Report of Special Council Meeting

[<<] [>>] by Dr Ian Vincent at Cheltenham
12 Jul 2014 (CqE Official News)

A special meeting of Council was held on the afternoon of Saturday, 12th July, in the CA Office at Cheltenham, to discuss a paper prepared by its Chairman, Jeff Dawson, proposing ways forward from the consultations held about the report of the Federation Working Party. Once the paper has been revised in the light of the discussion, it will be published on the website and used as the basis for further discussions between Jeff and the Federations, reporting back to the AGM and the October Council meeting. If it appears that proposals for changes to individual membership would have enough support, an EGM to vote on them would be held in March.

The section about relationships with Federations offered two options. The first is the one recommended by the working party, in which Federations would remain independent organisations but become members of the Association, which would establish a formal relationship between them and simplify arrangements for electing Federation Representatives to Council. Amendments to enable this are on the agenda for the AGM. The second is for closer integration, which is believed to be favoured by some, but which would need further work to consider the practicalities, particularly in the area of financial arrangements and accounting. Additional constitutional changes would need to be proposed at a later date if this option is taken.

The proposal for individual membership is that the per-capita subscription for clubs with two or more lawns should increase by one pound a year above inflation in each of the next five years, from the current level of £7.95. At some point during that period (when ICT systems have been enhanced), all club members would become members of the CA, receive at least one (and possibly more) printed copies of the gazette each year, and be permitted to play in fixture book tournaments that were not full. A second phase, which would replace the current tournament membership by a premium one with other benefits and give club members unrestricted access to fixtures book tournaments, is also a possibility.