Brighton and Hove AGM 2009

AGM 2009
Amanda apologised (by text)
Present Doj Chair
               George  Secretary and Treasurer
               Verity, Mary,  Committee members
                Alan, Ann, Gladys, John G, Margaret, Olwyn, Paulette, Tim L, Tim N.
 After a brief welcome George gave the Secretary’s report in which the fortunes of the league team being highly successful in the league and highly unsuccessful in the cup were announced. George then said that in response to a (hopefully) regular listing in the Argus, he’d had a call from someone who was keen to come along, except that it was AGM night , and maybe they would show after the meeting. Then with his Treasurer’s hat on George continued to say that we are solvent to the tune of about £100. Subs would remain unchanged at £7.00 and the tournament at the Woodland Centre (13 June 2010 for next year) was our main source of income, which helped subsidize the day out at Bentley. Tim L asked how much of a profit we made at the tournament and it was estimated about £50 - £100 pounds. Margaret then didn’t raise a question, but more of a request, proposing we limit the intake of biscuits to a maximum of two per person, in the interests of economy, and I think in the general hullaballoo such a radical proposal was bound to cause, this was accepted. Tim L asked about when a new updated dictionary was due as we would certainly have to purchase one, but George replied 2011 and it would no longer have the word ny.
At this point I made several proposals during which an unknown woman came in asking where the Folds School was. Having suggested that one inhouse* tournament per year was too little and that we should have two John G suggested we have a knockout tournament as the second tourney. This provoked a debate of some length until a counter proposal suggested we had all three, two tourneys a year and a knockout. Other suggestions included having two divisions in the tourney and a round robin in two divisions. Naturally the subject of handicap assessment came up with a familiar pattern of them being unfair and the point was made by several that the stronger players still tend to win anyway. (On my notes I wrote “this went on a bit” with regard to the original proposal). I think we finally settled for a handicap tourney in the winter like the previous year, a round robin handicap in the spring, and a knockout handicap. By the time all the dust settled I’d forgotten to mention timescales and prizes, but I do remember Ann’s comment of “Do we need all these competitions” and Paulette’s “I’m confused”. Let me reassure all that apart from the knotty issue of handicap assessment we will be playing some form of tourney soon! We did vote and it was carried unanimously.
My other proposals were simpler, namely the stats over the year is too long and
that biannual stats would allow us to introduce  a “Most Improved” player of the season, one based on wins, the other upon averages. That was carried.
My name change for the league team to Brighton Rockers, containing elements of highbrow literature, notions of Brightons Mod past (Tim N even suggested that a second team be call the Mods {just imagine}),  and the sense of fear it would put into other teams was rejected by a vote of  6-3.
Finally rather than have a vote I made an appeal for the club to embrace the idea of handicap play whenever possible and that I would be more than happy to set up a separate handicap table, which may afford insight into the positions of the regular table and help assess where the handicap system we have in place is going awry.
In the section known as any other business we had the award of prizes which this year went to Ann (3rd) Doj (2nd) and Tim L (1st) with 10 wins out of 12 in the Wax Imp Tournament (it never got renamed).
We discussed venues for the Xmas party, came up with several ideas and at least voted on a Thursday function.
The meeting closed at 19.50, ten minutes earlier than last year.

Doj 4.10.09