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Steering Committee members: Permanent Members: chesskix, DaveTheRook (chair), rgadoury, SandiaCaveMan, SeniorCitizen. General Members: bmw2002, Bosqueverde, Gomer, grabapawn, Kingofknights, twinders.

Standing Subcommittee (Rules): bmw2002, chesskix, Kingofknights, rgadoury (chair), twinders

Item 1.a. ICC Tournament T26 parameters-
Time Control: 45 45
Sections: 5 (U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1300)
Rounds: 6 - (possibly 7) followed by Playoffs
Team entries accepted: February 22 to March 8, 2005
Team Entry Deadline: March 8, 2005
Ratings "fixed" starting February 22.
Round 1 Posted: 10 pm Server time March 15, 2005
Approved 9-0

Item 1.b. FICS Tournament parameters-
Time Control: 45 45
Sections: 5 (U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400)
Rounds: 6 - (possibly 7) followed by Playoffs
Team entries accepted: February 22 to March 8, 2005
Team Entry Deadline: March 8, 2005
Ratings "fixed" starting February 22.
Round 1 Posted: 7 pm Server time March 15, 2005
Approved 9-0

Item 2. Addition to Statute: Section 3.A.vi: Limitations (a) Probationary period. New players may play on and be captain of no more than one team in their first tournament. Players returning at the end of a suspension may only play on, and be assistant captain of, one team. (b) Restrictions. There are no further restrictions upon new or returning players who successfully complete the tournament with no yellow cards. The same restrictions as in (a) will remain in effect in the following tournament if they should earn a yellow card. Approved 9-0

Item 3 Amendment to the Constitution. Revise the first sentence of the second paragraph of Article VII to read The Constitution shall only be amended or changed by a the agreement of seventy-five (75) percent of the permanent members of the Steering Committee and a majority of the entire Steering Committee. Submitted by Permanent Members. Approved 9-2, Permanent Members 5-0.

Item 4. Statute Change. Add Section 15.D. Decisions regarding rulings in a game may be appealed by the two teams directly involved. Third Party appeals by teams in the same division are permitted, but only on the "ruled" outcome of the game. Approved 7-4.

Item 5. Statute Change. Add to Section 8, paragraph C "Once publicly posted, the pairings should not be changed." Remove Section 9.E. It is overly burdensome, and with current programming the intermediate steps are no longer necessary. Approved 11-0

Item 6. Statute Addition. Section 10.H. "Draws offered/accepted in game forum shall have the same validity as during a game." There is no rule that I can find requiring it, but policy has become for the DTD to require confirmation from both captains. The burden of obtaining team/captain approval should rest with the player before making an offer, not upon the DTD. Draw offers could be rescinded until accepted. Draw acceptance should be binding and not retractable. Submitted by Claymil. Not Approved, 8-3

Item 7. Statute Change: Remove the second sentence of Section 4.C.ii which reads, Tournament Section the team wishes to compete in, if qualified. A team may play "up" a section, but never "down" a section It would then read "Tournament Section the team wishes to compete in, if qualified." This would keep all team averages within the Section range and prevent weak teams from diminishing the overall competiton. To be applied in T27. Approved 9-0.

Item 8. Addition: Section 17.A.ii now reads: "A player is issued a Double Red Card and lifetime ban for known cheating. All scores received by the cheating player for the tournament are set to zero and forfeit wins granted all their opponents." Add to it, " We are unable to correct playoff matches that were already paired and played."  Approved 11-0

Item 9. Shall the method of conducting a position round in 6-team divisions be changed.

Referred to Subcommittee for recommendations.

It is the recommendation of the Rules Subcommittee that the method remain unchanged. 1st place plays 2nd place, 3rd place plays 4th place, 5th place plays 6th place (or bye), as being in the best spirit of competition and least disruptive of the establishment of playoff matches.

Item 10. Recommend removing Hall of Fame from Section 19 and Administrative Rules, since we are not presently or actively doing anything with it. Suggested by rgadoury and bosqueverde.

Item 11. Statute Revision. Section 3.C. Remove conflicting limitations on captains by combining 3.C. and 3.E. to read: Each person may participate, as a player and/or captain, on only one team per section, to avoid conflicts of interest. Approved 10-1

Item 12. SC procedural matter:
During the "off season" the Steering Committee and the Permanent Members have been highly active. I noticed that complications were caused where votes were called and when members responded they also added comment. This nullified the vote and another proposal was then formulated which went through a similar cycle. In the end it was difficult to know what proposal was being voted.

This problem has happened in past Oversight Committee discussion so I propose the make our system a bit easier to follow by using the procedure below for the Steering Committee:

1. When the Chairperson of the SC initiates a SC Agenda Item the Chair will decide upon the length of the discussion period which will of course be determined by how easy/difficult the Chair sees the proposal. At that point in time the Chair will ask that the SC members respond using the "reply all" button to keep everyone in the loop and ask that you only discuss and NOT vote at this stage.

2. When the time limit for discussion is reached (and the Chair will usually make this 10.00 p.m. ICC time, the Chair will be able to draft the voting proposals and deliver them. Voting will also have a similar time limit and any vote not received by the limit will be defined as an abstention.

3. The Chair will then communicate our decision to the full Steering Committee.
Submitted by SeniorCitizen Not passed by  8-3 vote.