Ideas for agendas for a CFC Governor(s) (e.g. establish Long-term planning committee)

[Kevin Pacey]

Coming back as a Governor after some years absence, I thought I might try to come up with ideas for an agenda I might set myself for this year, ideas that need not necessarily be a top priority for most Governors or members. Perhaps other [non-]Governors may have ideas too.

I thought about serving on any of the CFC's committees that I know about, mainly the ones listed on the CFC's website, but so far none have caught my interest. Perhaps someone can post a complete list of [sub-]committees, even if they are vacant at this time. A long-term planning committee (originally an idea of Hal Bond's) was proposed at the 2010 CFC AGM, but this was tabled and no one has volunteered to form it afaik. More regarding this proposed committee in a moment.

So far I have not thought much about the possibilities for my own personal agenda as a CFC Governor for 2011-12. However, behind the scenes I have already done some work with Bob Gillanders to come up with ideas for (a) questionnaire(s) for members and/or ex-members. Perhaps we can call ourselves a [sub-]committee of some sort, e.g. the membership committee, if one doesn't already exist. :)

At any rate, other than that, my personal agenda as a Governor has just two other items at the moment. One would be to see if the CFC can improve its accountability to its members in some way(s). A way to do this has been suggested by John Brown on chesstalk in the past, namely have the CFC regularly display in percentage terms how the CFC portion of an adult membership has been used by the CFC at a given point in time. A pie chart for this might be a nice touch. :) I may work on eventually proposing a motion to this effect, or possibly second such a motion if another Governor beats me to it. Be advised that there may have to be a constitutional amendment, as this is not part of the Treasurer's official duties in the CFC Handbook, if he or she is the one to work out the (approximate) percentages.


The only other item on my agenda at the moment would be to see if a Long-term planning committee can be established in 2011-2012. It's a committee of the sort that I may be interested in serving on, depending on its purposes. I don't know what Hal Bond had in mind for such a committee in 2010, but I have a number of ideas for what it (or its possible subcommittees) could be dedicated to making recommendations or taking action on:

1) Create a business plan. For example, based on the CFC having x members: when might the CFC anticipate substantially increasing or decreasing membership or rating fees (with the Governors' approval), or when might the CFC publish a print magazine, resume a book & equipment business independent of Amazon, re-establish a physical office or have an arrangement with a paying chess server such as ICC (if not have its own CFC chess server) again?

2) Plan for one or more membership drives down the road (assuming there is no existing [sub-]committee dedicated to this subject).

3) Study the possibilty of members receiving only FIDE (not CFC) ratings, with the CFC sending tournament reports to FIDE to rate themselves. Alternatively, study the possibility of having CFC speed chess ratings at some point, or of merging member's Regular/Active/Speed ratings into one CFC rating only per member for Regular, Active or Speed rated events.

4) Plan for hosting a world-class event(s) at some point, e.g. a WYCC or an Olympiad.

5) Finally, the Long-term planning committee could serve as a catch-all committee for studying such seemingly intractable long-term problems as restructuring the CFC's Governance, which might involve, for example, thinking about having CFC members vote for who serves on the CFC Executive, rather than the Governors doing so.

[Kevin Pacey]

...

The only other item on my agenda at the moment would be to see if a Long-term planning committee can be established in 2011-2012. It's a committee of the sort that I may be interested in serving on, depending on its purposes. I don't know what Hal Bond had in mind for such a committee in 2010, but I have a number of ideas for what it (or its possible subcommittees) could be dedicated to making recommendations or taking action on:

1) Create a business plan. For example, based on the CFC having x members: when might the CFC anticipate substantially increasing or decreasing membership or rating fees (with the Governors' approval), or when might the CFC publish a print magazine, resume a book & equipment business independent of Amazon, re-establish a physical office or have an arrangement with a paying chess server such as ICC (if not have its own CFC chess server) again?

2) Plan for one or more membership drives down the road (assuming there is no existing [sub-]committee dedicated to this subject).

3) Study the possibilty of members receiving only FIDE (not CFC) ratings, with the CFC sending tournament reports to FIDE to rate themselves. Alternatively, study the possibility of having CFC speed chess ratings at some point, or of merging member's Regular/Active/Speed ratings into one CFC rating only per member for Regular, Active or Speed rated events.

4) Plan for hosting a world-class event(s) at some point, e.g. a WYCC or an Olympiad.

5) Finally, the Long-term planning committee could serve as a catch-all committee for studying such seemingly intractable long-term problems as restructuring the CFC's Governance, which might involve, for example, thinking about having CFC members vote for who serves on the CFC Executive, rather than the Governors doing so.

Regarding point 4), I would also like to include planning to create conditions favourable to eventually hold more norm events in Canada, hopefully far more.

In case anyone needs encouragement to join a Long-term planning committee, if one is formed during this term of 2011-12, I'm willing to serve on it if its purpose(s) include any of my five listed suggestions.

I'd also be willing to serve on an official CFC membership [drive] committee, if one exists already or not. Whomever officially accepts committee volunteers, if they view this post, please let me know if I'm accepted, or how to apply more formally, asap.

[Kevin Pacey]

In my research tonight, I've found that all[?] the various CFC [sub-]committees (which may still exist or be continued into 2011-12[?]), together with their reports, are given in the following link to GL#4 for 2010-11, starting with point #10 on page 13 there:

http://chess.ca/sites/default/files/10-11gl4.pdf

I would note that a CFC membership drive (one man) committee (Bob Gillanders) gave its report under point #21.

I also can refer viewers to GL#1 for 2010-11 regarding the proposed creation of a Long-term planning committee; see point #8F on page 37 there:

http://chess.ca/sites/default/files/10-11gl1.pdf

I would note that it was described as a 'Vision Committee', in order to think big over the next 5-10 years (as hoped for by Hal Bond, who was willing to serve on it, at least at the time). I would suggest that the CFC may have to think ahead even farther into the future.

[Kevin Pacey]

...
I also can refer viewers to GL#1 for 2010-11 regarding the proposed creation of a Long-term planning committee...

Having not been involved in the formation of a committee, it would appear to me from the following sub-section of section 2 of the Handbook that a straightforward motion being passed by the Governors is what is required to create a [sub-?]committee (the only instance I've found so far of how to 'create a CFC [sub-?]committee' so far in the Handbook):

"PRESIDENT

4. The President shall be the chief executive Officer of the Federation. He shall preside at all meetings of the Assembly of Governors, or of the Board of Directors, when he is personally present. He shall exercise constant active and general supervision of the Officers of the Federation, and the conduct of its affairs, with the exception of:

(a) Those matters which are reserved to the Assembly of Governors or the Board of Directors.

(b) Those matters which have already been delegated to Committees appointed by the Assembly of Governors."

[Christopher Mallon]

Yes, the Vision committee. The last attempt didn't get very far... sadly.

Certainly the Governors can create a committee, and so can the President.

[Fred McKim]

Yes, the Vision committee. The last attempt didn't get very far... sadly.

Certainly the Governors can create a committee, and so can the President.

I would suggest that Michael ask for voluenteers for such a group. If we can get 3 or 4 we can get some discussion going.

[Christopher Mallon]

I recall that Hal was willing to chair that committee. Perhaps we can find out if he's still interested?

[Kevin Pacey]

I emailed Hal a couple of days ago regarding a Long-term planning committee (I provided a link to this thread). So far no reply from Hal.

[Hal Bond]

Coming back as a Governor after some years absence, I thought I might try to come up with ideas for an agenda I might set myself for this year, ideas that need not necessarily be a top priority for most Governors or members. Perhaps other [non-]Governors may have ideas too.

I thought about serving on any of the CFC's committees that I know about, mainly the ones listed on the CFC's website, but so far none have caught my interest. Perhaps someone can post a complete list of [sub-]committees, even if they are vacant at this time. A long-term planning committee (originally an idea of Hal Bond's) was proposed at the 2010 CFC AGM, but this was tabled and no one has volunteered to form it afaik. More regarding this proposed committee in a moment.

So far I have not thought much about the possibilities for my own personal agenda as a CFC Governor for 2011-12. However, behind the scenes I have already done some work with Bob Gillanders to come up with ideas for (a) questionnaire(s) for members and/or ex-members. Perhaps we can call ourselves a [sub-]committee of some sort, e.g. the membership committee, if one doesn't already exist. :)

At any rate, other than that, my personal agenda as a Governor has just two other items at the moment. One would be to see if the CFC can improve its accountability to its members in some way(s). A way to do this has been suggested by John Brown on chesstalk in the past, namely have the CFC regularly display in percentage terms how the CFC portion of an adult membership has been used by the CFC at a given point in time. A pie chart for this might be a nice touch. :) I may work on eventually proposing a motion to this effect, or possibly second such a motion if another Governor beats me to it. Be advised that there may have to be a constitutional amendment, as this is not part of the Treasurer's official duties in the CFC Handbook, if he or she is the one to work out the (approximate) percentages.


The only other item on my agenda at the moment would be to see if a Long-term planning committee can be established in 2011-2012. It's a committee of the sort that I may be interested in serving on, depending on its purposes. I don't know what Hal Bond had in mind for such a committee in 2010, but I have a number of ideas for what it (or its possible subcommittees) could be dedicated to making recommendations or taking action on:

1) Create a business plan. For example, based on the CFC having x members: when might the CFC anticipate substantially increasing or decreasing membership or rating fees (with the Governors' approval), or when might the CFC publish a print magazine, resume a book & equipment business independent of Amazon, re-establish a physical office or have an arrangement with a paying chess server such as ICC (if not have its own CFC chess server) again?

2) Plan for one or more membership drives down the road (assuming there is no existing [sub-]committee dedicated to this subject).

3) Study the possibilty of members receiving only FIDE (not CFC) ratings, with the CFC sending tournament reports to FIDE to rate themselves. Alternatively, study the possibility of having CFC speed chess ratings at some point, or of merging member's Regular/Active/Speed ratings into one CFC rating only per member for Regular, Active or Speed rated events.

4) Plan for hosting a world-class event(s) at some point, e.g. a WYCC or an Olympiad.

5) Finally, the Long-term planning committee could serve as a catch-all committee for studying such seemingly intractable long-term problems as restructuring the CFC's Governance, which might involve, for example, thinking about having CFC members vote for who serves on the CFC Executive, rather than the Governors doing so.

Hey Kevin - I have been on the road with Arbiter Seminars and dealing with a deluge of correspondance purusant to the AGM.

Your 5 points are quite compatible with my original thoughts on the matter. I was hoping for a 10 year plan called Vision 2020 by which time (ie the year 2020 we would have met several bench marks, the most driving one for me being point #4. By 2020 we will have held a number of FIDE Calendar events ideally.

I am also a big proponent of FIDE ratings because we have the exclusive rights to this brand in Canada and it seems we should promote FIDE more vigorously, notwithstanding some quirks at the top. Switching wholesale to FIDE does have its problems though. It is unclear that they will consent to apply some conversion factor to our ratings, so we build almost from scratch. The more difficult issue (or blessing?)is that we lose control over the ratings and cannot introduce localised solutions. Money is a less important problem with FIDE ratings because the CFC sets the price - we can simply retail their services.

Regarding the Business plan - we now at least have had a budget in place for the past couple of years. The trick with a business plan or any budget is that the certainty of the projected expenses is almost always greater than that of the revenues. It's too tempting to invent reveune in order to meet the spending plans. We essentially kept the Federation between the budgetary lines last year which is encouraging. A proper business plan would benefit from having some more seasoned business professionals involved. If the AGM this year was any indication we are moving in this direction, tentatively.

The other challenge we face is that too few people are assigned too many tasks, leading to burn out frustration, often before tasks are completed. Chessplayers instinctivley seek to refute other peoples' ideas. Nonetheless I occasionally succumb to optimism even now and perhaps a winning attitude is still possible to cultivate.