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Irish Chess Union AGM 2022

  • 31-08-2022 10:49am
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭


    There is some info on the ICU website about the upcoming AGM. The proposals for the different posts all seem very good. Mel O'Cinneide makes some very good suggestions regarding selection for Irish teams although I don't like the one about not neccessarily fielding our strongest team. If we start picking people because of norm aspirations or to give them experience or whatever we end up where we are now with nepotism, favouritism and outside influences being a factor. Selection criteria must be fair and transparent and it must give everyone an equal chance, the only way to do this is by rating or by some type of qualifying event (e.g Irish Championship).

    I'm not a fan of giving honorary memberships to players for achieving norms or titles. These players invariably get a lot of ICU help on their way up and they already don't have to pay fees to enter Irish competitions, achieveing norms/titles is reward enough for them.



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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 259 ✭✭RooksPawn


    I agree with Sodacat here on the above points. Mel has clearly given a lot of thought to his motions and they are based on his experience in the role and his generally excellent judgment. Lobbying is definitely to be discouraged, especially of possible players by would-be captains.

    I (and other members who will be voting) would like to know whether honorary ICU membership has been given to all our previous IMs.

    If it is, then I guess there is no reason to leave Tarun out but if that's not the case then I would be voting against the motion for the reason Sodacat indicated.

    As for the other motions for honorary membership I would support the first but will be voting against the other because I cannot fathom why the person who presided over probably the most divisive season of Irish chess in living memory should be nominated for this.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 383 ✭✭macelligott


    The AGM is being held alongside a Rapid and a Blitz tournament. A good way to increase participation. I’ll most likely play in the Rapid. But probably not the blitz.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 80 ✭✭corkcitychess


    @RooksPawn

    shame you probably won't be allowed to vote as you have to be over 16 to vote😊 my vote on the other hand of course will count 😉

    Post edited by corkcitychess on


  • Registered Users Posts: 271 ✭✭zeitnot


    For those who missed the AGM, brief summary minutes (unofficial, of course):

    All officers elected unopposed.

    Motions 1 and 2 were ruled out of order after a point of order was raised (section 11.2 of the ICU constitution: "The Executive Committee (and the Executive Committee alone) may recommend to an annual general meeting that a position of Honorary Officer or honorary membership of the Union for life be bestowed on any person, whether such a person is a fully paid up member of the Union or not.")

    Motion 3 was approved.

    The remaining proposal was treated as six separate motions.

    Motion 4 was rejected (approximately 4-8-?).

    Motion 5 was rejected (approximately 4-8-?).

    Motion 6 was rejected.

    Motion 7 was rejected.

    Motion 8 ("The selection of team captain should be delegated to the selection committee, in the same way that player selection is delegated. The ICU committee should not select team captains without the involvement of the selection committee.") passed 5-3-4 (requiring simple majority).

    Motion 9 was rejected (0-many; no count taken).



  • Registered Users Posts: 104 ✭✭anchor4208


    That's a bit of a surprise. As an example, I didn't anticipate that this "Canvassing of players by captaincy applicants (in order to secure their vote) should be explicitly disallowed" would be controversial.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 271 ✭✭zeitnot


    I voted for motions 4 and 5 myself.

    Some attendees suggested that without knowing what penalty was associated with violating the rule, they couldn’t vote in favour. It was also suggested that “canvassing” was vague, and some wondered what would happen if there was indirect canvassing: could a candidate be penalised for actions by someone else?

    I don’t think the votes should be taken as representing a “pro-canvassing” position, but that’s from the perspective of someone who voted yes.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭sodacat11


    Where can the motions be viewed?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭sodacat11


    OH I found them. Proposals 1 and 2 were silly so no surprise that they were ignored.



  • Registered Users Posts: 107 ✭✭userfriendly2




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 479 ✭✭Joedryan




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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 259 ✭✭RooksPawn


    Since the proposer of the motions about selection couldn't be bothered to attend the meeting, even by Zoom, to put his case, I suppose it's unsurprising that they were defeated. What was perhaps even more surprising was that such votes for his motions that were positive seemed to come from members on Zoom and none at all from those present in person at the Talbot Hotel.



  • Registered Users Posts: 104 ✭✭anchor4208


    Maybe he wasn't free? People do have lives outside of chess.

    Banning canvassing is such an obvious thing to do that he probably never thought anyone would argue against it. The arguments that were quoted above were very poor. The motions didn't require the insertion of exact wordings into our rule book, instead they were looking for general principles to be approved, which could be firmed up with exact wordings at a subsequent date.

    The main group present were the ICU exec, so it's not a good reflection on them that some of these motions failed.



  • Registered Users Posts: 104 ✭✭anchor4208


    Also, I hadn't noticed it at the time, but the rating officer's report on page 15 of the annual report (https://www.icu.ie/system/downloads/000/000/482/1851554eaf92bd93c6ca5d41dae09b034d2afefc.pdf?1664039903) is very interesting. Almost everyone on the selection committee resigned this year in protest at the actions of the ICU. So its seems that these motions didn't come out of nowhere.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 627 ✭✭✭Retd.LoyolaCpt


    It wasn't framed of where it would go in any ICU document, it didn't say what the punishment would be (or even might be) and it wasn't presented by anyone. If you aren't going to attend, you could at least brief someone, say the rating officer who knew the background, on what the intentions were.

    Funny how you'd exempt one group of volunteers from attending because they have lives outside of chess, and blame another set of volunteers for turning up.

    There's another AGM before the next cycle, fix the above and get it resubmitted.



  • Registered Users Posts: 271 ✭✭zeitnot


    The AGM format requires motions weeks in advance, which can't then be amended significantly. This is fine for major decisions that have clear-cut answers (is the Irish championship open or closed? is the champion guaranteed a place on the Olympiad team?) or for voting up or down detailed proposals developed elsewhere (national club championship rules), but hard for anything else. It isn't so obvious (to me, anyway) that waiting another year and trying again is the best option for the canvassing issue.

    Did the canvassing arise in relation to players or non-playing delegates? If delegates, presumably the selection committee could simply adopt its own rules: anyone canvassing is automatically disqualified. It's more complicated with players since they may be entitled to a place via WAR, but in that case, it's not clear why they would be canvassing in the first place.



  • Registered Users Posts: 104 ✭✭anchor4208


    Nice strawman argument you've presented there. Of course I didn't blame a set of volunteers for turning up. I did blame them for arguing against and rejecting against a principle of good governance that is standard in most proper organisations.

    The proposer of the motion wasn't some troublesome anonymous member who lobbed a grenade at the AGM for the craic of it. On the contrary, the proposer was the outgoing chair of the selection committee, so presumably he's put quite a bit of time into volunteering on behalf the members over the years, and presumably if he's raising an issue of concern, it's because he has reason to.

    If the ICU exec had an interest in addressing canvassing, they could have accepted the motion and when it was passed, they could have agreed to work with the proposer to formulate it into an acceptable rule. Instead your response is 'try again with an alternative wording next year and see how you get on'.



  • Registered Users Posts: 104 ✭✭anchor4208


    The rating officer's report states that the selection of players went smoothly, but that the other members of the selection committee resigned over an issue arising from the captaincy selections. It doesn't say if the area of conflict included canvassing, so we're only speculating on that based on Mel's motions and the exec's reaction to them.

    So here's a thing. You say "Did the canvassing arise in relation to players or non-playing delegates? If delegates, presumably the selection committee could simply adopt it's own rules: anyone canvassing is automatically disqualified". The rating officer's report says "the executive ... decided to make the final captaincy decisions rather than consult the SC", and subsequently says "this matter was handled extremely poorly by the ICU executive". Hmmm



  • Registered Users Posts: 271 ✭✭zeitnot


    That passage stood out all right, but it didn't go into much detail and there was very little time available to discuss it all. I voted for the canvassing motions because they seemed reasonable irrespective of what the full background was.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 627 ✭✭✭Retd.LoyolaCpt


    "I did blame them for arguing against and rejecting against a principle of good governance that is standard in most proper organisations." - I didn't vote against any of these motions nor did I argue against any of them during the meeting. Nor did the vast majority of the committee - I can count 7 out of the 8 who were there who didn't argue against the motion to any degree; Dave and Desmond were involved in the discussion. So yes, you did blame a set of volunteers who showed up to a meeting and voted their own way without argument. In August, I had sent some queries to the executive as sometimes but not always there's a bit of back and forth on these motions to refine them so that the questions I mentioned above would have been answered pre-meeting but its not stated anywhere that the executive have to do the work of the proposer.

    I generally don't care who raises motions as long as they're good motions. I never said anything about the proposer - I'm fond of Mel, despite the one harrowing loss he inflicted on me.. He's a top man of course, I offerred him the ISC job and was very lucky he accepted. These were good intentioned motions and on another day, they will be passed, or they won't and the next ISC will set out their stall and say that this and that won't be allowed under their watch. Nothing stops them from doing that. As I understand it, they made several judgements as regards voting from players as was.

    We do not approve blank cheques at AGMs and allow the executive and a sub committee to write pre-approved rules.

    The chair apologised for the process. But the rest of the executive were never contacted by the ISC until after the Olympiad to some of their resignations. To insinuate that we went in to argue against/vote down these motions is BS.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭sodacat11


    Anyone know where I can find the results of the European Seniors in Dresden? Results are supposed to be on chess results but I can only find the starting lists and the official website is hopeless. The ICU website isn't reporting at all on the tournament despite three Irish teams participating but you can be sure that if it was a junior event or something involving Gonzaga we'd have daily reports, photos, videos, , interviews and results in plenty.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 277 ✭✭EnPassant


    The results are on chess-results.com in German:-

    https://chess-results.com/tnr690448.aspx?lan=0



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭sodacat11


    Thanks for that, the Irish teams are doing pretty well overall.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭sodacat11


    Just to prove my point the ICU website is now informing us that we can follow "our"players in the European Youth Championship yet still no mention of our three senior teams competing in Dresden. It is the older players in Irish chess who have contributed the most over the years and many of the youngsters will soon disappear from the game altogether yet everything is done for them, preferential treatment regarding team selection, more social media coverage, bending of rating floors etc etc and the seniors are practically ignored.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 479 ✭✭Joedryan


    here here! Traditionally there has been ageism in chess and it is getting worse now by the looks of it



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,298 ✭✭✭sodacat11


    Yes, juniors do get preferential treatment for sure when it comes to team selection and admittance to tournaments. I wonder if they receive any funding from the ICU when they play abroad? Big write up on the European junior ch on the ICU website today by parents highlighting the achievements of their little darlings while the Dresden results haven't even been posted despite three Irish senior teams competing and some very good results.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 627 ✭✭✭Retd.LoyolaCpt


    says two people who don't volunteer a second of their time. @me when you've volunteered 5000+ hours to Irish chess.

    Don't let facts get in the way of your tinhat nonsense, you never do - articles written by two parents: https://www.icu.ie/articles/995. No Gonzaga students involved.

    The ECC - written by a Benildus player: https://www.icu.ie/news/3386

    What have you both done recently? Moaned (what's new) about an event you could have written a report on which you seem to care about.

    If you want something to happen, volunteer. That's what the ECC player did and that's what the parents at the EYCC did.



  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 7,258 Mod ✭✭✭✭cdeb


    I'll echo that.


    If anyone at a tournament like this wants an article or a rolling report - they just have to write one.


    The ICU exec can hardly be expected to have details of what's going on thousands of miles away.


    And chess-results had scores under the ECU flag as it tends to do for these tournaments - https://chess-results.com/fed.aspx?lan=1&fed=ECX



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 627 ✭✭✭Retd.LoyolaCpt


    Suppose you could have read the books, but better to just speculate, right? Teams selected by the ICU have their entry fees covered - juniors, seniors and club teams alike. Organisers tend to cover some costs for selected players - and players cover the rest; the ICU does not.

    The ICU budget is roughly 40k:

    Budget items you both benefit from:

    The ICC 5k,

    Norm and 50+ events: 7k per year,

    ICU site, Stripe, insurance and FIDE costs: 7k per year,

    Adult International team costs (exlc olympiad): 1.5k

    High level training which either of you could avail of: 1.5k

    Blitz and Rapid events: 1k, mostly break even but we run 20 of these per year.

    Arbiter/coaching courses: 1-2k - which you could arguably benefit from by attending these courses.

    Building the ICU's equipment stock: 2k - which you benefit from with games broadcast, sets available at venues etc.

    So that's already more than 65% of our budget (26-27k) on things you could or do benefit from.


    Here are the specifically junior items:

    Junior International costs: 4-5k, same funding per person as 50+/65+ internationals but there are more juniors.

    Domestic Junior events? 0, these break even.

    Junior Coaching? 0. Funded by parents. Venues also help offset cost of rapid and blitz events.

    Junior books? 0. paid for by parents.


    The rest of the budget:

    IWC, women's officer projects: 1-2k

    Non-specific development projects/events: 2-3k

    Olympiad: 4k (estimate 8k split over 2 years)



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 479 ✭✭Joedryan


    Are you including me in this? Seems like, well for a start I have volunteered a hell of a lot more than 5000 hours to Irish chess, so if you are having a go at me bring it on, I like you and what you are trying to do for Irish chess, but if this is an attack on me bring it on!

    btw Ageism is a serious issue so enough of the deflection.



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