Election Update:: Incumbents stay in!

On the 24th of November the nation went to the polls to vote for the person who they believe would serve them best as Prime Minister of Australia. Chess Players had to vote and then go to the NSW Lightning and or the NSWCA AGM.... If they cared. The Incumbents were largely voted in to their positions again with a few shuffling around in the back benches.

Brett Tindal moves from Tournaments Officer to Member without portfolio, Shane Burgess fills Brett's spot as Tournaments officer after a year's stint as Clubs Liason Officer. After a year and a half I decided to come back on to council. I was voted in as Clubs Liason Officer. Peter Parr took over the vacant Publicity Officer role and Martin Van Elmpt replaced Rick Keuning as Webmaster.

It was also decided to increase the membership fee to $30 and to charge a non voting rights fee of $10 if a player wishes to play rated games. A tournament will not be rated unless all players have paid this membership. The Country Membership remains at $10.

In relation to the compulsory membership to get a players games rated, I had an interesting conversation with Mr Gary Losh and he was concerned about the extra $10 that must be paid/player if games are to be rated. His arguement was that the Club affiliation fee was supposed to cover advertisment of their tournaments and the rating of these tournaments. I argued that Individuals are members of the NSWCA and thus the individual players should pay for having their games rated. At the end we agreed to disagree. He felt that the additional $10 per person may have detrimental effects on small tournaments like Laurieton. We will see if this is founded or not next year.