Why we should vote for Nigel Short

[Carl Hibbard]

I am keen to increase the transparency of the whole AGM process : persons using lumps of proxy votes to persue their personal mandates is simply not acceptable.

I want to know for each card vote who voted for what : is this so unreasonable?

Agreed, clearly the board should take count and publish this level of information regarding the votes

[John Philpott]

John Upham wrote

I want to know for each card vote who voted for what : is this so unreasonable?

Reasonable or not this cannot happen at the October 2009 AGM in respect of the election of Officers. The Procedural Bye Laws state

If the Chairman is unable to establish that any candidate has a clear majority over any other candidate, or is in doubt as to whether the number of Members wishing that none of the candidates be elected is higher than the greater or greatest number of Members voting for any of the candidates, then the election shall be determined by a secret ballot.

No proposal to amend the Procedural Bye Laws in this or any other respect was received by last Wednesday's deadline for motions, so the details of individual votes cast in any ballot taken will have to remain secret for the forthcoming Council meeting.

[John Upham]

will have to remain secret for the forthcoming Council meeting.

Contrasts nicely with the view of SR from another thread :

This idea that the ECF is run by some sort of secret cabal is very far from the truth.

I suspect we need to redefine "secret"... or, at least, what it is about ECF democratic processes that must remain secret : bring back the Knights Templars and offer them places on the board!

[Kevin Thurlow]

What makes you think the Knights Templar have gone away?

[John Upham]

What makes you think the Knights Templar have gone away?

I have no evidence one way or the other : please spill the beans!

[John Philpott]

Kevin Thurlow wrote

What makes you think the Knights Templar have gone away?

With The Lost Symbol due for publication tomorrow, I can exclusively reveal that one of the twelve future Robert Langdon novels that Dan Brown is planning does indeed relate to the ECF. I wonder what a suitable title would be?

[John Upham]

I wonder what a suitable title would be?

"Making a flawed rating system yet worse" by the ECF Rating Team

[John Philpott]

John. I am afraid that I have to disqualify your suggestion on the grounds of verbosity: the average length of a Dan Brown novel title is 2.8 words, so I will allow a maximum of three.

The follow up challenges will be to draft the first page of the novel in the style of Dan Brown and to suggest the most suitable actors to be engaged for the film version that will doubtless follow.

[Matthew Turner]

Good to see that actors are not always type-cast and Danny DeVito doesn't always have to play the Penguin.

[Paul Buswell]

I repeat that YOUR task is to talk with your ECF delegate and impress on them your strength of feeling. We cannot have yet another year of no progress.

Or, in the case of the Hastings & St. Leonards Chess Club, at the moment, not....

We will not be lobbying the Sussex Chess Association, the Kent County Chess Association, the Mid-Sussex Chess League or the Corporate Vice-Presidents' representative.

The ECF Council was on the Agenda for last night's Committee meeting, and a few days before the meeting I asked Committee members, if they could, to take a look at the list of candidates on the ECF site.

Of seven Committee members, four had looked. There was antipathy to Mr Walsh, matched by antipathy to Mr Short. John Paines was unknown to all except me, C J de Mooi unknown to most. But there really was very little interest and so we will not be lobbying. That may change if election addresses (or the Agenda) become accessible online - but that leaves very little time for re-consideration.

I imply no criticism whatsoever of my Committee's lack of interest: but I note it because it may be widely shared.

PB

[Carl Hibbard]

That may change if election addresses (or the Agenda) become accessible online - but that leaves very little time for re-consideration.

This is CRITICAL of course, however you will get with the same old candidates without a voice