill Gletsos had covered his matters in his Presidential Report.

b. Secretary's Report
The Secretary had no matters to report.

c. Registrar's Report
Peter Cassettari reported that there were 404 registrations comprising 383 Members 11 Clubs and 10 Life Members. This compared to 405 registrations last year. Peter advised that it had been a hectic year looking after tournaments in addition to his other duties.

d. Ratings Officer's Report
Steve Carratt reported that all tournaments had been rated satisfactorily with the 
assistance of Swiss Perfect. It is preferable that when submitting tournament results, the ACF Swiss Perfect TRN file is used for importing the player ID numbers. 

e. Club Liaison Officer's Report
Kerry Stead advised that the Grade Match competition was similar to last year. Tournaments in Clubs are growing.

f. Webmaster's Report
Mal Murrell reported that the website was going from strength to strength. The month of October saw a record of an average of 101 hits per day. The continual updating of news, tournaments results, upcoming events, photographs etc. were contributing to the interest. The domain name is nswca.org.au.

g. Country Representative's Report
Keith Farrell reported that the fee for Country Members of $10 was considered good value. He was hopeful that more Country Members will play in some of the weekenders such as the NSW Open held on the Queens Birthday Weekend. 

h. Junior Representative's Report
Richard Gastineau-Hills was conducting a tournament and had sent an apology. There was no report.

i. Appeals Committee Report
Bill Gletsos reported that there had been one appeal in regard to a Grade Match and it had been dismissed.


6. Ratification of Council By-Laws

Bill Gletsos gave background information and outlined details of the By-Laws.
1. An unrated player shall be ineligible for any rating prizes in any tournament and if the tournament is rating restricted shall be ineligible for any outright prizes.
Attainment of first, second or third place shall entitle the player to a refund of his
entry fee paid.

2. A player wishing to withdraw from a NSWCA Inc. tournament for which he/she has entered shall give to the Director of Play at least forty-eight (48) hours notice of his/her intent. Offenders shall be required to show cause why they should not be excluded from future tournaments.

3. The ACF policy on tournament entry fees for FIDE titled players is to be adopted for all NSWCA Inc. tournaments.

4. That all NSWCA events are to be non-smoking events.

5. Country Membership of the NSWCA Inc. is defined as membership available,
usually at a concessionary rate, to those persons not living within the boundary of the County of Cumberland, New South Wales. This by-law confirms historical practice.

6. Financial members of the New South Wales Junior Chess League are to be admitted as Affiliated Junior Members of the NSWCA Inc. No fee is required for such affiliation, which entitles these juniors to enter NSWCA Inc events, but does not allow the right to vote.

Motion: That the Council By-Laws be ratified (Moved Keith Farrell, seconded Peter Cassettari) Carried. 


7. Voting on the Notice of Motion

Bill Gletsos gave some background information for the Motion moved by him and seconded by the Council as per the Notice of Meeting.

Notice of motion:
The NSWCA form a Sydney Chess Centre Committee with the responsibility to investigate and evaluate the requirements and actions necessary for the establishment of a chess centre in Sydney. The committee will provide a report outlining its preferred option to the NSWCA Council, which will then include said option on the agenda for the next AGM.
The evaluation should include but not be limited to the following:
a) Determine the legal and executive processes necessary for the establishment of a chess centre in Sydney.
b) Actively encourage individuals in the NSW chess community to become financially connected to a Sydney chess centre. This could be via the purchase of shares.
c) Actively seek the input, assistance and financial involvement of the NSWJCL.
d) Seek expressions of interest for commercial enterprises to operate on the premises of a Sydney chess centre.
e) Seek corporate sponsorship for the chess centre, to begin upon its opening.
f) Investigate the purchase or long-term lease of appropriate premises preferably near Sydney's population centre of gravity. Availability of transport and suitability for juniors should be a consideration.

Henk Jens suggested that the membership base should be expanded by advertising for membership in local newspapers. Brian Jones agreed. Bill Gletsos commented that there were a considerable number of Club Members who were not Members of the NSWCA.
Peter Cassettari suggested that the Publicity and Club Liaison Officers should look into this matter. Vasil Tulevski spoke in favour of the motion and made the point that it should be regarded as a long term goal.

The motion was put to the Meeting and the voting was 16 in favour, 3 against, 3 abstentions, Carried. Bill Gletsos did not vote. 

8. Determination of Annual Membership and Club Affiliation Fees

It was proposed that all fees remain the same as last year.

Matthew Sweeney proposed a 5-cent per game levy in addition to the normal membership fee. If the levy was proved not too unpopular, the normal membership fee could be reduced the following year. There was no decision to introduce a State based rating fee. Also the effect on non NSWCA tournaments was raised. The view was put forward that it would be seen to be an impost similar to GST.

Matthew Sweeney suggested that there should perhaps be two subscription rates, one rate for email subscribers and a higher rate for members without email. It was considered that this was discriminatory and that older players who did not have computers should not be penalized.

Motion: That the Annual Membership Fees and Affiliation Fees remain the same as the previous year (Moved Peter Cassettari, seconded Ralph Seberry (Carried).

9. Confirmation of Life Membership

Bill Gletsos explained that Members could nominate to the Council, Members to be awarded Life Membership of the Association and the Council decides to recommend such nomination to the Annual General Meeting.

It was with pleasure that Bill Gletsos put forward Norman Greenwood to be awarded Life Membership. Bill indicated that all Members were aware of Norm being Treasurer of the NSWCA, the ACF and the North Sydney and Manly Chess Clubs and in addition he transported the equipment to and from tournaments and assisted in many ways to the administration of chess and tournaments.

Motion: That Norman Greenwood be awarded Life Membership of the NSWCA Inc. (Moved Alfred Flatow, seconded P Cassettari) Carried - against Brian Jones, abstentions by Norman Greenwood, Matthew Sweeney and Ralph Seberry.

10. Office Bearers Appointments for 2004

Motion: That Bill Gletsos remain in the Chair (Proposed Kerry Stead, seconded Keith Farrell) Carried.

President - Bill Gletsos (proposed Peter Cassettari, seconded Ken Macgillivray) Carried.

Vice President - Matthew Sweeney (proposed Amiel Rosario) Nomination declined. Office declared vacant.

Treasurer - Norman Greenwood (proposed Mal Murrell, seconded Peter Cassettari) Carried.

Secretary - Tom Accola (proposed Kerry Stead, seconded Steve Carratt) Carried.

Ratings Officer - Steve Carratt (proposed Keith Farrell, seconded Peter Cassettari) Carried.

Registrar - Peter Cassettari (proposed Tom Accola, seconded Norman Greenwood) Carried.

Club Liaison Officer - Kerry Stead (proposed Peter Cassettari, seconded Amiel Rosario) Carried.

Webmaster - Mal Murrell (proposed Norman Greenwood, seconded Steve Carratt) Carried

Country Representative - Keith Farrell (proposed Peter Cassettari, seconded Mal Murrell) Carried.

Tournaments Officer - Matthew Sweeney (proposed Amiel Rosario, seconded Norman 
Greenwood)
- Ralph Seberry (proposed Peter Cassettari, seconded Kerry Stead)

Matthew Sweeney withdrew his nomination and Ralph Seberry was appointed. Carried.

Publicity Officer - Matthew Sweeney (proposed Peter Cassettari, seconded Ralph Seberry) Carried.

Communications Officer - Brian Jones (proposed Peter Cassettari) Brian Jones declined the nomination. Position declared vacant.

Matthew Sweeney suggested that the position be combined with another Council function. Bill Gletsos advised that the suggestion should be taken up by the Council.

Member Without Portfolio - Trent Parker (moved Matthew Sweeney, seconded Amiel Rosario) Carried.

11. Appointment of Auditor

Motion: That Ross A Hamilton be appointed Auditor for the ensuing year. (Proposed Kerry Stead, seconded Vasil Tulevski) Carried.

12. Appointment of Appeals Committee

The following persons were nominated and accepted for the Appeals Board.

Bill Gletsos, Richard Gastineau-Hills and Kerry Stead (proposed Peter Cassettari, seconded Vasil Tulevski) Carried.

Alternates - 

Alfred Flatow and Peter Cassettari (proposed Tom Accola, seconded Ken Macgillivray) Carried.

13. Other Business

a) Tournaments
Brian Jones raised the matter that in regard to the Grade Matches competition, he considered the time control of maximum time of 4 hours made the games finish too late in the night for working people and also the competition did not cater for juniors and suggested that some of games be held on weekends. Amiel Rosario supported the idea of having Grade Matches scheduled for weekends. Brian Jones suggested that games should be for three hours instead of four hours. The comment was made that the weekends were nearly all taken up with events to schedule Grade Matches on weekends. However the recent decision to hold the 2004 City of Sydney event over six weekends instead of 9 Sundays will increase the number of weekends available for other competitions. This change could also be applied to the State Championships. It was suggested that a weekend teams event may be an option to utilize the extra days created by shortening the days of the City of Sydney and State competitions.

Matthew Sweeney put forward the view that more juniors should be encouraged to play in the NSWCA events and that a fresh look should be taken at juniors and that ways and means of attracting juniors to play should be examined. Also unrated players should be encouraged to play in NSWCA events.

Johnny Bolens raised the matter of the prizes being reduced for the November 2003 weekender despite there being 60 entries as advertised. Bill Gletsos responded that there were not sixty paying entrants and accordingly the prizes were reduced proportionately. Johnny Bolens suggested that the prizes should be announced at the commencement of or after Round 3 and that late entries should not be accepted after Round 4.

Motions: That late entries in competitions should not be accepted after Round 4 (proposed Johhny Bolens, seconded Matthew Sweeney) Defeated, 13 to 1.

That prizes for tournaments be determined at the end of Round 3 and be published and announced no later than Round 4 (proposed Johhny Bolens, seconded Matthew Sweeney) Defeated, 7 to 6.

Bill Gletsos invited Johhny Bolens to submit to Council any matters of which he 
has concern.

b) Members having Multiple Clubs Memberships
Matthew Sweeney raised the matter of Members who are Members of more than one Club in respect to their renewal forms. Bill Gletsos responded that from the ratings point off view, it was irrelevant.




There being no further business, the Meeting closed at 5.21pm.

Confirmed as a correct record.



................................................ Date........................................
Chairman


Please note that these Minutes are yet to be accepted at the next Annual General Meeting scheduled for 28 November 2004.