Minutes of the 2007 OCA Annual Meeting

24 June 2007 at Tulsa Airport Best Western

 

Board Members present:

President Chuck Unruh; VP Jim Bedenbaugh; Treasurer Jim Gray; Secretary Mike Swatek; and Members at Large Robert Phy, Charles M Unruh and Ben Shaffer.

 

52 OCA Members present with voting credentials, including 7 Board Members above.

 

President’s Report – Chuck Unruh

Overview of a successful year for Oklahoma chess.

 

Treasurer’s Report – Jim Gray

See separate reports for 2006 and 2007 1st half.

 

Secretary’s Report -   Mike Swatek

OCA membership at the time of the meeting stands at 212 with: 32 Patrons, 113 Regular and 67 Youth. The OCA held 9 tournaments in the past year.

 

OSCO Report – Dave Nichols

447 players participated in 7 OSCO events in the 2006-7 school year which averaged 197 players. The largest event was the Grade Championship at Ida Freeman with 248 players. Oklahoma was very well represented at USCF National competitions this year. Rachel Farell will represent Oklahoma in the Polgar National Championship and Jacob Berger will represent Oklahoma at the Denker national Championship. OSCO is now able to accept 501(c)(3) tax exempt donations.

 

Affiliate Club Discussion:

Bran Whitcomb shared information about the Oklahoma Chess Union and its formation of a chess league.

Tom Braunlich spoke about the OCF and its innovative events, the most notable of which was the US Championship. The US Women’s’ Championship is soon. Also, the agreement signed by Jim Berry and Chuck Unruh is a milestone for Oklahoma chess.

 

Nominations for OCA Board are Rev. Ed Boyle, Charles M Unruh, Ben Shaffer, Bran Whitcomb and Robert Phy. Each had 2 minutes to state their platform.

 

Credentials report accepted unanimously. See separate report.

 

All other prior reports accepted unanimously.

 

Albert Rine, Tom Braunlich and Bill Molton were designated as the ballot counting committee.

 

Ballots for three Board positions were collected by Bill Molton.

 

The Board members elected were Robert Phy, Charles M Unruh and Rev. Ed Boyle. Election results were:

40 Robert Phy

35 Charles M Unruh

33 Rev. Ed Boyle

13 Bran Whitcomb

8   Ben Shaffer

 

The bylaws proposal for restricting the voting age to 16 and older was moved and seconded. See attached original amendment. Nick Perez spoke in favor of the amendment.

 

Jim Bedenbaugh made a motion to amend the proposal to allow for family memberships as follows:

 

b) or is at least sixteen (16) years of age and is an OCA member under an OCA family membership and at least one family member has a current USCF membership and;

 

This was moved by Jim Bedenbaugh and seconded by Raymond Griffin, followed by discussion at length.

 

An example was for a large family with only one child age 16 and over would have 3 votes, one for the youth and one for each parent/guardian. There would have to be at least one USCF member in the family.

 

The amendment to the original amendment passed with one abstaining and all others in favor. Discussion of the revised amendment followed. Ballots were collected. The amendment proposal passed 38 to 7.

 

The proposal to eliminate the Sundry Bylaw VI.8 was accepted unanimously with a hand vote. The bylaw stated:

VI.8. Review: These Bylaws should be reviewed by 2006 or earlier.

 

Oklahoma resident requirement to vote in the OCA annual meeting was moved, seconded and approved unanimously by hand. See attached original amendment.

 

The proposal increasing the number of signatures required for a bylaws change petition was moved, seconded, discussed and approved unanimously. See attached original amendment.

 

A change in the Bylaws to elect Board members in a parliamentary style was motioned, seconded and discussed at length. The vote result was 17 in favor and 15 opposed with one abstained. The proposal failed for lack of the required 2/3rds majority. See attached original amendment.

 

Meeting adjourned.

 

Minutes recorded by Mike Swatek

 

Email Follow-up votes by the OCA Board

 

As a follow-up to the Annual Meeting's voting age amendment which included a reference to Family Memberships, the following Bylaws amendment was implemented by the OCA Board with a 3/4 majority (6 votes). Those voting in favor were, Jim Bedenbaugh, Mike Swatek, Charles Unruh, Robert Phy, Chuck Unruh and Ed Boyle. Alan Pfeiffer did not vote and Jim Gray voted nay.

Add to III.1 Membership:

·  Family Membership: Any family of parents and their children under age 20 in the household (living at one address) may become a Family Member of the OCA upon payment of $20.00 dues for one year.

This verbiage conforms to that of the USCF Bylaws which can be viewed on page 19 the 2006 USCF Delegates Call at
http://www.uschess.org/org/govern/2006call_inside.pdf

The OCA Board by an email vote approved the following with a majority of the entire Board:
Minutes of the 2007 Annual Meeting and this follow-up;
Verbiage of the Bylaws revised per the 2007 Annual Meeting and Family Membership amendment