Chairman’s report 2017 18
This year has been an extremely busy year for me personal and within the club
The year started with the death of our resident housekeeper Roy Bourne he and his late wife Iris had held the housekeeper’s job for over 25 years
Elizabeth Lewis and former member Michael Dean and both died in June and Brian McCague who Was a member in the early 70s died in August
I would like to express my condolences and those of the chess club to all the families on their loss
The early part of the year I spent getting the now vacant housekeepers flat up to a letting standard
I also took on the cleaning duties for the club for a fee until a new housekeeper was found
The committee decided to advertise internally for a new housekeeper on the basic lines of free accommodation for opening and closing the club and also cleaning duties
On this basis two members applied Paul Kelly and myself in order to assure that the vetting process was above board A committee was set for this purpose
Their decision was that I myself would become the new housekeeper this in itself meant a lot more work, as I had now had to vacated my property at Manor Road and get my stuff move to the club at the date of writing this report I am 90% there but have not yet got into a routine at the club
Being chairman and now housekeeper there is the potential of a conflict-of-interest for this reason the committee has put proposal to the AGM whereby all matters relating to the housekeeper where there is a potential of a conflict of interest with the chairman’s job would be resolved by the subcommittee I would urge you to support this motion if you consider that the conflict is too great then consider running for chairman however I am happy to continue in this role
During the year, we had two twinning matches one against Bethune which is a biannual match and a new one against Dordrecht a club we had links with in the 60s and 70s
Both twinning matches were considered I believe to be a huge success I must thank Mason Woodlands to taking the lead in organising this event also thanks to Greg Chandler this is translating
Dana and Lila Woodlands with their waitressing and Jim Wheeler the supplying the Beer and Sharon Woodlands for ferrying various equipment
The Dordrecht twinning match was held in May and again seemed to be considered by the members took part as a great success thanks to Jim Wheeler for supplying the beer which seem to be greatly appreciated by the Dordrecht players
Bernard Cafferty again give a couple of talks one preseason talk and 1 at the end 0f the season which was greatly enjoyed by all those who attended and for which I thank him for
In club league matches it is probably fair to say we had one of our best seasons ever winning mid Sussex league division one and Division II titles and getting to 3 Kent league finals many thanks to the captains Paul Kelly Mason Woodlands Gary Wilson Adrian Cload and Umberto Jozwiak
club tournaments continue to be run in an efficient manner under the watchful eye of Rasa Norinkeviciute for which I thank her
I would like to congratulate John Sugden on winning the championship Steve Blewitt on winning the Pelton and Patrice Tournier on winning the rush
Paul Buswell did a couple of his famous one-day rapid play at the club was greatly enjoyed by everyone who played and I would like to thank Paul for his efforts and congratulate John Sugden on winning the Iris and Roy Bourne Trophy
The premises officer Adrian Cload had a reasonably quiet year we did have a leak from the roof
I thank him for his efforts
club finances due to some creative accounting we made a very small profit this year
, we need to keep a watchful eye on our finances and should be looking to try to make a good surplus each year rather than rely on reserves which slowly diminishing many thanks to James Wheeler
Ken Lucas acted as secretary and minute taker this year bearing in mind he is not playing very much chess I thank him for his continued support
The library had a large donation of book this year by MR John Knott 300 titled books for which the club was extremely grateful a lot of these titles the club did not have and very much enhanced our library however this does mean that we may well have to increase our library space Bernard Cafferty has continued in his diligent role of librarian for which I thank him

The Hastings International Congress is continuing to survive on a shoe string budget under the watchful eye of Alan Hustwayte’s and his team Bob Elliston is the club representatives I thank him for his efforts
I would like to thank all members of the committee who have served this year
I would like to take opportunity to wish all the club members a good chess 2018 2019 and remind you all the Subs are now and on that happy note I conclude this report
Marc Bryant
Chairman