Minutes from 2005 BGM

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WORLD ENGLISH-LANGUAGE SCRABBLE PLAYERS' ASSOCIATION or WESPA

FIRST BIENNIAL GENERAL MEETING

Held at 7.30 p.m , Thursday 17 th November 2005

Marriott Regent's Park, London NW3

1. Chairman Allan Simmons called the meeting to order at 7.30 p.m. It was noted that the venue had been made available by courtesy of Mattel.
2. Summaries of the WESPA Constitution and the accompanying Schedule 1 referred to therein were distributed to the meeting.
3. Allan Simmons addressed the meeting and then proceeded to take the meeting through the Constitution.
4. Allan Simmons pointed out that the Constitution was a starting point and that it could be amended by the General Meeting as experience was gained.
5. Azu Ogbogu (Nigeria) made the point that the quorum of an officer and three members management committee meetings specified in the Constitution was relatively low. Cheah Siu Hean, Secretary, noted that the necessity to give notice of meetings to all committee members was a check against decisions being taken by small groups.
6. Joel Sherman (United States) asked whether there was any provision for electronic meetings. It was noted that Clause 6.7 of the Constitution contained such a provision.
7. The being no further queries on the Constitution, the Chairman called for a vote. IT WAS RESOLVED that the WESPA Constitution be adopted.
8. Elections were therefore held for the 11 Management Committee places. As only 10 nominations had been submitted by the 1 November 2005 deadline, the candidates were elected unopposed. The 10 members were Allan Simmons (Scotland), Cheah Siu Hean (Singapore), Andrew Fisher (Australia), Roy Kietzman (Bahrain), Chief Toke Aka (Nigeria), Sam Kanthimathi (United States), Joash Manyasa (Kenya), Karen Richards (Australia), Jojo Delia (Malta), Llewellin Jegels (South Africa).
9. Allan Simmon and Cheah Siu Hean had agreed to continue as Chairman and Secretary respectively and Andrew Fisher had accepted the post of Treasurer.
10. Meeting was advised that Amy Byrne (Scotland) had been nominated but that this had been received too late. The Management Committee therefore proposed to invite Amy Byrne to fill the remaining vacancy on the Committee following the General Meeting as provided for in Clause 6.3 of the Constitution.
11. On behalf of WESPA Allan Simmons thanked the retiring committee members for their services.
12. It was also noted that the Indian Scrabble Association had expressed interest in nominating a committee member subsequent to the deadline, but no name as yet had been submitted. It was noted that an Indian nominee could be invited to join the Committee in the event a casual vacancy arose before the next Biennial General Meeting.
13. The meeting then proceeded to discuss Schedule 1 of the Constitution wherein was laid out the membership fees and different membership classes and rights. Allan Simmons advised the meeting that Schedule 1 had been based on an extensive survey of National Associations made by Andrew Fisher.
14. In response a point raised by Anand Buddhev (Netherlands) meeting was advised that Management Committee had on 16th November 2005 decided to amend the original draft of Schedule 1 such that new individual memberships under Class 4 for countries would not be accepted once a National Association had been admitted as a member.
15. It was observed that in the event the National Scrabble Association (of North America ) did not join as a member of WESPA, WESPA would admit individuals and possibly regional and local clubs as members.
16. Stewart Holden (England) asked how WESPA would ensure that its rulings and decrees would be passed along to individuals by National Associations. Meeting was informed that it was a priority to establish a WESPA website, which would be one means of communicating WESPA's decisions. Edward Okulicz (Australia) had accepted appointment as Webmaster.
17. Andrew Fisher clarified that the intent of Schedule 1 was that Class 1 members (large National associations) would have a right to nominate one committee member if they so wished.
18. Chief Toke Aka expressed the view that the membership size of a National Association could be verified by scrutiny of the membership register which was obligatory for any well-run association. It was clarified that the representation of countries on WESPA's membership and management should have no relation whatsoever to representative numbers at the World Scrabble Championship (WSC).
19. Philip Nelkon (Mattel) expressed an unofficial opinion that Mattel intended to retain ownership of the WSC, but could develop a consultative relationship with WESPA in much the same fashion as it had with the Association of British Scrabble Players in regard to the British National Championship.
20. Allan Simmons also noted his hope that WESPA would be able in due course of time to encourage the holding of more regular international events. Jojo Delia ventured his opinion that WESPA's Constitution mean that both WESPA and Mattel had the same goal, namely more people playing Scrabble.
21. Andrew Fisher explained that the cutoff of 350 distinguision Class 1 and Class 2 National Associations had been based on his surveys. The figure was a convenient dividing line between large national associations which generally had far more than 350 members, and smaller associations which generally had considerably less.
22. Shaila Amalean noted that Schedule 1 as written did not specify a minimum membership size for a National Association.
23. IT WAS RESOLVED that Schedule 1 be amended so that a Class 2 member would have a paid-up membership of 350 or less, and not less than 15 members.
24. Andrew Fisher explained that the intent of Schedule 1 was to ensure that even small National Associations should have a say. WESPA was not yet at the point at which a budget could be drawn up. This would have to wait until it was clearer what WESPA's income was.
25. Allan Simmons informed the meeting that it had been decided that when WESPA developed a system of international ratings, these would only be made public for individual members or members.of national associations who were members in good standing.
26. The meeting then voted on the adoption of Schedule 1. IT WAS RESOLVED that Schedule 1 be adopted, with the amendment that national associations should have a minimum membership of 15.
27. Meeting was advised that the Treasurer was now able to accept membership subscriptions.
28. Cheah Siu Hean noted that an association applying for membership should submit a copy of its constitution, addresses, list of principal officers and a copy of the membership register. He would be devising a standard for submitting details.
29. There being no further business, the Chairman declared the meeting closed at 9 p.m.