AGM Report

The short Annual General Meeting of the British Go Association was held at 20:00 on the Saturday evening of the British Go Congress in Cambridge.

The President, Roger Huyshe, chaired the meeting and, in his report, thanked Paul Barnard and John Collins who had stepped down from the roles of Membership Secretary and Online Committee Chairman, both after several years. He also stated that player development had taken a backseat due to DeepMind’s AlphaGo matches, but this year training sessions were being planned for the autumn.

The membership accepted his and the other officers' reports (including that of new Membership Secretary Chris Kirkham) and on the recommendation of the auditor, Pat Ridley, approved the accounts for 2016. These showed a surplus thanks to DeepMind sponsorship and the omission of a strong player training day.

The Council were re-elected with Richard Wheeldon replacing John Collins. Expressions of interest were invited to fill vacancies on Council and elsewhere.

The Annual Awards were given as follows:

Recruiter: Richard Mullens for steady work encouraging London's Orientals to join BGA events, with visible results

Player: Jenny Rofe-Radcliffe for devoting the last four days of each year to handling the draw and results for the London Open Go Congress and its many side-events (on nigiri from Alison Bexfield)

President's Award: Paul Barnard for a lot of hard work behind the scenes

Just before the BGA meeting, at the T Mark Hall Foundation AGM it was reported that the foundation had supported a kick-starter campaign for a games cafe in Liverpool, that the library was currently with Barry Chandler in Shropshire and that there will be a meeting at the end of April, with various interested parties, to discuss setting up a mind sports centre in London.