Tweet
Re: CO - Rd. 4/ Incoming Gov. AGM
Just a short report on Rd. 4 U 2000 - another day of no Toronto pairings - hooray. I myself got back in the win column - but I was up 2 pawns, and got greedy and grabbed a third. Error....all of a sudden he had counterplay, threats of perpetual, threats of queening a pawn, etc.; he won back 2 of the 3 pawns, but I finally managed ( we were both down to our last 10 min. ) to queen my final extra P.
Don't like to use excuses, but maybe I was a bit tired from our 6 hour incoming governors AGM earlier in the day. Some stuff got accomplished, and here is what happened to the 7 grassroots restructuring motions ( that got ruled out of order Monday, and then subsequently got tabled to the Tuesday meeting ):
Motion # 1 – Moved – Barry Thorvardson; Seconded – Cesary Posylek: Item 1 set out below is acceptable.
“ 1. Core Roles: CFC will continue its role re FIDE, international and national events, a national rating system, and a website with membership info, ratings, membership sales, tournament announcements, chess club lists, and news submitted by members (highlights of recent tournament, etc.). Maintenance of these functions will be the responsibility of the Executive Director.”
Commentary - Ruled out of order again by the Chair, Maurice Smith, on the grounds that it was just a general statement of the way things are. The motion was somewhat trying to counter the plan for outsourcing the ratings and website. This ruling was not such a disaster, since the Request for Proposals Restructuring Committee of the CFC rejected all outsourcing bids presented to them, and so there were no motions/recommendations from them to outsource.
Motion # 2 – Moved – Michael Barron; Seconded – Barry Thorvardson: Item 2 set out below is acceptable.
“ 2. CFC Revenue: CFC revenues to come from memberships, rating fees, investments and donations. With the reduced scope of operation, costs for the organization should be less, and it may be possible to reduce annual membership fees and/or rating fees. “
Commentary - Ruled out of order by the Chair, Maurice Smith, as being a generalized statement of the way things are. The problem was that the main thrust of the motion was the second part indicating a reduction of the annual membership fee if finances allowed. But there was movement on this front as a motion was passed that in part, reduced the annual adult membership fee to $ 30 from $ 36 ( though it raised the rating fee from $ 3/player/event to $ 5 ). So we did get some movement on this particular issue.
Motion # 3 – Moved – Barry Thorvardson; Seconded – Chris Mallon: Item 3 set out below is acceptable.
“ 3. CFC Membership: CFC to eliminate tournament memberships – if you want to play in a CFC tournament, you must purchase an annual membership. To encourage individuals to become members, first time CFC members will be given a 40% fee reduction for their first year. “
Commentary - This motion got divided into two separate motions, since one part deals with tournament memberships, and the other with annual membership fees. But both got passed - but remember this was only a straw vote, and so still now needs a regular motion to implement this " opinion " of the governors.
Motion # 4 – Moved – Michael Barron; Seconded – Mark Dutton: Item 4 set out below is acceptable.
“ 4. Chess Canada: CFC will terminate the magazine contract with TKS immediately (with the May 2008 issue being the last issue of the magazine). “
Commentary - passed - again it was only a straw vote. But later there was a binding motion put forward that : " to replace the print magazine with an on-line magazine " ( though the definition of what will be meant by an " online magazine " was left elastic - it likely will not be the print magazine on a website - still too expensive ) - this motion will go into the GL# 1 to be processed in the normal snail mail fashion.
Motion # 5 – Moved – Michael Barron; Seconded – Gary Gladstone: Item 5 set out below is acceptable.
“ 5. Retail Business: Sell off the inventory of the retail business; it will be closed entirely. An alternative but small source of revenue could be established through a commission arrangement with other retailers, such as CMA or Amazon. “
Commentary - this motion was brought to the Assembly for discussion. But as the discussion ensued, concerns were raised that if the motion passed, it would negatively affect our bargaining position with potential buyers of the business. So the chair, Smith, reconsidered and again ruled this motion out of order due to ongoing negotiations. Again however, there was movement on this front, as a motion was brought " to sell the book inventory " ( at a discount " going out of the book business " basis ). This motion again was sent to GL # 1 to be dealt with in the normal manner. Some people are holding out to still sell equipment and software; some want out totally , but with a commission arrangement of some kind with someone like CMA - this is still swimming around as it has been for 1 1/2 years, and now there is still no firm decision of the governors on this.
Motion # 6 – Moved – Michael Barron; Seconded – Barry Thorvardson: Item 6 set out below is acceptable.
“ 6. CFC Condominium Office: The current CFC office would be placed for sale. The office would then be run out of either a small rental space or a home office. “
Commentary - Ruled out of order by the Chair, Smith, as being initimately intwined with the sale of the retail business - as long as we do business, we need space - and since the Retail Business motion was out of order, so was this one. Again however, the motion caused movement - a motion was passed that 1/2 of the building be leased. This is because some won't consider selling until they know what the carrying costs still are if the building can generate some revenue to help cover them. Then we will know if keeping/leasing is a viable option. I think there will be problems leasing ( a glut of available space apparently, and so the rental rate to get tenants will have to be low ). I think the building will still prove too expensive ( we cannot afford any expenses that can be eliminated ), and with a softening real estate market, the building will go down in value if we continue to hold it over the next few years
Motion # 7 – Moved – Michael Barron; Seconded – Nava Starr: Item 7 set out below is acceptable.
“ 7. CFC Staffing: In light of the reduced business activities of the CFC office (no retail sales and no print magazine), the Executive Committee would undertake a review of the Executive Director and Assistant positions and would recommend appropriate staffing changes if required. This could be from going to part-time, up to complete eliminating of the paid staff, and performing all CFC activities by volunteers. “
Commentary - Ruled out of order by the Chair, Smith, as being too general in nature. Again, not a disaster, as the Executive will be forced to evaluate staffing after restructuring - we just wanted to make it mandatory that they do it for sure.
So the grassroots campaign has had an influence on events, despite the fact that only 2 of the 7 motions ended up getting passed. It framed the debate on restructuring, and its ideas were brought home to all the governors, the Executive, and the RFP Restructuring Committee, as well as all the CFC general membership. I guess we could claim divided success - and now we must look at whether we should now bring some binding motions to implement the grassroots ideas that are still not yet implemented.
Bob
Just a short report on Rd. 4 U 2000 - another day of no Toronto pairings - hooray. I myself got back in the win column - but I was up 2 pawns, and got greedy and grabbed a third. Error....all of a sudden he had counterplay, threats of perpetual, threats of queening a pawn, etc.; he won back 2 of the 3 pawns, but I finally managed ( we were both down to our last 10 min. ) to queen my final extra P.
Don't like to use excuses, but maybe I was a bit tired from our 6 hour incoming governors AGM earlier in the day. Some stuff got accomplished, and here is what happened to the 7 grassroots restructuring motions ( that got ruled out of order Monday, and then subsequently got tabled to the Tuesday meeting ):
Motion # 1 – Moved – Barry Thorvardson; Seconded – Cesary Posylek: Item 1 set out below is acceptable.
“ 1. Core Roles: CFC will continue its role re FIDE, international and national events, a national rating system, and a website with membership info, ratings, membership sales, tournament announcements, chess club lists, and news submitted by members (highlights of recent tournament, etc.). Maintenance of these functions will be the responsibility of the Executive Director.”
Commentary - Ruled out of order again by the Chair, Maurice Smith, on the grounds that it was just a general statement of the way things are. The motion was somewhat trying to counter the plan for outsourcing the ratings and website. This ruling was not such a disaster, since the Request for Proposals Restructuring Committee of the CFC rejected all outsourcing bids presented to them, and so there were no motions/recommendations from them to outsource.
Motion # 2 – Moved – Michael Barron; Seconded – Barry Thorvardson: Item 2 set out below is acceptable.
“ 2. CFC Revenue: CFC revenues to come from memberships, rating fees, investments and donations. With the reduced scope of operation, costs for the organization should be less, and it may be possible to reduce annual membership fees and/or rating fees. “
Commentary - Ruled out of order by the Chair, Maurice Smith, as being a generalized statement of the way things are. The problem was that the main thrust of the motion was the second part indicating a reduction of the annual membership fee if finances allowed. But there was movement on this front as a motion was passed that in part, reduced the annual adult membership fee to $ 30 from $ 36 ( though it raised the rating fee from $ 3/player/event to $ 5 ). So we did get some movement on this particular issue.
Motion # 3 – Moved – Barry Thorvardson; Seconded – Chris Mallon: Item 3 set out below is acceptable.
“ 3. CFC Membership: CFC to eliminate tournament memberships – if you want to play in a CFC tournament, you must purchase an annual membership. To encourage individuals to become members, first time CFC members will be given a 40% fee reduction for their first year. “
Commentary - This motion got divided into two separate motions, since one part deals with tournament memberships, and the other with annual membership fees. But both got passed - but remember this was only a straw vote, and so still now needs a regular motion to implement this " opinion " of the governors.
Motion # 4 – Moved – Michael Barron; Seconded – Mark Dutton: Item 4 set out below is acceptable.
“ 4. Chess Canada: CFC will terminate the magazine contract with TKS immediately (with the May 2008 issue being the last issue of the magazine). “
Commentary - passed - again it was only a straw vote. But later there was a binding motion put forward that : " to replace the print magazine with an on-line magazine " ( though the definition of what will be meant by an " online magazine " was left elastic - it likely will not be the print magazine on a website - still too expensive ) - this motion will go into the GL# 1 to be processed in the normal snail mail fashion.
Motion # 5 – Moved – Michael Barron; Seconded – Gary Gladstone: Item 5 set out below is acceptable.
“ 5. Retail Business: Sell off the inventory of the retail business; it will be closed entirely. An alternative but small source of revenue could be established through a commission arrangement with other retailers, such as CMA or Amazon. “
Commentary - this motion was brought to the Assembly for discussion. But as the discussion ensued, concerns were raised that if the motion passed, it would negatively affect our bargaining position with potential buyers of the business. So the chair, Smith, reconsidered and again ruled this motion out of order due to ongoing negotiations. Again however, there was movement on this front, as a motion was brought " to sell the book inventory " ( at a discount " going out of the book business " basis ). This motion again was sent to GL # 1 to be dealt with in the normal manner. Some people are holding out to still sell equipment and software; some want out totally , but with a commission arrangement of some kind with someone like CMA - this is still swimming around as it has been for 1 1/2 years, and now there is still no firm decision of the governors on this.
Motion # 6 – Moved – Michael Barron; Seconded – Barry Thorvardson: Item 6 set out below is acceptable.
“ 6. CFC Condominium Office: The current CFC office would be placed for sale. The office would then be run out of either a small rental space or a home office. “
Commentary - Ruled out of order by the Chair, Smith, as being initimately intwined with the sale of the retail business - as long as we do business, we need space - and since the Retail Business motion was out of order, so was this one. Again however, the motion caused movement - a motion was passed that 1/2 of the building be leased. This is because some won't consider selling until they know what the carrying costs still are if the building can generate some revenue to help cover them. Then we will know if keeping/leasing is a viable option. I think there will be problems leasing ( a glut of available space apparently, and so the rental rate to get tenants will have to be low ). I think the building will still prove too expensive ( we cannot afford any expenses that can be eliminated ), and with a softening real estate market, the building will go down in value if we continue to hold it over the next few years
Motion # 7 – Moved – Michael Barron; Seconded – Nava Starr: Item 7 set out below is acceptable.
“ 7. CFC Staffing: In light of the reduced business activities of the CFC office (no retail sales and no print magazine), the Executive Committee would undertake a review of the Executive Director and Assistant positions and would recommend appropriate staffing changes if required. This could be from going to part-time, up to complete eliminating of the paid staff, and performing all CFC activities by volunteers. “
Commentary - Ruled out of order by the Chair, Smith, as being too general in nature. Again, not a disaster, as the Executive will be forced to evaluate staffing after restructuring - we just wanted to make it mandatory that they do it for sure.
So the grassroots campaign has had an influence on events, despite the fact that only 2 of the 7 motions ended up getting passed. It framed the debate on restructuring, and its ideas were brought home to all the governors, the Executive, and the RFP Restructuring Committee, as well as all the CFC general membership. I guess we could claim divided success - and now we must look at whether we should now bring some binding motions to implement the grassroots ideas that are still not yet implemented.
Bob
Comment