This section is reserved for other CFC Business. Please note that this section is for discussion only though many "new business" items have become motions at succeeding Assembly quarterly meetings.
Other reports are welcome here.
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This section is reserved for other CFC Business. Please note that this section is for discussion only though many "new business" items have become motions at succeeding Assembly quarterly meetings.
Other reports are welcome here.
There is a new fb group "Chess Federation of Canada Parent Community" that uses "Chess Federation of Canada" in their group name and logo - https://www.facebook.com/groups/880812072880043.
I asked Vlad whether the group is authorized by CFC. His answer was "I believe that it was started with the encouragement of Christina and Bob."
The creator of that group is asking to post on the "Chess In BC" fb group to solicit players and parents to join the "Chess Federation of Canada Parent Community" group.
Opinions?
Michael Lo
I think, it's a good idea - it could be some kind of replacement for defunct CFC Youth Committee.
I think it is a good idea to put parents in touch with each other. Many of our parents go on to become voting members or even board members (Victoria Doknjas, Frank Lee and Christina Tao and the last four or five youth coordinators come to mind). Anything that we can do to facilitate parents communicating together is a good thing. There can be mentoring of new kids/chess parents by the veterans.
As much as possible we should encourage sharing of information at all levels of our organization. Parents are a key success factor of successful chess players.
While I agree with everything Vlad has said I do have concerns when such a group uses the CFC name and most voting members (including myself) have never heard of them nor know who's involved - and in particular that the junior coordinator doesn't seem know either. I'm all for working with parents but if they're using the CFC name the junior coordinator MUST be involved since such a group needs to have a national focus.
If they're NOT working with the Junior Coordinator then for me that's a problem since using the CFC name implies they've got some formal connection which may well come about if we let it (and I'd favor going a ways to let this happen) and hope they can in fact work together particularly with respect to national junior and cadet events.
My advice is that we need to be very very careful with the CFC name while acknowledging this is an area we could definitely use some additional support. So let's see what happens - though for sure if they're using our name to me that implies they're prepared to take on some responsibility to the CFC and given the nature of the group the Jr Coordinator is the obvious "go to person" for them.
I totally agree with others that this is a good idea, but is not comfortable with the current operation of this group that carries CFC's name.
I agree with Lyle, those are exactly my concerns. It seems to me that no one from CFC is directly involved in this group. We have no control over what is being posted. Do we have legal liability on the content of the group if it carries CFC's name? In some worst scenario, e.g. what if porn content appears in the group.
I also disagree with the group's private setting - "Only members can see who's in the group and what they post". Usually a group like this welcomes people to see who's in the group and what they post, only put restriction on members can post in the group. Apparently, we cannot do anything about it since no one from CFC is involved.
Does CFC have legal liability on the content of the fb group if it carries CFC's name? Any advice would be appreciated.
As of now, it seems the NAC nominations thread was locked without resolution?
I would suggest a gentler reaction since we do like what they are doing. I would not want them to believe they must say something like they are "A private community for parents of children and youth involved with an organization that cannot be named". When I look at their FB page, I don't see it trying to appear to be an official CFC group. It's more like a Honda Civic owners forum that obviously is not an official Honda channel. I think what they have is okay: they clearly state they are just "for parents of children and youth in the CFC" and nothing "we are an official CFC group" (unless I missed something in all their pages). But if we absolutely must, I would suggest asking them to just add a statement that their FB group is independent of the CFC.
UPDATE: I just read more of their page. At the bottom, it has the disclaimer: "The group is parent led. Moderators or members may or may not reflect the views of the Chess Federation of Canada". Is that not sufficient?
I think it is. We really should not be heavy handed in such cases as groups like this is likely where we can look for future voting members, organizers and CFC officials. They are our allies (they want us to succeed so that their kids can succeed) and also the canary in the coal mine which tell us about problems we might be having early on. As I mentioned, every youth coordinator in recent memory was also a chess parent who crossed over to help the CFC improve its youth programs. I am here as CFC president because I was concerned about the youth portfolio as a chess instructor and coach of mostly youth players. It was the impetus of stepping forward at the Canadian Closed in 2011 to volunteer to be Masters representative when no one else was interested.
The main limitation on the CFC is in the number of volunteers willing and able to help.
What about the voting for the National Appeals Commitee?!
Although the likelihood of the CFC being liable for any issues with children and parents is remote it is not impossible as we live in a litigious world. Accordingly I suggest that the group change its name. A suggestion would be "Parental support for Canadian chess". The group should not be using the name Chess federation of Canada in its title.
Les Bunning, Ontario lawyer and CFC past president
I would think any connection with porn or other non-chess material would be the result of hackers rather than anything intentionally posted but no question net security is important and while the average member or VM doesn't know about it, Chris has done an outstanding job for years in keeping that sort of thing off this site. As one of the moderators I have seen the suspended accounts list and no question the bad guys have attempted to gain access here multiple times. (Either directly to the forum or by creating e-mails involving 'chess.ca' which can be used for all kinds of non-chess activities. (I'm not aware the e-mail thing has ever happened with the CFC though it HAS with my business and we definitely do not want our accounts being used by spam-bots or worse)
Again, the CFC has its name and network of members and organizers and we need to be careful with allowing those we're not in direct contact with to use a name including ours. In my opinion the new junior coordinator should reach out to them as soon as possible after this meeting. If they can help our junior program (and I mean nationally more so than just in a given city) all well and good.
For sure we should be paying attention going forward.
By the way Assembly members probably don't know but should that the CFC owns the domain chess.ca and organizations wanting to use a domain name based on it (for example bc.chess.ca or on.chess.ca) need both the CFC's consent and that of every other sub-domain (I don't know of any other than provincial affiliates - as BCCF secretary I had to consent when the Newfoundland federation wanted nl.chess.ca though they're now using nlchess.ca)
So my advice is be welcoming but be very very careful as we do not want to risk the exclusivity of the CFC name.
Good discussion - glad we're having it.
As long as it stays that way and posters don't use it as a bully pulpit for demanding the CFC does this or that my opinion is that it should be ok. I would like to see the new junior coordinator monitoring it (and if they choose to make the occasional informational posting fine with me).
If their approach changes we may need to say something but going Rambo-like over the top is undoubtedly the wrong approach. The last thing we need is for things to degenerate and become what I call "Chesstalk on a bad day"!
Congatulations to Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux who convincingly won World Youth Chess Championships 2022 - Open Under 18 - with GM performance!
http://chess-results.com/tnr655571.a...et=YES&flag=30
Way to go, Shawn!
I'd like to bring up the issue of National Candidate Master and other Certificates. One of our players has been waiting for since mid-May, 2022 for their Certificate and I'm told it will be issued sometime after this CFC meeting. Once a player has obtained their certification, in my view, it's incumbent upon the CFC to, at the earliest, recognize this achievement. An early recognition assists in encouraging the player to attain their next level and provides them with their deserved recognition within the chess community. I'm told that the CFC issues Certificates in batches after a number of candidates have obtained their certification level. Personally, I think this procedure, as noted above, doesn't reflect the CFC's overall promotion of chess in our communities. Bottom line is that I'd like the CFC to issue a Certificate within 14 days of the player's obtaining their certification. My thoughts.
If this is helpful, postings of IM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux, 2022 World U18 Open Youth Chess Champion; and Rachel Ruoxuan Chen, who placed Top 9 in 2022 World U14 Girls Youth Chess Championship, have been featured on the CFC Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Chess-Feder...63031117086480
Similar postings on IM Shawn can be found on Chess Canada CFC Newsletter Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ChessCanada
Congratulations, Lloyd, you are now the CFC's new Chief Editor and Journalist heading a staff of zero.
As CFC's only journalist, you will track down stories like Shawn's recent win, you will write up the story, and you will submit it on a timely basis (within 24 hours in the case of Shawn's story). As the CFC's only editor, you will deal with issues like the following: two photos from the 2022 WYCC were sent in by Christina and briefly published on the chess.ca home page until a complaint was received from Victoria that these photos were from her website and photographer and need attribution. My unstated policy has been I only published photos donated without needing attribution (takes work to obtain; takes up limited room on the web page for something few care about). That was my policy as a non-professional editor/journalist. You should devise your own policy as an official editor/journalist role.
As CFC webmaster, I've been hoping to not repeat another experience I had. For 19 years, I was webmaster for another non-profit. In hindsight, only maybe 10% of my unpaid volunteered time was spent on the technical aspects of running a website. The other 90% was acting as the default editor/journalist. I spent many many hours running around trying to extract complete & accurate info from other people then writing up a coherent article for publishing on the website. Often this would be for content that just a few would read and then forget (but complain if it wasn't there). When chess.ca completely succumbed to viruses in 2020, I volunteered to get it back up & running mainly for its core essential functions (upcoming events list, ratings) and hoped to avoid as much editor/journalist work as possible.
I desperately do not want to become CFC's only editor/journalist by default so I am so glad you're now on board. You now own a few issues I've been procrastinating on. For example, there are about 1,100 web page still to be migrated from the old (Drupal) website. Most of these most people won't care about or read, but you'll need to make an editorial decision anyways. About 500 of those pages are biographies of chess players, organizers, etc. These have not been maintained since around 2010 so you will need to update these: for existing biographies, research and add new accomplishments; for new people after 2010, identify who should have a biography entry and create new biographies from them. Or, you can make a decision not to publish these out-of-date biographies. It'll be your decision (so glad to have you on board).
After you have spent several 100 hours of unpaid volunteer time as editor/journalist, you'll be in a great position to answer your own question re why isn't X posted on the website yet.
As the AGM will be closing soon, along with this thread, Don and I along with a few others have continued the general topic on a separate email thread on the importance for CFC to provide proper photo credit to photographers when posting their photos on the CFC website.
In this specific situation, I was not aware that Christina separately submitted the two same 2022 WYCC photos that was posted earlier on Facebook where proper photo credit was given to the onsite photographers. In terms of my involvement, I wanted to make sure that the photographers received photo credit for their photos on the CFC website. It was not so much the need to mention any website/FB page linked to me, but more importantly the names of the photographer. Recently, publications like Chessdom have used my photos from the Canadian Open and they attributed photo credit in the format of "Photo by {Photographer/website or FB page source}", so in correspondence with Don, I suggested the same format. For these 2022 WYCC photos, photo credit can simply be attributed to the onsite photographers without citing the website/FB page sources.
Don: I know that we all in the CFC Community at large appreciate your many hours of volunteer work and technical expertise. Thank you!
In the separate email thread I have suggested for a new request form to be created, similar to the request form that Organizers submit for their chess events, in which the request form would contain:
- Attached photo to post.
- Name of photographer to attribute proper photo credit.
- Short description/title of the accompanying photo.
Going forward, I hope my suggestion will help resolve this issue by way of not adding more work to Don's already deep pile, but still provide a solution to attribute proper photo credit/photo copyright to photographers for their work being posted on the CFC website.
I think that we concentrate on Facebook and the CFC forums for breaking news such as this. I am very close to personally removing myself from Facebook. I no longer post there aside from CFC matters and occasionally to check on relatives and friends. Currently I have one youngster who is pestering me to intervene with a GM who has blocked him on Facebook. He is also pestering me for ignoring him. I am largely ignoring everyone so it is nothing personal. At some point, I will probably sign on to Facebook and figure out how to block him.
Don brought up the Vernon Howard themaswot rule without realizing it.
THE POWER OF THEMASWOT by Vernon Howard
How many times have you found yourself involved with a person or
event only to later regret it? This exercise keeps you out of
trouble in the first place.
The whole idea is for you to be on guard against invitations and
suggestions that look like fun at first but which turn out to be
painful traps. A person will get you involved in something, then
suddenly lose interest in it, leaving you with the responsibilities
and even the debts...
Employ the power of Themaswot. This special word was created to
help you recognize a trap when meeting one....
Themaswot means, 'Themaswot makes the suggestions are the ones who
must do the work, make the decisions and pay the money.'...
First, thank you for all your work Don. I get it as I've been the volunteer coordinator for another organization for which I coordinate approximately 60 volunteers year-round. I didn't realize this work was being done by a volunteer. Thank you again for doing this, your work is much appreciated and obviously previously mis-understood (at least by me).
Thanks everyone for the thanks (and LOL for the "Themaswot"). I've enjoyed the techie work especially since the original need was great. Image where the CFC would be now if for the last 2 years we did not have an upcoming events list and published ratings. Behind the scenes there's been other enjoyable techie work such as integrating the membership, ratings, and website systems so that data flows between them. Upcoming, Bob & I are looking at options to improve membership management (and save Bob's time). The ratings program is 25+ years old and needs an upgrade. Also, an upgraded accounting system could allow further time-saving automation as well as instant financial reports. These are all things I find interesting.
What isn't so interesting, for me at least, is the "Content Hairball" problem. This is both a past & future problem. The past content consists of 1,100 web pages not yet migrated from the old (Drupal) chess.ca. Much of this is either out-of-date so needs to either be updated or discarded. Much of this is also content that few people will read (so the motivation to work on it is low). Essential content, such as the CFC Handbook, has been migrated. The future content is how to set things up so editor/journalist work can be done without the webmaster falling (again) into the trap of becoming the default editor/journalist. This is something I'm investigating now (after 2 years of procrastination; thanks for your patience).
Finally, thanks to Lloyd for accepting with grace my over-reaction to his comment. A very hectic week, a larger than usual glass of cognac, and the timing that I'm right now thinking about the content hairball problem may all have contributed to that.
Hi Don,
We really appreciate what you have done for the CFC as without you we probably would have continued to have the chaos that reigned before your arrival as webmaster and tech guru. Don just helped me to get the new logo translated to eps format for the Sport Tourism Canada expo in Edmonton in November where we make the contacts that have allowed the last few flagship events like CYCC, Canadian Open, NAYCC and Canadian Closed to happen without the organizers losing tons of money.
I ignore the "Themaswot" rule constantly. In fact that is how I and the Windsor group that included Christina Tao wound up organizing CYCC, Canadian Open and NAYCC in 2016. It does help you to temper your enthusiasm for new projects. If you don't have the volunteers then you really have to evaluate whether realistically a project has legs.