Date and Venue

The Bournemouth & District Chess League AGM is to be held:

• at 7.30pm on Tuesday 11th June 2024

• at Tuckton Social Club, 222 Tuckton Road, Southbourne, BH6 3AA (the home venue of Southbourne Chess Club).

Key Points

1. Links to the full AGM agenda and proposals for amendments to the rules are given at the end of this article.

2. There are vacancies for League Secretary and Webmaster for which no proposals have been received.

3. A summary of the rule change proposals is as follows:

A – Proposal to amend the League Constitution and Rules

This proposal has been put forward to clarify the following:

All registered players in the previous season are entitled to vote on all matters of ordinary business (including proposals to amend the League Tournament Rules) i.e. on all business other than a proposal to amend the Constitution and may be carried by a simple majority of votes cast.

For proposals to amend the Constitution, each club is entitled to one vote plus one additional vote for each team of the club which completed play in any Division of the League in the playing season immediately preceding the Annual General Meeting. Votes are to be cast by one representatives per club and may be carried only by attracting at least two-thirds of the votes cast.

NB The League Tournament Rules do not apply to the Bacchus League, and therefore participation in the Bacchus League does not carry an entitlement to a vote, either individual or club.

B – Proposals to amend the League Tournament Rules

Proposal 1 – To introduce average player and team ECF rating bands or ranges within each of the Divisions in the B&DCL.

	Collective Team Rating	Average Player Rating
Division 1	No limit	No limit
Division 2	No greater than >7400	No greater than >1850
Division 3	No greater than >6800	No greater than >1700
Division 4	No greater than >6400	No greater than >1600
Division 5	No greater than >5600	No greater than >1400

There are some exceptions which will be discussed at the AGM.

Proposal 2 – Exchange of team lists

To amend and increase the 75 point displacement rule to 100 points when arranging the players order corresponding to their ECF ratings for League matches on the day.

This proposal only applies to the Exchange of team lists on the match day and not to Eligibility where a player in the lower division must not exceed any other player in a higher division by 75 points.

Proposal 3 – Reasonable Adjustments for individuals with disabilities

Individuals who are visually impaired and need to use a Braille chess board should have an extra 15 seconds added to the 30 second increment on each move, taking this to a time allowance of one hour plus 45 seconds increments, in place of the one hour and 30 second increments as currently applied to all players. The proposal applies also to the opponents in order to compensate them for time lost in communication and in making moves.