The Quebec Chess Federation will have a new home in 2 to 3 years!

[Larry Bevand]

New location for Leisure and Sport.

The Quebec Chess Federation (FQE), as well as all the other leisure and sport federations, will move into new, more suitable premises in early 2022. It is the Minister for Education and Minister responsible for the Status of Women in Leisure and Sport, Ms. Isabelle Charest, who made the announcement today, December 17, 2019. (FQE) "Technology, the internet that was difficult to access in the basement of the Olympic stadium. It was not ideal working conditions, but beyond that, there were no windows, the ceilings were extremely low and large concrete walls made everything difficult to fit out, "said the minister. . The building will be constructed on a site where a car dealership is currently located, at a cost of $ 25 million. The opening is scheduled for 2022. The announcement of the start of work is the culmination of an investment announced in June 2018 by former Minister Sébastien Proulx. The Société québécoise des infrastructures, the Regroupement Loisir et Sport du Québec and the Ministère de l'Éducation et de l'Enseignement supérieur collaborated on the project. (La Presse).

The FQE receives about $100,000 a year (at least that was the case when I last looked) from the Quebec government. This is used to pay salaries and some admin fees.

Larry

[Frank Dixon]

Thanks for the informative post, Larry!
The CFC should be very jealous of this wonderful status which the FQE has acquired. The CFC should be actively seeking something similar, in terms of government funding, and a dedicated leisure / sport federation headquarters, at the federal level, shared with other national sports / leisure federations.
What do the CFC Executive personnel have as a response to this constructive suggestion?

[Brad Thomson]

What do the CFC Executive personnel have as a response to this constructive suggestion?

How about, you are free to try, let us know how it works out? Oh, and good luck...

[Erik Malmsten]

I remember when there was an Ontario amateur sports building on Eglinton. It was a great way to network and attend seminars such as on coaching, working with schools, or fundraising. Unfortunately, until chess requires moving pieces that are 3 feet tall and weigh 50 lbs, while kicking one's legs in a swimming pool, it is not a sport:

Sport Definition

The ministry will only recognize PSOs for sports that meet the following definition:

Sport is a regulated form of physical activity organized as a contest between two or more participants for the purpose of determining a winner by fair and ethical means. Such contests may be in the form of a game, match, race or other form of event.

A sport has the following characteristics:

1. It involves, where repetition of standardized or required movements or forms are included in competition, a high degree of difficulty, risk or effort in such reproduction;
2. It involves two or more participants in its competitive mode, engaging for the purpose of competitively evaluating their personal performance;
3. It involves formal rules and procedures to ensure a safe and fair outcome for all participants;
4. It requires fair, ethical and effective tactics or strategies;
5. It requires specialized neuromuscular and cardiovascular skills (such as speed, strength, stamina, flexibility, balance, precision and coordination) that include significant involvement of large muscle groups, and that can be taught, learned and improved;
6. It requires the development of coaching personnel trained in both general subjects such as bio-mechanics, sport psychology, nutrition, group dynamics, physiology, etc., and in the specific skills of the sport;
7. It is, or has been, traditionally regarded as a sport in its competitive mode; and
8. Its primary activity involves interaction between the participant and the environment (air, water, ground, floor or special apparatus). No activity in which the performance of a motorized vehicle is the primary determinant of the outcome of the competition is eligible in this policy (e.g. racing automobiles, powerboats, aircraft or snow machines).

[Frank Dixon]

One significant facet of the Quebec provincial initiative is that, by including 'sports and leisure', as eligible entrants for its new complex, it gets away from the sometimes awkward questions over what is and what isn't a sport. Most people would believe that chess is NOT a sport, but it is certainly a leisure activity, and when played at a high level, approaches being a sport, in my opinion. Note that skateboarding and rock-climbing will debut as new sports for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo -- many people would NOT consider those to be sports. But the definition of what a sport is evolves constantly, it seems, in today's world.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

But the definition of what a sport is evolves constantly, it seems, in today's world.

The Government acts much faster when they receive monies (gas taxes etc) but stops when they need to give out. There was a tax brake on activities like a chess camp if properly programmed. As I understood later it was scraped (maybe replaced by something else)

As I remember, the Sports Canada mentioned about other sports as chess or something but they did not give a financial support to us (chess players) because of limited amounts. Thus a much stricter definition of a sport eligible for support.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Thanks for the informative post, Larry!
The CFC should be very jealous of this wonderful status which the FQE has acquired. The CFC should be actively seeking something similar, in terms of government funding, and a dedicated leisure / sport federation headquarters, at the federal level, shared with other national sports / leisure federations.
What do the CFC Executive personnel have as a response to this constructive suggestion?

The CFC executive will tend to focus on things that can actually be accomplished rather than tilting after windmills. If any one of us had the contacts that could lead to government funding, I am sure that we would have pressed forward with it. I have discussed the idea with members of parliament but they were opposition members of parliament. They were positive about the idea but it really won't go anywhere at this point in time.

Hal Bond and I recently attended an event in Oshawa and met with local Durham Region tourism officials to a view of attracting future bids for some of our events. Hal had a separate meeting with officials in Hamilton. I was one of the speakers on a panel discussion about non-traditional sports like chess and their potential for sport tourism. The CFC will be attending the CSTA event in Edmonton where we will once again meet with thirty communities about hosting chess tournaments.

[Frank Dixon]

While Vlad's post is interesting and informative, I do take exception to his phrase 'tilting at windmills', with respect to my suggestion that the CFC should strive to emulate the FQE in being part of a national sports / leisure organizational headquarters centre, as is being done in Quebec. Last time I checked, Quebec is part of Canada, and if it can be done at the provincial level in Quebec, it could potentially be done at the federal level in Canada! And, yes, there may be people in Canada who could make this happen, going forward. I think the CFC needs to think more 'outside the box'; narrow thinking and significant errors have limited achievements and growth in recent decades for Canadian chess. For a major example on chess funding botched and bridges burned, look no further than the horrendous Thorvardson scandal at the Ontario Chess Association, which messed up a potential major source of future funding with the Trillium Foundation.

[Vlad Drkulec]

While it could be potentially done at the Federal level in Canada it does not seem likely at this point. If we had large sums of money to launch a campaign and lobby for changes in the way the Canadian government funds sports to the benefit of chess we would probably just spend that money on chess.

The Thorvardson debacle did not mess up future funding with the Trillium foundation. The Windsor 2010 CYCC got Trillium funding which was used to buy chess equipment which is still in use ten years later. The rules for Trillium funding have changed making it more difficult for chess events and organizers to gain such funding. We looked at it in 2015 and 2016 and decided not to bother. If we ever look to do a very large event again we will look at what the current rules are again though I don't see this happening any time soon.

[Vlad Drkulec]

While Vlad's post is interesting and informative, I do take exception to his phrase 'tilting at windmills', with respect to my suggestion that the CFC should strive to emulate the FQE in being part of a national sports / leisure organizational headquarters centre, as is being done in Quebec.

Aside from the proposed centre in Quebec, I am aware of no counterpart in Ottawa, though most national sports organizations are headquartered in Ottawa, as we once were.

Last time I checked, Quebec is part of Canada, and if it can be done at the provincial level in Quebec, it could potentially be done at the federal level in Canada! And, yes, there may be people in Canada who could make this happen, going forward. I think the CFC needs to think more 'outside the box'; narrow thinking and significant errors have limited achievements and growth in recent decades for Canadian chess. For a major example on chess funding botched and bridges burned, look no further than the horrendous Thorvardson scandal at the Ontario Chess Association, which messed up a potential major source of future funding with the Trillium Foundation.

Themaswot make the suggestion can go ahead and do the work and spend the money. It is simply not realistic to expect us to hope to fly to Ottawa and lobby the federal government without a budget in the tens of thousands of dollars if we are talking multiple trips for multiple meetings even assuming we could get those meetings. There is no government ministry whose job it is to give away money to chess. We have no full time staff that we could put on this task without severely curtailing services. We don't have the time or resources to chase after something which has a very low likelihood of success. What we do have time for is high impact events which allow us to meet with local communities interested in holding tournaments. We will continue to do that. The nice thing is that when the event is outside of Ottawa the CSTA subsidizes our travel and hotel so the only cost is personal to the executive members of the board who attend on the CFC's behalf.

[Aris Marghetis]

If I may add, it seems that most people (perhaps understandably) underestimate the amount of bandwidth that members of the Executive spend on all things chess. For example, Vlad-Hal-Fred spend literally days at a time for events like the CSTA. Anyway, sometimes it feels like there is a rather limited group of chess volunteers, and they have to repeatedly switch dozens of hats. In my opinion, it would be great if more people could step up and step in to contribute. If we could expand our "Canadian chess team", I respectfully submit that we could achieve more, burn out less, etc.

Best regards.

[Kerry Liles]

If I may add, it seems that most people (perhaps understandably) underestimate the amount of bandwidth that members of the Executive spend on all things chess. For example, Vlad-Hal-Fred spend literally days at a time for events like the CSTA. Anyway, sometimes it feels like there is a rather limited group of chess volunteers, and they have to repeatedly switch dozens of hats. In my opinion, it would be great if more people could step up and step in to contribute. If we could expand our "Canadian chess team", I respectfully submit that we could achieve more, burn out less, etc.

Best regards.

Absolutely spot on Aris. Until you see how much time it takes to "even" be a governor (or whatever they are currently named) it can be quite a shock. Many people have volunteered only to find that the time commitment is way beyond anything they imagined. When you add to that the pounding nearly every member of the CFC Executive takes on message boards and through other channels, it is a wonder anyone does the job at all. This applies in particular to the CFC executive director (Bob Gillanders) who does an AMAZING job that requires a lot of hours... I know Bob is an accountant - I just hope to hell he doesn't calculate his actual hourly rate and explode into thin air. Tip of the hat to those stalwart folks manning the bridge.

[Aris Marghetis]

Absolutely spot on Aris. Until you see how much time it takes to "even" be a governor (or whatever they are currently named) it can be quite a shock. Many people have volunteered only to find that the time commitment is way beyond anything they imagined. When you add to that the pounding nearly every member of the CFC Executive takes on message boards and through other channels, it is a wonder anyone does the job at all. This applies in particular to the CFC executive director (Bob Gillanders) who does an AMAZING job that requires a lot of hours... I know Bob is an accountant - I just hope to hell he doesn't calculate his actual hourly rate and explode into thin air. Tip of the hat to those stalwart folks manning the bridge.

Right on Kerry! Let's be realistic, Bob is actually more of a volunteer than an employee! If he wasn't so into chess, and Canadian chess, there's no way he stays at it! :)

[Hugh Brodie]

Is there any chance that the CFC will regain its charitable status? I (and others) would make donations if there was a tax benefit.

[Vlad Drkulec]

The recurring cost of regaining charitable status is about $4500 per year (or was a few years ago - It could be more today). We would need to be able to earn at least four or five times that number every year in donations to make it make sense. If we become a soliciting corporation and raise 10k in a year from non-members we would also incur those same charges for at least two years. This was one of the reasons to continue to use the terminology of membership when we went through the continuation process in addition to the poison pill aspect that I have alluded to in other posts. One of the reasons that the CFC didn't fight to retain charitable status was that donations over the years had been quite small relative to the cost of fighting and I don't believe at that time the recurring costs were factored in.