Official CFC Candidates for President

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

The figures are only from 9 months.

Contributions from Foundation 5,447
Contribution to Chess Foundation 2340

Contibution to clubs and affiliates 5,220 but it's not broken up so we don't know which one got how much.

Other programs 87,347 and I assume that's $87,347.00.

It's all lumped together so there is no indication of where the money went.

Okay, thanks for the questions.

Contribution from Foundation $ 5,447 - each spring we get a cheque from the Foundation for earnings on our investments. We received $ 7,263 last summer and we record 1/12 of it each month. 9/12 = $ 5,447

Contributions to Chess Foundation - $ 2,340 - These are new life memberships purchased. The memberships are paid to the CFC office then sent to the Foundation to be invested. We include these in our membership revenues and clearly identify them in the notes to the financial statements.

Contributions to clubs and affiliates - $ 5,220 - Includes the subsidy to the Canadian Open 2010 of $ 1,378 when we waived the rating fees (CFC and FIDE) at the AGM2010. The balance of $ 3,842 represents donations made to specific events from sponsors requesting tax receipts. The receipts are included in donations in our revenues.

Other program $ 87,347 - the breakdown can be found in the notes to the financial statements (the next page).

Breakdown is:
Olympics - $ 14,312
Youth program - $ 70,435 (mostly the WYCC)
Kalev Pugi fund - $ 2,600

The WYCC numbers include all the monies that flows thru the CFC office to cover tournament and hotels costs for all players and accompanying parents and team officials.

Gary - does that help. :)

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

The contributions to the Foundation are Life Memberships. Yours seems to have been lost in the mail, Gary.

No. I didn't send the CFC a contribution. I'm a life member of the CCCA and send them contributions when the urge strikes.

I don't want to be a life member of the CFC. It's my view life memberships take money from current income and should be discontinued until the general membership reaches the point where the organization is able to cover the cost of the administration and programs.

The life membership is too high a percentage of total membership, in my opinion.

[Lucas Davies]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

I think a chandelier has to be installed by an electrician. Do you mean a candelabra?

Sir, a proper butler can perform any necessary task around the house. Any self-respecting butler would be highly offended at the mere notion of having any sort of outside help coming in to assist.

[John Brown]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

Hi Bob G

Well good luck with the elections.
It looks like the only changes will be the President's name.
Hopefully the future of the CFC will be better than the past and we will get more memberships.

I think one thing the CFC should look into is a training course for new upcoming wannabee organizers. We old guys are starting to get tired of the grind.

[Fred McKim]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

Actually, Fred, I don't see what "us" has done for the common players. Maybe tell us so everyone will know.

Things I did notice is there are only 3 GL's this year. I thought in past years there were too many and they probably took too much time away from other matters.

The figures are only from 9 months.

Contributions from Foundation 5,447
Contribution to Chess Foundation 2340

Contibution to clubs and affiliates 5,220 but it's not broken up so we don't know which one got how much.

Other programs 87,347 and I assume that's $87,347.00.

It's all lumped together so there is no indication of where the money went.

So I'm left with the question of what the CFC did for the common players as opposed to the elite players.

In the days when I organized OTB and the club was common players, I used to try to get the guys to chip in for international programs and so forth. The CFC membership was part of the club membership. Most of us worked and I didn't mind telling players we were supporting chess with our money. I can't see where the CFC did anything for common players and am interested in knowing what's being done these days, since it was mentioned.

There are likely more knitting groups in Canada than there are chess clubs.

Here's a start. I may have forgotten some things.

1) Handles adminstration and publication of chess ratings
2) Provides a book and equipment store
3) Produces a monthly newsletter for members
4) Building a new site to replace outdated site.
5) Maintains a bulletin board
6) Promotes Youth Chess Championships as qualifiers to CYCC.
7) Provides public relations pieces to news media (new)

8) Administers Canadian Closed, Women's Closed, Junior, Youth and Open.
9) Liaises with organizers for Canadian reps to World events and Olympiad.
10) Liaises with FIDE regarding Intenational and World issues.
11) Fund raises for Olympic teams
12) Donations of ~$3000 to 2011 Canadian Closed, ~$1000 to 2010 Canadian Olympic Team, and ~$1500 to 2010 Canadian Open, all in past 12 months.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

Gary - does that help. :)

Yes. It's better than a lump total.

Why is $2,600. going to the Pugi Fund? The fund was a set figure donated by Mr. Pugi and such additions are not necessary. I'd point out the fund is now a mixture of the members and patrons money. It leaves a person with the feeling there is lots of money to pass around.

[Fred McKim]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

Other program $ 87,347 - the breakdown can be found in the notes to the financial statements (the next page).

Breakdown is:
Olympics - $ 14,312
Youth program - $ 70,435 (mostly the WYCC)
Kalev Pugi fund - $ 2,600

Other programs are flow through amounts. In other word we receive that much money from outside sources and pass it along to other recipients.

In the case of the Pugi money, the $2600 is the amount we took from the fund and gave to recipients.

For Olympics, this was the amount raised by the Olympic Fund (in and out).

For Youth program this was mostly the airfare money raised from the CYCC and money received from the parents for accomodations, etc and paid out for tickets and to the organizers, etc.

They are traditionally shown on the revenue and expenses statement, although I personally think it is misleading - but would probably be more trouble than worth to remove from financial records, etc.

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

Yes. It's better than a lump total.

Why is $2,600. going to the Pugi Fund? The fund was a set figure donated by Mr. Pugi and such additions are not necessary. I'd point out the fund is now a mixture of the members and patrons money. It leaves a person with the feeling there is lots of money to pass around.

No, you got it all wrong. As Fred said, the statements can be confusing. We need to conform to accepted statement presentation formats, which can be confusing to the layperson. If you look at the Deferred contributions note, I will explain the Pugi fund.

Each year the foundation sends us a cheque. The interest earned on Pugi funds is earmarked for youth grants. This year is was $820. The principal balance in Pugi fund stays in the Foundation.

Kalev Pugi fund (held by cfc office)

Balance - beginning of the year $ 1,843 - total of all annual interest payments paid to CFC office less total of all grants to kids to date.

"Contributions" $ 820 - cheque from Foundation

"Recognized as revenue" $ 2,600 - total of grants paid to kids during the year

Balance - end of year $63 - what is left to pay grants held by CFC office.

So, this year we will get another $820 and will have $883 available for grants.

Yes, the terminology is not intuitive (stupid). :o

But do you follow now? I have explained this more times than I care to remember!

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

Here's a start. I may have forgotten some things.

1) Handles adminstration and publication of chess ratings
2) Provides a book and equipment store
3) Produces a monthly newsletter for members
4) Building a new site to replace outdated site.
5) Maintains a bulletin board
6) Promotes Youth Chess Championships as qualifiers to CYCC.
7) Provides public relations pieces to news media (new)

8) Administers Canadian Closed, Women's Closed, Junior, Youth and Open.
9) Liaises with organizers for Canadian reps to World events and Olympiad.
10) Liaises with FIDE regarding Intenational and World issues.
11) Fund raises for Olympic teams
12) Donations of ~$3000 to 2011 Canadian Closed, ~$1000 to 2010 Canadian Olympic Team, and ~$1500 to 2010 Canadian Open, all in past 12 months.

There was a distinction made in the original statement between the elite and common players. Your listing is things for everyone and some things which would, or maybe should, be promotional. Like a web site and bulletin board. In fact, I would think Larry provides the major chess bulletin board in Canada.

I was more interested in what is being done for the elite players and what is being done for the common players, which is different, rather than what is being done for the entire membership.

Let me give you an example. Your point number 1. regarding the ratings. For a fee the ratings are done. The elite players don't pay entry fees so likely their rating is updated free to them. The common players would pay the shot. The point is valid but misses pointing out the "bennie".

Those kind of points aside, it's good to see the programs you have in place for the masses. As an organizer I always liked the pyramid model. A strong base from which the cream can rise to the top.

Now I must run. I want to read Kevin's Blog.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

Lucas, I add to John Brown's sentiments: "Good luck with the electrons".

The figures don't tell Gary much. The entry fees and prizes of the CYCC appear
on the CFC's books, but is the same true of the Canadian Open or Closed? Hard
to make comparisons.

But I continue to submit that the distinction between "elite" and "everybody
else" is unproductive.

First, chess is a game with victory and defeat. To the victor(s) go(es) the
spoils. If that bothers anybody, there are plenty of sports and activities
where that does not apply. Chess attracts people of a competitive bent.
Even the pure artistry of problem and study composition has its competition winners.

Second, how do you label the money? It's easy to say that the $14,000 for the
Olympics was "elite" money. I say no. The money was for travel expenses.
Sure, some of the team members might have been able to earn titles. On the
other hand, grandmasters were simply taking part in a tournament without
receiving a fee, and without a chance to win a (conventional) prize. The true
beneficiaries were the "everybody else" at home, who got to follow the
destinies of Canada's teams, to say to themselves "we did well today". Or not.
If the CFC were to provide a fee, in excess of the rent each player has to pay
while he's gone, sure, that would be "elite" support.
But really that's a false distinction. It's all one thing.

Third, it's divisive. Suuuuurely we don't need more of that.

Fourth, I think it has been counterproductive, and I think you can see a
diminishing in the CFC membership figures starting from when this concept first
got bruited about in the Governors' Letters, AFAIR about 15 years ago. I think
I even remember which governor was the idea's first champion.

Other program $ 87,347 - the breakdown can be found in the notes to the financial statements (the next page).

Breakdown is:
Olympics - $ 14,312
Youth program - $ 70,435 (mostly the WYCC)
Kalev Pugi fund - $ 2,600

The WYCC numbers include all the monies that flows thru the CFC office to cover tournament and hotels costs for all players and accompanying parents and team officials.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

Here's a start. I may have forgotten some things.

1) Handles adminstration and publication of chess ratings

This is one of the key undertakings which is also probably the main source of funds for the CFC.

2) Provides a book and equipment store

This done through Amazon and is probably almost zero administration on the book side, what about the equipment side?

3) Produces a monthly newsletter for members

My impression is that this is quite well done but not critical to the CFC mission. I remember that at one point certain individuals were suggesting that the newsletter justified an increase in CFC fees. It does not.

I must confess that I usually save it to my documents folder, glance at it, think that they are doing a good job with that and never look at it again. There are many other extremely useful websites like chesspublishing.com, chesscafe.com, chessvibes.com, chessbase.com, chessintranslation.com to name a few which provide fairly high level news and chess analysis which our newsletter just can't compete with. My attention is divided and time is limited.

4) Building a new site to replace outdated site.

I hope that I am wrong but other than looking prettier I wonder if the new website will be any more utilitarian than the old one. I know that a lot of hope is being placed in the new website to help sell the benefits of joining the CFC and chess in Canada but I just don't see it at this point in time. If we can easily add new things like class titles and ways to keep track of things online similar to what they do in the USCF (which has an ugly but somewhat useful website) then it might still turn out to be a successful if pricey investment. The key thing is that the website will not market anything by itself. Someone has to provide the marketing copy and compelling reasons for the members to keep returning to the site.

To be continued....

[Fred McKim]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

This done through Amazon and is probably almost zero administration on the book side, what about the equipment side?

I am simply providing the summary of what services we provide.

The book store is not really any different than if you went to Amazon directly, but we do receive a small commission on sales that flow through from our site, and the selection, I believe, is larger than our "biggest" competitor.

The equipment shop is done though an outside wholesaler. We take the order, notify the wholesaler, who ships the order, and balance the books with the wholesaler, every month.

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

There are many other extremely useful websites like chesspublishing.com, chesscafe.com, chessvibes.com, chessbase.com, chessintranslation.com to name a few which provide fairly high level news and chess analysis which our newsletter just can't compete with.

Those others don't provide the Canadian content we have! For the most part, I simply don't care about those other websites, I want to know what is happening in Canada. :D

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

Those others don't provide the Canadian content we have! For the most part, I simply don't care about those other websites, I want to know what is happening in Canada. :D

So do I but I usually rely on Chesstalk and the CFC discussion board and website to provide timely information. One month or more is too long of a lag in these days of instant gratification. For local news I rely on windsorchess.ca.

[Bob Gillanders]

Re: Official CFC Candidates for President

The entry fees and prizes of the CYCC appear
on the CFC's books, but is the same true of the Canadian Open or Closed? Hard
to make comparisons.

Also wrong. Entry fees and tournament expenses for the CYCC do not appear on the CFC books. They are on the books of the organizers. What does flow to the CFC books is the funds raised to finance the WYCC trip. Last years CYCC in Windsor raised 20k which helped finance the WYCC trip. That 20k plus family payments for additional players hotel rooms etc. plus some smaller amounts for Canadian Junior etc. make up the $72,907 "contributions" in Youth program on 3rd qtr statements. (see GL3).

CFC contributions (subsidies) out of general revenues to Canadian Open and Canadian Closed will appear on the annual statements due out shortly, $ 1,378 and $ 2,863 respectively. The entry fees and prizes are not part of the CFC's books.

There are appears to be an astounding level of misinformation about chess finances out in the chess community. No wonder there is so much mistrust. :(