[Newsletter] BGA AGM 2026 – AGENDA

[Jil Segerman]

Here is the Agenda for the BGA AGM to be held on Thursday 28 May at 20:00
by Zoom. The Agenda, and associated papers, will also be published at
www.britgo.org/history/accounts.



*BGA AGM 2026 – AGENDA*

Date: 28th May 2025 Time: 20:00

Chair: Toby Manning.   Held by ZOOM video meeting
1. Apologies for absence2. Announcement of Proxies3. Minutes of 2025 AGM
and Matters arisingSee
https://www.britgo.org/files/board/minutes/20250522AGMMinutes.pdf4.
Approval of 2025 Accounts5. Dispensation with audit and appointment of
Examiner

The Board proposes the following motion:

*Motion 1*

Noting that in the financial year ending 31 December 2025 the Company is
expected to have a turnover of less than £1M and a Balance Sheet of less
than £1.4M, and therefore that the company will be entitled to exemption
from audit under section 477 (2) of the Companies Act 2006, the members
hereby resolve that:

 “The company is not required to obtain an audit of its accounts for the
year in question in accordance with section 476 of the Companies Act 2006.

 The company will have the Accounts examined by an Examiner, in accordance
with Byelaw #1 (https://www.britgo.org/byelaws)

 The Examiner shall be Richard Wheeldon”
6. Annual Report7. Election of Officers

There being no other candidates, to Note that:

The President is Toby Manning

The Treasurer is Phil Beck

The Secretary is James Pickering
8. Election of other Directors

To elect Andrew Ambrose-Thurman as a Director

 To elect Ai Guan as a Director

To elect Robert Scantlebury as a Director

To elect Ho (Damen) Woo as a Director
9. Election of the Disputes Panel

The candidates are:

Mohammed Amin

Alison Bexfield

Jon Diamond

Alex Rix

Francis Roads
10. Members Resolutions

 *Resolution 2* – Proposed by Alex Rix, seconded by Harry Fearnley
"We call on the BGA to request the EGF to suspend Israel as a member of
the EGF pending a two-state solution to the issue of Israel and Palestine."

  The proposers have issued the following supporting statement:

“Whilst a peace process for Gaza is apparently in progress, the details are

sketchy - it appears it's difficult to obtain troops to govern Gaza
(Indonesia

may provide some), but the details of how Gaza will be governed by people

other than Hamas, and how Gaza will be reconstructed is unclear. You suspect

Israel (and the current US administration) would rather like the Palestinian

people to go somewhere else in the Arab world. Also, they continue to exist

on starvation rations, with the flow of aid severely restricted and amongst

piles of rubble.



Further, settler violence and the number of settlements in the West Bank

escalates and the Israeli government has recently made it easier for
Israelis to

buy Palestinian land. Israel wants the "facts on the ground" to rule out a

viable Palestinian state and the IDF no longer intervenes to protect the

Palestinian people from settlers.”

 The Board has made the following statement in response:

 "The Board believes that in the absence of a wide-based call for a
sporting boycott from international governments, or the Olympic Committee,
the circumstances and time are not right for the BGA to make such a
petition".
11. Update on hosting the 2028 European Congress

The EGC Planning Committee has put forward the following motion:

*Motion 3.*

*Noting that:*

·         At the 2025 AGM, the Board presented proposals for hosting the
European Go Congress at Stirling in 2028

·         The Board has appointed a Planning Committee to further
investigate the feasibility of so doing

·         The Planning Committee has concluded that it is feasible to host
the event but the finances are challenging

·         The Planning Committee has adopted the following strategic
principles:

 *Strategic Principles: *

Hosting a European Go Congress is an expensive undertaking. We currently
expect Stirling in 2028 to cost in the region of £150,000. Whilst we can
have a reasonable idea of the costs involved in advance, it is harder to
predict the income it will generate.

The income is primarily from entry fees, and it is not clear how the
attendance at recent Congresses will compare to one held in the UK. This
will in part depend on the entry fees we charge.

Given the above the EGC Planning Committee, in conjunction with the BGA,
has adopted an approach which we feel is both realistic, and risk-averse.
In particular:

·         A separate limited company has been created, EGC2028 Ltd, as a
subsidiary of the BGA. It will operate its own set of accounts and
corporation (and possibly VAT) tax returns. This will limit the financial
exposure of the BGA in the event of any late breaking events forcing the
cancellation of the event.

·         We plan to create a very clear agreement between EGC2028 and the
EGF covering our respective roles and responsibilities, including financial
commitments.

·         No expenditure, other than administration costs, will be
committed until we formally win the bid at the EGF AGM.

·        We have produced, and will continue to refine, a detailed income
and cost model to allow us to see the effects of differing entry pricing,
and attendance numbers. At the moment this contains a large number of
assumptions, and we will continue to work to clarify areas of uncertainty.

·         Even if we win the bid we may still pull out from hosting it if
we feel the financial risk is too great. Obviously the later we pull out
the greater the reputational damage to the BGA, but it is an option we will
not close down.

·      Once we have won the bid we will be actively looking for sponsorship
for the event. However until we have it confirmed we will not include any
sponsorship income in our financial model.

 *BGA Financial Commitment: *

*The BGA Board will provide £20,000 of funding for the congress.* This will
come from BGA reserves, which currently amount to around £50,000, and are
far in excess of the BGA’s day-to-day requirements. These reserves include
the amount received in 2023 from the T Mark Hall Foundation (£13k), and the
Board feels it would be a use of funds that T Mark would have been happy
with. It will be given to EGC2028 as early as possible to assist with its
cash-flow.

We plan for the event to break-even (after the £20k funding), but any
surplus/deficit may need to be covered by the BGA. In particular any
sponsorship or donations, which are not currently included in the budget,
should allow part or all of this money to be repaid.

If at any point EGC2028 requires a greater financial input from the BGA
then it will have to raise a further request which will be considered by
the BGA Board.

*Resolution*

BGA Members are asked to support this statement.

****End****

-- 
Toby Manning
President, British Go Association
01530 245298 (best)
07798 825299
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.britgo.org/pipermail/newsletter/attachments/20260430/7999b5fe/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: JF05aGxeqPsoMXrc.png
Type: image/png
Size: 21490 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.britgo.org/pipermail/newsletter/attachments/20260430/7999b5fe/attachment-0001.png>