EPSCA: All (well some) change at the top

[John Upham]

Following a "lively" (using my diplomatic hat) EPSCA Council meeting in lovely Edgbaston / Birmingham (that I caught the tail end of) we had the AGM.


The new look Council has the following make-up:

President: Chris Ward (Kent)
Chairperson: Kate Tunstall (Berkshire but not including Maidenhead)
Vice Chairperson: Alan Kennedy (Derbyshire)
General Secretary: Emma-Jane Billington-Philips (Wey Valley)
Treasurer: David Knight (?)
Chief Arbiter: Paul McKeown (Richmond)
National Primary Schools CC Coordinator: Angela Eyton (Barnet)
Inter Association Coordinator: Mike and Debbie Forster (Sussex)
England Schools Team Manager Mike Forster (Sussex)
Website: Laurie Winston (?)
Representative to the ECF : Nigel Dennis (Maidenhead)

Forgive me if have omitted anyone...

Peter Purland retired after 55 years of service (EPSCA first appeared in 1969 we think unless you know differently)
Glynis Purland similarly retired after many, many years of service
Nigel Dennis had been General Secretary since 1976

Michael Flatt stepped down from Council whilst Ed Jones and Victor Cross retained their roles as "Additional Members".

The individual vote for General Secretary memorably took 5 recounts (and around 30 minutes) whilst various members attempted to remember just how many votes they each carried eventually tieing at 10-10! The Chair provided the casting vote.

Future meetings would be conducted by some kind of online platform such as Zoom, WhatsApp, Teams, Skype or whatever is around at the time. Face-to-Face meetings were deprecated as were so-called hybrid meetings (which never work anyway IMHO).

Many positive changes were voted in to make both the NPSCC and IA fit for the 21st century and boy did they need refreshing.

The days meetings started at around 10am and ended at 5pm at The Plough and Harrow Hotel in Edgbaston.

An especial thanks must go to Kate Tunstall who Chaired both Council and then the AGM with seven hours total effort to keep order.