Minutes of the AGM held on 3 June 2025
Attendance
Present were Rob Davies, Paul McMahon, Richard Newman, Nate Weersing, Oded Pilowsky-Bankirer, John Nevin, Konrad Scheffler, Alan Wadsworth, Alan Richardson, Michael Osborn and Paul Kemp.
Apologies were received from Rod Newbery, Simon Marsden, Simon Yates.
Minutes of the 2024 AGM
The minutes of the meeting held on 21 May 2024 were approved. There were no matters arising.
Safeguarding Policy
Alan Richardson introduced this item by explaining the English Chess Federation has drafted a policy for vulnerable members and that in time it may mandate individual clubs to have a safeguarding policy. One element to this would be to have a Safeguarding Officer at the club who has been DBS cleared. Paolo di Fruscia has put himself forward to become the Safeguarding Officer. The proposal was put forward by Paul McMahon and seconded by Nate Weersing.
A draft policy has been drawn up by Paul Kemp and Alan Richardson and it was proposed the Safeguarding Officer will finalise this policy taking into consideration members comments. The Chairman, Club Captain and Treasurer were given the authority to provisionally approve this policy when ready. The full approval would be ratified at the next AGM.
Subsequent to the meeting Paolo di Fruscia has withdrawn from the Safeguarding Officer position.
Review of the 2024/25 Season
Paul Kemp reported on the club having a remarkably successful season, even more so than last year. The Linton Leopards retained the Division 1 title and Linton Lynxes won Division 2. Division 1 of the Roger Goldsmith tournament was won by Linton Larks who were unbeaten and Linton Tigers tied for first place in the Open section of the EACU Patrick Ribbands Team Championship. Linton were also successful in the Fenland Knockout competition and the Cambridgeshire Jamboree.
The club championship (Jim Carr trophy) was won by Konrad Scheffler with 5/5, with Nate Weersing retaining the John Dawson trophy as best placed player in the lower half of the draw.
Report on ALCA
Paul Kemp reported on a very successful second year of the Anglian Learning Chess
Academy with numbers increasing and the quality of play much improved. The ALCA Foxes, shared first place in the U6400 section of EACU Team Championships and ALCA A won the first division of the Cambridgeshire Schools League defeating all opposing teams.
Report on Summer Competition
Konrad Scheffler reported on an improved second year with over 30 players taking part and 100+ games played. He also explained the in-house scoring system which allowed the identification of the player who achieved the highest rating improvement. This year’s competition winner was Thomas Sha.
Treasurer’s Report
Michael Osborn reported that the club had a deficit of £721 for the season. However the majority of this sum (£520) was due to the purchase of 20 new clocks at a price that was too good to miss. He also mentioned that with the investment of part of the Patrick Ribbands Legacy Fund now resulting in interest payments, the club has had to register with HMRC and file tax returns. This can result in a tax bill if subscriptions are too high, so although the club made a loss, Michael recommended keeping them for now at the present level of £60 for adults and £30 for juniors. This was agreed.
Patrick Ribbands Legacy
Alan Richardson described a healthy financial situation where the 1 year bond had earned interest of nearly £2,000, which after taking into account tax liabilities and expenditure on Ribbands Legacy Projects, had resulted in the Legacy having net expenditure of £289. A discussion was held on finding more projects to support, with Paul McMahon suggesting there should be a link on the club website with details on how schools can apply for equipment. This was agreed. Nate Weersing suggested paying for some professional coaching sessions to occur at ACLA. Paul Kemp said this had been looked at but Friday evenings had proved difficult. This led on to the idea of holding 1 or 2 Saturday coaching events with invited professionals running the coaching sessions. This proposal was also agreed.
League entries for the 2025/26 Season
Paul Kemp opened the discussion and put forward the idea that the Lynxes promotion into Division 1 should be declined and Linton should continue as this year with two first division teams, two in the second division and at least one in the third. He felt that there had been problems providing cover for two teams in Division 1 this season. Also, it would be difficult with sometimes two division 1 teams and 1 division 3 team playing on the same Tuesday night. Paul McMahon agreed that it had been a difficult season, often having to get last minute replacements. Nate Weersing had a different opinion, believing the Lynxes had earned there right to be in Division 1 and should take there place in the top section. Richard Newman agreed. After much debate on who would be available for different teams, it was decided that Paul Kemp would have another look at the list of available players and look at the feasibility of having 3 teams in Division 1. A decision would then be made by club
officials and team captains.
With regard to the Roger Goldsmith tournament it was agreed to have one team in each division. Post Meeting Note: After a thorough consultation by the Club Captain with players, we have decided to field two teams in each of Divisions 1,2 and 3 and teams in RG1 and RG2. Team captains will be:
Division 1: Leopards Paul McMahon and Lynxes Nate Weersing
Divison 2: Lions Paul Kemp and Llamas Oded Pilowsky-Bankirer
Division 3: Lemurs Michael Osborn + one more team Captain TBD
RG1 Larks: Simon Marsden
RG2 Team name TBD: John Nevin
Election of Officers
The following were elected for the 2025/26 season:
Chairman Alan Richardson
Secretary/Treasurer Michael Osborn
Club Captain Paul Kemp
Website Manager Ben Varea (identified post meeting)
Club Championship Organiser Simon Marsden
Team Captains
Linton Lions Paul McMahon
Linton Lynxes Nate Weersing
Linton Leopards Oded Pilowsky-Bankirer
Linton Llamas Paul Kemp
Linton Lemurs Michael Osborn
Linton Longspurs
Linton Larks (RG1) Not decided
Linton Lapwings (RG2) Not decided
The vacant captains positions will be picked when we have clarity on the squads available for each team so that we can ensure captains play regularly.
New Season Dates
- Tuesday 26 August Autumn opening of Linton Club and Rapidplay tournament
- Thursday 4 September Bury Jamboree
- 28 September Cambridgeshire Rapidplay
- 18/19 October Bury Congress
Any Other Business
Paul Kemp reported that the Linton club would host the Bury League AGM on Wednesday 16th July. He invited club members to attend reminding them the club had a maximum of six votes if that number of members attended.