Braille Chess Association (B.C.A.)
Chairman, Alec Crombie
The Chairman of the B.C.A. is first and foremost the guardian of the
Association's constitution. As such, it is helpful, although not of course
essential, to have a legal training.
It is especially important to be able to interpret the Constitution in
Annual General Meeting. To chair this meeting is the next priority task of
the Chairman.
The Chairman's most intensive job is to chair meetings of the B.C.A. Committee.
Held 3 times a year, these always last for five hours. The Chairman must
dominate the meeting without dominating the discussion.
Hopefully with the support of his Honorary Officers the Chairman may be
expected to give a lead in all matters of strategy, and should also be
prominent in a public relations role for example to host guests of the
Association.
Last but not least, the Chairman is responsible for devising and signing off
the Annual Report and the Business Plan.
Braille Chess Association (B.C.A.)
Secretary, Normal Wragg
As Secretary, I am the first point of contact for the Association and the person responsible for driving it forward on a day to day basis. The main duties are outlined below.
1. Dealing with enquiries and information requests from within the B.C.A. and outside on a wide variety of topics.
2. Producing agendas and minutes for the AGM and the three committee meetings held each year, contributing to the discussion and decision making at such meetings and ensuring that all agreed actions are carried out.
3. Acting as the interface with the International Braille Chess Association (I.B.C.A.) and making the arrangements for B.C.A. teams and individuals to play in I.B.C.A. events.
4. Providing help and support for the B.C.A. fundraiser: this includes providing input to sponsorship bids, preparing budget statements for international events, and producing short reports on how funds have been spent.
5. Liaising with the B.C.A. treasurer on a variety of financial issues including countersigning cheques raised by the treasurer.
6. Producing and updating entries about the B.C.A. in a variety of directories and databases.
7. Keeping members in touch with developments by producing articles for the Gazette.
8. Providing input to the preparation of the B.C.A. Annual Report and the three year Business Plan.
I also participate in specific projects where necessary. At present I am the secretary of a small Coordinating Committee responsible for planning the I.B.C.A. European Individual Chess Championship to be held at St Aidan’s College, Durham, in August 2007.
Norman Wragg,
May 2006
Braille Chess Association (B.C.A.)
Publicity Officer Stan Lovell
Braille Chess Association (B.C.A.)
Postal Tournament Director, Mark Hague
Main Duties
Pre Tournament Preparation
- Collate list of competitors for postal tournaments.
- Select groupings according to promotion/relegation ensuring that there are sufficient players in each group to make the group viable.
- Recruit group controllers.
- Nominate group controllers for each group.
- For each group send out a list of members for controllers to draw up fixture lists.
Tournament Management
- Manage contestant disputes that have not been resolved by group controllers and take appropriate action when required.
- Re-establish contact between contestants and controllers where controllers have been unable to achieve this.
- Manage the adjudication of a game when this is required to determine the result of a game where the board position needs analysis.
- Handle disqualification of contestants.
- Manage absence due to illness etc.
Reporting
- Record all results scent by group controllers.
- Collate current group scoring positions.
- Check for any errors/inconsistencies in reported results and contact controllers/contestants to resolve any issues arising.
- Send report to Gazette prior to publication giving new results and current scoring positions etc.
- Encourage BCA members to join the Postal Tournaments.
Braille Chess Association (B.C.A.)
Gazette Editor role, Guy Whitehouse
Here is a brief description to the duties performed by the B.C.A. Gazette editor.
- Each gazette needs to have certain sections; the front pages should contain the title, editor's contact details, the names and contact details of the committee and also of the friendly games coordinator and periodicals distributor. There needs to be a disclaimer to the effect that views expressed in the gazette do not necessarily reflect those of the BCA or those of the editor. The editor has the right to edit articles for reasons of style, space and for legal/diplomatic reasons (e.g. to avoid libel).
- The editorial should acknowledge any contributions towards the cost of production. If any particular contributions need to be mentioned, the fundraiser will let the editor know.
- Typically there will also be a forthcoming events section, reports from various officers such as the tournament director and membership secretary and so on. It is a good idea to organise these reports by theme: forthcoming events should appear first, then administrative reports, then reports on tournaments or events, then other contributions. Contributions should have the name of the author after them.
- It is a good idea to ask people to prepare a report on a tournament before they go to a tournament so that they can make any particular notes they feel would be good in a report.