| Tom Klem 2005-03-08, 5:53 pm |
|
<parrthenon@cs.com> wrote in message
news:1110274107.822310.286050@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
<<lemony snippet>>
quote:
>
> <Were you to have the power to do so, would you (Larry Parr) hire
> Sam Sloan for an executive position ... say, with The World Chess
> Network?> -- Tom Klem
>
> Mr. Klem certainly has more wit than Mr. Bauer.
>
> No, Tom, I would not hire Sam to be an executive at WCN, if
> such were my decision. But I would vote for him to serve on the USCF
> Executive Board to control the pond life there. I know that you detest
> Sam but, of all people, you ought to see the wisdom of transparency in
> USCF affairs.
>
> I also would vote for Tom Dorsch, if he were running, to sit on
> the same Board with Sam. At least it would reduce the culture of
> secrecy.
>
Tom Dorsch has actual business qualifications. I agree with your assessment
of Sam's business qualifications and vote of no confidence when it comes to
hiring him. Surely we can come up with someone who is honest for a seat on
the board. Basic honesty is important to good management, and anyone who
tells you otherwise is doomed to failure and probably gets his business
sense and values from old Dallas reruns.
Don't get me wrong, I understand the sentiment behind desiring an open
board. The main problem with an endorsement of Sam Sloan is that his
entrenched dishonesty would so compromise his every word, that the so called
achievement of openness would be tantamount to the same openness of a sewer
grate. True, the public can peer into the bowels of the sewer, but the smell
coming from the hole would far outweigh the utility therein. What good is
having a proven liar telling the rest of us what is going on inside the
USCF. Could we ever trust the word of someone who thinks nothing of taking
money to libel and defame others? And what about if he does this very same
thing in the performance of his duties? Now we have a serious litigation
liablity.
No, the best we can ever hope for in any organization having to do with
governance, is an alert citizenry (the delegates and us) which keeps the
boards feet to the fire with regard to accurate minutes of all meetings, and
accurate and up to date financials and honesty in all dealings.
Can you imagine Ford or Pepsi coming to meet with a board to present
sponsorship options that has as one of its members a homeless wreck, known
panderer/liar, idiot savant, despoiler of thirteen year olds and god knows
what else?
I think we can do better.
As a special note, I do not despise anyone. The all too human condition
which Sam finds himself in, while due to his bad choices and undisciplined
proclivity to do what "feels good" is nothing to savor. I was genuinely
concerned to hear of Sam's untimely and obviously premature passing last
month. No matter what one thinks of such scum and villainy to which Sloan is
a party, hatred is very bad for ones own self.
--
Tom Klem
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
---William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1
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