| George John 2005-07-01, 8:33 pm |
| Sam Sloan wrote:
All,
Sam Sloan's post contains statements about me which have been
previously rebutted in detail by me and others on rgcp. Normally, I
would let this go unanswered, but since we are in the middle of an
election, I will answer again on each point.
quote:
> George John with his false claims of expertize on various subjects
> that he knows little about, including chess, has caused the USCF to
> suffer enormous financial losses.
>
> For example, George John endorsed spyware on US Chess Live. Do a
> Google search on 2000 and 2001 and you will see that George John
> repeatedly says that the spyware on US Chess Life was acceptable.
I did not endorse or recommend any agreement with GamesParlor and all
were made without my knowledge. I was a beta tester of the client
software. When I learned it contained Radiate technology, and based on
information I found on www.grc.com, I expressed my opinion that the use
of this technology in the client was unacceptable. It was quickly
dropped.
The decision to substitute the Conducent technology was also made
without my input or endorsement. While this technology was far from
perfect, it didn't have the same issue as the Radiate technology which
I found so unacceptable. The Conducent technology was in use on an
estimated eight million plus systems, and there was not a single report
of any problems anywhere that I or anyone else could find of actual
harm caused by this technology.
I did advocate for better disclosure of the "adware" in the USCL
client, and got it.
In general I was never comfortable with the USCL deal, had major
misgivings with how it was deployed, disliked every contact I ever saw,
and there were other issues which I would prefer to not discuss in
public. For the sake of the USCF and its membership, I had hoped
things would work out, but was never confident they would. I am glad
the relationship has ended.
quote:
>
> George John got the board to set an impossible-to-meet demand that
> Mike Cavallo complete the upgrade of the USCF's computer system within
> ONE MONTH.
This is false. Cavallo voluntarily set the deadline for a project that
had been ongoing for over a year. He acted with total confidence that
the deadline would be easily met. At the meeting I attended, there was
no pressure other than to give some deadline that was real.
quote:
> When Cavallo could not meet the one month deadline, George John had
> Cavallo fired, claiming "I called it the way I saw it."
The USCF Executive Board voted 8-0 on the matter. I was unaware of the
motion or the vote until it was reported in the minutes. Cavallo had
an ongoing history of missed deadlines on this project. The Smith
board finally held him accountable, as any responsible Executive Board
should do, and something the Schultz/Goichberg administration did not
do, IMO.
quote:
>
> Then, when DeFeis came in, George John made no mention that DeFeis did
> nothing, zero, to upgrade the computer system which had been
> considered so important previously.
I commented on this extensively both publically and privately. I
consider the failure to make major progress on the software upgrade,
other than some planning, a major failure of the Smith, Redman, and
McCrary administrations.
quote:
> DeFeis lost the USCF one million dollars, all on George John's watch,
> about which George John said nothing and continues to say nothing.
During my so-called watch, I was the chair of the Internet/Computer
Committee and was advocating as best as I could for the software
productivity upgrade. One reason I chose to run for the Board in 2001
was I was getting nowhere with raising the priority of this project to
the level I thought it deserved. I was told I would have a better
chance to make this happen as a board member. If 12 people had voted
for me instead of Frank Brady, I would have found out if that was true
or not.
quote:
> It was only since Bill Goichberg became Executive Director that
> serious work started getting done on upgrading the computer system by
> Gary Prince and Mike Nolan. George John had nothing to do with this.
This is again false. Gary Prince and I were on the phone *a lot*
discussing this and other projects, and Mike and I have exchanged our
share of e-mail messages over the years, *prior* to Bill Goichberg
becoming ED. More significantly perhaps, soon after she became
President, and well before Bill Goichberg became ED, Beatriz Marinello
and I exchanged e-mail messages and had a phone conversation that
lasted about two hours where we extensively discussed the need for the
software upgrade, and how it might best be accomplished.
I think that was a first for me. Although I had been on the
Internet/Computer Committee from 1997-2003, and its chair from
1999-2003, I never had a discussion like this with Schultz, Smith,
Redman, or McCrary. I don't think any of them TRULY understood how
important this was for the USCF. President Marinello did. Yes, she
has made some mistakes, but on the two big issues of fiscal
responsibility and the getting the office upgraded, she has done a
great job, and she deserves our thanks.
quote:
> The person who could, would and should be elected to the board is Mike
> Nolan. Unfortunately, he is not running.
While I think Mike would make a fine Executive Board member, IMHO,
currently he is best serving the federation exceptionally well as a
software developer and in his several advisory positions. I would fear
that his being on the EB would distract him from this vital work.
Fortunately, my slate will be clean when my term as the Texas Chess
Association President ends on Labor Day, and I'm ready to go to work
for the USCF membership.
Sincerely,
George John
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