COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIAN SCRABBLE PLAYERS’ ASSOCIATIONS
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - MINUTES Friday, 30 March 2018 Bradman Room, Manuka Oval The meeting opened at 1.45p.m. MINUTE TAKER: Carol Johnsen
ATTENDEES: Queensland – Wayne Willis, Martin Waterworth New South Wales – Bob Jackman, Tony Hunt, Richard Birch, Rene Chelton Victoria – Carol Johnsen, Norma Fisher Tasmania – nil. South Australia – Oliver Jenner O’Shea Western Australia – Russell Honeybun A.C.T. – John Hamilton APOLOGIES: Martin Rose (Tasmania), Graham Bell (Western Australia)
MINUTES OF PREVIOUS AGM: MOTION: THAT THE MINUTES OF THE 2017 CASPA AGM BE ACCEPTED. Moved: Russell Honeybun Seconded: John Hamilton CARRIED
BUSINESS ARISING OUT OF MINUTES: see Co-Ordinator’s report.
John Hamilton joined the meeting.
CASPA BOARD NOMINATIONS: Co-Ordinator: Carol Johnsen Editor ATB: Richard Birch Trademark (Mattel) Liaison Officer Carol Johnsen Youth Co-Ordinator: Tony Hunt Treasurer: Rene Chelton Rules Officer: Wayne Willis Ratings Officer: Martin Waterworth Web Coordinator: Martin Waterworth Records Officer: Martin Waterworth Ex-officio Schools Program Co-Ordinator: Glenys Lawrie (2017) The meeting revoked this position.
MOTION: THAT THE CASPA BOARD NOMINEES BE ELECTED UNOPPOSED. Moved: John Hamilton Seconded: Tony Hunt CARRIED
OFFICER REPORTS: Co-Ordinator – Carol Johnsen – report tabled Discussion ensued on the problems encountered with establishing two or more signatories on the CASPA bank accounts as banks usually require the signatory to turn up at the bank which was difficult when they would usually be in different States.
The reference to Jakob Teitelbaum was no longer a problem as his appearance in the 2018 Nationals was ensuring that he fulfilled the 60 games criteria.
MOTION: THAT THE CO-ORDINATOR’S REPORT BE RECEIVED. Moved: John Hamilton Seconded: Wayne Willis CARRIED
Editor - Across the Board – Richard Birch – tabled. Richard further emphasised the need for regular CASPA Board input and that it was not his job to chase it up. It needed more regular features, including Letters to the Editor. Russell Honeybun offered to do 2 years’ worth of the 20-word quiz and Oliver Jenner-O’Shea would do the writeup on Malta 2018. The meeting commended Richard on his good work as ATB Editor. MOTION: THAT THE EDITOR OF Across the Board Editor’s REPORT BE RECEIVED. Moved: Martin Waterworth Seconded: Rene Chelton CARRIED
Trademark (Mattel) Liaison Officer: Carol Johnsen advised that the dialogue between Mattel Australia and CASPA was fading as the company was purely a distribution company for Australasia as was noted by Scrabble’s standing in the hierarchy – located under boys’ toys. The advertising campaign last September launched by Jetstar in conjunction with Mattel was briefly reported in the media and was to launch the “Aussie” version of Scrabble. Their contact with CASPA was woeful, too late and badly co-ordinated. The publicity around Mind Sports Inc going into liquidation was misleading, particularly that the founder had actually probably put around $250,000 into the association, not that he had appropriated. Its subsidiary Mind Sports Association was still running its “World Championship” event in August in London with Mattel sponsorship.
Treasurer - Rene Chelton – tabled report, including Summary of Income & Expenditure, Detailed Monthly listing of Income & Expenditure; Summary of State Levies paid; and History of Financial Budgets and Actual Income 2016-2018. Rene Chelton requested that the 3 States (South Australia, Tasmania and A.C.T.) which still sent in payments by cheque change over to direct bank transfers. Carol Johnsen to write to these States requesting same. Rene had audited ATB distribution against membership numbers and discovered discrepancies. It was important for ATB to be informed regularly of the correct membership numbers as it affected printing costs. The ratings levies had been reasonably regular with South Australia being the “cash cow”. The CASPA Presidents and Board would look at the budget presented today and finalise within the next 2 months. MOTION: THAT THE TREASURER’S REPORT BE RECEIVED. Moved: Tony Hunt Seconded: Richard Birch CARRIED
Records Officer, Ratings Officer & Web Coordinator - Martin Waterworth – report tabled. MOTION: THAT THE RECORDS OFFICER’S REPORT BE RECEIVED. Moved: Oliver Jenner-O’Shea Seconded: John Hamilton CARRIED
Martin Waterworth stressed the importance of States informing him of the nominated State of players for ratings. In reply to a question of whether it was possible to receive statistics of new players; males to females, etc. – Martin replied that it was difficult, however he guessed that there had been 15 and 20 new players in the last year and gender was not recorded in the data. MOTION: THAT THE RATINGS OFFICER’S REPORT BE RECEIVED. Moved: John Hamilton Seconded: Wayne Willis CARRIED
Martin was asked to provide access to members who had offered to administer various parts of the website – e.g. Carol Johnsen to do the CASPA contacts, minutes, motions part; Adam Kretschmer had offered to handle photos. Martin would seek advice from Edward Okulicz as there was a limit on the number of “administrators” accounts. It was also pointed out that the website needed to be up-dated urgently. The reference to Mattel/Hasbro at the foot of the home page was still correct. Hasbro in USA had not succeeded in buying out Mattel. Martin advised that he would tackle the problem of the head-to-head not linking. The problem appeared when there were hyphens or the names were too long. There was also a problem with the National and State headings appearing broken in the working version which will need to be rectified. Another problem is depending on which link you click on may go to an old archives file which may not show the correct ratings. Leaving the @ signs in the .TOU program sometimes changes the archives. MOTION: THAT THE WEBSITE OFFICER’S REPORT BE RECEIVED. Moved: Oliver Jenner-O’Shea Seconded: Russell Honeybun CARRIED
Rules Officer – Wayne Willis : Wayne apologised for no written report as his computer died and emails were lost over years. Playing a Blank had been the only rule change. He replied to questioning about if a word was wrong with a blank in it – that it just needed to be rerecorded somewhere on the result slip. He reported that he received emails from tournament players questioning a Tournament Director’s ruling which turned out to be completely wrong. Wayne stressed that Tournament Directors must be in possession of the latest rules when going to a table to adjudicate. As the ACT does not have a Rules Officer, most likely it is a role that the President takes on. MOTION: THAT THE RULES OFFICER’S REPORT BE RECEIVED. Moved: Rene Chelton Seconded: Oliver Jenner-O’Shea CARRIED
Youth coordinator’s report – Tony Hunt – report tabled. Tony advised that he was becoming very disheartened because of the apparent lack of support for youth Scrabble in Australia. However, the meeting pointed out to him that the countries which were growing and very successful with youth Scrabble were those where English was a second language. It was advantageous for the Governments and schools to be supportive of a “sport” which emphasised the English language. He was hopeful of a strategy emanating from the youth meeting being held after the AGM. It was apparent that the school curriculum which had been formulated by W.A. was not successful. Bob Jackman offered to give Tony Hunt the phone numbers of school contacts in NSW. The meeting discussed technology vs face-to-face play and declared that it was difficult to know which way to go.
MOTION: THAT THE YOUTH CO-ORDINATOR’S REPORT BE RECEIVED.
Moved: Carol Johnsen Seconded: John Hamilton CARRIED
OTHER BUSINESS:
Host States for – Australian Championships 2019 Tasmania 2020 Queensland 2021 New South Wales 2022 Victoria 2023 Western Australia 2024 South Australia 2025 Australian Capital Territory
Masters/State Team Challenge
2018 Queensland 2019 Australian Capital Territory 2020 New South Wales 2021 Victoria
Trans Tasman
2020 Australian Capital Territory 2022 New Zealand
Compensation for National Ratings Officer
MOTION THAT THE RATINGS OFFICER / WEBMASTER IS REMUNERATED FOR THEIR WORK. Moved: Bob Jackman Seconded: Russell Honeybun CARRIED N.B. Tasmania – proxy vote in favour
Bob Jackman supported compensation for the NRO based upon:
MOTION: THAT THE REMUNERATION FOR THE RATINGS OFFICER / ARCHIVES / TOURNAMENT CALENDAR ADMINISTRATOR BE PAID MONTHLY OUT OF CASPA FUNDS AND THIS TO COMMENCE FROM 8 APRIL 2018. MOVED: Carol Johnsen SECONDED: Martin Waterworth CARRIED
CASPA would revisit the decision at the 2019 AGM.
Tony Hunt left the meeting.
Clash of tournaments with State Championships MOTION: THAT STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE STAND-ALONE DATES. HOWEVER, W.A. AND TASMANIA MAY HAVE TOURNAMENTS AT THE SAME TIME. EXCEPTIONS FROM ANY OTHER STATE SHOULD SEEK THE APPROVAL OF THE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP AT THE TIME.
MOVED: Oliver Jenner-O’Shea SECONDED: Carol Johnsen LOST
Discussion ensued on the effects of the changing date of the Nationals affecting calendars and length of travel, e.g. Queensland to SA or WA; Tasmania to far-away States. Most State Championships had fixed events: Victoria – Queens Birthday (2nd Monday in June); NSW- October (Labour Day – 1st weekend in October); SA – March (Labour Day – 2nd Monday in March); Qld – last weekend in August; ACT – 2nd week in November. The meeting agreed that State Championship dates be respectfully regarded.
Alchemist Cup The meeting agreed that CASPA should write to Michael Tang to confirm that the selection criteria for the 5 Australian representatives will be acknowledged and accepted to participate. The meeting agreed that there be no CASPA funding for the Alchemist Cup representatives.
Rolling criteria for selection Oliver Jenner-O’shea and Adam Kretschmer will provide a submission to CASPA for discussion on rolling criteria.
Trans-Tasman The meeting agreed that there be no CASPA funding for Trans-Tasman representatives. Australian representatives’ “uniform” – The meeting agreed that provision of a “uniform” piece/s of clothing was not viable.
Updating of State websites Each State needed to ensure that their own State websites were up-to-date and relevant.
CLOSE: 4.35p.m.