$ 400 in 5 hours work !!

[Fred Harvey]

Re: Chess Foundation of Canada

O.K. I did a rather siily thing, and looked at what the CFC site says about the foundation! Clearly it is based on a model that evolved into the Community Foudation concept, with the following difference.

"1405. Foundation Board of Trustees. The trust funds shall be in the complete charge and control of the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees shall consist of five persons appointed by the Chess Federation of Canada as follows: Each year, at the Annual Meeting of the Chess Federation of Canada or by its direction, one trustee will be appointed for a one year term, and another for a four year term. The members of the Board of Trustees will select a Chairman and Treasurer from their ranks under the direction of the CFC President."

It is clearly not at arms length from the CFC, although is trying to act like it is. Legally, the whole thing looks like a mess, and heaven knows how ths funds get divvied up at dissolution. You have to hope the five trustees at the time are honourable people - sorry about that!

[Bob Armstrong]

Chess Foundation of Canada

Hi Fred:

My memory may be foggy on this, so someone from the executive, or a trustee of the Foundation can correct me if I'm wrong:

1. The Chess Foundation of Canada is not a separate corporation; it is an entity set up by the CFC ( like a sub-business ); so all funds in the Chess Foundation are really CFC funds. I believe tax receipts are issued by the CFC, which is a charitable corporation.

2. As such, the CFC could disband the Foundation at any time, and take all moneys.

3. The CFC wished to protect the funds from itself to the extent possible. So it created the Foundation with Trustees, and treats the entity at arm's length. So it calls for trustee decisions re the funds, and respects their wishes. Thus CFC " agreed " to " borrow " money from the Foundation in some deficit years, and " pay it back " ( which it did ), when that is what the Trustees wanted.

Hope I'm not screwing up the facts here. I'd like someone with a more direct role to confirm whether I've got it right.

Bob

[Duncan Smith]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

The potential problems with this specific chess foundation :

1. A large sum of money collected specifically to build a chess club in
Toronto was donated into the foundation. No such chess club was
ever built in Toronto.

2. Chess is fundamentally changing in Canada. One has to ask if a chess
federation that is not solvent or only solvent if it cuts basic services really
needs a giant foundation storing its only resources.

For example, if the CFC as we know it is liquidated, what will be the purpose of this foundation ? Or if it is not liquidated, at what rate can it "borrow" foundation funds before the relationship gets difficult ?

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

BRAMPTON ACTIVE SPRING CHESS TOURNAMENT
Saturday, April 24, 2010

http://torontochess.org/drupal/chess...nt#comment-403

On April 1st, 2010 Anonymous (not verified) says:
Brampton Spring Active Chess Tournament This Event has been Canceled for April 24, 2010.

Erwin, may you confirm or deny this anonymous comment?

[Fred Harvey]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

Judging from some of the comments on "foundations", it seems few people on here understand the concept. I haven't a clue about the details of the chess foundation, but do know a little about Community Foundations.

Over the past twenty years or so, these have become a popular mechanism for "directed" charity donations. The idea is that people can donate sums of money into the foundation, where it is held in trust, hopefully under the management of reputable financial advisors....don't laugh....yet! Each year, interest or other returns on that fund is given to the cause(s) that the foundation was establish to support. None of the base fund can be used in this way - it exists solely to generate revenue, and hopefully provide some financial stability to the charities of choice, and named in the terms of reference.

In the good old days of high interest rates and market returns, this was a very good way of maintaining ongoing support for your charities of choice. These days, it is a little more difficult, but the basic premise remains, the fund is maintained solely to generate monies for charity, and can not be diminished.

Each foundation operates under very clear terms of reference, with clear objectives, and with an independent board, and the whole thing has to be legally established to satisfy foundation rules, and not least Revenue Canada, to maintain all the perks of taxes and charitable donations.

From what I read, this is in fact the way in which the Chess Foundation is currently operating, is the correct way, and any change would probably mean dismantling the whole thing, and I suspect the disbursement of funds would not be as straightforward as some would hope.

I apologise if this comes across as telling the chess world out there how to suck eggs, but it is quite likely that if the foundation is established under Canadian law for foundations, in no way are their monies part of the CFC , and even the annual payments from interest earned, while contemplated in their terms of reference, are still subject to the decision of the foundation board....which had better be independent of the CFC.

I'm sure some of the drones on here will tell me I'm wrong. Maybe someone who actually knows can reply as well?

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

Tell me about Lithuanian chess.

There are not many professional players - GMs Rozentalis (he is coming to 2010'CO), Šulskis, Kveinys in Lithuania. I should mention g Algimantas Butnorius, who won the World Seniors championship in 2007, and Viktorija Čmilytė, the last player to become a Lithuanian GM and the European Women's vice-champion. (FIDE list of Lithuanian players - http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml?ina=1&country=LTU )

Chess is considered a non-Olympic sport in Lithuania, meaning it has less financial government support. Monies are delivered to a federation account. They are used to send teams to Olympiad and European championships, and something left for a director and small expanses. However, the last year the government reduced the amount (a crisis...)

On other hand, the government supports kids busyness by operating sports "schools", where some towns have chess sections. (This is a soviet heritage.) Recently U10-U14 tournaments took place >> results at http://chess-results.com/tnr31663.as...1&m=-1&wi=1000

Chess clubs (~20) are active in Leagues with two divisions.
My hometown (~20k population) chess club is open three days per week offering blitz tournaments and casual chess. It organizes an active regional chess tournament, and the last summer re-started FIDE rated tournaments. (Other Lithuanian chess activities might be found at my website.)

Chess politics
Federation members (including member-clubs) meet every two years to elect the board. As the rule, the president became somebody known in politics (like a MP. Now this stopped.) The vice-presidents and other people are from chess community, who do all work.
Always there are who are not happy with done work :) e.g., the switch from a closed to a Swiss format for the National championship.

There are many girls playing chess. Thus keeping boys as well :)

[Gary Ruben]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

Sorry, Gary's posting came in while I was preparing mine. Yes, I have the entire history of the Foundation. Much of it pre-dates the electronic age but when I took over as treasurer from Lynn Stringer, she gave me a box full of documentation. In 1960 the Foundation earned $2.57 for the CFC!

That does not show in the records I have.

In 1960 the foundation started with 5 donation totalling $125.00. Year end was June 30th. The fund total was $125.00.
In 1961 the amount of interest earned was $3.87. The fund total $580.00.

Where did the $2.57 come from? Since you have the "entire history" of the foundation that should be an easy question.

Also, the Pugi Fund was started as you say, as far as I know. Did the CFC make donations to the Pugi fund to increase the principal?

[Paul Leblanc]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

Sorry, Gary's posting came in while I was preparing mine. Yes, I have the entire history of the Foundation. Much of it pre-dates the electronic age but when I took over as treasurer from Lynn Stringer, she gave me a box full of documentation. In 1960 the Foundation earned $2.57 for the CFC!
Every year my predecessor Lynn Stringer submitted a detailed report to the CFC and anyone can go back to the various GL's and AGM minutes to see those. I have continued to do this and also to provide a semi-annual report to members on the CFC Chat site.

[Paul Leblanc]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

Bob has captured the main points.

The Foundation's mandate is to invest the money collected since 1960 from Life Memberships and occasional donations and to hand over the income generated every year to the CFC.
This represents an unwritten contract with the Life Members and benefactors who made the contributions with that understanding and it provides the CFC with income to service the Life Members who pay no annual membership fees.

Aside from Life Memberships, there have been 3 significant contributions to the Foundation:
1. Kalev Pugi made a donation some 20 years ago on the condition that the income be used to assist junior players seeking norms;
2. The Toronto Chess League made a donation about 12 years ago;
3. Some of the funds from the sale of the CFC condo were placed in the Foundation for safekeeping about a year ago. I was requested by the CFC Executive to keep $10,000 of that in cash as a contingency to pay for the web site renewal.

As far as I am concerned, the mandate of the CFC Constitution (to invest the assets wisely and to hand over all income to the CFC) is sound. As the Foundation grows, the CFC will gain increasing revenue and more flexibility to offer services to the members.

Don't forget to include the Foundation in your estate planning.

your humble Foundation Treasurer

[Gary Ruben]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

The foundation history goes back to 1960, 50 years. Do we have 50 years of good financial records? I don't know, but I will ask. :)

I would like to see a complete history of the Foundation myself. :D

I've got from 1960 to 1973. The annual bottom line figures are on one page. The rest is statement of intent, foundation constitution, and so forth. I also have the complete CFC handbook from back then.

Does the CFC or foundation not have this?

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

Mr. Hébert, I suspect a significant portion of the funds came from lifetime subscription. In general, such monies are invested to ensure the fund will be able to meet the cost of the obligations towards these lifetime members.

As for the rest of the monies, I have no idea if they were originally donated and to what purposes, and the questions you raised deserve an answer from the administrators in my opinion.

Daniel, excellent questions. To the best of my knowledge, I can tell you:

Treasurer Paul LeBlanc has done an excellent job with the annual foundation financial reports. Latest annual report (April 30, 2009) can be found on the CFC website with the Governors Letters.

Equity in the Chess Foundation at April 30th 2009 stood at $ 157,013. This is comprised of $ 136,509 of unencumbered funds and $ 20,504 for the Kalev Pugi Fund. Pugi funds are earmarked for CFC youth programs in accordance with the wishes of the donors.

AFAIK, most of the unencumbered funds are from life memberships. The only other large contribution I know of, is the Toronto Building Fund (23k?).

In September 2009, the net proceeds from the condo sale ($65,809) was sent to the foundation (in trust) to be invested.

The foundation history goes back to 1960, 50 years. Do we have 50 years of good financial records? I don't know, but I will ask. :)

I would like to see a complete history of the Foundation myself. :D

[Gary Ruben]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

I'm not knowledgeable enough about a Russian chess program. I may tell you about Lithuanian. Do you wanna read?

I want to read. You can write.

Some years ago we wrote about participation in different activities and those who might have ideas which are different from that of most people. Over the years I've noticed such things usually get a following of at least one tenth of one percent of the population. In Canada that would be roughly 30,000 people.

That's the number of players organized chess in Canada should have. We discussed this on the correspondence chess message board and some nations have roughly that percentage of the population or close. It's been a long time now so I don't recall the exact details but some of the European nations do have memberships roughly one tenth of one percent.

The chess set I use is an old Latvian set given to me by a relative. It was her fathers.

Tell me about Lithuanian chess. I'm interested.

[Daniel Rouleau]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

The point of having or making money is to be able to spend it according to your needs and dreams, hopefully wisely. What is the point of having a Chess Foudation whose money serve only to make more money (as if "investing" is a sure way to do that) and not to accomplish what you need to accomplish now ?

Mr. Hébert, I suspect a significant portion of the funds came from lifetime subscription. In general, such monies are invested to ensure the fund will be able to meet the cost of the obligations towards these lifetime members.

As for the rest of the monies, I have no idea if they were originally donated and to what purposes, and the questions you raised deserve an answer from the administrators in my opinion.

Of course the point in keeping that money safe may be to prevent the CFC to spend it foolishly but how long will it last ? When and who will decide eventually that the CFC has grown responsible enough to start spending it wisely?

The administrators of the funds typically have that responsibility.

I believe it would be wise, if anyone has a great idea as to how to spend these funds, to build a business case and present it to the administrators and the CFC executives, not necessarily at the same time. Such presentations should tell you how much support there is from both side of the fence.

By the way I doubt that "a new CFC Website" which has to be constantly improved and kept up to date (and redone after a while) really qualifies as a "one-time capital expenditure", but here maybe I don't quite understand the terminology.

It's like the foundation pays for a car and the CFC is responsible to pay to maintain it on the road.

I have my doubts whether the monies would be well invested considering the old and current CFC websites are pitiful and this one, a simple bulletin board, looks meh at best. I am not saying this site does not meet the requirements of the owner, just that I am very doubtful it will attract many members based solely on its presentation.

Please note although I am not a big fan of the FQE website it looks quite polished and it appears to be designed to keep maintenance costs are kept to a minimum. A good design for an organisation with a limited budget for its web presence.

[Roger Patterson]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

the program that takes data entry and calculates new ratings etc is a separate program from the web pages that query the database. For the Victoria database at least, this program is never seen, never used by the public. Querying the database and formatting the data for a webpage is quite easy.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: $ 400 in 5 hours work !!

when I did the database

How do you proceed from tournament results to players' rating? (i.e., you get a crosstable of a tournament. What next?)