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Chris: Does the OCA have copies of all of the Trillium grant documentation? How about making them available for the rank and file to see? What about the resolution authorizing the application to the Trillium Foundation? Was it passed with due regard to the applicable provisions of the OCA constitution (e.g. conflict of interest)? Were expenditures in excess of $1,000 authorized in accordance with the constitution? And by the way, why was York Region (this is from memory; if it's wrong then whatever the geographical region was) singled out for this bit of munificence? It is the Ontario Chess Association, after all. What was the OCA's rationale for choosing this locale and excluding others?
Frank Dixon: Frank, why hasn't your voice been heard with respect to this matter?
Last edited by Peter McKillop; Thursday, 16th October, 2008, 12:45 PM.
Reason: I'm too lazy to start another thread.
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey
And by the way, why was York Region (this is from memory; if it's wrong then whatever the geographical region was) singled out for this bit of munificence? It is the Ontario Chess Association, after all. What was the OCA's rationale for choosing this locale and excluding others?
The way the lottery grants work is they go to a region. York Region was picked as being the most likely to be accepted, and, if successful, the plan/dream was to spread the model across other regions of the province. The level of chess already happening in York wasn't a consideration. There would be the promotion of chess in schools, local championships and a regional championship. The 3-year model assumed that one or two local York residents would be hired as organizers and that after 3 years funding by business/charities/local governments would maintain the program after the lottery funds were used up.
It reminds me of another lottery grant way back in the '70s for a Man verus Machine match at the CNE. Lots of money, little of it seen by local chessplayers.
Erik's information is correct to the best of my knowledge; however, he chose not to address some of your other questions (most likely because he too would like the answers!)
In my view, the fact that Barry Thorvardson assumed the role of administrator of the grant (and apparently pocketed a very large portion of the grant money as 'salary') is directly in contravention of the the OCA Constitution provision that the OCA Executive may not be remunerated (in service of the OCA). Not to mention the unbelievable conflict of interest.
I have not seen any accounting of any of the funds other than those fragments of treasurer reports that are already available on the OCA web site (and those reports are severely lacking any detail of any kind). I have not seen any of the banking information of the OCA [all of this despite the fact that I am the treasurer of the OCA] but I would not be at all surprised if some of the information might be "substandard" shall we say. I say that speculatively since I am not an accountant or bookkeeper or even interested in applied arithmetic as I call it.
I know that Barry and Hal Bond were summoned to a Trillium Foundation meeting where the foundation people were very concerned that money from the grant had been used outside of the designated region (ie: not in York Region, but by the CFC for example). Apparently Hal was invited to that meeting to absolutely declare that the CFC had no involvement with the money. Barry stated at the OCA AGM that in retrospect he should have recused himself from the Executive of the OCA when it became clear that he could not easily find someone willing and/or able to administer the program [and therefore decided to do the administration himself]
As I recall, Barry did NOT provide any substantive evidence of the use of the grant money other than generalities which were not quantitative nor documented anywhere I have seen.
You may be getting the impression that this whole situation really pi$$e$ me off; you would be absolutely correct. Several people communicated to me as a member of the new OCA executive that we should immediately take steps to get the money back. I think it is safe to say the current OCA executive felt that this would be prohibitively expensive from a legal point of view and in fact, the money would likely have to be simply returned to Trillium. If *they* aren't interested enough in pursuing the matter (assuming they actually do understand what did and did not happen!?) then it seems preposterous for a completely cash-starved organization as the OCA to pursue something that is not clear and may in fact not be recoverable.
I am afraid I have absolutely no more information about all this than what I have written above; Chris (Mallon) may have more information and he may chose to weigh in here (after all, the original thread question was directed to him as OCA President).
Thanks for the information, Kerry and Erik. I'm sure there are a lot of people with a lot of good ideas on how that money might have been spent. For example, for round numbers let's say York Region District School Board has 200 elementary schools (I think this number is a little high but it makes for easy figuring). Consider the following, just for discussion, as an injection into the school system in exchange for the school board's commitment to including chess in the junior grades' curricula:
1. 200 schools x 30 CFC "school tubes" per school x $10 (approx) per tube = $60,000.
2. 200 schools x 2 CFC "Tom O'Donnell's Manual for Schools" per school
x $25/manual = $10,000.
3. engage CMA to run a train-the-trainer program for the school board - say, 2 teachers
per school with 40 teachers per training session at, say, $1,500 per session (don't
know if this figure is realistic but presumably the board would be providing the pre-
-mises for free) = $15,000.
Presumably the CFC would have been a few thousand dollars better off based on its mark up on the manuals and school tubes, CMA would have been happy and the board and its students would have been happy. And you'd still have $35,000 to spend.
Anyway, my point here is not to persecute Barry. He may be guilty of an important error in judgement with respect to how chess might best have benefitted from the grant but I'm assuming that he did nothing wrong from a legal perspective. However, I think it's fair to ask that all of the information pertaining to this fiasco be made public. Let's understand where we/the OCA went wrong so that the chance of something like this happening again is reduced. Perhaps the doors of the Trillium Foundation are closed to the OCA forever. Too bad.
Last edited by Peter McKillop; Friday, 17th October, 2008, 09:19 AM.
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey
If 400 copies of your manual were purchased wouldn't you make a bit of money? Wouldn't that make you happy? Heck, I don't know. I'll amend my post.
What's with the slash in your name?
Last edited by Peter McKillop; Friday, 17th October, 2008, 09:21 AM.
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey
I would make exactly nothing from the purchase of 400 or even 400,000 manuals. I originally agreed to do this for the CFC with the understanding that the CFC would give my work away for free, to encourage the spread of chess around the country. And they did ... at first. Now they sell it. I learned three valuable things from this:
1) Never deal with people who can't be trusted.
2) Never volunteer.
3) Get everything in writing.
"Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.
Tom, I'm truly sorry to hear this. I can't believe how much ill will has been created in our chess communities by officious & incompetent CFC jackasses. I don't know David Lavin but I've heard several people I do know say that he's honest and fair. Have you considered approaching him?
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey
Nah, I consider it a lesson well taught and learned. I was fooled once, but it won't ever happen again. ;-)
There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says: fool me once, shame on... shame on you. You fool me, I can't get fooled again.
everytime it hurts, it hurts just like the first (and then you cry till there's no more tears)
Hey man, why don't you check your facts !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:) Bob, the information below was copied (with a bit of editing) from the CFC's website. Stupid me! Treating the CFC website as a reliable source of information! Duh!
Where does it say that Tom's manual will be given out free to anyone who asks?
*********************************************************
School Teaching Manual
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Members Price: $16.22 Non-Members Price: $17.84
Members Save: $1.62 Catalogue Number: 3388
Author: Tom O'Donnell
Year: 1997 Games: 0
Diagrams: 750 Pages: 303 Regular Price: $24.95
Sale Price: $16.22
NOTE: Schools receive Members' Price. All prices are in Canadian dollars. To get the US Dollar conversion rate click here.
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office." - Aesop
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." - Plato
"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." - Thomas De Quincey
I know for certain the CFC has sold copies of the manual, as I have, over the course of my years working for Chess n Math, run into teachers who have purchased it. The online copy (a pdf file) has been available for free, that's true.
I don't know what fact requires verification in this case. I totally stand by my previous comments.
"Tom is a well known racist, and like most of them he won't admit it, possibly even to himself." - Ed Seedhouse, October 4, 2020.
I know for certain the CFC has sold copies of the manual, as I have, over the course of my years working for Chess n Math, run into teachers who have purchased it. The online copy (a pdf file) has been available for free, that's true.
Are you entitled to royalties on the book? If they have sold enough, possibly you're the new owner of the CFC. :)
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