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Thread: 3. President's Welcome

  1. #1
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    Default 3. President's Welcome

    Governors, let's welcome our president Vlad Drkulec...

  2. #2
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    Welcome to our first quarterly meeting of 2014. As is our standard practice this meeting is open to the public who will be able to observe and read our posts but will not be able to post themselves.

    There are two motions on the floor one dealing with life memberships and a requirement that the CFC collect and remit provincial life membership dues as well at the time they collect CFC life membership dues. This is a constitutional amendment and will require a two thirds majority of the votes cast for and against and a majority of the votes cast including abstentions. There are a few problems with this motion which will hopefully be addressed before it comes to a vote.

    The second motion is one which deals with creating a new class of member, a senior member which will have the same cost as a junior membership. There are a few problems with this motion as well which we can get into in the discussion surrounding the motion.

    More important from a purely existential perspective will be the policy discussion with regard to the new Not For Profit Act. This discussion may result in an extended meeting. At the end of the discussion we will have a clear idea of a framework which will be acceptable to the governors. You will need to become familiar with the requirements of the act and you will need to give some clear directions about what you want to see happen. The Act will require changes in our structure and constitution. If we don't make the changes required we run the risk of the CFC being dissolved with all of our assets forfeited. We don't want to go down that road as the consequences will likely be highly unpleasant for all of us.

    Let us get down to business ladies and gentlemen.

  3. #3
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    I would like to take this moment to congratulate Harmony Zhu of Toronto on her win of the under 8 girls World Youth Chess Championship. This is just one of her many achievements at the very young age of seven. She has already been to Carnegie Hall twice so it would not surprise me if this remarkable young lady might not repeat the feat in the not so distant future.

  4. #4
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    The snowstorm that is raging outside contains a metaphor for my experience as CFC president over the last six months or so. I have been doing a lot shoveling of snow over the last two days but at the moment you wouldn't know it when you look out the window at my driveway and sidewalk as the drifting snow and heavy snowfall together mock me for my previous futile efforts.

    I am finally getting used to giving interviews whether they be to the local paper, the CFC e magazine, the Globe and Mail or to CBC television or CBC radio stations. I know people are watching and hearing the reports as I have been getting reports from as far as Ottawa (a fellow resident on my floor at university from some 37 years ago) to many local reports of hearing or reading interviews from family and friends. Much of this has subsided with the Anand - Carlsen match and WYCC being over. Hopefully it will pick up again.

    I have also had the pleasure of meeting with and talking to many of the parents of young Canadian chess players. Those experiences have been overwhelmingly positive. Vadim Tsypin the father of Allison Tsypin a player who has made great strides in Canadian and U.S. events and represented Canada after finishing second in CYCC sent the following very positive email which he sent to everyone associated with the Canadian WYCC team. Vadim gave me permission to reprint it:

    Team Canada,

    Now that everyone had lived through a full day of trials and tribulations, you have personally experienced various aspects of the chaos still reigning at the WYCC. The organizers are very warm people genuinely trying to make it a good event, but their approaches just don't scale, so they have to learn - with us reaping the consequences.

    As someone who came in four days earlier to prepare the ground and was engaged in long and extensive discussions with both Mr. Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh and Dr. Nasser Al Salem Al Ameri since December 13, please allow me to tell you that there were myriads of serious problems that snared even the delegations much bigger than ours. I have manually sorted the pile of visa originals that were all over makeshift tables in the magnificent main building of the Al-Ain Chess and Culture Club - with photos not matching names and names assigned to wrong countries. There was a huge European team, 16 members of whom had to spend the first night on the lobby floor since the room payments were wrong. There were teams who couldn't have their badges printed yesterday morning since only part of their FIDE fees were paid. There were dozens of other emergencies that had one thing in common: the team coordinators back in their countries dropped the ball and some point and put their delegations in precarious positions.

    What was different for Canada? Our coordinator, Frank Lee, shined through and came on top of every issue that was within his power - and even beyond.

    Yes, all of us were sometimes tempted to demonstrate weakness and let frustration take over when Frank couldn't give precise answers to seemingly straighforward questions we were asking him back in Canada. Now that we have seen the Oriental way of doing business, we can appreciate even more that Frank was frustrated ten times more than any of us, and still he carried on, and was unfailingly polite and courteous with everyone. I won't bother you with awful details, but let me bear witness that every large team, bar none, was faced with a major crisis on Dec 14-17 that was due to a mistake or omission of their coordinators. Yes, Americans had tremendous clout and Jerry Nash's personal connections, so they recovered from theirs pretty quickly, but Frank Lee's tireless work made it possible for Canada to be in the best shape and avoid such crises altogether.

    Frank's job is often thanksless and underappreciated. I'd like to thank him from the bottom of our hearts.

    We love you Frank! :-)

    --
    V.T.


    Thank you to Vadim for taking the time to show his appreciation to Frank Lee. Vadim was a pillar of strength for the Canadian Team at WYCC and if you ever get a chance to meet him you will be hard pressed to find a more enthusiastic and supportive chess parent. He is truly a national treasure. In addition to Frank Lee, Head of Delegation Andrew Giblon was amazing with his organization, time lines, budgets and pretty much everything you could think of when it comes to organizing a Canadian WYCC delegation. It is not possible to do him justice. Thank you Andrew!

    We had a very positive experience with our WYCC team with Harmony Zhu winning the world championship in the under 8 girls section and all of the Canadian children who played having reasonable results relative to their ratings. Good job to everyone involved: kids, parents, Andrew Giblon (head of delegation), Andrei Botez (assistant head of delegation and arbiter) and Frank Lee the youth coordinator. The coaches did an outstanding job including our women's coordinator Liza Orlova (who helped some of her low rated charges squeeze out some amazing performances), Andrew Peredun (the steady veteran of three WYCCs), Aman Hambleton (who was at his first WYCC as a coach and hopefully managed to pass along some of his own chess magic to the kids) and Edward Porper (who was there for the second year in a row). I am eagerly waiting to catch up with the Windsor kids about their experiences in the United Arab Emirates. At least one of them is still in UAE for another week. Overall a very successful and positive experience.

    The National Coach program idea appears to be on hold for the moment. Edward Porper has informed me that he doesn't believe that it will be able to get off of the ground in a form consistent with the way he had envisioned it. He has indicated that he intended to move on to other challenges.

    I know that people are getting sick of hearing about the new Canadian Not For Profit Act but that is where I will focus my efforts over the coming months.

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