Presidential Welcome and Report

Presidential Welcome

By now I have completely tried everyone's patience by only showing up to the cybercafe tonight to give my message. As I was unable to get to the cybercafe since last week, I should have delegated the position of chair to Bob Armstrong, as he is an expert on meeting procedures.

GL#4 should be distributed tomorrow where I am announcing my intention not to seek the position of president for next year's term. Except for carrying out my duties as Past President, I will not be volunteering in any other capacity in CFC activities, from the club level to the national level. I assure all of you that I will be playing in the Canada Open and I will chair the CFC AGM of the outgoing governors.

This year has been a huge learning experience and I have made several mistakes. I realize now that I spread myself to thin, hence, the retirement from chess volunteering for the time being.

As Gordon Ritchie well knows, I have many other commitments and from time to time I have not been able to carry out my duties as president and as tournament director at the RA Club. I have tried my best, but it has not been good enough in my opinion. In addition, I have had tremendous difficulty with dealing with a number of unreasonable members of the CFC and I have found those dealings stressful.

For those reasons, I simply cannot in good conscience run again for CFC President.

President's Report

Finances

Regarding this year's financial report produced by the Treasurer, Maurice Smith, the CFC has run a small surplus. I urge everyone to examine the Budget carefully and pass along comments to Maurice Smith, who will bring those suggestions to the CFC Executive, for their final decision.

Contractors

FEN is performing well under challenging circumstances especially when the CFC website was under the Google warning.

Regarding EKG, Gerry Litchfield has been doing a tremendous job working diligently regarding office activities. I commend Gerry for working closely with the Vice-President, Stijn De Kerpel and the Treasurer, Maurice Smith. Unfortunately, I have to report that I have been quite disappointed with my dealings with Patrick Smale, President of EKG.

CFC Website

There has been no progress made regarding the website. I made the grave mistake of committing to carry out a public solicitation for the website upgrade. My professional experience is in high tech electronics, and I was unprepared for the complications of soliciting IT services. I will be conferring shortly with the Executive regarding the way forward regarding the website.

Olympiad Fundraising

As I have reported earlier, the two members of the Fundraising committee resigned due to other commitments. I approached David Cohen, but he also was occupied with other projects. All of the above people are from the Toronto area, and some of them are involved in organising the 2010 Canada Open.

I believe I have contacted Gerry Litchfield regarding a mail out requesting donations among CFC members.

National Championships

As this is not a Zonal Year, I am not surprised that no bidders have come forward to organise the Canada Closed and the Women's Closed.

I have not been contacted regarding next year's national championships.

I do suggest that a motion be put forward that will establish a structure similar to the Ontario Chess Association, where the championships will rotate formally among the CFC provincial bodies. In that way, the CFC will be notified early which body will be in a position to organise the championships.

Eric, I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us and I wish you well.
Your comment about dealing with difficult members and the stress involved is very telling. I think the last two presidents would echo your thoughts. It is disappointing that a few uncouth individuals can have the effect of discouraging good people from stepping forward to help the CFC.