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Thread: 4.1 Nomination of Candidates for President

  1. #1
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    Default 4.1 Nomination of Candidates for President

    Nominations for the Office of President are open

  2. #2
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    I am standing for election as President again.

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    I second that notion!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lyle Craver View Post
    Nominations for the Office of President are open
    I am willing, able and ready to become the President of the CFC.

    I stand for the election.

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    I wish to nominate Sasha Starr. He is a successful businessman and willing to save our Federation from the current death spiral. I believe he would be well suited to the task.
    Thanks,
    Michael Barron

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    Is there any information on what Sasha Starr intends to do for CFC if elected?
    1. If yes, please point me in the right direction.
    2. If no, I think both candidates (so far) need to present themselves and their program if elected.
    Valer Eugen Demian
    FIDE CM & Instructor, ICCF IM
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ches...593013634?mt=8

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    Quote Originally Posted by Valer Eugen Demian View Post
    Is there any information on what Sasha Starr intends to do for CFC if elected?
    1. If yes, please point me in the right direction.
    2. If no, I think both candidates (so far) need to present themselves and their program if elected.
    Valer, I've published a very detailed announcement on the Chess Talk about a week ago, before I had an access to the Governors' Board.
    I'm preparing the adaptation of same. However the other issues came up lately that I've already disclosed in my various posts on the Chess Talk and preparing for publication here.
    The issues are very serious and I'll deal with them regardless of outcome of the CFC election.
    They are:
    1.In spite of numerous promises President has failed to made a public announcement regarding the endorsement of Ilyumzhinov and the reasons behind it. A lot of people are upset about it and rightly so. Obviously in this announcement there would be a revelation about $80,000.00 of FIDE's sponsorship of Canadian chess REGARDLESS of outcome of FIDE election. I have no problem with it. Except these two. Why does it have to be a secret? And what if Ilyumzhinov loses election? Where the $$$ will come from?
    2.The President has stated that this is not a cash sponsorship(!?) Then what is it? It's value according to the President is nevertheless $80,000.00: when it was suggested that based on his record Mr. President has no skills to promote chess and raise the funds - only ($1,000.00 were raised in the last year), he's stated that CFC is getting new corporate sponsorship of $95,000.00. $15,000 for the Olympic Teams' sponsor depending of the results of the Men's Team - when the patron was Sid Belzberg - both teams' players were getting bonuses for wins! And the remaining $80,000.00 - the deal with the FIDE.
    3.This seriously compromises Canada as a country and CFC in particular. It turns away the biggest patron of Canadian chess, and makes it impossible to establish any agreement with World-known Kasparov Chess Foundation with the first rate scholastic program around the Globe for some time to come. These are some of the problems with this endorsement. So, on the other hand there must be serious advantages. And what are those? First - its a secret. Second - is there a paperwork done, were there a Canadian lawyer involved? And if CFC has already done its part of the bargain, where is FIDE's at least first payment? Based on what? Is there at least a Letter of Intent? And who has signed it? So you are turning away the REAL, proven sponsor for questionable promises? Where is our President's judgment? Please find the right words to describe it (Mismanagement? Naivety? Or something way more serious?)
    4.In Mr. President's own straw poll on the Chess Talk there was 1 vote for Ilyumzhinov, and almost 30 for Kasparov. Then in Mr. President's own Governors only "straw" poll only 33,33% of Governors INCLUDING 3executives (one of whom was not even supposed to vote) - voted for the endorsement of Ilyumzhinov. Obviously 66,67% of Governors DID NOT SUPPORT AN ENDORSEMENT OF Ilyumzhinov! So after losing badly all his polls Mr. President has decided to completely disregard the opinions of both the chess public here on chess talk and the CFC's Governors who elected Mr. President and he got the executives to vote his way! And these executives have actually supported it, completely disregarding opinions and wishes of the Governors who actually have elected them! What kind of organization is it? Mr. President and the other executives knew well that Sid Belzberg is a REAL thing, Kasparov's Chess Foundation is here to stay, and yet all this was thrown down to the toilet for an awful deal with the thugs! Still trying to find out if there is at least a written Agreement exists?

    Mr. President and the executives have miserably FAILED to respect the wishes of the Governors - the very people who've elected THEM!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Valer Eugen Demian View Post
    Is there any information on what Sasha Starr intends to do for CFC if elected?
    1. If yes, please point me in the right direction.
    2. If no, I think both candidates (so far) need to present themselves and their program if elected.
    Thank you, here is the outline of some of the things I intend to do for CFC if elected:

    CFC Presidency - Message to Governors.

    Dear Governors, CFC Members and lovers of chess.

    As many of you know I am very discouraged by the direction the CFC has taken in recent years. I never thought I would run for CFC President, but given the current plight of chess in Canada, Nava Starr, my wife, 8 times Canadian Chess Champion, executive with the mid-size Toronto Company, and I, a President of International Company soon becoming public, have decided to try and make positive change for the CFC by dedicating both our personal time and financial resources.

    The CFC today is a slowly dying organization that desperately needs several new ideas and initiatives to grow and become more vital than ever. Its greatest weakness is that it never seems to do anything new. Its greatest strength is that among the community it has several dedicated and long serving professionals who could adopt a new vision and make the CFC a new and vibrant organization.

    There are a lot of new initiatives that should have been adopted by CFC, however the present leadership was busy with the Non Profit Corporation Act and the endorsement of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. The endorsement of Ilyumzhinov took place in spite of the fact that in the Chess Talk poll put up by Mr. Drkulec showed only 1 vote for Ilyumzhinov against nearly 30 for Kasparov. Executives have failed even to explain how and why this endorsement ever has happened other than to criticize supporters of Mr. Kasparov. The non-executive Governors’ vote was about split, so it is possible that CFC could vote for Kirsan at the end of the day, but an endorsement? That could happened only because CFC is run by the old boys’ network, who stripped away all the powers away from the Governors, who in spite of all the work they do lost all of their powers, except for voting once a year at the AGM.

    As a part of my program I’d like to offer the following:
    • Give the power back to Governors/voting members. They are a back bone of our organization. I’d like to see them highly motivated and have personal goals and plans.
    • Increased membership/participation. Over the past 15 years the CFC has experienced a steep decline in membership. In its most general sense, the CFC has never gotten it right in terms of implementing effective membership drives or staging events that are conducive towards attracting high levels of participation. While the CFC membership has fallen, the participation in many other federations has risen drastically. In Turkey, for example, the federation grew to having 80,000 adult members. This explosive growth was largely attributable to the fact that the Turkish Federation established a relationship with a bank in which anyone who became a member of the federation received a free bank account. The bank account/federation membership drive in Turkey is a wonderful example of a win/win corporate partnership and there's no reason a similar initiative couldn't occur in Canada. The Turkish initiative proves that Canada need not re-invent the wheel in terms of implementing effective membership growth programs. The Presidents/Executive Directors of a large number of federations will be surveyed to determine which membership initiatives worked best in their nations and a concrete plan will be implemented to achieve the objective of increased growth. Goal: Increasing Membership to 5,000 members by September 1, 2015.
    Aside from soliciting other ideas, this will be achieved by the following actions:
    • Establishing an educational membership, and sending direct solicitation on this, whereby every school and library may obtain a special membership to allow on-site access by their interested members
    • Duplicating what amateur pool associations have done (250,000 members in Canada), by offering a grass roots restaurant/bar league, whereby patrons can sign up for a nominal membership charge and play a game, which is part of a ladder tournament, with donated corporate prizes at the end of the yearly league
    • Reaching out to all historical inactive members with a special discount offer, along with a personal letter from the CFC President indicating our goals to earn back respect for chess in Canada
    • Discussion/negotiation with all other entities running rating systems (mostly for kids, e.g., Chess & Math, etc.), to attempt working out a fair deal to have their members as CFC members, and we provide the rating management/output for this
    • Hold events (meet the master, simultaneous, demonstration) in shopping malls to promote chess, with an active membership recruitment element
    • Youth Membership. Never before has the participation levels in scholastic and youth events been higher in Canada. Chess is currently considered a very popular activity for parents seeking to enroll children in programs/events. Aside from the initiatives of the Chess and Math Association, there have been other highly successful chess programs aimed at kids that have enjoyed enormous success. In Kitchener the Chess-For-Kids program has had several thousand kids register since inception and is run as a for profit business. Even in a small province such as New Brunswick there were nearly 400 kids that participated in the provincial scholastic championships in May. There has been no CFC presence at any of these activities, and not only should the CFC establish an attractive program of its own, but it also should establish co-operative relationships with existing programs aimed at increasing youth membership.
    • Much more effective use of the chess events. The standard swiss-system weekend events in Canada have not been customized to attract high levels of participation. Most require a two night stay over for travelers, and are run on schedules that are demanding for both travelers and host city participants. I have remedies available. Some of them are revamping the way swiss tournaments are being run, for example, Curling and Bridge events, which often attract thousands of participants, have a build in social component. Certain pockets of the country, such as Quebec and Ottawa have been fairly constant in terms of offering a full calendar of events each year, but in much of the country there aren't many events to play in.
    • The establishment of the Grand Prix system. Starting with the densely populated Quebec-Windsor corridor, CFC should establish an annual Grand Prix of attractive chess events. The Grand Prix should have an attractive website, and consistently high standards in terms of game display, live and online. There would be corporate sponsors to ensure the events are executed at a high level and attractive to all of Canada's top players.
    • Patronage. Each year the Olympiad Team faces challenges generating the revenues necessary to participate in the Olympiad and each Olympiad members and patrons are called upon to support the team. In the case of the Olympiad team, patrons don't see any long term benefit from their contributions.... they give money, it is spent and there is no enduring benefit to the team. All donations to the Olympiad team, for example, should have 50% of the donation go towards the current team and 50% go towards an ongoing trust fund that supports all future Olympiad teams. Also, there are clauses with federal tax law that make it extremely attractive for chess players who die to include donations to charitable organizations in their wills....often with 100% of the donated amount going back to the estate of the donor. The CFC has never properly explored this channel of funding. And finally: a program of aggressive corporate sponsorship in Canada, a renewed focus on chess in schools that would include the help of the Kasparov Chess Foundation, facilitation of corporate and individual sponsorship in Canadian chess. Any new initiatives will be financed by the new revenue and/or donations, the present balance sheet and the assets will be preserved and prudently managed.

    I’m offering you an opportunity to start building a new, exciting organization. The CFC is due for a change, and it must start from the top.
    I love chess, and although busy, I have an every intention to be your President. Here is an endorsement from the post of the well-known Master Ian Findlay:
    "I am sure you will make a great President.
    I do not know the other Vlad you are running against, but I can say that you, Nava Starr and Sid Belzberg have done much for chess in the past. I remember you helped bring players for the Croatian International tournaments 25 years ago. I believe you also housed them and provided transportation for them. Nava has represented Canada probably more than any female in Canadian history and Sid was a tremendous support of chess, helping various players and making many of our strong Olympic teams possible".
    I’m encouraging any voting member who wishes to know more to contact me at alexander.starr@gmail.com
    Let’s do it together!
    Sasha Starr
    Last edited by Sasha Starr; 07-07-2014 at 06:36 PM.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vladimir Drkulec View Post
    I am standing for election as President again.
    This is from one of the posts on the Chess Talk:

    Vlad did do a good job in his first term, both Sid and Sasha have recognized him for the NFP work. But that was then and this is now. And right now, we have Vlad prostituting the CFC for the highest return, and then insulting and throwing away the person who has come through in the past with no strings attached. This for someone who has NEVER come through in the past and has strings attached. And guess what, the strings attached are almost identical to the strings Vlad says Sid wanted attached and that Vlad had some moral repulsion towards (riiiight). Are you blind to hypocrisy?

    Vlad does have the skill set for re-election, and that is the problem. That skill set includes lying, alienating sponsors in the name of looking like a good cop even if that means depriving Canadian youth of future sponsorship, shrugging off corruption and worse committed by the incumbent Kirsan, keeping deals hush hush to prevent anyone knowing of his hypocrisy...

    Have a good day! More is coming soon!

  10. #10

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    Are these threads designed simply for nominations and the outline of a candidates platform or are they designed for debate between the candidates and their supporters? As a candidate for VP, the answer is important to me. I'm posting the question in this thread since it seems to have the most lively exchanges. Would the Secretary be the best to comment on my question?

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