Report of Council Meeting

[<<] [>>] by Dr Ian Vincent
28th January 2015 (CqE Official News)

Council met in the Terrace Room at Hurlingham on Saturday 24th January, which was a crisp winter day, though the low sun in the afternoon caused the Chairman some difficulty by silhouetting members opposite against the windows. The main item of business was to consider a proposal that an SGM of the Association should be called for 11:15 am on Saturday, 28th March, also at Hurlingham, to consider motions to secure the long term future of the Association. These would be to enable subscriptions to be re-balanced by allowing an above-inflation increase in the per-capita subscriptions paid by larger clubs; to extend the individual membership of the CA to include all members of its Member Clubs; and to abolish separate voting by Member Clubs.

After considerable discussion, during which a number of amendments were proposed, the text of the motions to be put to the meeting was agreed with only minor amendments to them. The debate then turned to the question of timing, the overwhelming view being that discussion of the principle of the changes had gone on long enough and, whilst delaying the decision until the AGM in October would allow more time for clubs to consult their members on the details, it would be unlikely to affect the outcome of the vote. However, recognising that the timescale was relatively short, it was agreed to e-mail club secretaries with details of the motions and allow them to cast their club's vote by e-mail.

The formal notice of meeting and the motions will be published in the February Gazette,together with a ballot paper and an article by Jeff Dawson explaining them: the full text of the associated constitutional amendments will be available to members on the website.

All that was, technically, just the first item in the report of the Management Committee, and with another six proposals to consider people were concerned about their trains home. However, the second had already been covered when the budget for 2015 was agreed under the first report given by the new Treasurer, Peter Death. The next was a report from the Handicapping Committee, which had agreed that the 2014 trial GC handicapping system should be extended for another year while data was collected and analysed, and that the experimental system for AC Doubles handicapping should be adopted, at least until a better one was proposed. Proposals to introduce Championship Referees for GC and to play Grade 1 AC Championships under Super-Advanced Rules were quickly agreed, as was one from Ian Burridge to advertise for a volunteer to lead a Junior Action Group. His other proposal, to create a paid Development Officer post, was well received and referred back to the Management Committee to put some flesh on the bones.

The Chairman deftly referred a question about a proposed European Masters Competition to the Tournament Committees and closed the meeting at 16:15. The Secretary had clearly found it stressful, as he delayed the journey north of the Midlands-based attendees by feeding his Oyster card into the slot intended for cardboard tickets, thus jamming the ticket barrier!