5A4 - DISCUSSION ITEMS - CFC Handbook revisions

[Lyle Craver]

It is desired to update the Handbook to reflect changes brought about by the 'new' Non-profits legislation and to make the Handbook more generally useful to organizers and players

The major changes have been brought about by the 'new' Federal Not For Profit act which changed several rules and regulations and applies to all Federally chartered Non-profits like the CFC. (Most provincial federations are governed by provincial legislation - for example subsequent to the Federal act revisions BC changed theirs and the BCCF had some changes to make - though smaller than the CFC's)

In general terms we would like to retain our main regulations in the main body of the Handbook and move less core bylaws into appendices. We would also like to rewrite certain sections to reflect that much of our business is now done electronically rather than out of an industrial condo in Ottawa as was the case when the current Handbook was last revised. Similarly there are valuable documents on running tournaments, the rating system, how bids for national events are done that need review - not necessarily changes but put into documents that are more accessible and easier to use.

Speaking personally, the USCF has done much in the last 10 years to make their governance and bidding processes much more user friendly and I would encourage those interested to check out uschess.org particularly if you haven't been there lately. I do NOT recommend slavishly adopting their changes wholesale but at the same time there are some good ideas there we could learn from.

Lastly in case anybody is unclear, none of these ideas would be done without full ratification by the Assembly. This is more tweaking than a full-scale rewrite. We are NOT talking constitutional changes but rather making the Handbook more useful and reflecting current practice.