2018 AGA AGM

Minutes of the 2018 Annual General Meeting of the Australian Go Association Inc.

Note: these are the draft minutes of the meeting. If you attended the meeting and find an error please email Secretary@AustralianGo.asn.au

The Annual General Meeting of the Australian Go Association commenced at 12:28pm on Saturday 8th December 2018 in Room 3.59, G11 Learning Commons building at Griffith University, Parklands Dr, Southport QLD 4215.

The meeting was chaired by David Mitchell, Secretary General of the AGA who also took the minutes.

Printed copies of the agenda and all written reports were distributed to all at the meeting.

Note: The AGA Constitution allows members to nominate a person as their proxy – no applications were received and no proxy votes were cast.

 Item 1 – Apologies

Dr Anthony Purcell, James Kaaden and Matthew Crossman registered their apologies.

 Item 2 – Minutes of the previous meetings

The minutes of the previous AGM were read and there were no changes. David Mitchell proposed the documents be accepted as a true record, Mark Bell seconded the motion which was passed unopposed.

 Item 3 – Officer reports

President’s report from Raphael Shin.

The Australian Go Congress was a great success this year thanks to the hard work of David, Younggil and Neville. The Congress has been held in September for the past couple of years but the number of overseas visitors is not high.  The next Congress will move to the beginning of the year, probably February.  The move will help get Chinese and Korean players to attend the Congress because it is their winter and our summer. We cannot do this for 2019, there is not enough time so we will hold the next Congress in February 2020.  We will also have a larger management team to spread the workload.

Vice-President’s report from Neville Smythe.

I’m vice-President of the AGA but my report is really about my role with the International Go Federation (IGF).  The IGF had a very successful year with lots and lots of new tournament appearing.  I want to bring to your attention the Pair Go competition, we are regularly invited but we have great difficulty finding female players. I urge everybody to encourage female players to join your club and they could get a trip to Japan to play Pair Go which is always a lot of fun.

The main impetus of the IGF for the last couple of years has been to try and join the Olympic movement. To that end the International tournaments have drug testing which seems a bit silly for Go but nevertheless is something that is required for all Olympic sports.  Previous Olympic committees have been against mind-sports being part of the Olympic movement but the current president is very much more amenable. So, things are looking possible that Go could become and Olympic sport and if it does happen it will be really good because Olympic sports automatically get money from the Government. Unfortunately, the one country that is against the Olympics being anything other than physical sports is the Australian Olympic Committee but if we are recognised by the International Olympic Committee their position may change.  If that happens, we are in a position to receive funds as we are now an Incorporated body.

Secretary-General’s report from David Mitchell.

David’s report was distributed with the agenda. David did mention a few key things, the first being the March EGM which Incorporated the AGA with a new Constitution.  This means the AGA is a legal entity and can apply for and receiving funds from government and commercial organizations.  Incorporation is one step, we need to work, prepare applications and proposals that meet the donor’s needs as well as our own.

We have also taken steps to deliver things to clubs.  Apart from supplying new clubs with books, sets and in one case some Go clocks we are also arranging teleconference lessons from Younggil.  There have been two this year, one for Perth the other for the Gold Coast.  The video lessons are recorded and are published so all AGA members can benefit from the process.  The aim is to help players improve their skill, especially beginners and kyu players.

In the 2018 survey people mentioned a lack of tournaments.  A key issue with tournaments is equipment, particularly clocks which are around US$130 each.  To address this Raphael’s team in Korea have developed a Go Clock app that runs on Samsung smart phones (Galaxy S5 or newer). This will be made available to tournament organizers in 2019 – if you are interested, please email Secretary@AustralianGo.asn.au.

Treasurer’s report from James Kaaden

During 2018 Horatio Davis resigned as Treasurer and Web Master.  Horatio has done a lot of work for the AGA and Queensland Go over many years, the committee have thanked him, we’ve written him a letter but I would also like to ask him to come to the front now so we can all express our appreciation of his efforts. (much applause).  Well done and thank you for your dedication and commitment.

The committee elected James Kaaden from Melbourne as Treasurer and he’s prepared the financial reports which were distributed with the minutes as well as in the pack.  David Mitchell asked for question or any matters from the financial statements but there were none.

David Mitchell proposed the meeting accept the financial reports, seconded by Mark Bell.  The meeting passed the proposal unopposed.

Item 4 – Election of Office Bearers & Committee members

The meeting passed Mark Bell’s motion of thanks to the current officers and committee members – Raphael Shin, Neville Smythe, James Kaaden, David Mitchell, Matthew Crossman, Allan Hunt, Erli Qiu An Younggil and Daniel Li – for their work during the previous year.

Election of President – David Mitchell proposed Raphael Shin, seconded by Neville Smythe.  There was a call for other nominations but there were none.  There being no other candidates Raphael was re-elected unopposed.

Election of Vice-President – David Mitchell proposed Neville Smythe, seconded by Daniel Li. There was a call for other nominations but there were none.  There being no other candidates Neville was re-elected unopposed.

David Mitchell stood down as chair of the meeting – Neville Smythe took the chair.

Election of Secretary-General – Neville Smythe proposed David Mitchell, seconded Allan Hunt. There was a call for other nominations but there were none.  There being no other candidates David was re-elected unopposed.

David Mitchell resumed as chair of the meeting.

Election of Treasurer – David Mitchell proposed James Kaaden, seconded, Neville Smythe. There was a call for other nominations but there were none.  There being no other candidates James was re-elected unopposed.

Election of Membership Registrar

Allan Hunt asked for an outline of the duties of the role.  David Mitchell explained that the membership registrar is responsible for maintaining the membership records, sending welcome emails, notices and reminders when memberships expire.

Neville Smythe proposed Tony Purcell who has already agreed to stand for the role. Michael Hyde seconded the proposal.  There being no other candidates Tony was elected unopposed.

Election of the National Coach

Neville Smythe proposed An Younggil 8P, seconded by Allan Hunt. There was a call for other nominations but there were none.  There being no other candidates Younggil was re-elected unopposed.

Elections of Ordinary Committee Members

The Constitution allows for three ordinary committee members.  David Mitchell described the roles of the existing committee members:

• Allan Hunt who ran the 2017 & 2018 Australian Surveys;
• Daniel Li who is the student liaison officers and is organizing the 2019 Ing Foundation Collegiate WeiQi tournament at Sydney University with over 120 students from around the world.
• Matthew Crossman who has taken on the role of Web Master
• Erli Qiu has done a lot of work in Queensland, who organized the Go Festival in Sydney with around 600 people attending. Erli is also the liaison officer for the selection of players for international tournaments, particularly Chinese tournaments including the China City Tournament.

The meeting was asked for nominations to fill the three places. There were four nominations,

• Daniel Li, proposed by David Mitchell, seconded by Horatio Davis
• Allan Hunt, proposed by Neville Smythe, seconded by Horatio Davis,
• Erli Qiu, proposed by David Mitchell, seconded by Allan Hunt
• Cary Jin, proposed by Billy Sun, seconded by Michael Hyde

David Mitchell explained that being on the committee was not a pre-requisite for doing things to help Go and the Australian Go Association.  For example, during the year Dr Anthony Purcell assisted greatly with the creation of the AGA Incorporated Constitution; Brenton Williams has singlehandedly resurrected Go in Adelaide and ran the 2018 South Australian State Championship, the first time in many years. Keith Trevett from Port Macquarie is planning to run a Go Camp in the second half of 2019.  So even if you are not on the committee you can still do things.

With 4 candidates for 3 places a vote was required.  Horatio Davis and Michael Hyde were appointed scrutineers for the vote.  Voting was as follows: Daniel Li, 18 votes; Allan Hunt, 19 votes; Erli Qiu 21 votes; Cary Jin 15 votes.  Daniel, Allan and Erli were duly elected.

Neville Smythe pointed out there is a very big need for the AGA to get involved with the University world and that Cary and Daniel should form a sub-committee to assist improve communications and activities between University clubs.

Item 5 – location of 2019 Nationals, appointment of Tournament Director

The next National Championships and AGM will be held in Melbourne with Billy Sun as Tournament Director.

Item 6 – Any other business

Mark Bell commented that the AGA has adopted a much more professional approach and was encouraged by this.

There was discussion about the state of Go in Australia in particular teaching children, getting access to school and the gender imbalance.  Nobody has a magic solution, but all members were encouraged to get as many people playing as possible.

The biggest problem faced by the AGA is finding people who are willing to do things; teach others, organize clubs or tournaments. All members are encouraged to think about what they can do and if the need is equipment or books, please e-mail the Secretary@AustralianGo.asn.au

There being no additional matters David Mitchell declared the meeting closed at 1:06pm. 

List of members present