Please post all Executive and Officer reports here.
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Please post all Executive and Officer reports here.
Memberships continue to grow. We hit 2,710 on Feb 1, an increase of 11.2% from a year ago. All signs point to continued growth. As I commented in my report at the AGM last year, the office continues to struggle to keep up with the growth. If you have an outstanding issue with the office that hasn’t been addressed recently, it maybe that you have dropped off my radar. Your patience is much appreciated, but an email reminder would be prudent.
We need to modernize the office systems. Go membership is the first step. Progress has been slow, but we are now moving forward. Once Go membership is implemented, membership renewal process will be online. Implementation will be in several stages. Once that is done, I would like to look at a new rating program.
Many thanks to all the chess club officials, organizers, and volunteers who contribute to our success.
Thanks Bob, I know we can go on the CFC website and print off the list of current members but that in my view doesn't cut it because you don't know who's specific membership dues we're receiving when we receive a provincial refund. Personally, I'd like to see a system that when we receive our provincial dues rebate, that there would be an electronic file sent which would provide the provincial association with: 1) The list of members who's dues we're receiving, the related amount of their provincial portion transferred to the provincial association; the time period the dues are paid for; and the member's status (junior, adult, senior, life member); 2) We, and I suspect "all" provincial associations across the country have been losing money over many years by not collecting membership dues from life members because when some life members have come to play at our tournaments without paying their provincial dues. In many instances, it's highly likely that they are simply viewed as "paid up" where organizers often don't have time to see if they've paid their provincial portion. I realize that there's a good argument that it's not a CFC problem but in my view, anything which affects the provincial association's income, potentially affects the CFC because the CFC depends very much on the good governance of its provincial associations. Bottom line is that we need to work with the CFC to ensure that provincial associations are provided with better financial reporting so the provincial association "knows" who's paid what.
Also, I'm sure there's been previous discussion regarding time periods for payment of membership dues. Unless someone can come up with a good reason, I'd personally like to see a year end of December 31st, even if we have to divide the year in two where if you play in a tournament for the first time on July 1st, that you pay 1/2 of your dues (you'd have to pay your full dues if you paid before July 1st) with all memberships expiring on December 31st. I'm thinking it would be easier to keep track of our membership and easier for you if memberships expired on December 31st of each year.
I think it is much better for CFC stability that the renewals come throughout the year. I would really hate to see non-life memberships drop to zero on January 1st.
I agree having renewals through the year is useful but as a practical matter everybody knows that most renewals are done at tournaments which is why I feel so strongly a better deal for TD's (particularly those who organize multiple tournaments) is key.
As for provincial dues on life members provincial life memberships are collected directly by the provinces and this has been a low-level sore point for years. As former BCCF Treasurer there were always about 3x as many CFC life members as BCCF life members. The last VM Calculation (which is not linked anywhere I could see) says for BC it's 87 whereas there are only 24-25 BCCF life members (I'm one). So for sure Lloyd has a point. There is the problem of how it's SUPPOSED to be done vs how it's done in practice. At one point the Office would give a list of which events had submitted dues but that had stopped by the time I handed off provincial Treasurer to Paul Leblanc.
What I have had concerns about is that provincial due payments from the Office used to be quarterly but are now bi-annual. I'm not sure to what extent our software tabulates this info and to what extent it's done by the ED. Certainly there must be some kind of membership report the ED gets since not all membership types produce the same provincial dues.
We have been forced to select a player for the Women Continental Championship in less the 2 weeks. I selected Maili-Jade Ouellet and she his now the new Continental Champion. This is a huge achievement for her and has nothing to do with lucky pairings, she just played marvelously to finish with a score of 7.5/9 a whooping 1.5 points ahead of the closest player and no defeat. After this tournament, she gained 145.2 FIDE rating points and automatically acquired the titled of Women Grandmaster.
If the Zonal qualifies another player, I hope that we have the budget to send two players.
Respectfully Submitted
Pierre Dénommée
I am sure we will make room in the budget.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pierre Dénommée
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vladimir Drkulec
Thank you!
From initial Zonal registrations (including 2 WFMs, a WIM, and a WGM) I would think that it will be won by another quality player. Maili-Jade has not registered yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pierre Dénommée
Aris Marghetis
2020 Kingston Easter Chess
Women Zonal & Canadian Closed
I believe that the Dvorkovich administration has done a good job so far in terms of the events on the FIDE calendar. I am still trying to get used to their way of doing things, and I look forward to the upcoming Congress, because their approach to governance makes me anxious.
The FIDE Congress normally held in October will be held next week, February 26-March 1, in Abu Dhabi. This delay has raised a few eye brows. The duration of the Congress has also been shortened dramatically and most of the Commissions will not be attending. This will be an Extraordinary General Assembly, meaning the Assembly will be attended by Delegates instead of the Executive Board version, normally held between Olympiads, which is attended by Zone Presidents. The primary agenda item will be the new constitution. The first draft of the "Charter" was published at a VMs previous meeting. It drew some criticism from a number of Federations and the latest version was finally released 30 days before the Congress. Concerns remain about the increased Executive powers at the expense of member Federations and some commissions. I look forward to a healthy debate in order to better understand why this new Charter is necessary and/or better than our existing statutes. A two thirds majority vote is required to pass the Charter.
The Olympiad Congress in July/August will also be much shorter than usual and I am concerned about this. The face to face interaction with all of the Commissions is invaluable. I fear that stifling this interaction will weaken the FIDE institution.
The audited financials will be presented for 2018, along with the results of a forensic audit dating back a few years. I don't expect the 2018 statements to be very insightful because roughly 10 months of the year were managed under the previous administration, which was headed for a breakeven year. The 2019 statements are not due for release until the Olympic Congress but in my opinion we need as much information as possible about our current financial position, especially if we are expected to support a new set of ground rules.
Respectfully submitted
Hal Bond, FIDE Zone 2.2 President and Delegate, Canada
CHESS FOUNDATION REPORT
Total Assets: $380,000
Expected revenue for the current fiscal year: $12,700
Nothing significant to report. The system is functioning well.
Dear colleagues,
I continued to implement the mandate of expanding news flow to and from the CFC.
Captained Team Canada at the 2019 Vladimir Dvorkovich Cup in Aktobe, Kazakhstan. Players and parents loved that team junior U-17 competition and its diverse cultural program. I regularly took photographs and shared them within the parents’ group, with the CFC Youth Coordinator and the CFC Newsfeed Editor.
At the FIDE World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad in Çorum, Turkey, the Captain GM Gergely Szabo and the HoD Canada Ms. Sandra Vettese were prohibited from bringing cell phones to the playing hall. Thus, I systematically took photos of all Canadian players before and during rounds, then posted them within the parents’ group and shared with the CFC Youth Coordinator.
Likewise, at the King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Moscow, Russia, I took pictures of all Canadian participants and posted a photo gallery.
Via forum posts and e-mail, I systematically informed the Executive, players and parents about announcements and regulations of upcoming events such as World Youth / Cadet R&B 2020, World Amateur 2020, norm tournaments in the U.S., as well as about FIDE news such as the progress in drafting the new Charter and surveys addressed to national federations. I was also explaining the CFC developments in French in Québec and advocated for having more event sections rated with FIDE and the CFC.
Respectfully submitted by Vadim Tsypin.
Thank you for your report and your effort Vadim. Why do you think FIDE needs this new charter? How will it improve FIDE? It calls for a full General Assembly every year instead of holding an Executive Board Congress during non-Olympic years but the upcoming GA is very late and very short. Do you think this plan is viable?
Can you give us any indication as to the FIDE financial bottom line in 2019?
Vadim, do you have a new email address or something? If yes, please email me at arismarghetis at rogers dot com - thank you
Thank you Hal. These are good questions and they definitely deserve comprehensive answers which I wouldn’t be able to put in writing in a few hours remaining before I am about to board my plane.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hal Bond
Maître Rivello is supposed to publish an opinion piece that will explain in detail the rationale behind the new Charter. Why don’t you and I make some (joint?) postings from the Congress floor to share what he’d say there and/or in his ExGA presentation?
Regarding financials, Zhu Chen will be reporting as item 3.1 at the EB. It wouldn’t be appopriate to preempt her, let’s wait six more days. :) I am sure her report plus the audit results by Ernst & Young will provide a lot of detailed info.
Thanks Aris, I e-mailed you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aris Marghetis
The most important question about the new FIDE charter is the shift in power from the Commissions to the President.
Generally, the new FIDE president did a nice job, but understanding the rational behind those changes is important.
It is not clear to me how the members of the commissions are chosen. The ethics commission are elected but I am not sure if this is the case for many of the other commissions. In general, it makes sense that an elected president should tend to have power versus commissions that derive their power from individuals that may not be elected by FIDE member federations. I know that some of these commission members are appointed with input by continental officials. I have some confidence in Mr. Dvorkovich though not necessarily translating to everyone around him in all the bureaucracy of FIDE.
Sorry to be late. The dates of the meeting coincided with he Family Weekend in Ontario, then with the local tournament, and then another weekend came...
No much to report back as the executive member -- mostly inputs on a discussion level.
Three Commissions are elected - Ethics, Verification (Internal Audit) and Constitution. Some others, like QC (rating and titles) and ARB really need to operate independently because they have established regulations. They are essentially appointed by the President. Much of FIDEs work is being done by these Commissions and I worry about their diminishment.
Thanks Vadim - Rivello is the author of the document if I not mistaken so I am not sure how enlightening his rationale will be. We shall see how it goes.
As I mentioned in my report, the Treasurer will only present the 2018 financials, which were actually headed for a decent surplus on the year as I have learned since I posted it. It is the current state of finances I worry about because rumours abound that FIDE is broke.
I am also worried. Rules that prevent the FIDE President from modifying the Laws of Chess without the change being first adopted by the Rules Commission protects us from FIDE president without any chess literacy. A banker could have become FIDE President with little or no knowledge of Chess. The current President knows chess very well, but we cannot be sure that his successor will. The FIDE President designate commission presidents who choose the commission members.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hal Bond