Up

Chess Victoria Inc. Notice of A. G. M.

 Notice is hereby given that the 2007 Annual General Meeting of 
CV Inc is scheduled to start at 8.00 pm Monday 4 February 2008
At Emulation Hall, Rochester Road, Canterbury
This agenda and associated papers will be available on the
  CV website: www.chessvictoria.netfirms.com.
Nominations for the election of office-bearers must be in 
the hands of the chairman, Mr Geoff Keenan, 
before the start of the meeting.

1.                 Attendance and apologies

2.                 Annual report  

              2.1            Part 1 - General report – president

2.2            Part 2 - Financial report – treasurer

2.3            Questions relating to Parts 1 and 2 of the Annual Report

2.4            Adoption of the Annual Report

3.                 Full affiliation of Provisionally Affiliated Club

           Motion:

          “That the Noble Park Chess Club Inc be granted full affiliation.”

4.                 Motions on Notice

          4.1    Report on rent sharing between the Box Hill Chess Club 
           and  Chess Victoria

5.                 Proposed Chess Victoria Calendar for 2008 Copy attached

6.                 Proposed Chess Victoria Budget for 2008

7.                 Election of Executive Members

7.1            President

7.2            Vice-president

7.3            Treasurer

7.4            Secretary

7.5            Two other members of the Executive Committee (responsibilities to be determined by the Executive Committee)

8.          Election of General Meetings Chairman and Auditor

8.1            General Meetings Chairman

8.2            Auditor

9.          Notice of Motions

          Notice may be given at this time of motions that it is intended be  considered 
at a future Chess Victoria General Meeting.  Verbal  notification at this time does not remove the normal requirement for  written notice of motion to be given before the meeting at which the  motion is to be considered.

10.     Close of Meeting  

07 President's report

THE UNITY TEAM that was elected at the last general meeting came apart almost immediately with 
the non participation of Elliott and Chris and the conflict of interest resignation of the treasurer. 
Fortunately Garry Lycett stepped in as editor and a fine job he did and Trevor Stanning acted as 
treasurer and bookkeeper for all of the year

President:                                  Gerrit Hartland

Vice president:                         Chris Potter

Secretary:                                    Kerry Lyall

Treasurer:                                    ……………

Executive member 1            Elliott Renzies [news sheet editor]

Executive member 2            Gary Lycett

The changes and initiatives announced at the start of the year and set out below have only been 
partly successful. However on reading through these items again more was achieved than 
I first thought
  Move all CV activities to 3 Rochester Road on a rental share with the Box Hill Chess Club, where there will be unlimited access for a once a year payment of between four and five thousand dollars After negotiation with the landlord a figure of $4000 cost for the year was agreed upon and all CV tournaments were run from there either by The Box Hill Chess Club or Canter4bury Junior Chess or in the case of the Vic championship by CV

The eastern zone interclub was re-introduced on Friday at the BHCC club nights and proved moderately successful

Maintain the 12 players round robin format of the Victorian Championship but run it on a 2 rounds per week basis from the above venue.
This proposal was not adhered to. In the end a 10 player round robin championship and reserves format in November was arrived at with 9 rounds crowded into a fortnight. This format received considerable critics and on reflection the schedule was too heavy particularly for the older players

Maintain the present format of the interschool competition and make the venue available to organizing schools, clubs and coaches at a reasonable rate. Take a more public stance on the value of the CV / ACF schools competition.
Reubban Muthusamy was appointed as a co-coordinator and most of the work was done by Geoff Saw’s coaching group.  This competition was only partly successful and improvements need to be made. The positive thing was the good results of the teams in the national finals

 Reduce the cost to affiliated clubs of having junior players on the books by halving the registration cost of junior players and reducing the rating fees for juniors participating in tournaments by CV affiliated clubs provided such juniors are clearly indicated in the submitted files.
This proposal turned out to be a dead duck as no club apart from Canterbury Junior Chess Club [which already had received this negotiated discount] put forward any junior lists
Propose the election of Gary Wastell as an honorary life member of Chess Victoria.
Gary was duly elected at last year’s general meeting A well deserved honour

The tournaments.

The Victorian Junior Championships were contracted out to the Canterbury Junior chess Club [as in the previous 2 years] and a modest profit was returned to Chess Victoria on the profit share proposal agreed to. The tournament was very successful with record attendances in both the under 18 and under 12 tournaments.

The Victorian open Championship was allocated to the Box hill Chess Club and attracted just over 80 entrants; up from the 68 who went to Dandenong last year but down from the 96 that came to Box Hill the year before.  The profit share arrangement with the Box Hill Chess Club was similar to the one with the Canterbury Junior Chess Club.

The Victorian Championship was organised direct by Chess Victoria, as it is difficult to find a subcontractor for such a massive loss making venture. The prize fund and the entry fees have been the same for some years now and perhaps a new way of presenting this tournament should be found. The traveling circus arrangements have been criticized in the past, but criticism of this year’s arrangement was heavier still. The tournament needs a new approach.

 The web site

We set up a new stand alone web site for the publication of this years CV activities I thought it worked pretty well, although as with most things Victorian it received some heavy criticism from the afficionadi of the chess chat boards. I thought the new web site rather a success with the ability to provide greatly expanded information For those people who have not been there before you will find all results all winners and losers on the site at http://chessvictoria.netfirms.com there have been over 7000 hits during the year.

 The ACF
Despite having a Victorian President our relations with the ACF council did not improve in 2007. Reference by one ACF councilor when discussing our ill-fated 2008 Australian championship bid to CV officials as Afghanistan warlords was not helpful. We have lodged a bit for the 2009 Australian Junior Championships and are hopeful that the ACF council will appreciate the quality of proposal and allow this tournament to return finally to Victoria

The CV executive
The executive has suffered as it has in past years from serious shortage of personnel and on a personal level I have found the workload too onerous, I will therefore not stand [or run] again. I would like to thank our secretary  Kerry Lyall who despite heavy study commitments worked faithfully with me. Trevor Stanning who acted as stand-in treasurer throughout the year, and Garry Lycett for his advise and work on the newssheets.

 Office bearers  
During the year the executive prepared a chard of a minimum requirement for the comfortable running of the organisation we were sadly short of these numbers

  Gerry Hartland CV president 14.12.07

  Chess Victoria Inc. Trevor Stanning 23 Chester St.Surrey Hills, 3127

Chess Victoria

 A/Treasurer’s comments to the 2007 accounts

1.     Player-rating income is increased by $800 (10%) even though the charge rate was reduced by 20% at the 2006 AGM. This is a positive.

2.     Affiliation-fees in come is down about $200 due to smaller membership numbers being declared by Clubs. Not a significant change.

3.     Interschool income is down markedly since most of these activities are now performed by a growing number of commercial coaching organisations/individuals.

4.     Expenses were similar in comparison with last year except this year payments have been hit with a catch-up of ACF fees from previous years.

5.     ACF Administration fees are much reduced from earlier years due to slow invoicing by the ACF.

6.     Interclub fees have recovered to more usual levels due to the resurrection of the Eastern suburbs competition in 2007. However, the Western Zone was not held.

 A/Treasurer’s comments on the Treasurer’s tasks

 ·        I reported last year that it is a real challenge to use the MYOB software introduced a few years back by Robert Jamieson. Exceptional support from Steve Frost of the Croydon Chess Club, has got me over the learning-curve hurdle and the task has become much easier in 2007.

·        The closure of the accounts this year involved no journal adjustments to anomalies inadvertently created in previous years. However, there are a few residual aspects on the housekeeping of the files that were discussed with the Auditor for 2007. In his view, the anomalies do not distort the view of the 2007P&L, nor the Balance Sheet.

 Trevor Stanning for Chess Victoria. 19/1/2008

Report on Use of CV Facilities at 3 Rochester Rd, Canterbury

I was asked by the Treasurer (Trevor Stanning) if I could prepare a report on the joint use of the above premises with Chess Victoria (CV) paying a component of the costs of the facility.. The prime issue was ‘did CV obtain value for money and improved services with the proposal’.  I subsequently discussed this in detail with the President (Gerrit Hartland), and the following is my report.

CV has had no ‘permanent’ home after it moved out of rented accommodation at 273 Elizabeth Street in the late 1980’s, and ‘leased’ some facilities from the Melbourne Chess Club for a number of years.  However in more recent times, CV has been an ‘itinerant’ user of accommodation, usually leasing facilities from an Affiliated Club(s) organised by the Executive.

Every year CV conducts a number of chess tournaments in leased premises, usually in premises used by an Affiliated Club. In addition CV has equipment (trestles, chairs, chess sets and clocks, filing cabinets etc.) which are ‘housed’ in a number of chess clubs and in private premises. Executive meetings are often held in private premises of Executive members, and the AGM is held in premises used by an Affiliated Club. As Executive members change, so there are changes in meeting/accommodation facilities. For a number of reasons this is not entirely satisfactory, and a more ‘permanent and single’ facility should be attained.

In November 2006 Gerrit Hartland proposed a ‘Unity Team’ in his bid to run for the position of President. A number of changes were proposed (which were to centralise and focus the activities of CV), including:

1.     Move all CV activities to 3 Rochester Road on a rental share arrangement with Box Hill Chess Club, with CV having unlimited access for a yearly payment between $4,000-$5,000;

2.     Introduce regular CV executive meetings at above venue;

3.     Maintain a 12 player Round Robin format for the Victorian Championship, and

4.     Improving communication with Affilliated Clubs and organisers of the CV Inter schools competition.

Upon being elected President of CV, Gerrit Hartland undertook negotiations with the owners of the above premises on behalf of parties associated with CV. After negotiations it was agreed an annual rental of $14,500 would be paid to the owners for non-exclusive use of the premises, however the chess community would have reasonable access for most of the time. In the end the agreement reached is the following:

1.     The Canterbury Juniors would be the body signing the lease with the owners;

2.     Both Box Hill Chess Club and CV would pay ‘rent’ to Canterbury Juniors;

3.     CV would pay $4,000 per year (quarterly) for their ‘share’.

At the 2006 AGM Gerrit Hartland said the arrangement would be for a 12 month trial, that it may not continue. The owners understand this. There are advantages in having a single centralised site for CV tournaments and activities. There are corresponding advantages to a well organised Chess Club (ie Box Hill in this instance) having CV as a ‘co-tenant’.

The premises at 3 Rochester Road are well served by a good train station (Canterbury) within a very short distance. There are also bus services calling past which connect to other forms of public transport. There is car parking in the adjacent car parks and streets after business hours. Additionally the location is a ‘central’ location in Melbourne.

In respect of use by CV for the premises the following should be noted:

1.     Hire of halls for tournaments would typically be $200 per session (4-6 hours);

2.     Hire of commercial storage facilities start at $1,200 pa (enough for 3 off 4 draw filing cabinets), up to about $1800 pa for enough space to accommodate most of the CV’s equipment.

In most years CV requires a total 27 sessions for their tournaments, being:

1.     The Victorian Open held on over the Queen’s Birthday weekend in June;

2.     The Victorian Interclub competition held over 8 rounds in the winter months, and

3.     The Victorian Championship/Reserves/Seniors/Womens tournaments held over 12 rounds commencing at the end of winter.

On the above information I consider that CV has obtained reasonably both good ‘value for money’ and convenience with this arrangement. The cost of $4,000 per annum is lower than could be obtained by hiring playing and storage facilities. There are also the problems associated with securing premises every year at a suitable/same venue for a major tournament, ie the Vic Open every Queen’s Birthday weekend. There is an inherently large advantage in having equipment (tables, chairs, sets and clocks) at a single site which can be set up for playing conditions by a small group of volunteers – or in simply having this equipment set up for most of the time. It is much harder, and requires considerably much more effort, the organization of volunteers and cost of transport in moving equipment form storage, or a location, to another location for a tournament – and having to then return it at the end.

 Geoffrey Keenan

January 2008

Postscript: the following information was provided after the report was prepared.

The Vic Junior was held over 6 full days commencing 30 June. This brings the total number of sessions to at least 33. At $200 per session this works out to $6,600.

Chess Victoria Inc

Annual General Meeting

8.00 pm

Monday 4 February 2008

At Emulation Hall, Rochester Road, Canterbury

1.                 Attendance and apologies

Kerry Lyall:                         Secretary

Gerrit Hartland                 President

Geoffrey Keenan              Meeting Chairman

Trevor Stanning                Acting Treasurer

Peter Morris                         Ranges Chess Club

Darryl Johansen                  Chess Ideas

NY Wong                               Croydon Chess Club

Richard Goldsmith               Croydon President

Russell De la Lande             Frankston Chess Club

Elliot Renzies                           Box Hill Chess Club

Andrew Wemyss                Geelong Chess Club

Victor Kildisas                     Elwood Chess Club

Tom Brennfleck                 Ranges Chess Club

David Flude                      Box Hill Chess Club

Gary Wastell                    Life member

George Zaprudsky               

Leonid Sandler

Katrina Wills

Laurie Dalton                   Box Hill Chess Club

Chris Potter                      Dandenong Chess Club

Matthew Potter             Dandenong Chess Club

2.                 Annual report

2.1             Part 1 - General report – president

  A copy of the President’s report was tabled.  (Attachment one)

 Procedural Motion – “That the General report of the President is read.” 

  Moved:           David Flude

Seconded:          Darryl Johansen

  Motion to adopt the report: Carried

2.2             Part 2 - Financial report – treasurer

A copy of the Treasurer’s Report was tabled.  (Attachment two)

  2.3             Questions relating to Parts 1 and 2 of the Annual Report

  There was a general discussion pertaining to communication difficulties between Chess Victoria and the Victorian Chess Community. 

  Russell de la Lande suggested that clubs complete the attached proforma and forward to the Secretary within 21 days of their Annual General Meeting. (Attachment three)

The Secretary is to send to all clubs hard copies of Statement of Purposes and Rules of Chess Victoria Incorporated. (Attachment four)

3.                 Full affiliation of Provisionally Affiliated Club

Motion:  “That the Noble Park Chess Club Inc. be granted full affiliation.”

Moved:          Gerry Hartland

Seconded:          David Flude

 Carried

  4.                 Motions on Notice

  4.1             Report on rent sharing between the Box Hill Chess Club and           Chess Victoria

  Geoffery Kennan was asked to prepare a report on the rent sharing between the Box Hill Chess Club and Chess Victoria.  (Attachment four).

  Motion:          That the report be tabled and sent out to all clubs.

  Moved:          Russell de Lande

Seconded:    Andrew Wemss

  Carried.

5.                 Proposed Chess Victoria Calendar for 2008

  Gerrit Hartland noted that the Chess Victoria Calendar is a living document and is continually being changed.  Clubs are invited to add tournaments.  Please email the secretary with details.

Motion:  That the Chess Victoria Calendar for 2008 be adopted.

Gerrit Hartland:           Adopted

Kerry Lyall:            Seconded

  Carried