The CFC needs your help

[Fred McKim]

I have to admit that I've become a bit of a deadwood governor over the past 6-7 years. In my mind there were plenty of governors to run things and fill executive spots. I had more than enough stuff to do at the local / provincial level to keep busy.

However, I was more than happy to participate in the online forum recently, and when asked if I'd be willing to offer my name up for this year's executive, I knew it was probably once again time to step up (33 years straight as a governor now and probably 10-12 times on the executive).

So here we go - what I can bring to the table is a willingness to engage in dialogue on this forum. We need a multitude of ideas, input, and feedback to succeed.....

In addition to Executive positions there are all sort of Committee positions that people could come forward before the AGM to volunteer for.

Every year at the AGM we elect
1) 2 members of the Chess Foundation of canada
2) The Kalev Pugi Fund Committee

usually
3) the National Appeals Committee

I remember there used to be a
4) Finance Committee
5) Business Office Committee

I know there are some newer committees in place over the past couple of years, but I can also think of some others that might be useful
6) TD Program Certification Committee
7) Rating Overview Committee
8) Membership Committee
9) Fund Raising Committee
10) Web site Committee
11) Publicity Committee
12) Magazine Committee
it's really endless. I'd ask anyone (member or governor) who has an interest in any of these to start a new thread and let the discussion begin.

[Fred McKim]

13) Vision Committee (as suggested by Hal)

[Christopher Mallon]

I am willing to serve on the vision committee, website committee, rating overview committee and I'm willing to give another go at the TDOCP committee - as chair - as long as I have the full and active support of the new exec!

I'm also willing to continue on the National Appeals Committee, although funnily enough I never knew I was on it in the first place until we received an appeal :) Typical, really.

[Pierre Dénommée]

3) the National Appeals Committee

I remember there used to be a

I know there are some newer committees in place over the past couple of years, but I can also think of some others that might be useful
6) TD Program Certification Committee
7) Rating Overview Committee
10) Web site Committee


I am a volunteer for those committees. I am willing to run against Christopher Mallon for the Chair of TDOCP :) .

[Christopher Mallon]

Pierre, you were treasurer for two years and never managed to make a budget. What would make anyone think you'd get anything done now?

You also had the FQSE and did nothing but request volunteers and funds for a couple of years.

[Paul Leblanc]

I will continue my work with the Foundation and should an opening come up for a trustee position on the Pugi Fund I will be happy to stand. I will also continue to seek out good people to stand for trustee positions that come open.
I didn't know there was a ratings committee. I haven't heard a word from them in my 2 years as a governor, nor has there been any participation by the Ratings Auditor in any of the discussions regarding rating inflation and under-rated juniors.
I would be happy to volunteer for a position on the financial oversight committee, which I also didn't know existed.

[Christopher Mallon]

I think Fred was suggesting that such committees SHOULD exist, not that they already do (although the Arbiters one did last year, sortof).

[Fred McKim]

These committees are ones that I'm hoping can be set up at the AGM, or at least the ones that we feel are of value.

The last rating "audit" committee was in place for the rating increase of 5-6 years ago. I would think the rating auditor would chair this committe. The original role of the rating auditor was to rule on complaints from members concering their ratings, but I think heading thsi probably ongoing group would be more valauable.

I've talked about rating inflation - I think the proper way to establish it is to set up some regional pools of players and examine how players in the age range of 25-40 ( and maybe this should be 30-50 - it's just the concept, I'm looking at) have changed over the period of time since the last adjustment.

It may be that the number of participation or feedback points will end up depending on the region of the country.

[Christopher Mallon]

I was on the last such ratings committee. As I recall Pierre was on it (Ratings Auditor at the time?) as was Robert Hamilton. You, Fred, also sent some input, as did a few other people.

That committee ended up being mostly myself and Robert coming up with the solution at the time and Pierre (eventually) approved it as Chair. Of course the implementation was messed up by a bug in the software (nobody's fault really) but that was never corrected despite immediate efforts by us upon discovery of the problem.

[Fred McKim]

14) Handbook Committee. I think Maurice has worked on this most recently, but probably a lot of updating could be accomplished with a couple of more set of eyes.

-------

As for the last rating committee, I felt that the implementation of the correction was too simple, but the decision had already been made to go ahead by then.

As for an ongoing formula, I guess it has to be something the rating program can accomodate. Who can tell me who does the maintenance on the rating program, anyway ?

[Pierre Dénommée]

Pierre, you were treasurer for two years and never managed to make a budget. What would make anyone think you'd get anything done now?

A budget has been made. I went to Ottawa to meet with the ED just for that.

[Pierre Dénommée]

You also had the FQSE and did nothing but request volunteers and funds for a couple of years.

Which are two things that every non-profit does.

You forgot to mention that the FQSÉ did translate the CFC Tournament Rules, the CFC Code of Ethics, the FIDE Swiss pairing rules, the FIDE Laws of Chess, the FIDE electronic clock rules, the FIDE tiebreak rules and the FIDE standards of equipment. In case you doubt it, copies of those translations have been given to the National Library of Canada.

The FQSÉ has also organised many competitions, all of which have been canceled due to lack of registration. Service in French is fundamental in the province of Quebec. Translation must come before competitions, otherwise nobody will participate.

Not to mentioned that when I was a Governors appointed by the FQSÉ, I did participate to the CFC governance by voting on almost all motions. I have also bring the CFC tournament rules in line with the new reality of the digital Chess clock and I also wrote the CFC Code of Ethics in both official languages.

The FQSÉ affiliation has been revoked before the translation of the CFC Constitution and other administrative documents. That's sad, but life must go on.

[Fred McKim]

So after 24 hours (over the weekend), we've found three volunteers to serve on Committees for next year. I'm hoping many more will come forward in the next few days and we can break off into some discussion groups leading up to the AGM.

[Fred McKim]

15) Youth Committee. I just noticed this one as a forum, here. Youth Co-ordinator obviously would chair this one.

[Bob Gillanders]

I see lots of activity on the boards, as well as lots of emails in my inbox. :eek: :) I will get to my replies shortly, maybe a beer first, or two.

I just spent the last 3 days at a seminar in Toronto on IFRS.
For all you non accountants, that stands for International Financial Reporting Standards. ugggrrrr......that's brutal stuff.:(

Believe it or not, dealing with CFC stuff again will be a relief! :)

[Christopher Mallon]

My wife will be getting into that kind of stuff I'm sure, in fact she's currently taking International Finance I believe hehe.

[Fred McKim]

I just realized that a lot of governors have non chess skills they may have to offer, that we sometimes don't even think about. I have to admit that I've served on many Executives without knowing what profession or special interest groups some of the others were involved with. I know a number of us have indicated our profession on the CFC Governor's Directory.

[Michael Barron]

15) Youth Committee. I just noticed this one as a forum, here. Youth Co-ordinator obviously would chair this one.

Thank you, Fred!

You beat me on that - I was just about posting it... :)

This Committee was quite active last year, helping to send our players to many International competitions:
WYCC 2009,
North American YCC 2009,
World Amateur 2010,
World Scholastic 2010,
World Junior 2010.

Currently we're working on preparation to:
CYCC 2010,
Pan American YCC 2010,
North American YCC 2010.

We have made a number of important decisions regarding qualification to youth tournaments, including Motion 2010-07 “CYCC Qualification Rules”.

The current Committee members are:
Michael Barron (Chair),
Ellen Nadeau,
Patrick McDonald,
Brian Raymer,
John Coleman,
Valer Eugen Demian,
Edward Porper,
Roman Pelts.

I could add that new Committee members are always welcome - please let me know, if you're willing to volunteer.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

7) Rating Overview Committee
8) Membership Committee
...
10) Web site Committee
11) Publicity Committee
12) Magazine Committee
,,,
14) Handbook Committee.

At least I could express my opinion in those fields :rolleyes:

Another possible work areas:

the tournaments report program (software) [this might be combined with the rating C.]


clubs - I find strange to see so much concern about the active rating flaws, while there almost no those active tournaments, what I think should be one of clubs main activity at least once in a quarter.


chess schools/coaches: competitions between them - team matches;

etc

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Fred:

One of the existing Subcommittees of the Procedures' Committee ( Myself, as Chair, and Eric ) is the Handbook Updating Committee - this is a committee of one, member Kerry Liles ( former governor ) - he is working with Gerry Litchfield to now update the website Handbook immediately upon the Governors passing a motion.

Bob

[Fred McKim]

Hi Bob: What can you tell us about this committee and it's sub-committees?

I don't believe it existed back in the early 2000's.

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Fred:

Eric had a couple of procedural priorities for his first term. They were: Update the governors' decision-making, and update the AGM. He asked if I would take these on, by becoming Chair of his new Procedures' Committee ( he was a member of the Committee - basically I would do the work, and he would get the final say - was OK by me ).

So I instituted 2 Subcommittees, for each of these projects, in order to keep them distinct and separate: The Governors' Voting Modernization Subcommittee ( Myself as chair, Lyle Craver, Chris Mallon ); The AGM Modernization Subcommittee ( Myself as chair, Chris Mallon, Jason Lohner ).

Later the Handbook updating, after all Maurice's work, became an issue. So I recommended to Eric that a third Subcommittee be added, the Handbook Updating Subcommittee - and Kerry Liles, former governor, volunteered for the position, as a one-member Subcommittee.

The Governors' Voting Modernization Subcommittee has now been disbanded, because it reported to the Procedures' Committee. The Procedures' Committee now has filed the Subcommittee's Motion on Governors' On-line Meeting Procedures with Lyle, for publication in GL # 5, and to go onto the AGM agenda for final vote.

The AGM Modernization Subcommittee successfully completed Phase I of its mandate - it developed a CFC AGM Model, and developed some " Notes on a Technological Implementation Plan ". But no volunteer would come forward to develop for the Subcommittee a " Technological Implementation Plan " for how the Model was to be implemented, which was Phase II of its mandate. The Subcommittee therefore went to Maurice, as Treasurer, with a request for some funds to pay someone to develop the " Technological Implementation Plan ". Maurice said no funds were available at this time, and the request might be renewed to the new Administration in July, or after the Olympiad. So the activity of this Subcommittee is now suspended 'til we again try for funds. ( Phase III of the mandate will be, if Phase II is completed, to have a " Trial AGM " , to see how the technology works and if it is successful, then implement the changes for the 2011 AGM ).

For the Handbook Updating Subcommittee, Kerry is currently actively reviewing the updating system with Gerry Litchfield, and will update the website Handbook as soon as the Governors pass the next relevant motion.

whew !!

Bob

[Fred McKim]

Yes, that was a mouthful. I guess that worked for last year's administration.

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Fred:

I forgot to mention that this Procedures' Committee was never one specifically entered into the Handbook. So you won't find it if you go looking there.

I hope the new Administration will see its ongoing usefulness. The new Administration may want to change its personnell - I would be fine with that, but as well, I'm quite willing to continue on as Chair of the Procedures' Committee, and of the AGM Modernization Subcommittee. I don't know what Eric's intentions are as the other member of the Procedures' Committee.

Bob

[Fred McKim]

I would think that this would best be a three person committee, so that there would be at least two contributing members, in cases where one of the members is unable to carry through on their commitment. I think the President would be a mandatory inclusion.

I may be missing something here, but I think this is what you've told us.

Procedures Committee 2009/10: Bob A (chair), Eric V
Does the procedures committee itself have a function, or is it more of a holding committee for the sub-committees ?


Sub-committees 2009/10
a) AGM Modernization: Bob A (chair), Eric V
b) Handbook: Kerry L

[Bob Armstrong]

Hi Fred:

A correction to your Committee structure:

Procedures Committee 2009/10: Bob A (chair), Eric V

Sub-committees 2009/10
a) AGM Modernization: Bob A (chair),Chris Mallon, Jason Lohner
b) Handbook: Kerry L

You also asked : Does the Procedures' Committee itself have a function, or is it more of a holding committee for the sub-committees ?

Answer: There is no reason the Procedures' Committee itself could not take on a project. But sometimes because of wanting different personnell than the Procedure's Committee to do something, the Subcommittee structure is convenient, because you can just appoint the new people you want to the Subcommittee, and add whomever you want from the Procedures' Committee to fill out the Subcommittee. Then the Subcommittee reports to the Procedures' Committee, and gets disbanded if it's finished its mandate ( as happened with the Governors' Voting Modernization Subcommittee - the Procedures' Committee itself is now responsible to implement the On-line Meeting Procedures, and get the motion passed ). So it can be either way.

Bob

[Fred McKim]

We have a number of threads on the CFC Governors board, now. If you are a CFC member (but non Governor) and are interested in any of the committees discussed in this thread post back here now and i'll see your name is put forward. CFC Governors should go directly to the thread you are interested in.