9. New Business

[Michael Barron]

http://www.chesseducators.com/2014/0...ns-to-the-usa/

The North American Youth Chess Championship returns to the USA!

DATES: June 12-16, 2014

WHERE: Doubletree Tarrytown Hotel 455 South Broadway Tarrytown, NY 10591 USA

FORMAT: 9 ROUNDS, SWISS SYSTEM

TIME CONTROL: Game 90 minutes plus 30 seconds increment.

TOURNAMENT REGISTRATION: $100 Per Player from January 15 – April 11, 2014; $115 from April 12- May 16 & $135 per player after May 17, 2014.

More info:
http://www.chesseducators.com/2014/0...ns-to-the-usa/

[Michael Barron]

That original email was an invitation to go to WYCC.

I beg to differ.
According to the CFC Handbook, the second place finisher can't be invited until the winner turns down his invitation:
If the winner is unable to participate, the second place finisher shall be invited to go in his place.

You and I have already been through this dance on the governors forum.

Unfortunately, you closed the thread on the governors forum without answering my questions - that's why I have to repeat them in public...

If there was a flaw in the process it was that we didn't set earlier deadlines for confirmation of attendance.

Yes, it was one of the flaws.
But the main flaw in the process was that the CFC did absolutely nothing to find a proper replacement for official players.

If there had been more time then perhaps better efforts could have been made.

Could you please clarify:
What exactly could be done, if there had been more time?

As it was everyone involved in the process of getting our team registered was very busy.

Could you please clarify:
Who are these people involved in the process?

[Bob Gillanders]

Dear Governors,

This year 3 out of 12 CYCC winners were unable to participate at WYCC - probably due to unusual time and place of WYCC.
We have detailed regulations in the CFC Handbook describing how a replacement should be selected in this case, but I feel that the CFC didn't make sufficient efforts to find a proper replacement for Canadian Champions.
As a result, in one of 12 sections the official player wasn't qualified for WYCC, and in another section Canada wasn't represented at all!

To avoid similar problems in the future and to make selection process more transparent, I would like to propose the following Motion:

Michael, Frank, Vlad: For your consideration, may I propose an alternative to Michael's motion that hopefully can achieve the same goal.

For 2014, the CFC website be used to document the selection process of our 12 official players to the WYCC. This would require that immediately after the CYCC, the CFC website lists the players eligible to be official players in the order in which they are to be invited. Beside their name is there response (yes I accept, yes but only if I am official player, yes I am going either way, or no I don't want to go). List deadlines for responses, also any problems listed (like waiting for payments, no passport yet, etc), so everyone knows the status of our official player selection. From reading the posts on this thread, communication is apparently a problem, and some mistrust has resulted. Transparency, transparency, transparency, gentlemen. Diligent and frequent website updates are critical, and parents must also be responsible to check the website frequently and meet deadlines.

This would all be explained several times at the CYCC, then one email sent to invite all eligible players.
After that, it is the parents responsibility.

How about it guys?

[Bob Armstrong]

Michael, Frank, Vlad: For your consideration, may I propose an alternative to Michael's motion that hopefully can achieve the same goal.

For 2014, instead of relying on email communications, the CFC website be used to document the selection of our 12 official players to the WYCC. This would require that immediately after the CYCC, the CFC website lists the players eligible to be official players in the order in which they are to be invited. Beside their name is there response (yes I accept, yes but only if I am official player, yes I am going either way, or no I don't want to go). List deadlines for responses, also any problems listed (like waiting for payments, no passport yet, etc), so everyone knows the status of our official players. From reading the posts on this thread, communication is apparently a problem, and some mistrust has resulted. Transparency, transparency, transparency, gentlemen. Diligent and frequent website updates are critical, and parents must also be responsible to check the website frequently and meet deadlines. How about it guys?

Hi Bob G:

Seems quite common sense. The overall benefits in terms of cutting out disputes and misunderstandings, much outweighs the bit more work this will entail.

Bob A

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Michael, Frank, Vlad: For your consideration, may I propose an alternative to Michael's motion that hopefully can achieve the same goal.

For 2014, the CFC website be used to document the selection process of our 12 official players to the WYCC. This would require that immediately after the CYCC, the CFC website lists the players eligible to be official players in the order in which they are to be invited. Beside their name is there response (yes I accept, yes but only if I am official player, yes I am going either way, or no I don't want to go). List deadlines for responses, also any problems listed (like waiting for payments, no passport yet, etc), so everyone knows the status of our official player selection. From reading the posts on this thread, communication is apparently a problem, and some mistrust has resulted. Transparency, transparency, transparency, gentlemen. Diligent and frequent website updates are critical, and parents must also be responsible to check the website frequently and meet deadlines.

This would all be explained several times at the CYCC, then one email sent to invite all eligible players.
After that, it is the parents responsibility.

How about it guys?

Seems very reasonable to me.

[Bob Armstrong]

Seems very reasonable to me.

Hi Vlad:

Maybe Bob G's idea could be copied and archived for when we can pass regulations under the by-law, to deal with operational procedures like this?

Otherwise they are lost with the next executive - no one remembers a year from now, and no can find the original (well it would be here, but someone will have to remember where).

Bob A

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Hi Vlad:

Maybe Bob G's idea could be copied and archived for when we can pass regulations under the by-law, to deal with operational procedures like this?

Otherwise they are lost with the next executive - no one remembers a year from now, and no can find the original (well it would be here, but someone will have to remember where).

Bob A

Copied and archived where? I could do it on my own PC but it doesn't help us two years down the road if I am not on the Executive.

This year's process was hectic in part because the organizers were slow to respond at most times. We had lots of questions but no answers. Also at times we would send out emails and ask people to send us A, B, C, D and E all of which were required by the organizers to process registration. Some people would send us A and B, or C and D and not respond for a while when we asked them for missing pieces of information.

Andrew Giblon has done a lot of work, including sending recommendations in previous years when he was head of delegation which have disappeared into the ether with previous members of the executive. Once I get the NFP act out of the way I would like to find a way to capture permanently those ideas. I don't think that it requires any resolution of the governors but simply to provide an easily accessible "how to" operating guide for future individuals who are charged with sending a team to WYCC. Incorporating Bob Gillanders suggestion and some form of Michael Barron's suggestion would be advisable.

I am a bit alarmed by the frequency where I am getting emails from members of the executive and governors where they have lost their PC to a virus or malware attack. My suspicion is that some of these were actually not virus or malware but simply Microsoft updates trashing the computer operating system. My own system to avoid this is to keep all emails on a server somewhere (hotmail, gmail etc), do regular backups of data and have multiple disk images available in case I lose a hard drive. I also have multiple hard drives that I can install the images on. A hard drive crash is about a half hour to an hour recovery process.

Of course sometimes the online service crashes as happened with one member of the executive and there is no longer an email archive to consult. In such cases you have to rely on the fallback of memory.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

http://www.chesseducators.com/2014/0...ns-to-the-usa/

The North American Youth Chess Championship returns to the USA!

DATES: June 12-16, 2014

WHERE: Doubletree Tarrytown Hotel 455 South Broadway Tarrytown, NY 10591 USA

FORMAT: 9 ROUNDS, SWISS SYSTEM

TIME CONTROL: Game 90 minutes plus 30 seconds increment.

TOURNAMENT REGISTRATION: $100 Per Player from January 15 – April 11, 2014; $115 from April 12- May 16 & $135 per player after May 17, 2014.

More info:
http://www.chesseducators.com/2014/0...ns-to-the-usa/

Apparently these dates conflict with Ontario high school exams. The Pan Am YCC conflicts with CYCC.

[Lyle Craver]

What is the best way to schedule in such a way that mayhem such as this be avoided wherever possible?

I'd suggest an e-mail from the National Junior Coordinator to the various provincial coordinators requesting dates for Spring/Easter vacations, Last Day of School, High School Examination period, Christmas vacation period, etc. all of which should be readily available from the provincial education ministries. (In my own school district their website has a calendar stating the dates of all these - I've no idea whether these are standardized throughout each province or not).

Communication between CFC and provincial reps needs to be two-way and this is an obvious case where information sharing is needed. It can't prevent FIDE doing awkward things like the Pan Am dates etc. but whatever can be done should be and I do not think asking provincial reps to supply such info should be overly onerous. I would think the schedule for the coming school year would be out nationally by August 15th - I know it is in BC.

Obviously there are bound to be timing conflicts but let these be resolved by making conscious decisions, not complaining afterwards "if only we knew!"

[Michael Barron]

Michael, Frank, Vlad: For your consideration, may I propose an alternative to Michael's motion that hopefully can achieve the same goal.

For 2014, the CFC website be used to document the selection process of our 12 official players to the WYCC. This would require that immediately after the CYCC, the CFC website lists the players eligible to be official players in the order in which they are to be invited. Beside their name is there response (yes I accept, yes but only if I am official player, yes I am going either way, or no I don't want to go). List deadlines for responses, also any problems listed (like waiting for payments, no passport yet, etc), so everyone knows the status of our official player selection. From reading the posts on this thread, communication is apparently a problem, and some mistrust has resulted. Transparency, transparency, transparency, gentlemen. Diligent and frequent website updates are critical, and parents must also be responsible to check the website frequently and meet deadlines.

This would all be explained several times at the CYCC, then one email sent to invite all eligible players.
After that, it is the parents responsibility.

How about it guys?

Thank you, Bob!
This is excellent idea!

I started this discussion by indicating the problem and asking - could we do better?
Your suggestion addresses my concern.

The question is:
How could we make your suggestion a rule?
Should we pass it as a Motion?