On Sunday, Jan. 24, I sent the following letter to all Governors, and I think it is important that CFC members know that we are looking at issues of governance, so I am posting it:

“ I would like to point to what I believe are some weaknesses in the way our governors go about governing.

I believe the post on whether the cost of the Canadian Chess News is acceptable sets out the example. This item is a major expense of the proposed budget - $ X per year [ amount currently removed in this post for confidentiality reasons ]. In my post, I tried to generate debate/discussion on this by asking 2 questions:

" So, what do governors think -

1. Is the newsletter good value for the money spent?
2. Can CFC afford this cost for a newsletter, it being a significant expense in our overall budget? "

What was the result of this post??

There were 47 views of the thread after about 4 days of being posted. Now there are 56 governors ( when we include the extra named governor that Ontario has that it is not entitled to ). But clearly 47 governors did not view this thread. The reason we know this is that there were 3 reply posts, and it can be assumed that the governors using the board came back and viewed the thread when the new reply posts were added. It is my belief that likely about 20 governors actually followed this thread.

This leads to the first governing weakness - that we do not use a helpful tool that is available to increase the quality of our governing.

It takes a few seconds to open this website, and the system shows immediately what posts, if any, have been posted since your last visit. I think that all governors should check this site on a regular basis - I would think at least every 3 days, and this is clearly not being done by the majority of governors.

I do admit that there is limited activity on this board - and I am quite satisfied with this. The reason is that I believe most CFC issues should be dealt with in a member/governor dialogue, and this should take place on the members' CFC Chess Forum. So I like to see governors posting there. But this Board is useful for confidential governor matters ( such as the budget ), or where a governor wants to test governor opinion before taking an issue public. So we need to review this board, even if relatively inactive, on some regular basis, in case it is being used by the executive or some governor.

What is the second weakness this thread identifies?

There were only 3 reply posts to my original post. This seems a very meagre debate to me. It seems it is like pulling teeth to get governors to publicly state their positions on issues ( and they are often only slightly better on voting ). Even if only 20 governors viewed this thread, the post had sought out opinions, to help me decide what I thought. Most governors just viewed and then went away. And of the three reply posts, only 1 answered the question - that he thought the CCN cost was acceptable ( thanks XX [ name of governor removed for confidentiality reasons ] )

Governance improves the more input deciders have on issues. What input did I get to help me decide this issue? And what help did this thread give to the 20 governors who viewed the thread? And there is no input to the 36 governors who don't use this board.

I believe CCN cost is a tough issue - member satisfaction vs cost. I think we really needed to share our opinions with each other, to try to develop some type of consensus. After my exercise, I am almost no further ahead on whether governors generally find the CCN cost acceptable. What do the governors think? Who knows?

Is this the way to govern? I think governors need to think carefully on this issue of governance weaknesses. I am sure that the quality of our governing would go up if:

1. Governors monitored the Governors' Discussion Board every 3 days or so;
2. Governors posted their own opinions on this Board when other governors sought input/assistance;
3. Governors posted regularly on the members' CFC Chess Forum, in order to dialogue with members on chess issues.

I would be pleased to get any governor responses on what I have perceived as 2 of our governing weaknesses!

Bob “

I would be pleased to have governors post their views on my position on governing weaknesses, on the Governors’ Discussion Board!

Bob