Chairman’s report
I have now spent my second full year as chairman and I’m glad to report that this year has been far less stressful than my first as things in the club appeared to settle down and the membership are getting on with the business of playing chess.
As the years go by we gain new members and we lose some old ones this year has been no exception we lost in April Con Power as I stated in my notification to the members Con was the bedrock of Hastings chess for some 50 years he will be sadly missed by all.
To our new friends. I give a warm welcome to the club and should they require any advice on club activities I am always available.
Over the last year we have run a series of little weekend chess tournaments which appear to have been successful, making the club a small profit. The next one will be run on the 24th 25th of September for players grade 150 and under. I would like to thank Jeremy Hudson for his help in this regard.
Raza continues to run the internal club tournaments in her quiet unassuming way for which I thank her.
In external club tournaments individual captains will report in detail.
The mid Sussex league second-team narrowly avoided promotion to the first division. The second team came with a late charge to survive relegation. Howard Tebbs runs our first team which finished mid-table and a fourth team was relegated.
In the Kent league our first-team defending champions run by Ray Brooks made it to the semi-final but were unable to continue their good form. All of the other teams failed to reach the knockout stage.
Roy Bourne suffers some health issues this year, resulting in two stays in hospital but he continues to clean and open up the club and although the servings of teas have sometimes been sporadic the situation is being monitored and I thank Roy for all his efforts whilst suffering ill health. I wish him a healthier 2017.
The downstairs flat continues to provide a substantial income for the club which in affects results in a subsidised membership fee for club members. Without this income your membership fee would undoubtedly double however this being said finances under Jim Wheeler are in a relatively good state, the club having a net surplus this year of around £2000 but we should not be complacent as any structural work on the property in any given year would easily wipe this out plus some of our reserves. However, that being said, there is no intention to raise club subs this year.
Any member wishing to pay their subscription by instalments will need to do so by direct debit or standing order this year. Please liaise with Jim Wheeler on this.
The Library
We continue to try to chase up long overdue books so far this has resulted in about 60 books being returned this process will continue and I’m sure Bernard to will make his own report.
The premises.
Paul Kelly felt the need to resign as premises officer I thank him for the hard work he has put in over the years.
The junior chess club continues to go from strength to strength initially being run by Gary Wilson and being taken over by Mason Woodlands.
We are still without a club secretary.
Committee meeting Have been held approximately one a month over the last year however there seems to be a lack of enthusiasm for attending them on no less than three occasions we have only just made a quorum.
We require more people to become committee members.
Many thanks to Ken Lucas who has continued to be the minute secretary without actually being a member of the committee this a great help to me.
I’d also like to thank Paul Buswell acting as company secretary even though he is no longer a member something I still hope to remedy.
Mr. Arjun Kolani played in the under 10 British championships this year and succeeded in coming first equal winning the Neil Carr Scholarship Prize. The prize entitles Arjun to one year of funding for the 3 year ECF International Programme which he will begin in January 2017. He achieved his win and prize on the very day of his 9th birthday On behalf of the club. I congratulate him.
Lastly anybody who feels they wish to run for chairman please feel free to do so as I stated before on many occasions you get what you vote for it is no good complaining if you do not like the odd decision the committee or chairman might make. If you do not wish to get involved, then do not get involved!!!
I hope everybody will have a very enjoyable Chess year
Mark A Bryant
Chairman