Chess Scotland Constitution

[Craig Pritchett]

.... 9.2.2. To govern Chess Scotland, in conjunction with the MANAGEMENT BOARD and on behalf of the membership between General Meetings.
9.2.3. To approve a business plan and budget over an annual, or longer, period.
9.2.4. To approve the strategic direction for Chess Scotland
9.2.5. To manage ad hoc committees as necessary, these committees may co-opt Individual members who are not COUNCIL members where specific expertise is required ... [From the draft constitution].

In addition to my previous suggestion that para 3 in the draft should contain a further sub-clause, clarifying the relationship between Members / Exec Committee + Management Board / Council along the lines of my previous post, can I suggest that the above four sub-clauses (about the role of Council) also need some tweaking?

9.2.2 should probably best simply be dropped ... as it is wholly unconvincing. Only the Executive Committee/Management Board actually 'governs' CS on behalf of members between AGMs; it is logically impossible for Council, which 'incorporates' the Executive Committee/Management Board on it (according to the draft constitution elsewhere), to govern 'in conjunction' with any body that it isn't actually separate from.

9.2.3 and 9.2.4 are surely much closer to what Council is really there to do. It isn't really there to 'govern' but to act as an accountability check on the most important financial and strategic decisions of the Executive Committee/Management Board ... AND as an advisory sounding board (which leads into 9.2.5). 9.2.3 and 9.2.4 would therefore surely be clearer if they spelled this out, say along the lines of what actually happens each year...

'to approve the annual budget and strategic direction of the Executive Committee/Management Board on the basis of an annual budgetary report presented to it no later than the end of March each year'

9.2.5 needs to be reined in a little bit more since, as currently drafted, it would seem to suggest that Council and the Executive Committee/Management Board could end up in a ridiculous, potentially well nigh unworkable stand-off of competing committees (if they 'fell out'). It would therefore surely better read along the lines ...

'to have the right to advise the Executive Committee/Management Board on any matter, to be informed of and to obtain rights to input into the work of any ad hoc committee set up by the Executive Committee/Management Board to address any issues'

Isn't that really what CS members really want to see happen? Council shouldn't be set up to compete with the Executive arm of the organisation but work in tandem with it.

By the way, if this isn't mentioned somewhere else, shouldn't Council be chaired by someone? I'd say it should be the President.

Hope helpful!

[Jim Webster]

Gerald, in your most recent post you say (inter alia) that "Between General Meetings, Council is the voice of the membership and needs to reflect this" ... But is this really true?

... Surely the elected President + Management Board are (at least) as much a 'voice of the membership' as COUNCIL?

Isn't the expression "voice of the membership" just simply being used here as a conversational piece rather than a statement of council ? President + Management Board are already defined as part of council in the constitution and are therefore not actually excluded from the "voice of membership".

Much more importantly, your comments have been noted and we have consequently taken some of them on board and will, at Saturdays meeting bring them to the attendees. Additionally we will endeavour to post these changes, either as an Addendum, or as an updated version of the Constitution on the website - I just need someone to do it for us!

We do not currently see the need for any addition to Section 3 as you propose.

I have however added some of the more relevant constitution alterations to this posting.

....can I suggest that the above four sub-clauses (about the role of Council) also need some tweaking? (9.2.2 - 9.2.5)

The CWP have made some changes to Section 9.2, and will be bringing them to the meeting on Saturday.

9.2. Powers and Duties of COUNCIL
9.2.1. To represent the Chess Scotland membership and act on behalf of the membership at COUNCIL meetings and between General Meetings.
9.2.2. To receive and approve reports on MANAGEMENT BOARD activities.
9.2.3. To provide updates on activities of COUNCIL members to the MANAGEMENT BOARD as necessary.
9.2.4. To approve a business plan and budget over an annual, or longer, period.
9.2.5. To approve the strategic direction for Chess Scotland.
9.2.6. To approve the creation of ad hoc committees as necessary, these committees may co-opt Individual members who are not COUNCIL members where specific expertise is required.

Consequently Section 8.2.4 has been changed

8.2.4. To manage ad hoc committees that may then co-opt Individual members who are not COUNCIL members

By the way, if this isn't mentioned somewhere else, shouldn't Council be chaired by someone? I'd say it should be the President.

An extract from Section 14. Conduct of Meetings

14.1. The Chairman of all General meetings, COUNCIL and MANAGEMENT BOARD shall normally be the President, and in his or her absence the Administration Director. Failing that the meeting shall choose its own Chairman by simple majority vote.

[amuir]

We had a good chat about the constitution on saturday. Let's see if the proxy votes method works at the AGM

[robin moore]

Oh, what proxy votes method is that Andy?

[amuir]

I think Andy H is in charge of all the proxies. I fancy standing in the election against another candidate to test the new system.

[Andy Howie]

The real test will be AGM 2017 when we move to online