November 3-4, 2007 USCF Executive Board Meeting

Date: 05 Nov 2007 16:47:11
From: Sam Sloan
Subject: November 3-4, 2007 USCF Executive Board Meeting

[quote="mnibb"]This can probably be directed to Mike Nolan about some
of the rambling conversation I heard on the web cast today. Someone
during the early conversation about rating the FIDE events was talking
about pricing. They were talking something about some "back of the
envelope calculations" of what it costs to rate a game being about
$.25 - $.30 being this being the cause for raising the fees for rating
games this December.

If todays ramblings are any indication of the way the EB has
traditionally done business and the way this decision has been made,
it is not a wonder we are having a few problems.[/quote]

k Nibbelin is finally beginning to get the picture, a picture many
of us have known about for some time.

I had to sit through five of these board meetings, so I have
experienced this.

When I was on the board it was never quite so bad as this. This was
because whenever the conversation strayed to far from the topic, I was
willing to tell the other board members so. Also, I would let Joel
Channing tell two or three of his non-funny jokes that everybody else
was supposed to laugh at, but after that I would tell him to cut it
out. This gave some observers the impression that I was running the
meeting.

Although it was bad even when I was on the board, I did manage to keep
it moving. One of the low points yesterday came when Bill Goichberg
suddenly decided to change the February 2-3, 2008 board meeting from
Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Goichberg said that Las Vegas was
objectionable because it is associated with gambling which creates a
bad image for the board (but why did Goichberg insist for some time
that the finals of the 2007 US Championship be held in Las Vegas?).
Goichberg said that if the meeting cannot be held in California, he
wants it held online. Truong protested that he cannot go to California
for "certain reasons" which he declined to state but he was willing to
go to any of the other 49 states.

Goichberg insisted that the meeting be held in Los Angeles because he
is going to be there anyway and it is not convenient for him to be
anywhere else. Those of us watching from the Internet audience know
why Goichberg is going to be in Los Angeles in early February. It is
because that is horse-racing season in Southern California and the
Santa Anita Race Track will be open. Goichberg plays the horses.
Ironic is it not that Goichberg does not want to be in Las Vegas
because it is associated with gambling.

The horses are running at Santa Anita Race Track at that time of the
year because it is too cold for the horses to race in other parts of
the country.

http://www.santaanita.com/news/events.php

Sam Sloan

Date: 11 Nov 2007 10:05:33
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: November 3-4, 2007 USCF Executive Board Meeting

[quote="Harry Payne"][quote="samsloan"][quote="Harry Payne"] I
am sure things have improved. And I meant no disrepect asking you. I
can only think about my reaction had my bank accounts become frozen.
But let us hope the issue is close to being resolved.[/quote]

Why are you sure things have improved?

Sam Sloan[/quote]

Because Sam, there are some very capable members on the
board. Of which you could have been one had you not made wild
statements before you checked them out. I have no doubt you are
concerned about the USCF. And felt that way very strongly. Then
instead of bringing suit against those I thought you had a good case
against , you rambled off bringing suit against the USCF, the State of
Texas , and I can't even remember who all else. You tangent at times
Sam and that hurts your credibility.IMHO[/quote]

Harry, I am wondering why you feel that I need to "check out" the
other members of the board. I have personally known every member of
the board for more than twenty years, some for more than 40 years,
with the sole exception of Joel Channing, whom I first met when he
first ran for election of 2005. As far as I know, you are a newcomer
who has met them only once. That was at the board meeting on May
21-22, 2007 in Stillwater, Oklahoma that you attended.

Sam Sloan

Date: 10 Nov 2007 04:16:43
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: November 3-4, 2007 USCF Executive Board Meeting

[quote="chessoffice"] At the meeting this past weekend, we concluded
more than an hour ahead of schedule.

Bill Goichberg[/quote]

That was because nothing got done. The major issues facing the board
and the federation were ignored, with the board acting like the
proverbial ostrich who, when faced with danger, sticks his head in the
sand.

Sam Sloan

Date: 07 Nov 2007 08:55:16
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: November 3-4, 2007 USCF Executive Board Meeting

[quote="ueschessmom"]True enough but I still have hope (maybe
misplaced) that the USCF could take leadership on some of these issues
and can help to push along some of the work that people have been
doing in the field. I thought Tim Redman raised some interesting
issues in his recent post about the benefits of chess for an aging
population concerned with maintaining mental and physical agility.[/
quote]

I hope that you will kindly recall that I raised this issue of chess
for the elderly in my campaign statement, along with my campaign to
greatly expand scholastic chess.

I lost the election and as you could plainly see neither of these
issues have been brought up by the new board.

Do you recall that when I proposed to sell blocks of USCF memberships
at discount rated to public schools, Bill Goichberg came onto this
forum to complain that I had hijacked an existing issue.

But, as you can see, I brought this up at every one of the five board
meetings that I attended when I was on the board, and now that I have
lost the election none of these issues have been brought up by anybody
who is on the board now.

Also, perhaps you may recall that there were two candidates who said
that if elected they were going to develop military chess, college
chess, correspondence chess, this kind of chess and that kind of chess
and so on.

Now that they have been elected, there has been no mention, none
whatever, of these different supposed chess programs.

Sam Sloan

Date: 05 Nov 2007 11:23:57
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: November 3-4, 2007 USCF Executive Board Meeting

I detected a change in Channing during the meeting. He was the only
board member who made any reference to the "Fake Sam Sloan" matter and
he did so several times.

I suspect that Joel Channing is no longer in bed with Polgar and is no
longer her strongest supporter on the board. He seems to have turned
away from her much as Erik Anderson and Eric Moskow have done.

Sam Sloan