The CCC Post ( Week of January 27 – February 2/12 ).

[Bob Armstrong]

The CCC Post ( Week of January 27 – February 2/12 ).

The 2012 Winter Governors’ On-line Meeting concluded in mid-January ( had been running since Jan. 1 ). The Cooperative Chess Coalition ( CCC ) had 2 motions on the agenda:

1. Motion 2012-L– basically stating that it was the member’s right to try to get assistance from a governor to bring his/her petition to the Assembly of Governors who run the CFC. The motion got more than 50% of the votes, but unfortunately, it was a “ constitutional “ amendment, and needed 2/3 of the votes, which it did not get. So the motion failed. This leaves our CFC Handbook with no section on “ Members” Rights “ – not a good situation in the view of the CCC. We must be one of the few non-profit organizations in Canada that has no such section. Here is the section that failed to get sufficient governor support:

MEMBER RIGHTS

14. ( 1 ) Any individual Member shall have a right to be heard on any matter pertaining to the affairs of the Federation, or his individual membership, or any situation where any individual member is aggrieved by any matter arising in the conduct of the affairs of the Federation, by approaching a CFC governor for assistance in presenting his submission, motion, etc. to the CFC AGM, Quarterly Meeting, or otherwise. No governor is obliged to agree to act on behalf of such member.

( 2 ) Any such complaints, suggestions, etc. of any individual Member shall be dealt with by the Federation Secretary replying in writing to any governor acting on behalf of such member, with copy to such individual Member.

( 3 ) As set out elsewhere in the Handbook, CFC members have the right as there set out, to elect their CFC governors.

2. Motion 2012-M – allowing for 2 members to get their motion onto a governor meeting agenda without needing a governor to move it or second it, under some moderately onerous conditions – failed by a substantial margin. Here is the section that was defeated:

MEMBER RIGHTS

14a. Any individual member may bring a motion directly to the CFC governors, without governor assistance being required, if he has a member seconder, and endorsement of members totaling 5% of the total Ordinary and Life members. The total shall be based on the membership statistics issued May 1 by the CFC Secretary. Endorsing members must be 18 years of age or over, and there must be proof provided directly from the endorser to the CFC Secretary of each member’s endorsement of the motion.

If members are concerned about this defeat of these sections, let your view be known here, and let your local governor know you are unhappy with what they did.

Want introductory CCC material ?- cooperativechesscoalition@gmail.com . Consider joining !

Bob, CCC Coordinator
CCC Facebook Group Page : http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sfr...806343128&ap=1
CCC Twitter Account : http://www.twitter.com/coopchesscoalit

[Ken Kurkowski]

Re: The CCC Post ( Week of January 27 – February 2/12 ).

I'm really curious as to what the Governors who oppose these motions are afraid of.

[Bob Armstrong]

Public Right to Know?

Hi Ken:

The problem is that you will never find out.

A while ago, the governors voted down:

1. opening their quarterly meetings to the public, like the AGM.

2. opening the text of the meeting ( all the meeting posts ) to the public, after the meeting had concluded.

Also, although the CFC Handbook Rules for On-line Meetings state clearly that " minutes " of the meeting shall be publicly posted, the governors have interpreted it to mean only " summaries " of the meeting. This means there are no names attached to anything, and the comment is only of the most general nature, and may well not provide the information desired by the public.

But I would note that almost no member has seemed concerned about this - little stink after the previous votes referred to above, and almost none on the defeat of the Cooperative Chess Coalition ( CCC ) Members' Rights Motions.

Bob A, CCC Coordinator

P.S. For full disclosure purposes, I note that Ken is a full member of the CCC. And no this isn't a pre-planned conspiracy, for those looking to throw rocks at the CCC.

[Ken Craft]

Re: The CCC Post ( Week of January 27 – February 2/12 ).

For my part, I considered them cumbersome and unnecessary. I think I abstained on the first one. I voted "no" on the second one.

Like Bob, I support Governors meetings being open to the public. The Governors should not be meeting in secret.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: The CCC Post ( Week of January 27 – February 2/12 ).

I'm really curious as to what the Governors who oppose these motions are afraid of.

I figure it has to do with the notion of the Devine Right of Kings. At least 2 of the governors were around in some capacity in the early 70's when I was a governor.

With all the life governors it never seems unreasonable when I write I should be made president for life so I can do things my way.

My own impression is the secret meetings might have something to do with the appearance the organization doesn't really have a direction. Watching what's happening I don't know what they are trying to do. It seems like just getting by from year to year is enough.

We read about things like a budget. A budget should reflect programs and expenditures toward meeting goals and objectives. Maybe expenditures to increase membership. Possibly objectives toward increasing the strength of the players.

I'd like to see a statement of the current objectives and VISION the governors and executive have for Canadian chess. I hope that's not a secret.

[Bob Armstrong]

CFC Vision Report

Hi Gary:

CFC has struck a " Long-Term Planning " Committee. I would think what you are requesting is exactly what they should be doing.

Maybe someone from the committee could post here to advise where a Vision Report fits into their priorities.

Bob A

[Gary Ruben]

Re: CFC Vision Report

Maybe someone from the committee could post here to advise where a Vision Report fits into their priorities.

Bob A

Hi Bob,

This is being met by silence. Who's on the committee, if it's not a secret? I'd like to know who has been placed in charge of visions.

Anyhow, Bob, I will provide the inspirational word for the month of February. That word is "RENEWAL" as in organizational renewal.

Yours in the sport,
Gary

[Bob Armstrong]

CFC Long-term Planning Committee - Vision Report?

Hi Gary:

To find CFC Committees/Committee Chairs, go to the CFC Website, and use the top bar menu item " CFC Info ", which gives you the drop down menu, with " CFC Committees " ( http://chess.ca/cfc-committees ).

According to that it is a four person committee: Vlad Drkulec ( Chair - Masters' Rep. ), Rob Clark ( NOCL ), Brian Fiedler ( GTCL ) and Chris Mallon ( SWOCL ).

I have put your post on the CFC Governors' Discussion Board to bring it to the attention of one of the committee members ( hopefully ).

Bob

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: The CCC Post ( Week of January 27 – February 2/12 ).

Hi Gary and Bob

Note that for the CFC Long-Term Planning Committee, the current CFC President has also been included on an ex-officio basis, as he put it.

For the very short time I chaired that committee (before stepping down, partly to concentrate on membership drive committee matters), I had outlined five aims that the committee might concentrate on, with the idea of presenting a 10-year vision for the CFC as a report, though I indicated I personally would be happy if the committee succeeded in just making a 10-year business plan by the end of this term. Since I stepped down, I have no idea whether the committee's aims have changed.

The five aims I suggested for the committee were left out of the Secretary's public CFC Discussion Board summary of the October online meeting, where I suggested them to the governors. As it was put later in GL#2, the Governors voted in favour of the President striking such a committee. This left out any mention of my five aims. They may not have been all that controversial, but I prefer to leave it to any other Governor that's super-eager for transparency to state the rest of them (yes, a business plan was one of them). After all, there is a Governor's Code of Conduct still being considered (ahem).

[Gary Ruben]

Re: CFC Long-term Planning Committee - Vision Report?

Hi Gary:

To find CFC Committees/Committee Chairs, go to the CFC Website, and use the top bar menu item " CFC Info ", which gives you the drop down menu, with " CFC Committees " ( http://chess.ca/cfc-committees ).

According to that it is a four person committee: Vlad Drkulec ( Chair - Masters' Rep. ), Rob Clark ( NOCL ), Brian Fiedler ( GTCL ) and Chris Mallon ( SWOCL ).

I have put your post on the CFC Governors' Discussion Board to bring it to the attention of one of the committee members ( hopefully ).

Bob

Hi Bob,

Has there been any progress made so far this term to further chess in Canada? I kind of got tied up watching the progress in the attempt to line up 20 to 25 billion dollars for the Olympiad bid but seem to have lost track of any news recently.

To tell the truth, and we all know that should happen all the time, I got tired of committees decades ago. They were lots of talk but not much action and there was always someone for whom the time or place wasn't good. I used to call those kind of meetings "ham and eggers".

Gary

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: CFC Vision Report

Hi Bob,

This is being met by silence. Who's on the committee, if it's not a secret? I'd like to know who has been placed in charge of visions.

Anyhow, Bob, I will provide the inspirational word for the month of February. That word is "RENEWAL" as in organizational renewal.

Yours in the sport,
Gary

Sorry, I was at a tournament when the original messages were posted and then had some issues with my blood sugar which have preoccupied me.

I have been gathering information to help in the development of the long-term plan and a vision statement would certainly belong in a long term plan for the CFC. I don't think that we are at the point where I could articulate a vision for the CFC since that is one of the outcomes which should come at the end of the process and not at the beginning. Certainly if you want to discuss what the vision should be the results of that discussion might very well make it into the long term plan which should include a vision statement.

I am probably overcommitted in the area of chess at the moment and it has limited the time that I have been able to devote to the long term planning committee. If something gets posted on a Wednesday night, I am at the local library children's chess club so I won't see it immediately. On Thursday night I have a beginners class to teach with a dozen or so children. On Fridays its the advanced class with as many as eighteen children. Saturdays are spent at the chess club or watching kids play chess in a tournament or playing in a tournament myself. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I am usually involved in at least one individual lesson with children who are in the advanced class.

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: CFC Vision Report - Important

Hi Vlad:

I look forward to this committee moving forward. I think it is very important for an organization to have a long-term view of where they want to go, to help evaluate short term projects, to see if they move forward the long-term goals of the organization.

Bob A