ECF Director elections for 2012/13

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Angus French
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ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by Angus French » Mon Aug 06, 2012 3:31 pm

Directors will be (re-)elected at the AGM on 13 October (and nominations for election are, I understand, required 37 days in advance of that – within little more than a month).

So far as I know, two of the current Directors have said that they won’t be standing for re-election. These are: Andrew Farthing, CEO; and, Lawrence Cooper, Director of International Chess.

Others also may not stand. I believe I read that Gareth Caller, the Director of Finance wouldn’t be standing - apologies to Gareth if this is not the case.

So: Can it be confirmed who won’t be standing for re-election (so far as is currently known); can it be confirmed who will be standing for election; is there a danger that some positions – possibly senior positions – won't be occupied?
Last edited by Angus French on Mon Aug 06, 2012 3:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Mon Aug 06, 2012 3:36 pm

I will be standing for re-election.

Mick Norris
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Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by Mick Norris » Mon Aug 06, 2012 4:13 pm

Angus French wrote:Others also may not stand. I believe I read that Gareth Caller, the Director of Finance wouldn’t be standing - apologies to Gareth if this is not the case.
Gareth stated he was standing down, and that has been confirmed to me
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Neil Graham
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Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by Neil Graham » Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:44 pm

I refer to a thread many months ago when John Philpott supplied useful statistics; elections will be uncontested as no-one wants the jobs in the first place. There are plenty of people who will indulge in mud-slinging and shouting "Clique" however I'm guessing now that the ECF will have great difficulty filling the posts let alone holding elections.

Of the actual Directorships (excluding Chairman and non-execs), to date three out of six are not standing for election to date. Add to that the disquiet expressed about the Marketing Director and President who have both come in for a deal of criticism on here and elsewhere. Looks to me like a meltdown. Of course the Board may have candidates in place; if so I'd like to hear who they might be.

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Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by John Philpott » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:21 pm

There is a Board Skype meeting on Wednesday evening this week at which the intentions of the incumbents should become clearer. The election notice, which is due to be published shortly thereafter, normally indicates who will be standing for re-election.

Neil Graham
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Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by Neil Graham » Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:37 pm

Neil Graham wrote:I refer to a thread many months ago when John Philpott supplied useful statistics; elections will be uncontested as no-one wants the jobs in the first place. There are plenty of people who will indulge in mud-slinging and shouting "Clique" however I'm guessing now that the ECF will have great difficulty filling the posts let alone holding elections.

Of the actual Directorships (excluding Chairman and non-execs), to date three out of six are not standing for election to date. Add to that the disquiet expressed about the Marketing Director and President who have both come in for a deal of criticism on here and elsewhere. Looks to me like a meltdown. Of course the Board may have candidates in place; if so I'd like to hear who they might be.
I've looked the figures up now - in the last five years of the BCF there were two contested elections for 50 directorships; in the first four years of the ECF ten elections for 42 posts - but this interest rapidly died away; in the last two years just one contested election out of twenty possible. So roughly there is a 1 in 9 chance of having a contested election; in the other 8 cases the nominee is returned unopposed.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:42 pm

Neil Graham wrote: So roughly there is a 1 in 9 chance of having a contested election; in the other 8 cases the nominee is returned unopposed.
For what might be described as controversial candidates, there have been closely contested elections against "none of the above". I think it's one-all for candidate v none. Not that sentiment on this forum is anything to go by, but a good showing by "none" is more than possible even it leaves the ECF without hardly any directors at all.

Mick Norris
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Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by Mick Norris » Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:55 am

In one sense, anyone who is unopposed beats None of the above

If we go back to October, I think everyone was elected unanimously apart from CJ with a vote or two against and the actual posts where votes were counted

Woolgar beat None of the above and Phil beat Sabrina, but both were close affairs

Clearly, leaving posts vacant can be preferable, but Council would leave difficulties if they rejected lots of the Directors and left the ECF Board inquorate
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John Philpott

Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by John Philpott » Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:11 am

Mick Norris wrote
Clearly, leaving posts vacant can be preferable, but Council would leave difficulties if they rejected lots of the Directors and left the ECF Board inquorate
Those difficulties could be overcome as if the number of Directors ever fell below the quorum of three, the Articles allow the continuing Director or Directors to appoint other Directors so that a quorate meeting can take place. The real problem arises if "Not this candidate" is preferred for ALL the positions!

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Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by Alex McFarlane » Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:16 am

I believe there will be at least two or possibly three contested elections, assuming the current holders stand again.

I agree that under normal circumstances "None of the Above" is an option which can cause problems. This year, for some posts at least, "None of the Above" may be seen as a stalking horse and if successful a real candidate could emerge. There are potential candidates who do not want to get involved in messy politics but would want to help English chess.

There is a strong possibility that one of the posts will have three candidates.

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Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by JustinHorton » Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:42 am

Mick Norris wrote:Clearly, leaving posts vacant can be preferable
Of course in a couple of instances they appear to have been left vacant even though theoretically they've been filled.
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Mick Norris
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Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by Mick Norris » Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:55 am

The format of the elections can be a problem

Last year, we had 3 candidates who spoke, and 2 of them were very good, but as they were standing against each other, we couldn't do anything about it

If None of the above had won the Marketing election, then the board could have brought in someone - maybe they wouldn't have chosen Sabrina for Marketing, and indeed maybe she wouldn't have been interested, but there you go

I think we had this sort of problem previously where Loz might have wanted to look at Junior or International (or both) but had to choose 1

If we do have 2 or more candidates for President then Ok, but I would prefer to hear there is at least 1 candidate for each of CEO, Finance and International
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Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by Alex Holowczak » Tue Aug 07, 2012 10:05 am

Alex McFarlane wrote:There is a strong possibility that one of the posts will have three candidates.
Would the vote still be done by First Past the Post?

John Philpott

Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by John Philpott » Tue Aug 07, 2012 10:42 am

Alex Holowczak wrote
Would the vote still be done by First Past the Post?
Yes it would. "None of the above candidates" remains an option.

Neil Graham
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Re: ECF Director elections for 2012/13

Post by Neil Graham » Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:24 pm

John Philpott wrote:Alex Holowczak wrote
Would the vote still be done by First Past the Post?
Yes it would. "None of the above candidates" remains an option.
Do you actually have a vote for "None of the above"? If person "A" stands as a candidate, I would have thought it was a case of voting for him/her or voting against. I was certainly at a BCF Director's election where those voting against a candidate outnumbered those voting for and thus he wasn't elected.

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