Candidate for CFC President

[Christopher Mallon]

I believe the old affiliate program was pretty much shot in the foot (or stabbed in the back?) when the CFC started doing auto-renewals of memberships. Of course the affiliates didn't get cuts out of THOSE even if they sold the initial membership.

Perhaps a hybrid of that and your plan Michael?

Let clubs be affiliates. Let members belong (or not) to one. If they do then the affiliate gets a small cut of their membership no matter how they renew. The CFC can add one item to their database so they can keep track of which club everyone is a member of (only for affiliated clubs of course).

[John Coleman]

I believe the old affiliate program was pretty much shot in the foot (or stabbed in the back?) when the CFC started doing auto-renewals of memberships. Of course the affiliates didn't get cuts out of THOSE even if they sold the initial membership.

When Windsor was an affiliate, I'm talking 20+ years ago, we often had the case that I would remind a player of his expiring CFC membership, and he would reply "I already sent it to Ottawa." I could hardly complain, but it did mean that the affiliate "lost" the commission. After a while, the CFC lost the affiliate.

[roger patterson]

When Windsor was an affiliate, I'm talking 20+ years ago, we often had the case that I would remind a player of his expiring CFC membership, and he would reply "I already sent it to Ottawa." I could hardly complain, but it did mean that the affiliate "lost" the commission. After a while, the CFC lost the affiliate.

would you say that your affiliate was successful in drumming up new members or were you just processing people who would have joined the CFC anyway?

[John Coleman]

Being an affiliate had nothing to do with attracting members.

At the time, (20+ years ago) we were running CFC tournaments on weekends, and sending in memberships anyway. So, why not get some commission.

It is tournaments which attract new memberships, IMHO.

In 2011, the only reason to join the CFC is to play tournament chess. The new CFC website talks about "a fraternity of chess players, enthusiasts, teachers, and organizers from across Canada devoted to promoting chess" which is not based in reality. And if someone wants to support the Canadian Olympic team, for example, a $36 donation would be more useful than a $36 membership.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

It is tournaments which attract new memberships, IMHO.

The tournaments might be in the club as well. The (famous) Scarborough club is an example.

The CFC really should encourage clubs with/for competitive chess. Smth like a member is affiliated to one or two clubs, thus the portion of his fees might be given back to the club. Or the club might get some kind of discount on rating fees - an affiliated-club championship is rating-fee free.

[John Coleman]

The club-affiliation idea may work for CFC-oriented clubs like Scarborough and Ottawa RA, but most chess clubs aren't like that. Most clubs are 10 guys meeting at a library or community centre.

About 25 years ago, I had an interesting discussion with Fred Lindsay, who was Mr. Chess in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I asked Fred how to get club players to play serious chess. "You don't," said Fred, "clubs aren't for serious chess. Clubs are for talk and chatter, blitz, casual play, maybe a little analysis. If people want to play seriously, a chess club isn't the place to do it. Instead, organise tournaments, 1-day, weekend, 1-night a week, whatever, but don't try to get the blitz and social guys to play seriously."

Also, I have noticed that socialising drives out serious play. It is really hard to play "for real" if the guys on one side are chatting, and on the other are playing blitz. That's why tournaments have a skittles room.

[Rob Clark]

Mr. Archambault,

While I certainly don't agree with everything Mike has said I applaud him for trying to change our obviously broken system. I really believe we need someone who brings in a new vision, rather than maintains the current system, which is bleeding members every year. I've talked to Mike about this and he claims he will run everything past the governors and incite discussion before major changes are implemented. He has said ultimately he would like to see clubs in Canada gain more power and be able to promote themselves (rather than a Canada-wide sort of advertising initiative, which I agree would be far more effective in terms of attracting new members). This being said, a lot of people have pointed out some of the flaws in Mike's platform. To be honest I think there are even more than those pointed out, but the point is that Mike has a vision and a plan, and is willing to work with the governors to improve his vision and make it successful. I certainly agree that something different is needed.

I was one of the governors who contacted yourself after you emailed the assembly and asked what specifically you saw to be the CFC's assets to be and how we can increase membership. I'm sorry but your answer seemed to deal in generics (ie that we needed to help out juniors, that we needed to increase membership) without really getting into how you plan to accomplish this. It’s easy to poke holes in Mike's platform because he's gone into specifics about a possible way to achieve his vision but I have yet to see you state how you plan to accomplish your goals. So I have to ask, how specifically do you plan to increase membership, increase communication between the governors and the president etc.? Without meaning to offend you or be rude, you seem to have used the same buzzwords we've heard many times before but don't seem to have a plan as to how to achieve these things.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

In other words, if you aren't a demonstrable member of a club (e.g. possessing a membership card, having an exec vouch for you, etc.), then you can't join the CFC.

IMHO, you have been over impressed with a German club system. What works in Germany, barely would survive in Canada. Canada lacks a club team competition.

How many teams competition are organized in Canada? CMA finals, Kitchener active, several in Alberta, pupils (universities, schools).
Clubs? I can't name any at this moment. We had in Toronto but not much interest any more.

[Rob Clark]

Mr. Archambault,

I don't appreciate being called a fear mongerer. I believe the system is broken plain and simple. I say this not to evoke fear but because it needs to be said and I'm tired of people ignoring it. I also say this with the hope that it will lead to positive things and a more honest discussion.

If you don't believe me look at our membership numbers. The current membership pales in comparison to those 10 or 20 years ago, despite the number of Canadians having increased an enormous amount. In some cases we've lost entire territories, in many others provinces' memberships have been halved and I have yet to hear from anyone that this is a problem. Despite our modest numbers we have an outrageous number of governors which makes it hard to try to go in any new direction. We have an affordable game in hard economic times, which has a huge number of health benefits (especially to seniors which I believe should be promoted as beneficial for Canada’s aging population) and yet we manage to lose members virtually every year with a declining trend.

If that’s not a broken system what is? Furthermore, when will you consider it broken? Through some pretty bad management and failure to provide services, the CFC managed to lose the better part of a thousand members in a couple years. Despite these problems being fixed we are unable to regain the members we once had. I personally am from a territory which got treated horribly and had money taken from us without our tournaments being rated and membership dues being collected without people receiving a membership. (To Mr. Gillander’s credit he worked very hard to fix these issues but the damage had been done) In one instance when trying to seek reparations for my club I approached an exec member and was simply told that there were more important matters than my club. If the system isn’t broken why are there huge decreases in so many provinces? Why are there more important matters than an entire club which boasted tournaments of over 400 junior members?

As for your bolded text, `“I'm sorry but your answer seemed to deal in generics (ie that we needed to help out juniors, that we needed to increase membership) without really getting into how you plan to accomplish this.”

If I remember correctly, in my reply to you I mentioned: “Yesterday I met with the FQE Executive Director, Richard Bérubé and we discussed for a little over 2 hours what could be done, if I'm elected.”`

This is exactly what I mean. You talked with Mr. Bérubé for a little over 2 hours about what? What is it that can be done if you’re elected? What steps will you take when you are elected? Telling me that you talked with someone about steps tell me nothing, I consider that very generic.

As for “In my email to you I also mentioned reaching out to junior players. I went as far as to detail how I saw this working in Europe and wanted to implement a similar situation in Canada (which by the way would give more strength to the clubs...but without risking the CFC money for it).” You stated in our emails that “Also the juniors are a big concern to me. I know for a fact there are thousands of kids (only CMA claims to have over 20 000 players annually) that are interested in chess. Both in extra curricular activities at school and also in chess club programs. In fact, when I was living in Spain, that's how our club was working. We were having Saturday morning classes for kids, and that's how we would get enough money to pay our rent, our elite players for special events, and organizing our annual tournament. I believe if the CFC was to support such initiatives, if it was to work on reaching out to those kids, we would benefit greatly.” While I agree with this whole heartedly, how do you attempt to create a Canada wide Sunday morning class for kids? How exactly would you organize this across the country? This is what I meant by specifics.

Finally, as for the “What am I to do? Say nothing because you happen to personally know one of the presidential candidates?” I’m very offended by that. With that statement you imply that I care more about seeing someone I know become president, than I do the state of affairs of chess in Canada. Keep in mind I took the time to read your email, read the discussions on the forum, and email you with questions. To suggest that I favour Mike just because I know him is both insulting and just plain wrong.

Rob

[Michael von Keitz]

IMHO, you have been over impressed with a German club system. What works in Germany, barely would survive in Canada. Canada lacks a club team competition.

How many teams competition are organized in Canada? CMA finals, Kitchener active, several in Alberta, pupils (universities, schools).
Clubs? I can't name any at this moment. We had in Toronto but not much interest any more.

As I stated somewhere previously, Tony's suggestion of reinstating the old affiliate program isn't a bad one. At the same time, I seem to recall Chris Mallon mentioning some of the challenges that old program faced. In case I have not been clear, I am open to discussing and appropriately modifying my views. Obviously, if my proposed club-affiliate model does not suit every member, then further discussion of implementing it wholesale serves no purpose. That said, I would like to investigate a revival of the old affiliate program, which I would still like to do on a pilot basis to start, pending discussion within the incoming assembly. My main motivation was to find a means of strategically offering financial incentives for recruitment and the old affiliate program seems to offer a much simpler avenue to that goal.

Ultimately, my platform is a series of talking points, most of which can be entirely divorced from the proposed membership model. I have said I am not a steamroller and I mean it - I will not implement anything without the approval of the governors.