The Annual Meeting was held on March 11, 2008 at 6:00 PM immediately prior to the regularly scheduled club meeting night. Twelve members showed up (not including several late stragglers) to participate.

The first order of business was the presentation of the Treasurer's report by Roy Jones. Roy provided an income and expense statement that included a pie chart that clearly showed the major and minor expenses incurred to run the club. Interested members can obtain a copy of the treasurer report by asking one of the club officers.

Three proposed changes to the club bylaws were then presented to the membership. The first proposal concerned Article 5 and added the position of vice president to the club officers. The second proposal, also concerning Article 5 specified that officers will be elected by a majority of members present at the annual club meeting and will include absent members who have submitted their votes via a ballot form which is submitted to the club officers. The final proposed change was to Article 7 (Ratification and Amendments). This proposal added the proviso that the two-thirds majority required to change the bylaws also allows absentee voting by a ballot from members who cannot attend the annual meeting. All three changes to the bylaws were passed. The revised Club Bylaws should be posted on the website shortly.

A proposal submitted by Ben Bentrup was then brought to the floor. It addressed the problem that has occurred a few times in the past when someone shows up to play in the monthly tournament, but happens to be the bye player when an odd number of players are present. The suggested policy was to provide the individual with the standard one full point bye for that round and then omit the next round entry fee as compensation for the inconvenience of not being able to play. The members passed this policy.

The final order of business was the elections for club officers. For the first time since the Cranston-Warwick Chess club was established, a contested election was at stake. Roy Jones was running for president against the current club president, Frank Vogel. John Magill ran uncontested for the Vice President position. The election was held by ballot and the results were that Frank Vogel will remain as the President and that John Magill is the Vice President. The club membership thanks Roy Jones for his dedicated service as club treasurer.

Frank Vogel

"One of the greatest threats to a democratic organization is for the members to become apathetic and let a small group of the membership do all the work This creates divisions and promotes authoritarianism." -- Robert 's Rules of Order