The County AGM was very sparsely attended last night. There was little of note to discuss as we have entered no teams in this season's MCCU Championship, no Club tournaments are being run this year and there will be no County Congress.
Ray Dolan has stood down as County Secretary due to ill health and the County have extended their thanks to him for the work he has done in many different positions over the course of many years.
Traci Whitfield has also stood down as Junior Secretary and the County also extended their thanks to her for the work she has put in organising junior chess over many years.
Andrew Leadbetter indicated that he did not want to continue as ECF Delegate.
Accordingly, the following Officers were elected:
President - Robert Milner
Secretary - Peter Evans
Treasurer - Andrew Leadbetter
Tournament Secretary - Peter Evans
Junior Secretary - Jonathan Blackburn
Joint Webmasters - Peter Evans/Steve Emmerton
Social Media Secretary - David Blower
ECF Delegate - Steve Emmerton
MCCU Delegates - Andrew Leadbetter/Peter Evans/Steve Emmerton
No Team Captains or Congress Secretary were elected for obvious reasons.
The Club Of The Year Award went to Staffordshire Spitfires, the junior team organised by Jonathan Blackburn.
The Personality Of The Year was not awarded, but it was agreed that the trophy would be presented to Ray Dolan as a Long Service Award.
There followed a discussion on how we might invigorate chess in the County, such as organising a doubles tournament on the lines of the one organised in North Staffs on several occasions, and we will be looking into this. It was felt that the appointment of a Social Media Secretary to boost our Facebook presence would also help to attract new young players to the game. We will be looking to enter teams in the MCCU Championship again next year and, hopefully, getting the County Congress off the ground again. Alberto Gissi had gone a long way to organising the 2020 Congress before Covid struck and it had to be abandoned.
If anybody would like to suggest any other initiatives that we might take then please contact the President or Secretary.