Eligibility Votes - March 2022

[David Deary]

I voted against motions 1 & 2 and don't understand the logic of the membership's decision.
They have decided that a person who once lived in Scotland for 2 years or has a Scottish grandparent has the same rights as someone who was born in Scotland and has lived here all their life.
Could someone please explain why they have voted this way ?

Andy,

You are understandably frustrated. Partly, I think because you didn't hear any discussion for and against as there would be at a General meeting so it is hard to discern the mood of the membership. I don't agree with you on the grand parentage point, that is nowhere in the criteria. If you are referring to Matt, his status has been anomalous since 2011 and Motion 2 at least provides clarity. I abstained on motion 2 as I was conflicted, a cop out of sorts but there you go.

I hope there has been some learnings as the turnout is an undoubted positive, we had 80 votes out of 534 individual members, so turnout of c.15%. I suspect that's the highest level of engagement we have had for a number of years? Can anyone confirm.

Improvements I'd like to see:

• I'd like to see some form of discussion being built in so the membership can reach an informed decision. It felt a bit like the motions were a bit of a fait accompli, given the time that had passed since the EWP was setup in 2019, things have changed and whilst they were charged with taking this forward I think some informed debate in advance of the vote would have helped matters. I think that was the intention of the discussion thread but not sure that worked well? How many people actually read this before voting, I didn't!
  
• I also think Chess Scotland should contact the membership through Associations, Leagues, Clubs, Teams etc. to ensure that members have the correct details with Chess Scotland. The onus is on the individual member, but a friend of mine who is a life member of over 40 years was unaware the vote was happening and couldn't login to the website. The individual concerned assures me they had no junk emails and Chess Scotland confirmed they had the correct email on file so it was a bit bizarre. It was resolved ably by Chess Scotland in a very timely manner for which I am grateful.
  
• I'd also like to see operating procedures for how online votes are conducted including oversight and independent verification. Such a document may already exist but I cannot find it on the website.
  

Overall, I think the turnout is hard to argue with and with some tweaks like I have suggested, this is a useful way to engage with the membership on matters.

Cheers,

David