Bob Armstrong
04-06-2009, 10:47 AM
The CFC is run by Governors. There are 61 of them: 23 Governors-at-Large ( including 10 past presidents, some of whom are life governors ) and 38 provincial representative governors. An article written by me was recently published on the Chess Canada Webzine, entitled: " The Important Role of the Governor in the CFC ". Below is a part of it:
" But Is There a “ Governor Problem ” ?
I think the governor structure the CFC currently has gives rise to 2 distinct problems.
The first is " administrative ". There are 61 governors for about 1400 adult members. This works out to about a governor for every 23 adult members. Where do you get these kinds of representation figures in real life organizations?? This is bureaucratic overkill. And it makes decision-making difficult when there are so many voters to communicate with and get to vote. Getting quorums becomes a problem with such a large body of deciders. Today’s business models tend to be lean and mean – smaller groups that can make decisions quickly – our system is cumbersome to say the least. Surely the system needs at least to be streamlined – perhaps the number of governors reduced.
The second problem is “ qualitative “. What type of governors do we actually have? When one looks at the Governors’ Letters, there is cause for concern, perhaps somewhat more in past years than in 2008-9. But even this year in some votes, few Governors voted, or even commented. For example, on Motion 2009-06, only 15 Governors sent in their e-mail vote – out of 61 ! This is a vote percentage of only 25 % ! There does seem to be an issue of apathy of some Governors ( many? most ? ). "
Do you agree that there is a " governor-problem " ?
If so, what do you think should be done about it? How can we solve these problems?
Bob
For the full article, go to the CFC Webzine:http://members.chess.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=191&Itemid=130
" But Is There a “ Governor Problem ” ?
I think the governor structure the CFC currently has gives rise to 2 distinct problems.
The first is " administrative ". There are 61 governors for about 1400 adult members. This works out to about a governor for every 23 adult members. Where do you get these kinds of representation figures in real life organizations?? This is bureaucratic overkill. And it makes decision-making difficult when there are so many voters to communicate with and get to vote. Getting quorums becomes a problem with such a large body of deciders. Today’s business models tend to be lean and mean – smaller groups that can make decisions quickly – our system is cumbersome to say the least. Surely the system needs at least to be streamlined – perhaps the number of governors reduced.
The second problem is “ qualitative “. What type of governors do we actually have? When one looks at the Governors’ Letters, there is cause for concern, perhaps somewhat more in past years than in 2008-9. But even this year in some votes, few Governors voted, or even commented. For example, on Motion 2009-06, only 15 Governors sent in their e-mail vote – out of 61 ! This is a vote percentage of only 25 % ! There does seem to be an issue of apathy of some Governors ( many? most ? ). "
Do you agree that there is a " governor-problem " ?
If so, what do you think should be done about it? How can we solve these problems?
Bob
For the full article, go to the CFC Webzine:http://members.chess.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=191&Itemid=130