4. Executive Elections - A. President

[Lyle Craver]

Make your nominations for President here

[Fred McKim]

Pierre Denommee & Vlad Drkulec have both indicated they are willing to run for President. I would ask them to cut and paste any earlier statements they've made into this thread.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

This is a cut and paste of my post on the governors forum:

I am running for CFC President. I love chess. I love to play chess. I love to teach children and adults to play chess so that they too can come to appreciate the game of chess. I have an MBA in finance and marketing and undergraduate degrees in business and psychology. I also have a diploma in electrical-electronic engineering technology. Most of my work life has involved some aspect of IT, computer consulting or technical sales. I was an instructor in undergraduate finance at the local university for a number of years in the early to mid 1990's.

In recent years I have been an active organizer and chess instructor in the Windsor area. I have also been the CFC masters representative for a little over two years and have become active in the CFC with a number of initiatives including becoming chairman of the long term planning committee and lead author on the long term strategic plan presented last year. I have also been a very active player though lately I have been spending more time helping Windsor children compete than I have in competing myself. Part of that has been due to some health problems which have made it difficult for me to travel and compete at the level that I demand of myself though recently I have at least seen signs that I can continue to compete at a reasonable level as long as I keep my eye on my health, maintain my energies and avoid behaviours that are not congruent with being a diabetic.

I agree with Pierre that we need to make complying with the new non-profit act a priority. I believe that given the political realities of the CFC we should aim to make the minimal changes required to comply with the act in a timely basis and put off discussions on wholesale restructuring until some future date as this will just make it difficult to comply with the deadlines of the not for profit act. I believe that we should remove dead wood governors but the danger in the proposals presented was that we might have removed some of the governors that were very useful in the functioning of the CFC.

I enthusiastically support the plans of the FQE to bring the WYCC to Montreal as this could be just the kickstart that we could use to increase chess awareness and participation across Canada especially among our juniors.

I don't believe that I am always right but I will try to do the right thing in terms of what I perceive to be the long term best interests of chess in Canada. I do believe that the governors will most often act in the best interest of chess in Canada and if they can't be persuaded of the usefulness of some course of action then it is quite possible that the proposal might need some reworking.

My plan would be to implement many of the suggestions of the long term planning committee report from last year. My experience in Windsor is that it only takes a few people working together to help build momentum in the local chess community. I would like to see some of that energy directed towards national programs such as the national coaching program and youth programs significantly growing the numbers in terms of CFC memberships starting with juniors but also extending to adult memberships.

I would also like to see the CFC do what it has to do to improve the response of the CFC website. At times the present website is excruciatingly slow. That needs to change. I would also like to see us move to an improved and streamlined rating system that is not as labour intensive as the present system. It would be nice if the Executive Director could turn some of his energies to chess promotion rather than having to put out fires all the time. I do recognize the importance of maintaining control of the rating system as it is one of our crown jewels.

I do not think that it is prudent for the CFC president to be too stridently partisan in condemning the party in power as this just means that we can hardly hope for any help from that quarter. We have to be prepared to work with the political parties whatever their political stripes. Particularly it does not make sense to burn any bridges when the current government is likely to be in power well past the end of the next term of the CFC presidency.

I am not in favour of erecting any barriers which will prevent people from organizing or directing CFC tournaments. We need more tournaments and not less. I am not in favour of any code of ethics which requires the governors to engage in groupthink or tries to enforce compliance with any decree of the governors by stifling all dissent. I don't see the use in that. I am willing to entertain the notion that I might be wrong on some issue. Sometimes the minority is right. We're all adults here and we don't need to fear dissent or alternative opinions. It is a fact of life that we should be able to live with if we are mature human beings. Stifling dissent might be useful where one is interested in installing a dictatorship but I don't think that model is appropriate for the CFC.

I was very much impressed with the goodwill expressed during last year's meetings with FIDE and FQE officials in Quebec City and believe that we need to work with FIDE and the FQE to advance our mutual agenda for promoting chess but at the same time we need to understand that occasionally our interests may diverge and we have to be aware of how our actions and initiatives can have an impact on the CFC brand. We are all one big family but sometimes, especially FIDE can be seen as the eccentric uncle of the family who we have to keep a close watch on.

We have to work smart in order to expand our resources and make the best use of the resources that we have now. I think that the CFC has been moving in a positive direction recently. I hope help to continue moving the CFC in the same positive direction whether or not you choose me as the next president. If elected I will do my best to live up to the responsibility that you have entrusted to me and do everything in my power to promote and expand the appeal of this game of chess that we all love among Canadians.

[Félix Dumont]

We definitely do not agree on every subject, but you are a man of action and the CFC really needs that at this point. I will support your candidature, and I hope you'll take the right decisions to give back some prestige to the CFC when the time comes.

[Hal Bond]

I nominate Vlad Drkulec.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Pierre Dénommée can't post in the incoming governors forum at the moment. Here is a cut and paste of his original post from the governor's forum.

I am willing to stand for the following positions

Governor from Quebec.

Executive

- President
- Vice-President
- Youth Coordinator

Special Officers

- Tournament Coordinator

Not an officer, you can nominate me even if if I am elected to another position.

- National Appeals Committee


Presidential platform

The first thing that we need is a new Constitution. This is an urgent matter and I have extensive experience writing Constitutions. This is a very important matter because we narrowly escaped the hijacking of the CFC by a small group that would have resulted from the adoption of the rejected Constitution. An organisation the size of the CFC could be lead by a 10 directors if we were agreeing on most issues. A look at the Governors' letters clearly demonstrate that almost nothing pass unanimously. This diversity means that more directors are required.

A new Constitution is an opportunity to improve. This issue is complicated because of some failures of the Conservative Government. The most blatant stupidity is to hope that a member who sign a form to get the personal information of all the other members, as permitted under the new Act, will respect his obligation to use this information legally. It is my opinion that marketing firms employees will become member of many non-profit solely for getting the address of all the members. Under the new Act, the CFC is obligated to give to any member the full list of all the members. This means that our regular members will need to be transferred to the Registered Participant status.

The exact separation of Power between the CFC and its affiliated provincial associations should be addressed. The new Act force us to deal with the discipline of members but before entering into that, we must define who will be a CFC member under the new Constitution. Registered Participants discipline is not covered in the |Act and we can do anything that we want.

I also favor a sound structure for the CFC. An efficient organization cannot function solely with had hoc committees and with tasks assigned arbitrarily by the board of directors. Structures brings stability and encourage members to volunteer for well defined responsibilities.

I am in favor of separating as much as possible the administrative side from the sporting side. Off course, the Chess operations requires funding to function adequately, so the administrative side will always be leading as required by the Act.

The CFC should focus on running National Programs. A national team championship should be the first priority. The Championship final should be played over the board to make norms possibles. All other national Championship shall be reviewed for improvement. If the provincial association does not organise a provincial championship, then anybody should have the right to ask the CFC to run a provincial qualifier. The TDOCP program should really takeoff. Examinations should be available. I can easily make an online practice quiz.

The CFC should act vigorously against anybody who organise a national event without collecting the membership. We should modify the CFC Tournament Rules to forbid arbiters from pairing non-members. Curiously, chess is the only sport in which players routinely attempt to play without a membership. This problem is not restricted to the CFC and involving the arbiters is a proven solution.

Club should be revitalized. They are good candidate for membership under the new Act because their contact information is public.

At the Quebec Open, I will get feedback from the FQE on our agreement.

On the FIDE front, I will defend our Zone.

Pierre Dénommée

[Vladimir Drkulec]

We definitely do not agree on every subject, but you are a man of action and the CFC really needs that at this point. I will support your candidature, and I hope you'll take the right decisions to give back some prestige to the CFC when the time comes.

Thank you for your support. I certainly hope that I will make and support the right decisions that will enhance the prestige of the CFC and chess in Canada. i know that we won't always agree but I think we all have similar goals despite some differences about what we think is the best way to get where we want to go.

[Lyle Craver]

Thank you for catching Pierre's forum post - I missed it and should have looked for a statement from him given Pierre's present status. (I.e. outgoing Federation officers are not 'incoming' until they are elected - I can go through the list and give them such status if this is what's desired) Do we have a consensus Governors?

[Vladimir Drkulec]

Thank you for catching Pierre's forum post - I missed it and should have looked for a statement from him given Pierre's present status. (I.e. outgoing Federation officers are not 'incoming' until they are elected - I can go through the list and give them such status if this is what's desired) Do we have a consensus Governors?

You are welcome.

Its a bit odd to have a meeting where only some of the incoming officers are allowed to post. Is it possible that in future editions of this meeting we can allow candidates to post but not vote until elected? At physical AGMs candidates were allowed to address the assembly despite not being governors.

[Simon Ong]

I nominate Vlad Drkulec.

I will second the nomination of Vlad Drkulec.