5A9 New Business

[Vladimir Drkulec]

This thread is for any new business discussion.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

We have had two monthly zoom meetings as board members and are starting to get more comfortable with the technology which we and everyone else is increasingly turning to for business meetings. I think it is time that we consider integrating Zoom into voting member meetings though obviously we will have to step back and have somewhat shorter meetings more akin to what we used to do in person prior to adopting the online format.

[Christopher Mallon]

I like the forum meetings myself.

They give us time to consider things.
They allow for diverse views to be properly articulated.

A zoom meeting - with 70 people? They won't even all fit on two pages, much less one page.
How much can each individual VM contribute? A few sentences at best?
Time constraints may lead to rushed decisions.

The old in-person AGMs were two days long and many many hours each day. Does anyone really want to sit in on a Zoom call for two days? Plus, a lot of things that happened were done in a "backroom" sort of way, or informally during breaks, which really only works in person.

[Nikolay Noritsyn]

I like the forum meetings myself.

They give us time to consider things.
They allow for diverse views to be properly articulated.

A zoom meeting - with 70 people? They won't even all fit on two pages, much less one page.
How much can each individual VM contribute? A few sentences at best?
Time constraints may lead to rushed decisions.

The old in-person AGMs were two days long and many many hours each day. Does anyone really want to sit in on a Zoom call for two days? Plus, a lot of things that happened were done in a "backroom" sort of way, or informally during breaks, which really only works in person.

I agree, the current format for a meeting is perfect and should not be changed. There will be a lot less participation in a Zoom meeting of voting members, and I don't see how that can be a good thing.

[Patricia Gamliel]

I like the forum meetings myself.

They give us time to consider things.
They allow for diverse views to be properly articulated.

A zoom meeting - with 70 people? They won't even all fit on two pages, much less one page.
How much can each individual VM contribute? A few sentences at best?
Time constraints may lead to rushed decisions.

The old in-person AGMs were two days long and many many hours each day. Does anyone really want to sit in on a Zoom call for two days? Plus, a lot of things that happened were done in a "backroom" sort of way, or informally during breaks, which really only works in person.

I was one of the organizers of an 80 people zoom last month - JUST SAYING ...

[Christopher Mallon]

I was one of the organizers of an 80 people zoom last month - JUST SAYING ...

I never said you couldn't do it (I've been in a Zoom call with 4 pages also) just that it was very far from ideal.

[Lyle Craver]

I was one of the organizers of an 80 people zoom last month - JUST SAYING ...

As we speak I am listening in to a Zoom meeting with 83 present.

Be aware that while I've attended more than a dozen meetings with 50+ people in the past 6 months, what is lost is that you DON'T get meaningful contributions from anybody but the organizers and a LOT of people do feel they've not been heard.

Worst case scenario in a forum meeting like this is that people can page through material they don't deem sufficiently relevant but at the very least everybody DOES get to get their contributions in - which is definitely NOT the case in a large Zoom meeting. Zoom works well for meetings of 20 or less people but beyond that your level of participation is no more than one would get listening to the radio.

[Vladimir Drkulec]

I like the forum meetings myself.

They give us time to consider things.
They allow for diverse views to be properly articulated.

A zoom meeting - with 70 people? They won't even all fit on two pages, much less one page.
How much can each individual VM contribute? A few sentences at best?
Time constraints may lead to rushed decisions.

The old in-person AGMs were two days long and many many hours each day. Does anyone really want to sit in on a Zoom call for two days? Plus, a lot of things that happened were done in a "backroom" sort of way, or informally during breaks, which really only works in person.

FIDE managed to do an AGM meeting with many more participants in five hours.

[Michael Barron]

Dear chess friends,

I would like to propose the following Motion:

To avoid terminology confusion rename the position of paid CFC employee "Executive Director" to "Office Manager".

Any seconder?

[Ilia Bluvshtein]

Michael, could you please clarify what is the confusion with the term "Executive Director"?
I am not sure the proposed motion can be included to the agenda. Is it not too late?