Chess forum - The 2002 USCF Delegate's Vote to Sell the Building

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The 2002 USCF Delegate's Vote to Sell the Building

Sam Sloan

2004-11-22, 9:46 am

The 2002 USCF Delegate's Vote to Sell the Building

It is being argued by representatives of the Gang-of-Four that has
taken over the USCF that at the USCF meeting in Cherry Hill NJ in
August 2002 the Delegates voted to sell the building and this gave the
board the right to sell the building in October 2004, more than two
years later.

I was at the 2002 meeting as a Delegate from New York and I know what
happened. In addition, Myron Lieberman made a video tape recording of
the entire meeting and I call upon him to make that videotape
available to us so that we can all see what really happened.

What happened was that Steve Doyle took the floor on supposedly some
other matter and immediately made a motion to sell the building and
move to Miami. I stood up and objected, since we were still in the
"Old Business" phase of the agenda and this item was clearly new
business. Mike Nolan ruled in favor of Doyle, saying that as long as
he had the floor Doyle could make any motion on any subject and get it
voted upon. It was obvious that Doyle had consulted with Nolan before
the meeting and had used a parliamentary trick to get his motion voted
upon before the Advance Agenda had even started, much less finished.

A heated debate ensued. It quickly became obvious that this
off-the-wall motion which had not been placed in the agenda nor had it
gone through the normally required procedure of being presented to the
relevant committee and debated and discussed prior to the meeting was
nevertheless put-up by several board members especially President John
McCrary and by Executive Director Frank Niro. However, other Board
members, especially Frank Brady, were angry that they had not even
been told about this motion until it had been presented on the floor.

Frank Niro took the microphone and explained that he had a ready buyer
who was ready, willing and able to buy the building for $600,000 cash.
However, this buyer wanted to buy the building right away, now. The
buyer was not willing to wait for some committee report. If there was
going to be any delay at all, the buyer would simply buy another
building in the area. Frank Niro further explained that $600,000 was
more than the appraised value of the building. This was a good deal
for us and it might be a long time before we would get another deal
like this. With this $600,000, there were many buildings we could buy
cheaper and better than that or, of course, we could move to Miami.

Frank Niro further stated that in Miami, we had been offered free
quarters in the Chess Hall of Fame which the Hall of Fame had
generously offered us.

Frank Niro was asked a lot of questions by the delegates and spoke for
well over 30 minutes on this topic (which is why I want for Myron
Lieberman to give us the tape). Frank Niro explained that the reason
why this buyer had been willing to pay such a high price it that the
buyer had another property adjoining this one and he especially wanted
the parking lot in the back and the warehouse in the basement. These
attributes to the building were a great advantage to this particular
buyer, whereas we, the USCF, could move anywhere.

The move to Miami was more hotly debated, even though it appeared to
be such a great deal. We were being offered free office space, with no
rent, in a very suitable location in Miami.

Nevertheless, a lot of delegates objected to the move to Miami for
various reasons. Finally, the language of the motion was reworded to
state that we could move to Miami or to some other suitable location.

Finally, the motion passed by a bare majority on a close vote. I WAS
ONE OF THE DELEGATES WHO VOTED IN FAVOR OF THE MOTION.

After the meeting was over, it turned out that this was all false. We
will probably never know whether Doyle and the others who supported
this motion knew that it was all false or if they were simply misled.

That buyer who was so anxious to pay $600,000 evaporated. It was
reported that he later offered $300,000, but this was obviously
unacceptable.

The offer of free office space by the Chess Hall of Fame turned out to
be another lie. What they were really offering was to give us free
office space while we were building a new building on their land. As
long as we were spending our money to build a building on their land,
they were willing to let us stay temporarily in their offices without
charging us much rent, provided of course that we give priority to
selling their products. The Chess Hall of Fame is owned by Excaliber,
formerly named Fidelity, which is a big producer of chess related
computers. They advertise in Chess Life magazine and in other chess
publications, which is the reason why they sponsor the World Chess
Hall of Fame, which is in their offices. They wanted our sales staff
to concentrate on selling their products, which is the reason why they
were offering us such a generous deal.

As soon as the true nature of the deal being offered by the Chess Hall
of Fame became apparent, it was dropped. Attention turned to Palm
Beach Gardens, which seemed to offer us a much better deal. However,
President John McCrary refused even to consider the Palm Beach Gardens
deal and refused even to go there to look at what was being offered,
although he lived nearby.

In 2003, John McCrary came up with the Crossville Deal sponsored by
old-time USCF insider Harry Sabine. There were tremendous objections
to Crossville, especially because of its remote location. McCrary
nevertheless insisted on Crossville but not long after resigned as
president in August, 2003. Crossville was virtually forgotten,
everybody seemed to be against it, and the 2002 vote to sell and move
was not even brought up at the 2003 or 2004 USCF delegates meetings.

Suddenly, in October 2004, the Board majority decided that the August
2002 vote to sell the building was still valid. I feel that this is
clearly incorrect. Since I was one of the bare majority that voted in
favor I can say that my primary reason for voting for it was that I
was quite familiar with the real estate market at that time and there
were many better buildings even in downtown Brooklyn where I was
living that could be had for less than $600,000. I agreed that
$600,000 was too good an offer to pass up. If the buyer had offered
only $500,000, my vote would have been different.

In the last two years, real estate values in Brooklyn have doubled.
There are no longer buildings for sale at such prices. The $513,000
which we got in October, 2004 was too low. (One source says that the
actual amount was $503,000, not $513,000.)

More than that, the Executive Board has never voted to sell the
building. I have checked all of the minutes of meetings for the past
two years and none of them record a vote to sell the building. I
believe that whomever signed the contract to sell the building did not
have legal authority to do so and the sale is void.

Here is the text of the delegate's August 2002 resolution to sell the
building. Following that is a section of New York Not For Profit law
regarding the sale of buildings. It can readily be seen that there has
not been compliance with the law or even with the USCF By-laws.

Sam Sloan

Note: Other posters who also attended the same meeting in August 2002
share my recollections on this subject. Here is a posting by George
John, who was also a delegate:

From: George John (george@neosoft.com)
Subject: Re: Miami?
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess.politics
Date: 2002-08-11 09:54:54 PST

"Fifiela" <fifiela@aol.com> wrote:

quote:

> Is USCF relocating to the Miami area?

Maybe. While the motion as originally presented required a
move to Miami,
should any move take place, it was amended to allow the move to
anywhere;
although, Miami is mentioned by name in the passed motion as an
example I
think.

quote:

> Has there been an sort of feasiblity study on this?

None that I know of. Obviously, this must be done prior to
signing any
agreement to move. What has triggered the interest (at least in part)
is an
offer on the table to buy the building for approximately $600K (very
close
to the fair market value) and the fact the building itself is in need
a
significant repairs (6-figures) which would be saved if there was a
move.

quote:

> What are the buget impacts of moving costs and employee

severance?

These were not presented at the meeting. It's possible it
wasn't worth
spending the time working up the numbers unless the Board of Delegates
gave
their approval and also passed a very necessary change in the Bylaws
concerning the LMA, too.

DM 02-15: The Delegates authorize the Executive Board and the
Executive Director to sell the building in New Windsor, NY, and to
obtain alternative facilities, including co-locating the USCF
Headquarters with the Hall of Fame facilities in Miami, FL.

Section 510 of New York Not For Profit Law states: (1) If there are
members entitled to vote thereon, the board shall adopt a resolution
recommending such sale, lease, exchange or other disposition. The
resolution shall specify the terms and conditions of the proposed
transaction, including the consideration to be received by the
corporation and the eventual disposition to be made of such
consideration, together with a statement that the dissolution of the
corporation is or is not contemplated thereafter. The resolution shall
be submitted to a vote at a meeting of members entitled to vote
thereon, which may be either an annual or a special meeting. Notice of
the meeting shall be given to each member and each holder of
subvention certificates or bonds of the corporation, whether or not
entitled to vote. At such meeting by two-thirds vote as provided in
paragraph (c) of section 613 (Vote of members) the members may approve
the proposed transaction according to the terms of the resolution of
the board, or may approve such sale, lease, exchange or other
disposition and may authorize the board to modify the terms and
conditions thereof.

It can readily be seen that for several reasons the August 2002
resolution that was passed by the delegates did not authorize the sale
that was made by a different board and a different executive director
to a different buyer at a lower price more than two years later.

Sam Sloan

Yeh Right

2004-11-23, 6:46 am

sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan) more or less aptly opined news:41a1f6c9.20190593
@ca.news.verio.net:

quote:

> The 2002 USCF Delegate's Vote to Sell the Building
>
> It is being argued by representatives of the Gang-of-Four that has
> taken over the USCF that at the USCF meeting in Cherry Hill NJ in
> August 2002 the Delegates voted to sell the building and this gave the
> board the right to sell the building in October 2004, more than two
> years later.

<SNIP>

quote:

> Sam Sloan
>

Well, I don't know if this little tidbit has any relevance to the current dabate, but
here goes:
I was playing at the 2002 US Open Tourney in Cherry Hill, NJ when this meeting was
held. It was held in the same hotel. I was hanging out in the lobby area when I ran
into a teenage boy who was, at the time, a member of my club. He was all afflutter
because someone involved with the delegate meeting invited him to come to the meeting
and cast a vote in favor of the sale and move to Fla. I expressed to him that I thought
it was strange that he could cast a vote on such a weighty matter when he wasn't really
an elected delegate. He agrees that it was strange but he nevertheless intended to do
just that. If I recall correctly, he subsequently told me that he actually did cast a
crucial vote.
Perhaps the video tape will show whether he did or didn't. If so, perhaps the vote was
a sham and therefore null and void.
I am not taking a position on this issue one way or the other primarily because I don't
give a damn about the USCF or its politics. I'm a member of necessity because I like to
play in an occasional tourney. However, that little conversation has always stuck in my
craw because it smelled of some kind of underhanded fix.

--
Regards,
Yeh

"What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?"
Nick Lowe
"Why must I lose to this idiot?!?!!!???"
Aron Nimzowitsch

Yeh Right

2004-11-27, 5:47 pm

sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan) more or less aptly opined news:41a1f6c9.20190593
@ca.news.verio.net:

quote:

> The 2002 USCF Delegate's Vote to Sell the Building
>
> It is being argued by representatives of the Gang-of-Four that has
> taken over the USCF that at the USCF meeting in Cherry Hill NJ in
> August 2002 the Delegates voted to sell the building and this gave the
> board the right to sell the building in October 2004, more than two
> years later.

<SNIP>

quote:

> Sam Sloan
>