Changes at the Top

A message from your new President:

WDCL held its annual AGM at the Wolverhampton Club on May 21st 2015.

Catherine Hiley (Rugeley) completed her two year term as President and stood down from office.
David Fone (Lichfield) was elected to be President for the next two years, and Matthew Carr (Rugeley) was elected to replace David Fone as Deputy President again for the next two years.
The meeting passed a vote of thanks to Catherine for all the time she has spent supporting the league in the last 4 years. As a busy young mother she has willingly given her precious time to help the administration of our league.

For those who don’t know me, I’ve played chess for Lichfield for over 40 years and first played in WDCL in the early 70’s. Having retired 2 years ago, I responded to the request from WDCL for a Deputy President so that I could give something back to the league.
Among those who have given so much to WDCL is our secretary Mike Groombridge. Mike announced that he will be standing down from this office at the 2016 AGM after 18 years of being the focal point of the administration. Clearly we will miss Mike enormously and we need to start looking for a successor now.
Please can I ask you all to consider putting yourself forward for this important post. Also, please make it known to all your club members that WDCL will need a new secretary wef May 2016.
The AGM also voted to change the default time for games to 30 moves in 75mins with a 15 minute quick play finish, moving away from the 30 moves in 65mins adopted last season and found to be too quick for most players. See details of this and other changes in the new Handbook which will be issues later in the summer.
Dave Scriven, our records secretary, has formulated the composition of the divisions for next season and confirmed that the fixtures meeting will be on Tues June 23rd @ Mercia 7.30 p.m. Please remember that all clubs need to send a representative to this meeting.

Just let me highlight once again that the search is on for a new secretary. Please consider if you can support the league by taking on this role, and pass the word to all your club members.
Looking forward to another enjoyable season.

Kind regards

David Fone (President)