Minutes of Telepost Zoom Meeting
Held Monday 15th March 2021 at lots of houses.
People present: Matthew Clark(MC), Nat Paul(NP), Nick Holmes(NH), Mark Nightall , Kate Walker(KW), John Casewell(JC) , Shane Sweeney, Paul Billington (PB), Rob Nield(RN) , Martin Ayres, Bill Bates, Mark Randell, Dennis Bonner(DB)
Apologies: John Westhead, Steve Rooney, Keith Tabner
Meeting started at 7.30pm
Points discussed:
a) Each person introduced themselves for the benefit of our “new ” external members, – Rob Nield, Mark Nightall and Mark Randell, to match a face to a name.
b) The general point of our strategy going forward, with the re-introduction of OTB in the coming months was discussed. The general consensus from the questionnaire issued by DB,2 weeks ago, was that the majority of current online members wanted to continue online alongside OTB:
1) JC stated that he will be starting 2 all- play- all divisions in April, following the completion of the current Swiss Individual tournament. The winner of each division will then play in a Grand Final, there have been 14 entries, so far, for this tournament. Anyone else interested to play must mail JC asap. JC said that we could also consider playing online friendlies with other clubs. In general there is a good club appetite for more online games from the members.
2) MC agreed with the above point and said that he wanted to continue with the 5 Counties league, where we have 2 teams and the 4NCL County games.MC said that there will be a proposal, for more online competitions, in the Shropshire AGM, which will be held in July. All members are encouraged to mail MC with their suggestions for this proposal.
3) NH made the point that Chris Lewis will be stepping down from the 4NCL organisation when the current season finishes as he wants to concentrate on the introduction and training of a Shropshire Juniors team.
4) We discussed the pros and cons of holding an internal Rapidplay tournament with the general consensus being to hold a 10/5 tournament in the near future. Due to time constraints DB agreed to discuss this further with our committee and issue a mail with all the details to the members when agreed.
5) RN suggested that we hold a regular game analysis online. The meeting agreed that they would send a copy of any interesting game that they had played and RN agreed to video and issue a selection of interesting games with comments on a regular basis.
6) The proposed Simul with Keith Arkell GM was discussed and NP said that he would talk to Keith and give us a feedback asap.
7) The recent mail from Keith Tabner was discussed concerning the fact that he wanted to hand over the reins of the Cox, inor and Shrewsbury Town competitions. No volunteer came forward and Keith is encouraged to now write to the Shropshire secretaries to ask for volunteers.
8) JC asked PB about his reticence at playing online and KW suggested that she would help PB with some online games with a view to PB playing online in the near future.
DB thanked everybody for their contributions and attendance and the meeting finished at 8.45pm
Dennis Bonner 14/3/21