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Date: 24 May 2007 03:23:05
From: samsloan
Subject: Sam has Fly Swatter, Ready to Swat
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[quote="ueschessmom"]Thanks. I'm waiting for the fly swatters to come
out. :)[/quote]
I am here, with swatter, ready to swat.
Most scholastic players join for one or possibly two years. Almost all
quit by the time they reach age 16.
Giving these temporary members or their parents the right to vote
would enable somebody with a lot of favorable publicity to come in and
take over the USCF and grab control of the $3.2 million in annual
revenues.
Already we are giving too much to scholastics. The Executive Board has
just approved a budget providing for us to spend $125,000 to send a
delegation of children and their coaches to the World Youth
Championships in Antalya, Turkey in November. I was the only board
member who voted against this budget. By the way, in case you did not
read that right, that is one hundred twenty five thousand dollars.
Most of this money goes to pay coaches who are apparently selected by
the scholastic council. I have just heard that one of their more
expensive coaches has just been re-appointed to go this year, even
though he is not even a grandmaster. This completely ignores a board
discussion about using American grandmasters who are already in Europe
as coaches, rather than spending an average of $9,000 per coach to
send coaches selected by the Scholastic Council.
We need to take back control of our federation and start running it
like adults.
Sam Sloan
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Date: 25 May 2007 02:08:39
From: help bot
Subject: Re: Sam has Fly Swatter, Ready to Swat
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samsloan wrote:
> [quote="ueschessmom"]Thanks. I'm waiting for the fly swatters to come
> out. :)[/quote]
> I am here, with swatter, ready to swat.
>
> Most scholastic players join for one or possibly two years. Almost all
> quit by the time they reach age 16.
>
> Giving these temporary members or their parents the right to vote
> would enable somebody with a lot of favorable publicity to come in and
> take over the USCF and grab control of the $3.2 million in annual
> revenues.
>
> Already we are giving too much to scholastics. The Executive Board has
> just approved a budget providing for us to spend $125,000 to send a
> delegation of children and their coaches to the World Youth
> Championships in Antalya, Turkey in November. I was the only board
> member who voted against this budget. By the way, in case you did not
> read that right, that is one hundred twenty five thousand dollars.
>
> Most of this money goes to pay coaches who are apparently selected by
> the scholastic council. I have just heard that one of their more
> expensive coaches has just been re-appointed to go this year, even
> though he is not even a grandmaster. This completely ignores a board
> discussion about using American grandmasters who are already in Europe
> as coaches, rather than spending an average of $9,000 per coach to
> send coaches selected by the Scholastic Council.
Things could be worse. Several years ago I witnessed
a local scholastic coach "buy" his way into office by
signing up his school's kids just so they could vote him
in; I believe it cost something like, say, $6 per vote.
The next election saw a retaliatory move by one of his
chief rivals in the local scene; this time, a different chess
coach brought with him most of his adult and teen-aged
students, and because the state championship -- and
hence the meeting at which these things were decided
-- was held in a smaller town up north, it was enough to
carry the day.
Oddly enough, both of these unscrupulous fellows did a
fair job at putting out the state chess magazine, which
was about par for the course. But one of them emptied
(i.e. purloined) the state chess association's coffers,
leaving the association in a complete shambles.
---
On the subject of using American GMs who are "already
in Europe", I wonder just how many of them happen to be
in Turkey? Probably none; heck, Turkey may well be a
part of Asia, for all I know.
One recent thread consisted of an attack of sorts on the
winner and other participants of the U.S. Championship
not being Americans; the question was raised: were there
any Americans playing? Of course, it was not U.S.
residency which was in question, but the multitude of
Russian surnames (e.g. Alex Shabalov, Boris Gulko,
Onischuk, Sergei Kudrin, Boris Karlov).
If I had $125K to spend on scholastic chess, I think I
would figure out some way to spend it such that many
of those who benefit would be retained as members for
longer than stated above by Mr. Sloan. Imagine, if you
will, a "life membership" to the magazine for those who
meet certain criteria. How are you going to get these
things in the mail year after year, and never play any
serious chess? In any case, in the old days it was
crucial to have an interesting, quality magazine, but
now many are playing on the internet, and the focus
seems to have shifted to blitz and various variants of
the game. Plus there is stiff competition from such
things as online role-playing games like WoW, and
what are known as first person shooters, and so on.
Chess, being a mere two-dimensional board game,
may eventually fade into near oblivion.
-- help bot
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Date: 24 May 2007 15:07:16
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Sam has Fly Swatter, Ready to Swat
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At the meeting in Stillwater on May 20, 2007, Bill Goichberg admitted
that he has had a moderator account. At first, Mr. Goichberg denied
having ever been a moderator. However, when pressed to the wall by
Beatriz Marinello, Goichberg admitted that he had been assigned a
moderator account, but said that he had just done this just so that he
could see what the other moderators were doing. He said that he had
never actually moderated anything.
Sam Sloan
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Date: 24 May 2007 06:56:08
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Sam has Fly Swatter, Ready to Swat
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[quote="Brian Mottershead"]What was the EB thinking?[/quote]
You are assuming a fact not in evidence.
Sam Sloan
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