Back in September I approached the EB on this committee. Ruth attempted to contact the chair a few times to no avail. I’m not sure what happened after that as nothing was heard back from Ruth on this topic.
Gary and I had hashed out an plan of contacting the various clubs around the country via different channels to be able to categorize the types of clubs first to get the understanding of what was out there and then to build from there. One of the channels was to use the state affiliates as they would be closer to there home states and have more intimiate knowledge within their own states.
The EB liaison did not want to work with the state affiliates given his position with the one in his home state.
Everything died from that point. I wasn’t going to invest time when a member of the EB refused to work with state affiliates because of his personal issue with his home state affiliate when this was a project for the overall organization and another EB member wasn’t able to get in contact with the chair and didn’t do anything about it.
I would hope that the EB liaison for this switches to Mike Atkins or Gary Walters in the next cycle.
So, what you are politely saying is that the stupid feud in Oklahoma has spilled over into other USCF affairs and inhibited the function of a committee. However, that is not an excuse for the chairman or the USCF office.
Going through the state affiliates is not necessarily the only route. Some state affiliates do not know what is going on in the clubs in their state, have updated club lists, or even have much contact with clubs and other USCF affiliates. There is at least one other state that has a small, petty feud going on between the state affiliate and a club. However, that has not stopped them from posting each other’s events.
Please, by all mean, get a new EB liaison. If he did not want to do the work, he should not have been on the EB. That job should have been passed on to another EB member rather than waste 3 years.
This is news to me that I’m on this committee. I expressed interest to . . . somebody (don’t remember who) . . . to be on this committee back in 2009 or 2010, but never heard back from them.
Well, I went back to the list again (thinking maybe I had screwed up somehow.) But, according to main.uschess.org/docs/gov/reports/CommitteeList in the Governance section, the list I posted earlier is indeed correct.
While I know there are committees which are high functioning, perhaps someone in the leadership structure should require the committee chairs to confirm that all the members of their commmittees in fact know they are on that committee. Especially committees which fail their duty to supply a report to the Delegates Call.
The EB liaison for the USCF Clubs Committee is Chuck Unruh. The chairman of the committee is still Bob Rasmussen. Question for the USCF office, chairman, and EB liaison - Are the committee members going to be contacted? Is there to be an agenda? What does the chairman plan to do with the committee this year?
The previous EB liaison failed to be involved because of the ruckus in Oklahoma, or so we have heard. Now we have a new liaison from the same state. Does this bode well or ill for the USCF Clubs Committee?
I have spoken with the Chairman several times, and also emails. USCF office very frequently, but not
on this issue. The effectiveness of a committee is determined by defining clear goals, and then
approaches to reach these goals.
I do live in Oklahoma and that doesn’t bode ill for the club committee. My original chess state was Ohio, a State with many chess clubs. Of course, Dayton Chess Club remains close to the heart and my nephew plays at the club 40 years after my last visit. Life was short on hours before, and certainly a new director role in the Federation didn’t help free my schedule. In very short, four months have passed.
Earlier today, I emailed the club committee chairman on recent committee discussions or recommendations. The EB Strategic Planning Meeting is scheduled for mid January and chess clubs remain an important part of the USCF network and future strategy.
Would it be possible for you to have the Club Committee Chairman contact all of the members? What is the agenda for now? Perhaps the committee members, once they are apprised of everyone’s e-mail or other contact address, can begin working together on ideas and strategies for implementation. We can also stay in touch through this thread.
On a local level, I have done as I can to help new affiliates and clubs get going, whether
scholastic or regular. Both present unique challenges. The first is in finding proper mandatory school staff sponsors, hopefully, a few who know at least a little about chess,
then finding and funding teaching materials for them. The second, regular clubs, is finding
either low cost venues, or “free” playing sites. Then advertising, and letting the local
community know of the existence of these new clubs. Both take work and time for
success.
Not really - the focus was on vision and mission statements in a broad sense. We tried to stay away from detailed discussion of execution steps to align the USCF actions to the vision/mission until we got the those hashed out.
