| Kevin L. Bachler 2005-01-19, 9:45 am |
| In article <1106057928.991960.141560@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>, Vince Hart
says...
quote:
>
>Please enlighten me then Kevin.
>
>Vince Hart
>
A Zen Master walked approached a hot dog vendor in New York.
"What'll you have?" asked the vendor.
"Replied the Zen Master, "Make me one with everything."
Consider yourself enlightened. 
Erv Sedlock, an NTD, ICA member, and frequent Board Member of the ICA was a
tireless volunteer who built up the scholastic tournaments. He and the St.
Charles TD crew have been the primary TD crew for years.
At that time:
- Scholastics was not the large animal it is today
- It was primarily a promotional not a money raising effort
- Scholastic players rarely played in adult events
Someone the ICA knew, trusted and cared about felt that a certain tournament
should be sanctioned, it was less work for ICA, there was not reason to do
anything different so it gets sanctioned.
You are concerned that Cochess won't see a need to have ICA sanction their
championship events. Yet, when it was formed circa 1996, there were five major
driving factors:
- Erv needed a succession plan because he knew at some point he would retire and
move to Florida.
- Erv didn't feel that it was right that he was making all the championship
decisions, and at the time he knew ICA was too far removed from the reality of
scholastic chess to award the bids.
- There needed to be a sanctioning body. This is why when Cochess was formed,
they aligned themselves with ICA.
- There needed to be a body to agree on Illinois K-8 tournament rules and
procedures, and to settle disputes.
- There needed to be an informational organization and tournament calendar
coordinator.
Frankly, Cochess has historically struggled in some of those tasks. I was the
other main driving force behind forming the organization. I coordinated
meetings, drafted the constitution and by-laws based on the ICA model. Tom
Doan, Sandy Machaj and Bonnie Cobia were also key. A few other key people on
the scholastic front, including Garrett Scott, were also involved. I made a
point of refusing to run for office because too much of the organization was
coming to rely on me, and it needed to be a group, not a person. Moreover, I
was trying to win Nationals with my team and needed to focus time on that.
Cochess has tended to lack down state impact. I believe that is improving but
still true. For some time downstaters would rather run their own tournament
calendar and their own informational service rather than rely on Cochess. So to
think of Cochess as some unified, powerful body is to overstate it's impact. In
8 years, they still haven't managed to take the time to incorporate. Other than
relying on me, and then on Sevan, they haven't been able to coordinate their own
website. When I told them repeatedly that I needed help on the website or it
would suffer, they were unable to provide any.
Cochess needs to exist unless ICA wants to understand scholastic chess and be
really involved so that they can help with rules and disputes. But if ICA
provides a good informational service, gets to know and work with the coaches,
and bids the tournaments directly under a clear set of rules, Cochess is
unlikely to do anything about it. Frank Swindell, Zack Fishman, Mike Miele, and
other local schools just want successful events. Give them that, and they'll be
happy.
--
Kevin L. Bachler
|