BHCC AGM on Thursday, 5th September at 8:00pm

As everyone should have already received the agenda and last year's minutes there won't be more than a handful of paper copies at the meeting. In the absence of any further nominations the elections will be as follows:

• President (Sue Chadwick, standing for re-election)
• Treasurer (Geoff James, standing for re-election)
• Secretary (Rob Counsell, standing for re-election)
• Tournament Controller (Andrew Caswill, standing for re-election)
• Librarian (Bob Davies, not standing for re-election. Anthony Stanton standing)
• Publicity (Michael Cain, standing for re-election)
• Ordinary member (Carl Rabey has moved away. Robin Jones standing)

Our teams for the coming season will be captained by the following:

• First Team: Paul Batchelor
• Second Team: Brian Izzard
• Third Team: Michael Cain
• Fourth Team: Jan ten Sythoff
• Fifth Team: Andrew Caswill

Our teams depend on the willingness of captains to organise both the home matches and the away transport. Geoff is the regular driver for the first team. If you would like to see us back up to six teams again next season you need to propose a captain, any level, willing and able to take this on.

Annual subscriptions are due at the AGM and should be paid, preferably by cheque, to Paul Selby who will be acting as temporary treasurer: £50 full membership, £30 concessionary (if in receipt of means-tested benefits) and £15 for U18s. Please remember to bring this with you to the meeting.

You will also be able to sign up to play in an internal club tournament (current ECF membership a requirement - annual subscriptions run from 1st September).

Hope to see you at the AGM for another good year at the club!

August closure dates and AGM

Please note that due to the Street Chess event on the 10th August (see below) the club will now be closed on 10th, 15th and 17th August. 'Closed' means properly closed with the building locked up so remember to come along to the Street Chess instead.

The club AGM is on Thursday 5th September at 8:00 pm. Please send any agenda items to Sue or Rob by mid-August.

AGM and ECF alert for Thursday 6th September

The Club AGM is this Thursday at 8:00 pm. All members have been sent the agenda, and last year's minutes and financial accounts have gone by email. There are no extra items to debate and so far all post-holders have indicated their willingness to continue, with no other contenders. And we have six captains ready for running six teams in the mid-Sussex League. So please come if you can. Business should be short but Geoffrey will be taking subscriptions - please remember to bring cash or cheque. Andrew will be signing people up for the standard play tournaments and rapid play ladder.....

BUT - please note - you will only be able to sign up for these if you have joined both the club and the ECF. This is a new requirement. ECF membership runs for a year from 1st September so it would help if you join before Thursday - you can do it easily online - see http://www.englishchess.org.uk/ - or by post. Help will be provided on Thursday if necessary. Joining the ECF will also make you eligible to play for the MSCL (otherwise it will not be free). You can join the club without joining the ECF but you will only be able to play friendly, ungraded games. This is because of a change in the way the ECF is funded and not a change the club has any influence over.

ECF Membership

After a meeting of the committee last night we decided on the following for next season:

1. Present subscription levels will remain unchanged.

2. All members wishing to enter internal tournaments will be required to be members of the ECF. This is because of recent funding changes in the ECF whereby non-membership will require a £2 game fee for every graded game played, per person. The same will be true of games in the MSCL but there will be a choice here - you can still pay the £2 to your captain each time if you prefer. If you're an ECF member, you'll pay nothing.

ECF membership runs for a year from 1st September. You can join online for £12 via the ECF website. You can do this now, ahead of the AGM.

The AGM agenda will now be coming out later in the month.

AGM Thursday 6th September 8:00 pm

The club AGM will be held on Thursday 6th September at 8:00 pm. The Agenda will be published at the weekend so please let me know this week if you have anything you wish to add.

Dates for your diary

Tuesday 12th June: MSCL AGM  at Lewes Chess Club

Saturday 16th June: home match against St. Albans Chess Club
 
Thursday 6th September: Brighton and Hove Chess Club AGM

Saturday 29th September: home match against Dieppe Chess Club

Subscriptions

A reminder as well that subscriptions fall due on 1st September. They have been increased slightly to £50 for adults, £30 for full-time students and income support (no increase) and £15 for under 18s. The increase is to help meet the increase in both rent and MSCL match fees. (Our constitution states that subscriptions are due in advance of the AGM, although they can be paid on the day if you haven't had a chance to pay before.) If any of your details have changed please fill in a membership form, see link at the bottom of the Membership page, or pick one up at the club.

AGM Agenda

All club dates are on the News page under Calendar of Club Events, they disappear so quickly on the blog (AGM date has literally been there for months! :-)). People can suggest items for the AGM at any time during the year, before the date I need to give two weeks' notice of the agenda. Anyway I haven't sent it out yet so still time to send something if you do it in the next 24 hours. (The News page is always up to date, eg please see all the latest on Dieppe. Other pages get updated too!)

AGM

Blimey, that was a small window for responses .....  do we have a date for the AGM ?

AGM Agenda

Please send any items for the AGM by Monday 22nd as the agenda will be going out to members later next week. Thanks.