Chess politics - So When the Smoke All Cleared?

Author

So When the Smoke All Cleared?

Bruce

2005-08-14, 8:31 pm

Was there a big controversy at this year's U.S. Open Delegate's
meeting?
Did the Delegates support the construction of the permanent building in
Crossville?
Did Randy Bauer kill Peter Leko or was Leko already still dead?

LOL!
Did Beatriz resign or was that just a rumor?
Did we sign another contract with Games Parlor?
Did Dustin Diamond receive Delegate's credentials or didn't he
"Screech" loud enough?

Did Hal Terrie get the Delegates to approve of a 20 day long U.S. Open,
at least once every 5 years.

Did Greyhound open a couple new routes to Crossville?

)
Is Don Schultz the only Board member left on the site?
Did George John and Sam Sloan have a Texas Holdem Poker match to see
who has to git outta town?

Did Booz get scrod?
Were the waitresses at the hotel pub as cute as the ones in
Framingham?

Did OMOV pass? Ooops deja vu, sorry.

)LOL!

halterrie@worldnet.att.net

2005-08-15, 3:30 am

Bruce wrote:

quote:

> Was there a big controversy at this year's U.S. Open Delegate's
> meeting?
> Did the Delegates support the construction of the permanent building in
> Crossville?
> Did Randy Bauer kill Peter Leko or was Leko already still dead? LOL!
> Did Beatriz resign or was that just a rumor?
> Did we sign another contract with Games Parlor?
> Did Dustin Diamond receive Delegate's credentials or didn't he
> "Screech" loud enough?
> Did Hal Terrie get the Delegates to approve of a 20 day long U.S. Open,
> at least once every 5 years.
> Did Greyhound open a couple new routes to Crossville? )
> Is Don Schultz the only Board member left on the site?
> Did George John and Sam Sloan have a Texas Holdem Poker match to see
> who has to git outta town?
> Did Booz get scrod?
> Were the waitresses at the hotel pub as cute as the ones in
> Framingham?
> Did OMOV pass? Ooops deja vu, sorry. )LOL!

Well Bruce, it is true that Beatriz Marinello has said she will
resign but it is not official until it is in writing. By the way, the
new EB officers are:

President: Bill Goichberg
Vice-President: Don Schultz
VP for Finance: Joel Channing
Secretary: Robert Tanner

OK, here is my rambling account of what went on at the meetings this
week. I hope you find it entertaining, Bruce.

Well folks, the Delegates Meeting is now over. I expect that I will
not be the only one posting a report of some sort but I will include a
few tidbits which will not make it into the official minutes. I'm
going to jump from topic to topic and not try to be comprehensive. I
don't think anything earth shaking happened at the meeting, so I'm
going to limit myself to a few interesting items and anecdotes.

Where to begin? I think the best place is on Thursday, during the
open session of the Executive Board meeting. The first item of interest
was the note in the auditor's report, stating that the city of
Crossville had an indefinite first option to buy back the land for
$1.00. As already reported, that is just an error by the auditors. Once
the USCF builds on the land, it obtains full ownership and can sell it
at market value.

You may remember that I reported that the planning budget being
discussed at the May EB meeting had a surplus of $600,000. I was so
astonished by this that I asked if I had heard correctly - and I had.
On Thursday, our new Executive Director, Bill Hall, reported in a
matter of fact tone of voice that one of his first discoveries upon
starting his new job was that this surplus was the result of a
spreadsheet error! Somebody used an Excel formula which did not pick up
the line item for all Chess Life expenses ($600,000+). So the proposed
budget actually had a deficit of $11,000. The final budget adopted by
the Delegates this year has a deficit of $23,000, which was left in
place after Mike Nolan argued forcefully that it was absurd to juggle
line items trying to create an exact zero bottom line. The office and
EB will do their utmost to push that figure down, he said, and that
should be good enough.

It was revealed that, while negotiations are continuing with Chess
Caf=E9 about the $173,000 balance still owed for the $350,000 minimum,
it is likely that USCF will receive little of that - at best maybe
half was the guess by several people. On the plus side, sales during
the first months of the new fiscal year are up about 18%. The new
budget has a figure of $200,000 for estimated income from the Chess
Caf=E9 deal in 2005-06.

OK, let's move on to the Delegates Meeting. As I reported
previously, architect Phil Elmore gave a talk, with photos and floor
plans. It turns out that the bedrock is not a problem and no blasting
or deep excavation will be needed. Elmore explained that, after the
topsoil is removed, a compressed earth "building pad" will be
created and the building erected on that. From photos he showed, this
topsoil removal and building pad creation is already done. Apparently
this is a standard construction technique.

There will be 24 parking spaces and there is already some concern
that this will be inadequate if there are frequent visitors.
(Interestingly, Bill Hall reported that because Crossville, unlike New
Windsor, has so much chess activity, there are already more visitors to
the USCF offices than ever before.) Elmore said that additional parking
could be built, for about $10,000. Nine extra spaces could be placed on
one side of the building and some more in the rear, if necessary.

Now for the good stuff. I told you previously that Sam Sloan was in
attendance, with his daughter (incidentally, it turns out she is 3.5
years old, not 2). Early in the meeting, the "motion to ratify"
came up:

"ADM 05-06. (Harold Winston): The Delegates ratify all actions of the
Executive Board appearing in the Minutes published in the Executive
Board Newsletter and the Delegates Call, since the conclusion of the
2004 Delegates Meeting."

Passage of this motion establishes that, whether the Delegates
approve of the various EB actions or not, they acknowledge that the EB
had the authority to take them. When the motion came up for
consideration, the powers that be had arranged a clever twist: the
motion would be amended to include the motions passed during the EB
conference call of July 25 (the ones that led to the signing of the
loan and construction agreements in Crossville). The Delegates had not
all been provided written copies of these, so it was proposed to defer
consideration of ADM 05-06 until after lunch. While all of this was
going on, Sam Sloan reached the head of the line at the microphone.

As you all know, Sam considers just about everything done by this EB
to be actually illegal. He launched into his spiel about fraud and
thievery but was interrupted by the Chair, who told him consideration
of the motion was being postponed. Apparently misunderstanding the
REASON for that postponement (which would have made him even more
angry) he relinquished his place at the mike.

So, a little later on, the meeting recessed for lunch and did not
reconvene until nearly 2:30 PM. When the Delegates reconvened, ADM
05-06 came up right away. Sam Sloan had not yet returned to the
meeting, so the motion sailed to approval without a ripple of dissent.
By the time Sam arrived it was all over. When the meeting recessed for
the day at 5:00 PM, he still had not realized what happened.

At about 5:30 PM, I cut through the meeting hall on the way to check
the pairings and found Sam talking with Bill Goichberg. I stopped for a
minute to speak with them and was seized by an irresistible impulse. I
just couldn't pass up the opportunity, especially with Bill Goichberg
standing right there. I said to Sam, "You look very calm for someone
who's had the rug pulled out from under him." When he asked what I
meant, I explained what had happened at the meeting. As I did so,
Goichberg's eyes bulged and he looked like he was trying to signal me
to shut the hell up. After I finished, Sam of course protested and
Goichberg had to defend the EB and the Delegates: "Well, you might
not agree with it but they had the right to do it." I left them to it
and went on to the playing hall. He, he, I'm so evil. It was all I
could do to keep from laughing out loud. On Sunday, Sloan tried to get
the motion reconsidered but failed in short order.

Well, that's enough for now. I'll go over my notes and maybe find
some substantive things to report. Actually, that may not be needed.
Mike Nolan was trying to keep an unofficial electronic summary of
motions during the meeting. That summary may be posted on the USCF web
site in a day or so.

-- Hal Terrie

Mike Nolan

2005-08-15, 3:30 am

halterrie@worldnet.att.net writes:

quote:

> Well, that's enough for now. I'll go over my notes and maybe find
>some substantive things to report. Actually, that may not be needed.
>Mike Nolan was trying to keep an unofficial electronic summary of
>motions during the meeting. That summary may be posted on the USCF web
>site in a day or so.

It is available now and was posted less than six hours after the meeting
ended. Its in the governance section of the USCF website. This is
an UNOFFICIAL draft version, but should contain the full text of nearly
all of the motions considered at this year's meeting, since it is drawn from
the WORD file that I was using to display motions on the screen at the
front of the room, which I was trying to keep fully up to date.

Its missing a couple of the congratulatory items at the end of the meeting
and the list of DALs who needed to be voted upon this year.

It may be missing a few motions that were in the Bylaws committee
report instead of under OLD BUSINESS. If so, I should have those motions
in another file, I'm just too tired to check that tonight.

I would expect Myron and Rachel Lieberman to have a better looking and
complete unofficial version available soon, hopefully in a few weeks, as
they have a copy of that file plus their own notes on the meeting.
--
Mike Nolan