2010 AGM Report

Financial issues

• Individual Membership Fee to be reduced to £5 for adults and £2 for under 18s.
• Belfast and District League Fees: a club fee of £50 is due from each club entering the League; no additional fee is charged for multiple teams.

• Membership Fees Collection: at the start of the League season the Union will raise a bill to each club detailing their club fees due (for League entry) and individual membership fees.
• Fees Deadline: all Fees due to be paid by the end of the Calendar year.
• Individual Member Payments: an individual may pay his or her Union fee directly (rather than throught his club):
  

a) at any UCU tournament; this is automatic for players who do not belong to a League club
b) via the UCU website using Paypal or a similar mechanism
c) by post or direct payment to the Treasurer
Only paid-up members will have their details and rating history published on the website.

• Equipment Charge: use of UCU equipment to be charged at £35 per day.

Rating system

Drew Ferguson, the  Rating Officer announced a major review of the Rating System with the goal of making the system more robust:

1. All ratings will be re-calculated from the final quarter 2004 to final quarter 2010.

2. Both Glickman and traditional ELO methods will be used for these calculations.

3. The results of these calculations will be presented to the Board for review.

4. The Board will report on the Rating system at the next AGM.

Belfast and District Leagues

Change to the format of the League

 The meeting approved an Executive Board proposal to change the format of the Leagues. If, as expected, less than 15 teams enter, the League season will be divided into 2 distinct parts:

1. In the period before Christmas and the start of the New Year: an all-play-all tournament where every Team plays every other Team once only (at most 13 matches).

2. Based on each teams performance in the first part of the season, teams will be grouped into Divisions according to the number of points scored (current system of game points and bonus match points retained).

a) top 4 ranking teams allocated to Division 1
b) second group of 4 teams allocated to Division 2
c) remaining teams allocated to Division 3

3. In each Division, each team plays the other teams twice i.e. 6 matches (Division 3 system may differ slightly dependant on number of teams). Points scored in the usual system of game points and bonus match points.

4. The points scored in both parts of the competition are added together to determine the outright winners of each Division.

Rule Changes

 A number of Motions proposing changes to the League Rules put forward by Damien Cunningham and Damien Lavery were passed by the AGM:

1. Teams should present their squad list 7-days before the start of the League and a team may not use a player who is not on their squad sheet if that player is not a UCU member.

2. The payment of any fee to a player to represent a team or club is forbidden with appropriate sanctions applied by the League Secretary should such an event occur.

3. Teams are not be permitted to agree not to contest a fixture.

4. The UCU will distribute duplicate score sheets to clubs and clubs must return completed scoresheets from every League match.

Objections to the result of Belfast and District League Division 1

A number of Motions were received. The Executive Board had proposed to the meeting that these should be investigated by the Board and a decision made by it. A Motion from Michael Holmes seeking to overturn the ruling of the League Secretary in respect of a disputed result from a Board game in one of the RVH Hawks-QUB matches was pressed to a vote and the Motion was passed. The Board proposal therefore fell.

As a result of the Michael Holmes Motion being carried and the consequent points changes, RVH Hawks were declared winners of Division 1.