AGM Report by Neil Limbert
The 105th AGM of the BCCA took place at Carrs Lane Church Centre, Birmingham on October 29, 2011. Attendees were Jonathan Rashleigh, Stan Grayland, Dave Grobler, Graham Williams, Allan Gardner, Tony Cannon, Neil Limbert and Phillip Beckett (see picture below). This was Graham Williams’ first AGM for almost a decade, whilst it was the first for Tony Cannon & Allan Gardner.
The meeting was very purposeful and enjoyable. BCCA is very fortunate to have such a hard-working and conscientious group of people looking after the affairs of the Association.
The main point of interest in the meeting was the discussion and vote regarding the forward strategy of the webserver tournaments. The full proposal was laid out on page 2 of CC182 (Autumn 2011 issue) and mainly involved three choices: staying as we are (playing our webserver tournaments on the ICCF server but unrated for ICCF purposes); moving our webserver tournaments to Scheming Mind; or finally staying on the ICCF server and adopting ICCF Playing Rules & ICCF ratings. A vigorous discussion took place but, for the first time in my BCCA memory, the number of Proxy Votes received prior to the meeting were the majority factor. It is pleasing to see so many BCCA members taking an interest in this very important issue and it is a testament to BCCA’s democratic structure that the view of every member counts. In the end, the following was decided:-
The BCCA will carry on playing its webserver tournaments on the ICCF Server. All BCCA webserver tournaments that start after the 1/1/2012 will be played according to ICCF webserver Playing Rules and they will be ICCF rated.
So, what does this mean for members? Players who play by post or e-mail are totally unaffected by this; they will continue to play their tournaments in accordance with BCCA Playing Rules as they always have done, and their games will be BCCA-rated as appropriate. Webserver players will see the crosstables marked as “rated” rather than “unrated” and they need to be familiar with ICCF Webserver Playing Rules which are available via this link
This switch reflects the fact that the current BCCA Rules do not adequately cover webserver play, and also accepts the reality of computer use.
Apart from normal business (Officer’s Reports, Accounts etc), the following items should be of interest to members:-
• There will be a separate Postal Championship from 2012-3. The main BCCA Championship, Candidates & Reserves will be webserver only.
• BCCA webserver tournaments will adopt the “Baumbach” tie-break in preference to the Sonneborn-Berger from 1/1/2012. ICCF are also adopting this new system in an attempt to encourage positive play because of the increasing number of draws in CC. This simple tie-break will put the player with the most number of wins at the top. For example, if Player A scores 2 wins, 2 losses and 4 draws (4/8), he will rank ahead on tie-break to Player B who scores 8 draws (4/8). This encourages aggressive & risky play in an attempt to try to win – something we all want to see!
• Allan Gardner is the new Treasurer taking over from Jonathan Rashleigh. All Tournament Controllers should note that they now need to contact Allan regarding payment of prizes, expenses etc.
Standing at the Back (from left to right)-Tony Cannon, Dave Grobler, Phill Beckett & Stan Grayland. Seated are Allan Gardner & Jonathan Rashleigh. Neil Limbert is behind the camera & Graham Williams left before I remembered to take a photo!