New league format options for 2019

Hi all

By now the last league games of 2018 should all be in play or just about to start.

My attention turns to what we want for 2019.  Please let me know what has worked well and what could be improved.

One thing we want to implement for 2019 is for each team to have 2 active admins.  We have lost 2 teams in the last 2 years because their admin abandoned the group. We would like to avoid this in the future.  Myself and Andy (Taurusmale) have offered to join groups to assist if necessary.   

It looks likely we will have between 24 and 26 teams next year with 3 divisions again. If we a have more than 24 teams entered in the cup competition there will need to be a preliminary round that I would like to get started in October/November.  So registration for 2019 is likely to start in September.

I would like to continue to expand the competition...

Is there any interest in the following?

1)A vote chess competition 

2)An under 1600 or under 1500 league?  A number of teams have found their lower rated players aren't getting games.

3) A live chess competition 

4) 960 league.

If we go ahead with any of these obviously we will need new admins to help run these. 

Any ideas how we could get more Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish teams? They are all under represented.  

Any more ideas to improve the competition are most welcome.  

Thanks all

Matt"

Does anyone have any opinions that they would like to voice on this?